Antiques – The Modern Day Treasure Hunt

 by: Jerry Goldfarb

In today's world, everything that’s old can be described as antiques and generally speaking that’s quite true. A product is considered to be an antique if it is over a hundred years old or is rare enough to have some value. In other words, these are old items that are in limited supply.

An antique is something collectible. It may be a piece of antique furniture that you want to collect to enhance the look of a room, or a piece of antique pottery to decorate a corner cupboard, or some antique books, antique camera and photographs, antique jewelry, antique money, antique car, antique clocks, or antique watches that you want to hand down to your grandchildren but the items must be rare enough to be considered an antique. The others are just secondhand goods junk. Most people have a common misconception about an antique: the older they look, the more antique they must be. Appearance has nothing to do with it, just because a piece looks like it came out of grandma's attic does not necessarily mean that it’s an antique. The value of an antique is based on demand due to suitability and limited supply.

Most people become fascinated in an antique for two reasons; either they have an interest in collecting antique purely for personal enjoyment and are willing to shell out money for antique restoration or they inherited it from a family member. The most common are antique pottery, antique car, antique furniture, antique books, antique camera and photographs, antique clocks, antique money, antique jewelry and antique watches. However they came about it, everyone wants to be sure of one thing that what they buy or inherit will escalate in value as time goes by. That is what antique collection is all about.

There are two main principles that apply when collecting an antique: The first is to know everything that you can about the antique that interests you and second is to obtain them at the lowest possible price. Doing so will not only give you satisfaction and enjoyment, but at the same time you will also be assured that your investment will appreciate in value.

Some people only developed an interest in antique because they inherited an item or a whole house full of antique from a relative. The dollar signs started to appear and they began their hunt for some antique appraisals and antique auction. But what most failed to consider is that much of what Great Grandmother had is probably just junk, unless she was a seasoned collector who’s into antique restoration or an expert in antique appraisals.

It’s true that people could have bought a piece of furniture to decorate their home a long time ago and that furniture, if it were of fine quality, would now be worth something. But only a professional appraiser can guarantee that, and appraising costs about $100-150 an hour. So if you are keen on bringing you item in an antique auction and contemplating about asking someone how much an item is worth, be prepared to shell out a few bucks for the information. Appraisers charge so much because they shoulder the lion’s share for insurance companies and lawyers settling estates. Although appraising is not an exact science, it still requires an appraiser to do lots of research and then prepare a detailed report that’s acceptable in a court of law.