Part One: Why Do We Do It?
There are many reasons, I suppose, why antique dealers pursue their trade. Making a lot of money, however, is probably not chief among them. If you think you’re going to get rich in the antiques trade, you might want to think again. Despite what you see on television, the cash bonanzas and the troves of treasures bought for mere pennies are the things of fantasy. The so-called reality TV shows have contrived to make people believe that good quality antiques and collectibles grow on trees and all anyone has to do to strike it rich is pluck them by the bushelful and trot them off to their local shopkeeper who is just waiting with bated breath to purchase them for large sums of cash. For those of us who choose to make antiques our lives, we know better.
For most antique dealers the interest almost always begins at some stage of childhood and has nothing to do with money. Ask just about anyone in the trade and they’ll tell you that they began collecting before they could drive a car. Almost always it began with an aged relative or parent who had some intriguing object from the past that they either displayed reverently in a place of prominence or kept locked away in some secret locale and only brought out occasionally to be shared for all-too brief moments.
For most antique dealers the interest almost always begins at some stage of childhood and has nothing to do with money. Ask just about anyone in the trade and they’ll tell you that they began collecting before they could drive a car. Almost always it began with an aged relative or parent who had some intriguing object from the past that they either displayed reverently in a place of prominence or kept locked away in some secret locale and only brought out occasionally to be shared for all-too brief moments.
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