10. An antique is an investment. While other furniture will wear out in a matter of years and quickly become firewood, antiques gain value with time. Not only does it serve a purpose in your home, but it will become a family heirloom.

9. It’s a guarantee that your piece will be original. You will never have the experience of a neighbor entering your home and saying, “Hey, we have that same furniture in our house!”

8. It’s nice to have things that are older than you are in the house.

7. Antiques are great conversation starters. Not many people will be able to ‘one-up’ the fact that you have a European antique sitting in your living room.

6. They look nicer than the furniture you have now.

5. Sometimes antiques are haunted. This is good if you’re in to that sort of thing.

4. Quality construction. Nothing beats the craftsmanship of an experienced carpenter. Not even a machine. Why settle for mass produced, machine made furniture when yours can be beautiful and hand crafted?

3. Antiques make you cultured… or at least appear cultured.

2. We can obtain them cheaper than most retailers sell them for. Honestly, why would you spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a piece of furniture from a retailer when you could buy a high quality, original, imported piece for equal or oft’ times, less money?

1. Antiques have withstood generations and generations of children… they can withstand yours.

If these reasons aren’t enough to convince you that antiques are amazing, I don’t know what will!

A great way to distinguish the age of an antique is by examining what holds it together. There are different types of nails, screws and dowels that can help you judge the age of a piece. If your furniture is held together with ‘rose-head’ nails, you can bet that it is a piece dating before the 19th century. ‘Rose-head’ nails were very common up until the late 1700’s. This type of nail is easily distinguished by their rose-like appearance, as the name clearly states.

After around 1790, the ‘rose-head’ nails were slowly replaced by square-head nails. These nails were normally machine cut nails. After the nails were cut, a blacksmith would square the heads to prepare them for the craftsmen. These nails were popular up until the early 1830’s.

Square head nails were quickly overtaken by nails that required even less man power. These nails were strictly machine cut and didn’t require a blacksmith to add any finishing touches. They were very similar to the square-head nails. These newer, machine cut nails were headless and were shaped like tapered rectangles.

The nails that we use today (‘brad’ and ‘penny’) were introduced at the end of the 19th century. These nails are the nails that have been commonly used up until the present. They are distinguished by a thin, straight neck and a flat head.

Screws were not common in antique furniture, however, they have been used from time to time since the early 1800’s. You can tell that a screw is older by looking at the construction. If it has had the help of a blacksmith, you will notice that the heads of the screws will not be very symmetrical, and the slots will be thin and slightly off center.

I hope that this information can prove useful for you as you attempt to put your finger on the time period your antique is from. It’s amazing that even the nails that hold your piece together can hold value and tell a story. The most exciting thing about antique furniture is looking closely at each piece, and recognizing its worth and understanding that it’s the small things that add to the overall beauty and value of every individual piece.

The first, and oldest strategy is completely based on generating customer interest and excitement. The basic plan is based on listing nearly every item on your store as an auction starting at $1 without a reserve. This may seem like an insane strategy and a sure way to lose money and run yourself out of business. However, many eBay businesses such as Antique Furniture Depot and European Estate Sellers, have proven that( in most cases) this tactic can generate enough excitement with the general public that most of your items will be bid on repeatedly and end up putting money into your account. Let me now list some of the advantages and disadvantages (pros and cons) to this strategy.

Pros

• Listing items at $1 without a reserve generates excitement and the “I’m going to get a great deal” mindset that most eBayers are looking for.

• Most people either search for items on eBay either by “Time: Ending Soonest” or “Price: Lowest First”. Most antique and furniture items are priced fairly high. If your prices have a low starting bid, it guarantees that most of your products that would otherwise go unseen, will receive bids and generate cash for you.

• This strategy is particularly useful for those who have a large inventory. If you can sell a large volume of items at a small profit, you can be just as successful, or even more so than your competitors who sell very few items, but at a large profit.

Cons

• Selling items at $1 without a reserve will generate excitement, yes, but it does not guarantee that each item will sell for a profit (or sell at all for that matter). Sometimes you will have to take a hit and give an item away.

• By selling items for such a low price, you attract a lot of bargain hunters. Granted, this is the purpose of eBay. It offers a sales channel for people to find some screamin’ deals on items that are hard to come by. Some eBay customers, however, will do anything to save a buck. These are the people that are more difficult to deal with. They’ll win an item worth maybe a couple hundred dollars for a fraction of the cost, and then complain about the overzealous shipping costs (with auctions that start at such a low price, the customer should ALWAYS be paying for shipping. Be sure to include that in your auctions if you are planning on using this tactic.) These antagonistic types of bargain hunters are no fun to deal with, because all they do is repeatedly milk you dry.

In a nutshell, $1 no reserve auctions create more bids, but also set you up to give away a few items.

The other sales strategy (which is more commonly used) is that of listing a wide variety of “Buy It Now” items, priced to guarantee a hefty profit. Stores such as Shrivenham Antiques Furniture, and McNairs Antique Dining Furniture use this strategy. It is smart to use the “Or Best Offer” option along with the “Buy It Now” feature to help those who may question whether they want an item or not to test the water, and hopefully take the plunge into a great purchase (for both parties involved). Now, the Pros and Cons for the “Buy It Now” (BIN).

Pros

• Every sale is for a profit

• You attract more of the money crowd. Most of these people aren’t looking for loopholes in your company.

• You develop different type of reputation from that of the $1 no reserve, deal provider crowd.

Cons

• You may make a profit on every item you sell, but you may only sell 3% of your items in any given sale cycle.

• Listing costs are much more expensive for items listed at a higher price. On top of that, if you only sell a small number of items, that means you may be investing (over time) hundreds of dollars in re-listing fees on any given item, not to mention the final value fees.

In summary, the BIN listings will guarantee a profit on every sale, but require a lot more patience and will not generate anywhere near the attention as the $1 no reserve auctions. There is one other feature involved with the BIN’s that can be advantageous. You can list items as a BIN on your eBay store for a fraction of the cost of a regular BIN. Store items remain listed for 30 days or until sold (whichever comes first). The disadvantage is that your store items do not appear in the main search results lists. Also, they do not appear with pictures in search results.

I hope that this post can help some of you out there to determine what direction to take with your eBay listings. Hopefully, you can find a way to combine the two strategies and create a successful sales channel for your business. I recommend that you avoid, if possible, making eBay your only source of sales. Be sure to diversify. The internet is a big world full of a lot of opportunity. Feel free to ask me any questions regarding eBay or internet sales. I’m happy to help.

In the past, we have noticed that customers who have less experience in the antique world can confuse patina with a piece being damaged. It is easy to misunderstand the value of a piece with ‘flaws’. What many don’t understand is that the flaws in a piece, most times, are what make it unique and give it value. One of the best ways to tell that your piece is a genuine antique is by the presence of imperfections. They are the proof that your antique has been around for decades, or even centuries.

Patina is what gives each piece its own personality and character. Israel Sack, a famous New York antiques dealer used a great analogy to help explain the importance and value of patina in antiques. One day, one of his patrons entered his shop. She was in her older years, and was curious as to the significance or meaning of patina. He responded, “Today you are a lovely woman of 60. However, who you are today is not who you were when you were 20. The difference is patina.” This beautiful analogy sums it up. When antique shopping, an experienced purchaser will not be looking for a piece that is in perfect condition. They will be judging the piece, in large part, by the quality of its patina. If a piece “lacks patina,” normally this means that an object lacks character.

I hope that this post helps any who have been confused as to the meaning or importance of patina realize its importance. When you buy an antique and it shows up at your door, look in great detail at the piece and realize that it has been passed down from generation to generation. Realize it has a rich history behind it. Cherish it for what it has gone through to make it to your home. Love its character.

1. 2. 3.

Click on each picture to enlarge and view an example of patina.

1. Notice the slight crack along the top of the picture that has been repaired.

2. Notice the cracking in the tile that has occurred with age. It looks very much like veins in the ceramic.

3. Notice the slight discoloration on the surface of the table. It proves that it has been used, and adds value to the piece.

One of the biggest misconceptions in the furniture industry is that a veneer signifies that a piece is of low quality or value. This is WRONG! Veneers have been around since the 18^th century when Egyptians discovered that gluing a thin piece of wood to a piece of furniture could add a beauty and strength to solid woods that had never before been achieved. The negative reputation of veneers came about over a century later during the Industrial Revolution. During this time, there was a large focus on mass production. Furniture was processed in high quantities with shoddy materials with little care or concern for the quality of the wood used, or the veneer’s application. As a result, one generation of furniture ruined the beauty and elegance of veneers almost completely. The veneers of this time became detached or warped and revealed a low quality particleboard underneath. If a veneer is applied correctly (as it consistently was prior to this time period) it will add to the value, strength and beauty of a piece.

Solid wood pieces seem to have the best long term reputation with regards to furniture. Solid wood pieces are great because they are durable and easy to repair. It’s not a big undertaking to fix any scratches, discolorations, dents or other common flaws. It is also good to know that your furniture is the same piece of wood all the way through. There’s nothing on top disguising whatever may lie beneath. The downfall, however, is that many woods can be imitated. This can be unnerving when you are attempting to by a nice oak piece only to find out that your purchase is only an oak look-alike.

When antique shopping, your worry should not be whether a veneer or a solid wood piece is “better” than the other. Almost all antiques have been made by hand with great care by skilled artisans. The quality and integrity of both veneers and solid wood pieces wasn’t compromised until much later. Here at European Estate Sellers, we pride ourselves the quality of our pieces from the solid wood to the solid wood pieces graced with veneers. Don’t be afraid to appreciate a piece for the beauty of its veneer or the durability and reliance of its solid wood.

If you are still unsure of the quality of a veneer or have questions, take a look at this article. It is a very well written and educational and should help answer any of your questions.