hi end items are up, others crashing

[ghost of scrounger]

best of best keep cimbing supported by the truly weathy.

art.rare coins. unfortunely the real opportunities start at around 5 grand.

the average person dont have xtra cash for low grade antiques.

been to quite a few antique malls lately.

very slow

 

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[clovis97]

I couldn't agree more, based on my real world sales at antique malls and flea markets.

 

[randazzo1]

I don't completely agree. The bottom of the market is also pretty hot - at least here in the NE. The Hipsters / Steam Punk enthusiasts have taken a real shine to vintage and antique items. If you can get to an area where there is a lot of them, the do spend. Don't be distracted by the "starving" artist mentality of this sub-genre, many of them are very well to do (either independently or as a result of family money).

Of course you are talking about $5,000.00 items and I'm thinking more like $50.00 items. I just don't have any experience with that end of the spectrum so I can't comment on it.

 

[austin]

Had an antique store once and visited the flea markets too. Much easier to sell $3-$50 dollar itens than $500-$5000 ones. Always made money, paid the rent and probably had a better time. 9/11 turned business bad and I returned to education...

 

[ghost of scrounger]

Had an antique store once and visited the flea markets too. Much easier to sell $3-$50 dollar itens than $500-$5000 ones. Always made money, paid the rent and probably had a better time. 9/11 turned business bad and I returned to education...

i dunno, i thought the market was pretty good thru 06 or so.current bad times

are after 08 crash? right

 

[clovis97]

For me, the economy remained pretty strong through 2010, and even into 2011 for my sales.

I live in Indiana, and I've always felt that the economy here is two years behind the rest of the nation. When the coasts are crying the blues about an awful economy, we are pretty unaffected, at least for a while, usually two years later. It has finally hit here, and from some things I see, people are pretty tapped out and don't have money to spend. When the economy starts to pick up on the coasts, we seem to still be in a slump.

*The sharp rise in fuel and grocery prices have hit the average guy's pocket book pretty hard. Disposable cash is now spent at gas stations and grocery stores
*There is downward pressure on wages around here. 5 years ago, $15 an hour was a starting wage; there are no $15 an hour jobs any more
*The easy credit is gone. No more easy 2nd mortgages, and easy credit cards are gone
*Even those that have decent jobs or have money seem to be cutting back.

I'm sure there will be those who say that everything has bounced back, but I'm telling you, in our market, people are not spending money. Five years ago, my biggest problem was getting enough volume bought, but today, the biggest obstacle is getting it sold and making a profit on it. I'm in the $5 to $500 selling bracket...and people are not​ spending money.

 

[ghost of scrounger]

For me, the economy remained pretty strong through 2010, and even into 2011 for my sales.

I live in Indiana, and I've always felt that the economy here is two years behind the rest of the nation. When the coasts are crying the blues about an awful economy, we are pretty unaffected, at least for a while, usually two years later. It has finally hit here, and from some things I see, people are pretty tapped out and don't have money to spend. When the economy starts to pick up on the coasts, we seem to still be in a slump.

*The sharp rise in fuel and grocery prices have hit the average guy's pocket book pretty hard. Disposable cash is now spent at gas stations and grocery stores
*There is downward pressure on wages around here. 5 years ago, $15 an hour was a starting wage; there are no $15 an hour jobs any more
*The easy credit is gone. No more easy 2nd mortgages, and easy credit cards are gone
*Even those that have decent jobs or have money seem to be cutting back.

I'm sure there will be those who say that everything has bounced back, but I'm telling you, in our market, people are not spending money. Five years ago, my biggest problem was getting enough volume bought, but today, the biggest obstacle is getting it sold and making a profit on it. I'm in the $5 to $500 selling bracket...and people are not​ spending money.

yep thats just about right.altho gas is down

 

[Iron Patch]

For me, the economy remained pretty strong through 2010, and even into 2011 for my sales.

I live in Indiana, and I've always felt that the economy here is two years behind the rest of the nation. When the coasts are crying the blues about an awful economy, we are pretty unaffected, at least for a while, usually two years later. It has finally hit here, and from some things I see, people are pretty tapped out and don't have money to spend. When the economy starts to pick up on the coasts, we seem to still be in a slump.

*The sharp rise in fuel and grocery prices have hit the average guy's pocket book pretty hard. Disposable cash is now spent at gas stations and grocery stores
*There is downward pressure on wages around here. 5 years ago, $15 an hour was a starting wage; there are no $15 an hour jobs any more
*The easy credit is gone. No more easy 2nd mortgages, and easy credit cards are gone
*Even those that have decent jobs or have money seem to be cutting back.

I'm sure there will be those who say that everything has bounced back, but I'm telling you, in our market, people are not spending money. Five years ago, my biggest problem was getting enough volume bought, but today, the biggest obstacle is getting it sold and making a profit on it. I'm in the $5 to $500 selling bracket...and people are not​ spending money.

So most of your sales are local and not ebay? I'm guessing the cost to ship the item is what determines which way you go. I'm lucky in the way that my local economy really doesn't affect me as long as I have a delivery system in and out. If things are tough locally you should focus more on smaller items you can ebay, and even tie up if you have to, to get your price. An ebay store helps a lot with this, and if you are serious about you're selling the cost per month is very cheap. To me it sounds like you have to try to start adapting to your new situation if what you're doing doesn't work so well anymore. That has been something that has been non stop for me as I have had years where I made most of my money off certain types of items, and then I changed because it wasn't so good, but then a couple years later I went back. I've also gone from doing all auctions, to doing some fixed price, and as time goes on I know I will do a lot more fixed price because I want to try to grow, and there's no point in wasting time breaking even on many things, and that's what happens when the competition gets tough.


I had a long layoff from this, and just started back at the end of last Summer. For the first two weeks I was very concerned I could even do this anymore and survive, because I was losing all the stuff I wanted, and seemed to be breaking even on the ones I didn't really even care about.... not exactly a recipe for success. But then I finally got a couple deals, started listing all the stuff I had stockpiled before I had stopped selling, and things started to get better. In hind sight a big part of my problem was not having the money to be competitive, but once that started to change it kept getting better, and better, and better. During the last few months I did a lot of thinking of what needed to change, tested it out, and think I have a very good strategical type blueprint moving forward. In fact, I'm more confident than I have even been before which is hard to believe considering just 5 or so months ago I was pretty much in panic mode with a growing debt and fighting just to win a couple things to make a few dollars off of.


Well this reply, which is way longer than expected finished off my first coffee for the day, but my whole point is there's always a way, you just have to find it. If you have already proved you can do it it's likely just a matter of adjusting to your new reality. I do know that's much easier said then done, but there's no other choice right... unless you quit or are content with doing lower numbers.

 

[jerseyben]

I look at it a bit differently. I agree that the economy has a direct effect on the 2nd hand antiques/collectibles market. I am not disputing that at all. That being said, I have seen a dramatic swing in the market from 2009/2010 to now abut I don't really blame the economy as much as I blame multiple factors mostly related to trends, the availability of mobile technology, and TV shows.

For me, I bought and sold stuff for many many years on a very small scale starting as early as 1998. Back them, people would refer to that era as the golden age of ebay. You could sell a scrap of paper on ebay back then. Fast forward to around 2009/2010. This was when I actively decided to buy and sell after being slow and limited in this arena for years. I started going to yard sales, flea markets, auctions, CL calls, etc every weekend (instead of periodically). I filled my garage and a cargo van in the timespan of under 2 years. It was easy and I barely spent any money on this stuff. Selling stuff at flea markets and on ebay was challenging but do-able. Remember, the economy had just taken a crap and many people were unemployed; businesses were shutting down.

Starting just after Christmas (early 2012) I started to notice that things were changing! Garage sales were now packed and every single person there was in the reselling game. If you weren't the first or second person there, you missed out on being able to buy almost anything. Ebay became flooded with stuff as people moved to open online stores with ebay's push to go from an online auction site to an online storefront. Same thing happened on CL.

In the past year, 90% of my deals were made privately through existing contacts and sources. I have almost stopped going to garage sales because my percentages of actually making a score have dropped off a cliff. Same goes for CL. Buying is almost as impossible as selling on there. 9 times out of 10, you end up dealing with someone who is also in the reselling game and no one leaves any meat on the bone for the next guy (Even though it costs you nothing to sell on CL).

I have been using a popular website to buy, sell, trade magic the gathering cards since 2006. Up until last year, I made tons of deals on there (well over 125 individual deals). In the past year, every single person on there acts like they are an independent dealer whose sole goal is to make a profit. people used to trade on that site for the fun of it (non profit related motives).

That all being said. My point is that greed has basically taken over at this current moment. I understand that many people have turned to reselling as a means to pay their bills or to earn a living. That is a major factor in what has increased the number of people doing this nowadays. However, I believe that it is a current TREND, as in it is popular, to buy and sell on the secondary market. Ebay has made it easy to look up prices especially if you have a smart phone on your hip at all times. TV shows have brought such activities into the mainstream limelight. Those who did not previously know what an antique was now realize (after watching a cool TV show) that IT IS EASY to buy and sell them if you have an ebay account and a smart phone.

Making a quick buck is all we care about anymore. This is ultimately what is souring the market. Simple as supply and demand. You need buyers in order to sell. I am saying that it is not solely the bad economy that is creating a lack of buyers. There are too many sellers and the market is flooded. It takes almost no skill to do this NOW. Why buy, when you can sell? Not to mention the people who used to be the BIG collectors, hence buyers, are getting older and are no longer collecting for a multitude of reasons.

What can we do? Adapt and persevere. Discover what the new younger market is buying and switch over to buying and selling that stuff. Also, wait it out. Eventually, people will get frustrated and give up and as most trends do, this too will pass, eventually.

Good luck out there, friends!

 

[Iron Patch]

I look at it a bit differently. I agree that the economy has a direct effect on the 2nd hand antiques/collectibles market. I am not disputing that at all. That being said, I have seen a dramatic swing in the market from 2009/2010 to now abut I don't really blame the economy as much as I blame multiple factors mostly related to trends, the availability of mobile technology, and TV shows.

For me, I bought and sold stuff for many many years on a very small scale starting as early as 1998. Back them, people would refer to that era as the golden age of ebay. You could sell a scrap of paper on ebay back then. Fast forward to around 2009/2010. This was when I actively decided to buy and sell after being slow and limited in this arena for years. I started going to yard sales, flea markets, auctions, CL calls, etc every weekend (instead of periodically). I filled my garage and a cargo van in the timespan of under 2 years. It was easy and I barely spent any money on this stuff. Selling stuff at flea markets and on ebay was challenging but do-able. Remember, the economy had just taken a crap and many people were unemployed; businesses were shutting down.

Starting just after Christmas (early 2012) I started to notice that things were changing! Garage sales were now packed and every single person there was in the reselling game. If you weren't the first or second person there, you missed out on being able to buy almost anything. Ebay became flooded with stuff as people moved to open online stores with ebay's push to go from an online auction site to an online storefront. Same thing happened on CL.

In the past year, 90% of my deals were made privately through existing contacts and sources. I have almost stopped going to garage sales because my percentages of actually making a score have dropped off a cliff. Same goes for CL. Buying is almost as impossible as selling on there. 9 times out of 10, you end up dealing with someone who is also in the reselling game and no one leaves any meat on the bone for the next guy (Even though it costs you nothing to sell on CL).

I have been using a popular website to buy, sell, trade magic the gathering cards since 2006. Up until last year, I made tons of deals on there (well over 125 individual deals). In the past year, every single person on there acts like they are an independent dealer whose sole goal is to make a profit. people used to trade on that site for the fun of it (non profit related motives).

That all being said. My point is that greed has basically taken over at this current moment. I understand that many people have turned to reselling as a means to pay their bills or to earn a living. That is a major factor in what has increased the number of people doing this nowadays. However, I believe that it is a current TREND, as in it is popular, to buy and sell on the secondary market. Ebay has made it easy to look up prices especially if you have a smart phone on your hip at all times. TV shows have brought such activities into the mainstream limelight. Those who did not previously know what an antique was now realize (after watching a cool TV show) that IT IS EASY to buy and sell them if you have an ebay account and a smart phone.

Making a quick buck is all we care about anymore. This is ultimately what is souring the market. Simple as supply and demand. You need buyers in order to sell. I am saying that it is not solely the bad economy that is creating a lack of buyers. There are too many sellers and the market is flooded. It takes almost no skill to do this NOW. Why buy, when you can sell? Not to mention the people who used to be the BIG collectors, hence buyers, are getting older and are no longer collecting for a multitude of reasons.

What can we do? Adapt and persevere. Discover what the new younger market is buying and switch over to buying and selling that stuff. Also, wait it out. Eventually, people will get frustrated and give up and as most trends do, this too will pass, eventually.

Good luck out there, friends!

All very interesting, but the one thing I don't understand is why is it greed with anyone else who does it? Sure maybe they're late to the party, but the only difference is they missed the days when it was easier. That said, greed is a good thing because it's all about making money. If I see a seller with a bunch of items I want I'll buy every last one of them and not worry about who missed out. In fact, there's nothing I like better than to roll through like a hurricane and grab everything I can. My whole rethinking my buying and selling has quite a bit to do with growing my buying power per week because I hate to lose, or pass anything up I can make a few bucks on. That might sound like an easy thing to do, but I am usually watching 80-150 items at all times, things I intend to buy, or at least make a good run at. I operate purely on cash not credit, and I can burn through it much faster buying than what I take in selling, but I think I can somewhat correct that with a few changes. I also pay all my bills both online and personal with that same cash so at times I'm definitely running on fumes.

 

[clovis97]

So most of your sales are local and not ebay? I'm guessing the cost to ship the item is what determines which way you go. I'm lucky in the way that my local economy really doesn't affect me as long as I have a delivery system in and out. If things are tough locally you should focus more on smaller items you can ebay, and even tie up if you have to, to get your price. An ebay store helps a lot with this, and if you are serious about you're selling the cost per month is very cheap. To me it sounds like you have to try to start adapting to your new situation if what you're doing doesn't work so well anymore. That has been something that has been non stop for me as I have had years where I made most of my money off certain types of items, and then I changed because it wasn't so good, but then a couple years later I went back. I've also gone from doing all auctions, to doing some fixed price, and as time goes on I know I will do a lot more fixed price because I want to try to grow, and there's no point in wasting time breaking even on many things, and that's what happens when the competition gets tough.


I had a long layoff from this, and just started back at the end of last Summer. For the first two weeks I was very concerned I could even do this anymore and survive, because I was losing all the stuff I wanted, and seemed to be breaking even on the ones I didn't really even care about.... not exactly a recipe for success. But then I finally got a couple deals, started listing all the stuff I had stockpiled before I had stopped selling, and things started to get better. In hind site a big part of my problem was not having the money to be competitive, but once that started to change it kept getting better, and better, and better. During the last few months I did a lot of thinking of what needed to change, tested it out, and think I have a very good strategical type blueprint moving forward. In fact, I'm more confident than I have even been before which is hard to believe considering just 5 or so months ago I was pretty much in panic mode with a growing debt and fighting just to win a couple things to make a few dollars off of.


Well this reply, which is way longer than expected finished off my first coffee for the day, but my whole point is there's always a way, you just have to find it. If you have already proved you can do it it's likely just a matter of adjusting to your new reality. I do know that's much easier said then done, but there's no other choice right... unless you quit or are content with doing lower numbers.

We have four booths and a show case in one very good indoor flea market, two booths at an antique mall, two more booths at another antique mall, and a show case at another mall, plus ebay.

Ebay was our base for our income, but I've taken a hard hit at different times with poor ebay sales.

We've refocused our efforts with ebay recently, which is helping, but sales at all the antique malls and the flea market have suffered. Dealers are moving out of two of the antique malls as if the places have the plague. I have never seen so many dealer trucks and trailers parked in that lot, ever. This is the top antique mall in the area. Just 6 years ago, the waiting list for just a show case was over 8 months long. Today, the place looks like a ghost town.

The flea market is full, but it always is in the winter time, when all the amateurs and the open air flea marketers move inside until warm weather breaks again. At the same time, I saw the 'move out list' yesterday, and it is much longer than what I would have ever guessed. Actually, pretty surprising to me.

What I keep hearing from other dealers is this: "My sales are horrible" and "I don't know what is going on. We're packing up at the end of the month."

Nonetheless, we are getting hammered here. The crowds keep showing up at the markets, but they are walking around with their hands in their pockets, unless they can score something super cheap.

I can take slow sales at one place for a month or so, but when all of your income streams are getting hammered, it makes you wonder what you've done wrong, and you take a serious look at how you can change it.

I'm telling you...people are not​ spending money in our area unless it is a killer bargain.

 

[clovis97]

So most of your sales are local and not ebay? I'm guessing the cost to ship the item is what determines which way you go. I'm lucky in the way that my local economy really doesn't affect me as long as I have a delivery system in and out. If things are tough locally you should focus more on smaller items you can ebay, and even tie up if you have to, to get your price. An ebay store helps a lot with this, and if you are serious about you're selling the cost per month is very cheap. To me it sounds like you have to try to start adapting to your new situation if what you're doing doesn't work so well anymore. That has been something that has been non stop for me as I have had years where I made most of my money off certain types of items, and then I changed because it wasn't so good, but then a couple years later I went back. I've also gone from doing all auctions, to doing some fixed price, and as time goes on I know I will do a lot more fixed price because I want to try to grow, and there's no point in wasting time breaking even on many things, and that's what happens when the competition gets tough.


I had a long layoff from this, and just started back at the end of last Summer. For the first two weeks I was very concerned I could even do this anymore and survive, because I was losing all the stuff I wanted, and seemed to be breaking even on the ones I didn't really even care about.... not exactly a recipe for success. But then I finally got a couple deals, started listing all the stuff I had stockpiled before I had stopped selling, and things started to get better. In hind site a big part of my problem was not having the money to be competitive, but once that started to change it kept getting better, and better, and better. During the last few months I did a lot of thinking of what needed to change, tested it out, and think I have a very good strategical type blueprint moving forward. In fact, I'm more confident than I have even been before which is hard to believe considering just 5 or so months ago I was pretty much in panic mode with a growing debt and fighting just to win a couple things to make a few dollars off of.


Well this reply, which is way longer than expected finished off my first coffee for the day, but my whole point is there's always a way, you just have to find it. If you have already proved you can do it it's likely just a matter of adjusting to your new reality. I do know that's much easier said then done, but there's no other choice right... unless you quit or are content with doing lower numbers.

We have four booths and a show case in one very good indoor flea market, two booths at an antique mall, two more booths at another antique mall, and a show case at another mall, plus ebay.

Ebay was our base for our income, but I've taken a hard hit at different times with poor ebay sales.

We've refocused our efforts with ebay recently, which is helping, but sales at all the antique malls and the flea market have suffered. Dealers are moving out of two of the antique malls as if the places have the plague. I have never seen so many dealer trucks and trailers parked in that lot, ever. This is the top antique mall in the area. Just 6 years ago, the waiting list for just a show case was over 8 months long. Today, the place looks like a ghost town.

The flea market is full, but it always is in the winter time, when all the amateurs and the open air flea marketers move inside until warm weather breaks again. At the same time, I saw the 'move out list' yesterday, and it is much longer than what I would have ever guessed. Actually, pretty surprising to me.

What I keep hearing from other dealers is this: "My sales are horrible" and "I don't know what is going on. We're packing up at the end of the month."

Nonetheless, we are getting hammered here. The crowds keep showing up at the markets, but they are walking around with their hands in their pockets, unless they can score something super cheap.

I can take slow sales at one place for a month or so, but when all of your income streams are getting hammered, it makes you wonder what you've done wrong, and you take a serious look at how you can change it.

I'm telling you...people are not spending money in our area unless it is a killer bargain.

 

[clovis97]

I forgot to mention:

I am willing and able to move to other markets, but what?

Learning new markets is time consuming, and like Ben said, everyone and their brother are 'dealers' these days. I've still got to pay bills as I transition into new markets.

As well, finding this stuff can be hard. It's not like there is a box of rare Nazi SS daggers, a can full of silver and gold coins, 18 boxes of Lionel trains, 400 rare video games and a warehouse full of NOS Packard parts at every sale I attend.

 

[Iron Patch]

I forgot to mention:

I am willing and able to move to other markets, but what?

Learning new markets is time consuming, and like Ben said, everyone and their brother are 'dealers' these days. I've still got to pay bills as I transition into new markets.

As well, finding this stuff can be hard. It's not like there is a box of rare Nazi SS daggers, a can full of silver and gold coins, 18 boxes of Lionel trains, 400 rare video games and a warehouse full of NOS Packard parts at every sale I attend.

Yeah I can believe it can be tough to come up with deals when you're buying local, and even when you find one there's no time to enjoy the high because there's no guarantee for tomorrow. That's where I'm lucky, because all I have to do is put the time in and the deals are ALWAYS there for me. The stupid mistakes I've made over the years was taking it for granted and being lazy, and that will not happen again.