If you ask any antique collector or a dealer about one thing that he or she has been missing
the most over the years, a common answer will be “a good online price guide”. The one with
pictures, item descriptions and up-to-date values.
Sure, there are Kovels’, Miller‘s and other published antique guides collecting dust on
shelves of every Barnes & Noble in America. Such books are simply too generic and often
outdated to be much help to a serious antique enthusiast.
Yes, there have been some random attempts to put together and publish price guides
targeting some particular categories of collecting (for example, Limoges porcelain). My hat
is off to the people who found time, courage and resources to give it a shot.
Just thinking of the hassle of dealing with all the publishers, editors and distributors, gives
me the creeps. Publishing high quality color photographs is quite expensive. Hey,
publishing a book with no photographs is expensive. Expensive and risky. You must sell
quite a few copies just to break even…
Once such a price guide is written, it usually takes a couple of years to publish it. It often
becomes outdated even before it comes out. Then the author must go thru almost the same
kind of trouble in order to make updates and publish new editions, and that’s only
assuming that the original was a bestseller.
One must be truly crazy and very masochistic to attempt something like that. And while
there are plenty of nuts among us, antique collectors, we’re no masochists. We just love
ourselves too much to go thru such hell!
We also hate sharing information. We think it’s a bad business. After all, our ability to find
bargains is based on other people’s ignorance. It’s good to know more than the guy next to
us. It feels good, and it pays well sometimes. So, why give it up? Why share this valuable
knowledge accumulated painfully over many years?
Ironically, the reason is quite selfish. We want the collections we have built to appreciate in
value. For that, the antique market needs flesh blood, new collectors who would drive
prices higher.
It’s hard for a person, who perhaps wants to be a collector, to begin. A good price guide
would definitely help.
And that’s where this website comes in. You see, the spread of the Internet, online
auctions, online catalogs and digital photography presents a great opportunity to build and
maintain the kind of comprehensive online price guide that can be very helpful to both an
experienced collector and a beginner taking his first baby steps thru the ruthless jungles of
eBay.
So, here it is! And the best news is it’s absolutely FREE!
It’s divided in categories and sub-categories, all to make it easier to find things you are
looking for. We are in the process of adding more categories. Any help with pictures or any
other information would be greatly appreciated.
Some categories have related articles written by myself and others. Check them out.
Enjoy your time here! And do come back!
AntiqForum Home > About Us
|