Pricing Antiques

Hi this is Leigh and we want to delve into Prices in the Antique world.   Before I started buying and selling antiques, I had been in the gift business.  I had owned with my husband, at the time, a gift shop outside of Williamsburg Va.  I had learned there that you took a double mark up on items from wholesale to retail.  We had to pay rent plus 10%, so we sometimes took and extra 10% to help make ends meet.  I was able to do this by hunting up the very best deals on the nicest items I could find.  The better quality and the more unusual the better.

So when we went to buy and sell antiques we acted upon the same principles.  Pricing is a fine art.  If a really nice item and you price it too low,  people will think it is not good.  Too high and they think that you are out to take advantage.  Items need to be priced right.  But how to do that with no real guide lines as they had in the retail world.

Before "Lewis Trimble"  we dealt in more traditional American Antiques.  After all I came out of Williamsburg Va and a background in American and some impressionist art that my Dad had in his Art Gallery.  I actually practiced pricing the way we did in the gift store.  It was then that I noticed a strange phenomenon.  I was buying luster ware.  And all of a sudden the prices started to sky rocket.  Why was it so popular all of a sudden.  A friend came into our shop and wanted several pieces and asked if I had seen the show that Martha Steward had done on Luster ware.  All of a sudden everyone wanted it, and the law of supply and demand kicked right in.  Then we saw this happen again and again.  Like the mad dash for the shabby chic, here now and gone in a flash.

Being able to know what will be popular and what will hold it's value is a real talent.  Somethings are here one day and disdained another.  Quality is one of the things that make a difference as does uniqueness of design.  The power of the people in supply and demand always makes a difference.

Follow auction results.  Especially in large cities such as Wrights in Chicago or Rago outside of two large cities in Lambertville New Jersey.  Here You can see items and their designers achieve stardom.

Just like the the early American fine pieces of furniture,  the architect designed pieces of the deco and early modernist era are now in high demand.  Not but so popular at the time, these pieces were mot produced on a grand scale.  Many were made with the same love and fine craftsmanship as those fine pieces that dominated the auction market for years.  The fact that there are only so many along with the uniqueness of design and the quality of the workmanship makes for the perfect formula for very hot items both in the auction houses and in the shops that carry these items.  Some things will always be sought after and in high demand.  You just need to study the market and know real quality when you see it.