Working definition of the Antiques Trade

Working definition of the Antiques Trade

The antiques trade relies on the movement of a material object from a place where it is undervalued to a place where it is valued and extracting the surplus value created in that movement.

Example One:

            At the flea market, I purchased a 1940’s Boy Scout fork knife and spoon set for a dollar.  A person or persons (I don’t know) comes through my booth and buys anything Boy Scout related that I put out.  I moved the object across town. It did not require any modification, cleaning, repair etc. I mean I literally moved it less than three miles across a geographic space. It sold for sixty dollars. The total profit is about 45 dollars if we consider booth rent, gas time etc. That is 45 dollars for moving an object from a space where it was undervalued to a space where it has greater value.

            Of course, this makes it sound easy.  There is an art to knowing what objects to purchase, research time, expertise etc. Knowing what to buy and where to sell it is a bit trickier than it sounds but in the end, this is the whole game of antiques.

And yeah, a 1940’s BSA mess kit is probably more a collectable than an antique but lets keep some fluid definitions here.  I might talk about the difference later but right now, I don’t want to get in to it.

Example Two:

            A friend of mine bought a group of dolls on top of a table at an estate auction. Within twenty minutes, he had sold a portion of these dolls to another person for about twice the cost of the original purchase. This covered his table cost and created a surplus value or profit. The purchaser had been busy when this table came up for sale and still wanted this group of objects.  In this case, the movement was not across space but across time.

The Takeaway:

          Knowing what to purchase, and where to sell it is tricky but in the end the antique dealer is an object mover that extracts value by shifting the market of the object. To do this the antiques dealer must know the object and its surplus value. Or just get lucky.