When It Comes to Coca Cola Collectibles—Buyer Beware

 

QUESTION: Several years ago, I began collecting advertising items made for Coca Cola. I have several calendars, stuffed animals, and matchbooks. They seem to be everywhere, so it wasn’t hard to begin collecting them. Recently, I purchased a serving  tray, supposedly dating from the 1930s, with a woman in a yellow swimsuit holding a bottle of Coca Cola at a local antique show which features mostly lower to middle priced late antiques and collectibles for sale. This was the most expensive Coca Cola piece I had yet purchased, so I was a bit hesitant at first. But the dealer assured me that it was authentic. Considering its age, I was surprised how bright and crisp the colors were, but I just assumed it had been used very little. How can I tell if the tray is authentic?

ANSWER: Because Coca Cola has been around for over 130 years, there’s a huge number of collectible items on the market. And with the launching of online auction and sales sites, the number has steadily grown. But this means there’s an even greater chance that some of these items are reproductions or outright fakes. 

John Pemberton, a pharmacist, created Coke syrup in 1886. He convinced a nearby soda fountain in Atlanta to add carbonated water and give it a try. At first the drink was only a modest success, Pemberton and his partner, Frank Robertson, came up with the  name Coca-Cola, scripted in a flowing hand by Robertson. That, plus a series of hand-painted banners encouraged passers-by to "Drink Coca-Cola," was the beginning of a successful marketing campaign that lives on to this day.

Coca-Cola has used its particular shade of red in its merchandising for more than a century, and its distinctive trademark has remained virtually unchanged from the original. 

Coca-Cola collectibles can be found at a variety of prices all over the Internet. EBay alone lists over 200,000 collectibles for sale, ranging from original 6.5-ounce glass bottles for 99 cents each to lifetime assortments well into six figures. Restored and working vending machines can cost $10,000 or more. Early porcelain signs and those with original neon enhancements frequently sell for thousands as well. And because of the huge variety of merchandise, many collectors tend to specialize by era, type or size.

Even though Pemberton and Robertson founded the company in the late 1890s, collecting Coca-Cola advertising items---beautiful models printed on trays, calendars, signs, and even tiny pocket mirrors—didn’t begin to get popular until the early 20th century. Coca-Cola print advertising onto just about anything and gave these items out at state fairs and schools in towns all across the country.

Coke’s advertising department placed many of the large, gorgeous cardboards and metal advertisements with store owners and gas stations as temporary promotional displays intended for seasonal use. Many ended in the trash just like those of today. People used signs to patch holes in roofs, line attic walls, or for target practice.

The overwhelming number of reproductions in this category makes it imperative that collectors learn as much as possible Coca-Cola items. Beginners can learn a lot from price guides and online forums.

Collectors typically like items produced from the late 1800s to the 1960s. But with so many items on the market, it’s only natural that some will be fake. The difference between a reproduction and a fake is that there never was an original item like the fake. At first, the Coca-Cola Company made it easy to make their reproductions look like the originals produced 50 to 100 years before. For example, the reproduction trays from 1974 had only a small written notice on the rim of the trays to say they were recently made. But savvy sellers could easily remove the notice by scraping it off with a pocket knife. 

Reproduction serving trays from the 1930s have a note on the back saying so. The original had sharper lithography with a dark-colored back while the reproduction trays had less-than-sharp lithography and a light colored back.

The location of the trademark notification has also varied throughout the years. Early on, the trademark appeared inside the long trailing C in “Coca.” Starting in the 1940s, The company moved it to a position under the entire word “Coca-Cola.” That happened because the Coca-Cola Company lost a court case. The result was the loss of the trademark control over of “Cola” since the trademark notification was only under “Coca,” not under both parts of the logo.

This change was great for collectors who want to date Coca-Cola items as being before 1940 but can lead to many problems for dating items made after 1940. Naturally many novice collectors don’t know the difference and end up paying way too much for items produced more recently.

It’s a good idea for beginning collectors to do research before making an expensive purchase and to consult more than one source for information.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the "Pottery Through the Ages" in the 2022 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

How Much is This?

QUESTION:  I went to a favorite flea market of mine last Saturday. A lot of the same dealers display some of the same things they’ve had for sale for the last several years. While I don’t mind asking the price of an item, I got really annoyed when I heard a dealer quote another customer a lower price after he had quoted me a higher one for the same item a few minutes before. Is this becoming a regular practice or was it just this dealer?                              

ANSWER: While most dealers price their goods beforehand, a few don’t. Take Mr. I-Don’t-Price-Anything—Mr. Idpa for short. This rather smug dealer always seems to offer interesting items, none of which shows a price. So customers are forced to ask, “How much is this?”

There’s usually a slight pause as Mr. Idpa sizes up the customer.  By the way she’s dressed, perhaps he thinks she has a Lexus parked in the lot. If so, he’ll immediately raise his price by as much as 50 percent, even before he says anything.

This same dealer not only makes up prices as he goes along, but also refuses to bargain when asked for his best price. If he had been the only dealer doing this, customers would probably just pass by his space. But, unfortunately, he isn’t.



The following week, a new dealer set up next to Mr. Idpa, and like him, she hadn’t priced her goods. Another dealer she knew stopped by to say hello. “I don’t understand why no one has asked about my chairs,” she said. She had four well-used ladderback rushed chairs arranged out in front of her tables, each nicely draped with colorful silk scarves.

“Perhaps it’s because you don’t have any prices on your items,” her dealer friend replied.

Some dealers think prices might scare customers away. But they don’t. Customers need a place to start—a pricing reference point. When a customer approaches a dealer’s tables and sees something he or she likes, they look at its price to see if it’s within their budget.

Those who are serious collectors come to flea markets looking for items to add to their collections—for the right price, of course. If a dealer overprices an item, they’ll move on because they know more or less how much the item is worth. But if the price is within their range, they can begin a conversation with the dealer about it.

Once in a while, these non-pricing dealers forget to take the previous price tag off an item after they purchased it elsewhere. A customer comes along, immediately sees that price and approaches the dealer asking if he or she can do any better. After a little haggling, the customer walks away with the item, satisfied that they received a good price.

Buying antiques and collectibles is one thing, but selling them is quote another. Let’s see what happens when the shoe is on the other foot. Let’s take a look at the right way to price items, but before we do, let’s take a look at how not to.

Another dealer at a different flea market had a number of U.S. stamps for sale, all packaged in groups by age. Among his collection of stamps for sale was a little “stock” book with four manila pages with overlapping strips into which he had inserted an assortment of U.S. commemorative stamps. Stamp collectors use these little books to transport stamps to shows or to store a particular group for further study. The dealer had placed two stickers on the cover. One said “$3.50 net with book” while the other said “$4 postage.” At first glance, the $4 sticker stood out, so a customer might think that the stock book with stamps was $4.

Noticing the customer’s interest in the stock book, the dealer directs him a plastic bin with other packages of stamps. Not seeing anything that he wanted, the customer began leafing through the plastic pages of stamps in a looseleaf binder. The customer chose four of them, each with a sticker that said “$2 postage.” The dealer told the customer he could have the stock book filled with stamps and the two pages for $10. That seemed like a good price, so the customer said he would take the lot.

“That will be $13.50,” said the dealer.

“How can that be?” said the customer.

“Oh, $10 is the face value of the postage. The stock book is an additional $3.50,” replied the dealer. Needless to say, the customer walked away empty handed. The dealer wasn’t at all pleased. If he had put a definite price on each of his items, there wouldn’t have been a controversy. Instead, his stickers were vague and communicated the wrong message.

So what is the best way to price antiques and collectibles so they do sell? First, price isn’t the same as value—it’s usually about half that. So while many people use an antiques pricing guide to look up their items, what they’re really looking at is a value guide. The authors of these guides research the value of a particular item by checking the most current amounts the item fetched both at auctions and in shops, then they average the different amounts together.

The market value of an antique is what someone is willing to pay for it. And just because an items lists for $25, for example, doesn’t mean that a person will be able to charge the same amount for it, especially if they’re selling their item at a market entry-level venue like a yard sale or flea market. To sell successfully at these places, prices need to be lower than the guide amount.

Some antique and collectibles sellers take a shortcut and go directly to eBay to check prices. While prices are current there, many have been inflated by the “entertainment” factor. Many eBay shoppers look upon “winning” an auction much as they would winning a game of chance at a casino. At a regular auction, the highest bidder “buys’ the item while on eBay, the highest bidder “wins” the item. Generally, this drives final prices up.





However, the number of auctions has decreased on eBay in recent years while the number of “Buy It How” sales have increased. But even beyond using pricing guides and eBay to research prices, a seller should check the prices of similar items in the same sort of selling venues near them—that is at local garage sales and flea markets. This is known as pricing what the market will bear. Sellers can’t charge more than people are willing to pay in a particular area. Items just won’t sell, no matter how valuable they may be.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about western antiques in the special 2019 Spring Edition, "Down to the Sea in Ships," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques & More Collection on Facebook.  

Selling Your Antiques and Collectibles

QUESTION:  I was a Hess dealer from 1969 to 1982, station Numbers 30293 and 30298 in Maple Shade and Millville, New Jersey. I clamped the Hess Toy Truck gasoline tanker display  to the top of the oil rack on the gas island. Hess Oil issued one of these for each island oil rack. Have you ever seen one of these? The Hess Training Vans came packaged six trucks to a box and four boxes to a master carton. Only one of these have been out of the box to take photos. Notice  the sharp corners on the boxes that are still green and not white and end flaps are still flat and not rolled. I’d like to sell these items but don’t know how or where. Can you help me?

ANSWER: People ask about selling Hess Toy Trucks all the time.  Unfortunately, the market for them is flat, so sales are sort of in the dumps at present. However, there are other ways to unload your antiques and collectibles. Have you ever considered crossover sales?

Most people associate the word “crossover” with SUVs. But in fact many antiques and collectibles can also be crossovers—they have collector appeal in more than one field or category. For example, an early 20th-century calendar showing bicyclists attracts not only ephemera collectors, but also antique bicycle enthusiasts.

This person has some really unique pieces which although they may not appeal to the typical collector of Hess Toy Trucks—except for the trucks, themselves—they may appeal to a wider market of both advertising and gasoline memorabilia collectors, especially since Hess Oil sold off its gas stations last year. The display cases are particularly interesting. Also, anything bearing the company logo will sell.

In order to get the most for whatever type of antique or collectible you have, you must look at this from a broader perspective and begin to see the crossover possibilities. First, you have the people who collect the trucks, themselves. Then you have those who collect toy trucks, Third, you have those who collect Hess memorabilia, and fourth those who collect gas station memorabilia. Most people only think of the collectors of the items they have. You have to think beyond them.

Second, you have to plan to sell to a targeted audience. Let’s look at some of the right and wrong possibilities.

The first marketing level, the yard or garage sale, depends on people who impulse buy. The regulars make the rounds each Saturday, hoping to find some items that interest them. Sure, there may be some collectors in the group, but the chances of a collector of a particular type of antique or collectible finding an item they collect is a million to one shot.

The second marketing level, the flea market, depends on a similar group of people. However, this group includes more collectors, who browse flea markets looking for items to add to their collection. It’s always hit or miss. A collector never knows what he or she will find on a given day.

The third marketing level is the antiques or collectibles dealer. Most people don’t realize that when selling to a dealer, they’ll only get half or less of what their items are worth. Here, the number of collectors is higher than previously, but the monetary returns are low.

Computer technology and the Internet have dramatically changed how people sell things. For the most part, the audience is made up of mostly collectors—people who are searching for specific items to add to their collections. It’s so much easier to sit at a computer and search for a specific item than it is to go out hunting for it. Plus it saves on gas.

When eBay began, it was the only game in town. And in this case, “game” was the right word. People went on eBay to play the “bidding” game before sophisticated video games began to take up their time. They would bid on items for which they had only a marginal interest, bidding them up to see if they could “win” the item in the last second. This caused the prices of antiques and collectibles to rise substantially beyond their actual value.

But now eBay is just one of many online sales venues. In fact, bidding plays only a small part in eBay sales as more and more buyers prefer the “Buy It Now” option.

To successfully sell online, divide up what you have and sell individual pieces. This applies especially to items like Hess Toy Trucks. Some people have been collecting them for years and want to sell their entire collection to one person. Although that’s the easy way out, they’ll make a lot more money selling everything a la carte.

Before attempting to sell any antique or collectible online, see what others like it are selling for, then either match or offer a slightly lower price. Offer the item in several categories, maximizing its crossover potential. It’s all about competition—and there’s loads of it online today. Lastly, be patient. It may take a while for the right buyer to come along. 

Life in Miniature

QUESTION: My sisters and I loved to play with dolls. My mother bought us each several sets of large doll furniture made by the Hall’s Lifetime Toy Company. We took very good care of this furniture and still have it today. What can you tell me about it?

ANSWER: Hall’s Lifetime Toys of Chattanooga, Tennessee, made some of the best doll furniture on the market in the 1950s to 1980s. They became known for their quality pieces which came in every size, shape, and style to match various types of dolls available at the time.

Charles Hall built his company up from a single canopy bed which he took to the New York Toy Show in 1942 where it won several prizes and was even featured in the New York Times. He took home orders for 2,000 beds but didn’t have a place or a staff of workers to make them. So he rented a store, hired some workers from a local furniture plant to make the beds.

Eventually, he produced his canopy bed in five sizes. It became the basis of his new toy business.

The furniture Hall made in the 1950s was for 8-inch dolls like Ginny, Muffy, Ginger, Madame Alexander, and others. Later, he began producing pieces large enough for  Barbie dolls. To add some variety to his canopy beds, he created three styles of headboards.

Halls became the largest manufacturer of wooden doll furniture in the country. The company sold its wares to a number of high-end toy and department stores, including FAO Schwartz and Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, Marshall Fields in Chicago, and I. Magnin in San Francisco.

When Hall died in 1959, his wife Marie took over. She added doll houses, made by Arcade Lithographing, to the company’s product line, selling them for $25 in 1964.

The firm’s promoted the quality of their products and packed a guarantee pamphlet in every box. Also included was a black and white fold-out pamphlet with numbers assigned to each doll furniture item.

The peak years for Hall’s Lifetime Toys were from the 1960s to the 1980s. Over the years, they made furniture for 8 to12-inch dolls, 3/4" scale miniature furniture, and 1/12 scale furniture and dollhouses.

Today, you can find Hall’s pieces on eBay and Etsy and other online collectible auction sites. The value of these varies but has remained quite high. A four-poster Barbie-size bed sells for around $64 while a wooden make-up table and stool for Barbie sells for $59. A single bed plus make-up vanity and bench sells for $110 on eBay. Some pieces, such as a pink vanity table with mirror and bench for a Ginny Doll, can sell for as much as $110. A patio chaise lounge and side  table alone goes for $30.  A three-piece living room set—sofa, armchair, and coffee table—goes for around $100. All prices include shipping.

Hall’s made a wide variety of doll furniture, from period pieces to sleek modern renditions. The company even produced bathroom sets, complete with tub, sink, and toilet. All of its furniture was handcrafted out of wood and painted in a variety of colors. Beds came with mattresses, pillows, and blankets, and living sets had real upholstery.

Bent Into Shape

QUESTION: I recently purchased two bentwood chairs at an antique shop in a nearby town. Both have woven cane seats and the number “14" pressed into the wood under the rim of the seat. I bought them to use in my kitchen. The cane is in good condition and the chairs are stained a dark brown. Can you tell me anything about these chairs—who made them and how old are they?

ANSWER: You made a great purchase. Your chairs are commonly known as “bistro” chairs, and while most people think they date from the early 20th century, they actually date back to the mid 19th century.

Michael Thonet (pronounced “toe-net”), a clever and creative cabinetmaker from Boppard am Rhein, Germany, invented the process for bending wood and as a result created the first pieces of bentwood furniture. He originally made your chairs in 1859, however, his company, which is still in existence, made over 50 million by 1930. So yours could date from the early 20th century.

Thonet, the son of master tanner Franz Anton Thonet, started out as a carpenter's apprentice in 1811. Eight years later, he opened his own shop. In the beginning, he carved his pieces from European beechwood.

In the 1830s, Thonet began trying to make furniture out of glued and bent wooden slats. His first success was the Bopparder Schichtholzstuhl, or Boppard layerwood chair, in 1836. The following year, he purchased the Michelsmühle, the glue factory that made the glue that he used. However, he failed to obtain the patent for his new process in Germany and England in 1940, so he tried again in France and Russia the next year, but again failed.

The steam engine appeared on the scene around the time that Thonet's was experimenting with his bending process. He discovered that he could bend light, strong wood into curved, graceful shapes by forming the wood in hot steam. This enabled him to design elegant, lightweight, durable and comfortable furniture, which appealed strongly to style trend at the time. His pieces were a complete departure from the heavy, carved designs of the past.

At the Koblenz trade fair of 1841, Thonet met Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, who was enthusiastic about Thonet's furniture and invited him to his Vienna court. During 1842, Thonet presented his furniture—particularly his chairs—to the Imperial Family. On July 16 1842: Metternich granted Thonet the right "to bend any type of wood, even the most brittle: into the desired forms and curves by chemical and mechanical means." The Prince granted him a second, nonrenewable 13-year patent on July 10, 1856 "for manufacturing chairs and table legs of bent wood, the curvature of which is effected through the agency of steam or boiling liquids.”

When his first factory in Boppard establishment got into financial trouble, he sold it and moved his family to Vienna, where in 1849, he opened a new factory called the Gebrüder Thonet. In 1850, he produced his Number 1 chair, which he intended to sell to café owners. 

He received a bronze medal for his Vienna bentwood chairs at the London World's Fair in 1851, at which he received international recognition. At the next World's Fair in Paris in 1855, he received the silver medal for his new and improved bentwood chair design.   In 1856, he opened a new factory in Korycany, Moravia because of the country’s ample supply of beechwood.

By 1859, he developed his most famous chair—the Number 14, known as Konsumstuhl No. 14 or coffeehouse chair No.14—for which he finally received a gold medal at the 1867 Paris World's Fair.

Thonet produced his No. 14 chair using six pieces of steam-bent wood, ten screws, and two nuts. He made the wooden parts by heating beechwood slats to 212 °F, pressing them into curved cast-iron molds, then drying them at 158 °F for 20 hours. The chairs could be mass-produced by unskilled workers and disassembled to save space during transportation—an idea used today by the Swedish company IKEA to flat-pack its furniture.

The firm’s later chairs used eight pieces of wood and also had two diagonal braces between the seat and back to strengthen that particular joint.

Today, a pair of these icon chairs with a table is selling on eBay for nearly $1,000.

Taming Your Collecting Passion

QUESTION: I love to collect things. But my passion for collecting seems to be getting out of hand. How can I control this? And how can I judge whether certain items are worth collecting?

ANSWER: You’ve obviously been bitten hard by the collecting bug. With the advent of eBay and the Antiques Roadshow, everyone has the idea that everything is worth something. And if something is old, it must certainly be worth a lot. If you believe this, then you’re wrong on both counts.

The first question you need to ask yourself is “Why do you collect things?” Is it for their intrinsic or monetary value, is it for the pleasure they give you, or is it for some vague idea of self-worth?

Asking avid collectors why they do what they do is like asking, "Why do you breathe?" They might reply that something about human behavior wants—or is fated—to gather and accumulate, to crave and classify, to seek out and hoard. Passion plays a part in many serious collectors' pursuits, as does, many admit, the thrill of the hunt.

This can be true even, or perhaps especially, when time is long between looking, finding and acquiring. The rarer an object of desire, the less frequent or instant the gratification of its discovery; for some determined collectors, though, pleasure resides in the long, unpredictable search for a coveted item. Inexplicably, it may also dissolve when it leads to a find.

For many people, collecting is a way of getting in touch with a past era, even if they didn't live through that particular period themselves. Some enjoy owning objects from what they may imagine was a simpler, less stressful age. Or they may have a strong nostalgic or family connection to a certain period and place.

Some people collect with investment value in mind, others to develop an informed knowledge of a our material  culture. Either way, passion plays a part in many serious collectors' pursuits, as does the thrill of the hunt. Identifying personally with the objects one admires can also feed the collecting impulse.

Some collectors embrace—and celebrate—their magnificent obsessions; like entertainers, they enjoy displaying what they have amassed and sharing their enthusiasm with friends. Conversely, to be sure, many a treasured collection is a private, secretive affair.

Collecting has broaden in scope over the decades. It used to be that antiques included only decorative objects and furnishings. Today, anything 100 years old or older is considered an antique. Anything newer a collectible. And while some antiques may be considered collectibles, not all collectibles are antiques. Take typewriters, for instance. The oldest ones are antiques but newer ones from the late 20th century are technically collectibles.

What's old is new in the evermore-diverse collectibles market, and as long as someone, somewhere values something enough to acquire it and stimulate trading in its field, it can become a common practice to do so. Thus, along with such old favorites as stamps and coins, items like Barbie dolls, tea tins, and buttons, in fact, just about everything can be deemed a collectible.

So where do you draw the line.  The first rule of collecting is collect what you like.  The second rule is to be knowledgeable about your collection. The third rule is buy low and sell high.

Understand why you’re collecting what you do. What got you started? Have you kept up with your collection or has it run its course? If your collection is languishing, then perhaps you’ve lost interest. Life changes. You change.

Do you know a lot about what you collect? Have you studied up on the history of the objects? Do you know the makers and the marks? Do you know the last word on the subject? Have you kept up with the market value?

Too many people get caught up in the entertainment value of auction sites like eBay. For some it’s like playing poker. They even get to “win.” Many pay far more than an object is worth just because they want to be the winner. If you’re a true collector, you’ll not even bid on an item unless you know you can get it for a good deal below market value. And that means you have to know what it’s worth before you bid.

Do you just collect things or do you keep an inventory of your collection? To understand the true value of your collection, you need to know when and where you purchased each piece, how much you paid and how much it’s worth now. You may even want to photograph each item as a record for insurance purposes.

Of course, as any collector knows, there’s a price to pay. Thus, beginners and seasoned veterans alike usually pursue their collecting passion at some cost. No matter what your field is, there's something all of us inevitably collect and unless you pick the pieces off the junk pile, you’ll have to pay for them.
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Looking for Value in All the Right Places

QUESTION: I’m a novice at putting value on furniture and other old things. Can you tell me the best way to do this?

ANSWER: Putting a value to an antique or collectible isn’t as simple as black and white. Finding out about the value of an object involves several steps.  First you need to authenticate it—that is, find out if it’s real or fake. Then you need to determine the value you want to research. And if you discover that you have something valuable, you need to consult a certified antiques appraiser.

While there’s no fixed value in antiques and collectibles, there are two types of value you need to consider—replacement value and retail value. Which type you need to research depends on whether you’re planning keep or sell the object.

If you’re keeping it, you want to find its replacement value. Replacement value is the retail price you would pay to buy an object that’s identical to the one you own. Though that sounds simple enough, it isn’t. The object has to be exactly the same, including its condition. Then you’ll have to purchase it from the same type of source—an Internet antiques store, eBay, an antiques shop or show, or flea market. The retail price of the object will be different at each of the venues. So, unless you purchase it at exactly the same type of sales outlet, you may have a problem.

In the end, you’re the one who determines which price applies. Most beginning collectors use the highest price. While this may boost your ego, this may not be the best value. What about averaging all the prices? That won’t work, either. You’ll just have to consider the most likely place to which an average person might go to purchase the item.

Traditionally, insurance companies have considered the retail price asked by a dealer at an antiques show or at an antiques and collectibles mall as the replacement value. But, let’s face it, who pays the asking price? Smart collectors don’t. The object is to buy pieces at the lowest price possible, so that they’ll gain value right off. A lot of novices are turning to eBay to determine the replacement value. But this isn’t good, either. Any of the auction sites are just that—auctions. That means that buyers bid against each other, often sending the price higher than it should be. If you’re going to use eBay to determine value, you’ll need to study several months worth of pricing data.

If your goal is to sell your object, the price varies depending on retail venue. Traditionally, people sell items through garage sales, flea markets, eBay, and antiques shops and shows. You’ll need to research the potential value in all those categories. Each one has hidden costs, so the price represents only a portion of the amount paid. Auctioneers charge a commission to sell objects. Antiques dealers have to mark up their wares to make a profit. Flea market dealers have to do the same, albeit not as much, to make a profit over space rental fees. Ebay sellers have to add on numerous fees. Only garage sale sellers can charge the least amount and still make a profit. If you base your object’s value on their pricing, you’ll never get anywhere, even though some price their items based on what they see on eBay.

About the only way you’ll get the full value from an item is to sell it privately. However, while private buyers will pay the highest amount, they have to want the object. Most private buyers have been collecting for some time, so the list of what they want is usually short. Most of the time, they’ll already own the item. Further, finding a private buyer is a time consuming and difficult process. The best example is trying to find a buyer for collectibles from the 1939 New York World’s Fair. While there are certainly many collectors of these souvenirs, finding them is another story.

The Vintage Trap

QUESTION: I recently purchased a vintage formal living room set for a steal of a price and am looking to learn more about it. What can you tell me?

ANSWER: Depending on how much you paid, the question is who got taken, the dealer or you. I suspect it was you. While this is a very well-built living room set, it’s really not very old—most likely from the 1940s or 1950s, but could be as old as the 1920s.

Furniture of this sort falls into the category of what used to be known as “period” furniture. Many people in their 60s grew up with such furniture. Their mothers warned them about not putting their feet on the couch or sleeping in the chairs. Generally, manufacturers overstuffed these pieces so they would be more comfortable. They provided thick blocked cushions so that anyone sitting in them would sink into them. Your set happens to be styled after French “Louis” pieces of the Rococo period. But that’s where the similarity ends.

People like yourself often fall into the “vintage” trap. The word vintage originally applied to wine making
and the process of picking grapes and creating the finished wine. A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certain wines, it can denote quality.

The people who sell on eBay and other auction sites saw that word “quality” and figured why not use the word “vintage” to describe their pieces and make them more attractive to bidders. In this case, vintage means referring to something from the past of high quality. Let’s face it folks, anything from yesterday—the day before today—is from the past and if it’s of good quality, then it technically can be labeled vintage. When the buyers on the auction sites saw the word quality, they perceived vintage to mean something old that has lots of value. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always apply.

Online sellers throw the word vintage around like it’s a catchall word that will instantly add credibility and perceived value to the items they’re selling. You’ll see vintage jewelry instead of estate jewelry, vintage furniture instead of used furniture, and vintage kitchenware instead of used kitchen utensils. It’s all in the wording.

Unfortunately, middle and lower-market antique and flea market dealers have picked up on the use of vintage to describe goods for which they don’t know the age. Since using the word online has become rather successful—you can full a lot of people a lot of the time, to paraphrase an old saying—they figured they might as well try it.

Don’t fall into the vintage trap. Find out about a piece before you buy it. In the end, you’ll make an informed decision and just might get something of real value for a steal.

On the Wings of Memories

QUESTION: My father traveled a lot by plane for his business. He got in the habit of keeping a souvenir from each flight. I now have his collection of decks of playing cards, postcards, timetables, flight wings, dishes, silverware, and flight bags. Do people collect these items?

ANSWER: When commercial airline flights became more available to the general public in the late 1940s and 1950s, it was still a big deal to fly. Passengers dressed in their Sunday best for even the shortest flights. Because it was a treat, airlines served meals on china plates, often with silver flatware in First Class, handed out playing cards to keep their passengers busy in the days before movies aloft, and gave little mementos and games to children.

This practice continued well into the 1980s when airlines began phasing out some items, started using stainless steel instead of silver for flatware and plastic instead of china for plates. But for at least four decades, and even before that, they promoted themselves by placing their logos on ashtrays, dishes, flatware, napkins, baggage tags, flight bags, blankets, eye shades, games, toys, menus, pins, and posters—to name just a few items.

There are lots of collectors of airline memorabilia. Propelled by personal memories of a first flight or perhaps a first transAtlantic flight, passengers began taking home all sorts of airline items. Add to that, the up-in-the-air status of particular airlines from time to time and the demise of so many of the original carriers has caused much speculation in the airline collectibles market.

Searching for the term "airlines" on eBay results in over 71,000 ongoing auctions. This general
also includes offerings such as current flight vouchers, tickets, and luggage.

Some of the hottest items sought by collectors are dishes and silverware featuring an airline’s name or logo. It became fashionable for airlines to have these types of items used in First Class produced  by top-name designers and manufacturers such as Lenox and Royal Doulton. That was in the day when chic stewardesses placed linen tablecloths over First Class seat-back trays and served wine in fine crystal goblets. Nothing was too good for their passengers, especially wealthy ones who were used to the best.

Also, the older the memento, the more valuable. Likewise, the more owned, or conversely, the more limited the airline's history, the more significant the interest. If an airline was short-lived, it’s items are particularly popular.

Another item that isn’t around much anymore are flight bags. In the early days of jet travel in the 1960s, every participant of a group tour that flew to their destination received a flight bag with the airline or tour operator’s logo on it. One from Pan Am from the 1960s is now up for auction on eBay for a starting bid of $69. One used by a Pan Am flight attendant is going for $80.

For many people, a flight on the Concorde was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A rare lady’s compact with the Concorde logo is going for nearly $100 on eBay. And a pair of British Airways Concorde salt and pepper shakers, made by Royal Doulton, has a starting bid of $35.

First Class menus are also popular airline collectibles. A United Airlines menu from 1964-65, featuring the tag line “Official airline of the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair,” is going for $20 on ebay. And four B.O.A.C. menus from the 1960s are going for $100.

The great thing about collecting most of these items is that they’re relatively inexpensive. While rarer airline items can sell for double and triple figures, most sell for prices in the single or low double-digit range.

For more information, read Up, Up and Away at TheAntiquesAlmanac.com

Put a Price on It

Last week, I told you the story of a flea market dealer who hadn’t priced anything and wondered why no one was asking about her items, let alone buying them. So to help you price your antiques and collectibles, especially for a yard sale or flea market, I thought I’d offer some guidance. But before I do, I’d like to offer another example of how not to.

To do that, I continue a few tables down from the previous dealer to another at the same flea market. This guy had a number of U.S. stamps for sale, all packaged in groups by age. Since I collect U.S. stamps, my eye immediately zeroed in on a little “stock” book, with four manila pages with overlapping strips into which he had inserted an assortment of U.S. commemorative stamps. Collectors use these little books to transport stamps to shows or to store a particular group for further study. The dealer had placed two stickers on the cover. One said “$3.50 net with book” while the other said “$4 postage.” At first glance, I noticed the $4 sticker, so I offered him $3, and after some hesitation, he agreed. Then he directed me over to a plastic bin with other packages of stamps. I didn’t see any I wanted, so he directed me to a looseleaf binder with plastic pages filled with stamps. I chose two of them, each with a sticker that said “$2 postage.” He said I could have the stock book filled with stamps and the two pages for $10. I did some quick calculations and came up with $7 for the three items, not $10. “Oh,” he said, “that’s only for the face value of the postage.”

“You said I could have the book with its stamps for $3, so I’ll just take it,” I replied. Needless to say, he wasn’t too pleased. If he had put a definite price on each of his items, there wouldn’t have been a controversy. Instead, his stickers were vague and communicated the wrong message.

So how do you go about pricing your antiques and collectibles so they sell? First, price isn’t the same as value–it’s usually about half that. So while you may use an antiques pricing guide to look up your items, what you’re really looking at is a value guide. The authors of these guides research the value of a particular item by checking the most current amounts the item fetched both at auctions and in shops, then they average the different amounts together.

For you see, the market value of an antique is what someone is willing to pay for it. And just because an items lists for $25, for example, doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to charge the same amount for it, especially if you’re selling your item at a market entry-level venue like a yard sale or flea market. To sell successfully at these places, you’ll have to start your pricing much lower than the guide amount.

Some antique sellers take a shortcut and go directly to eBay to check prices. While prices are current there, many have been inflated by what I call the “entertainment” factor. Many eBay shoppers look upon “winning” an auction much as they would winning a game of chance at a casino. At a regular auction, the highest bidder “buys’ the item while on eBay, the highest bidder “wins” the item. Generally, this drives final prices up.

But even beyond using pricing guides and eBay to research prices, you should check the prices in the same sort of selling venues near you. Go to several yard sales and/or flea markets and check what similar items are going for there. This is known as pricing what the market will bear. You can’t charge more than people are willing to pay in a particular area. The item just won’t sell, no matter how valuable it might be.

Getting into the Antiques Biz

QUESTION: I love antiques and have been collecting them for 20 years or so and have so many things that my house is bursting at the seams. I’m ready to retire and have been thinking about opening my own antiques shop. Is this a good idea in this economy?

ANSWER: Lots of people dream about going into business for themselves. For some, it seems like a way out of the corporate rat race. For others, something to do in retirement. And while an antique shop may seem like an uncomplicated, quiet business to get into, it’s far from it. Remember, first and foremost, selling antiques is a business–and the emphasis here is on selling.

Many people think because they’ve been buying up a storm at yard sales and flea markets that they can turn around and sell what they’ve bought. Sure, you can put some items up on eBay to sell, but to be successful at selling on eBay, you first have to know what people are buying. Salesmanship is a skill that needs to be learned. And loving antiques has nothing to do with it. In fact, the worst reason to open an antique shop is that you love antiques and have been collecting them for years.

To have a successful antiques business, whether selling in a shop, at shows, flea markets, or online, you need to know what people want to buy and then buy those items. What usually happens is that the items people want to buy aren’t the ones you personally like to buy, so you avoid them. For instance, today, the trend is towards collecting items from the 1930s and 1940s. But you love Victorian antiques and can’t stand Art Deco.

Also, this is a business. That means keeping records, learning how to display things so they sell, and developing a network of sources to buy new inventory. The IRS doesn’t look kindly on people who just play around.

NOTE: I’m still having problems posting images to this blog. And an antiques blog is nothing without photos of the items I’m discussing. So I’m looking for a new host for my blog and may be moving it in the near future. Please stay tuned and thanks for your patience.