This Weekend’s Antiques & Collectibles Highlights

Another solid week of profit as I spent about $11 in total at a local auction and made 500% on the investment. Sure, it isn’t a ton of money, but with that kind of profit margin… who can argue?

Among the many finds that turned into some great profits:

• Loads of vintage McCalls, Simplicity, and Advance patterns for girls, boys, and women.
• A couple of great Nippon pieces (as pictured below):
  

  Nippon Footed Bowl

  

  Nippon Double Handled Cup

• A very unique Shafford Japan ashtray
  

  Shafford Japan Ashtray

• Bags of vintage buttons
• A pair of American Sweetheart Monax saucers that sold surprisingly well

It wasn’t a fantastic week by any means, but it definitely turned out much better than I had hoped. Hopefully, next weekend’s auctions will turn out great for inventory as the auction season progresses. Happy hunting everyone!

The Quickest Way to Learn Specific Categories of Antiques & Collectibles

The antiques and collectibles trade is definitely a tricky industry to learn. There isn’t an easy way to go about learning all of the various categories of vintage collectibles, and that’s mostly the reason why we see a lot of collectors who specialize in specific areas of the hobby. Jewelry, glassware, oil cans, toys… the list goes on the specialties people “major” in their studies.

For the profiteer in the world of antiques and collectibles, it’s an even bigger challenge because of the various piles of perceived junk at auctions and garage sales that could potentially be gold. People in the business of selling collectibles and antiques on eBay must compete with not only the avid collectors, but the moms and pops looking for that piece that may liven up their household.

How does one go about learning various specialties of the collectibles business without really knowing what to look for or what they’re looking at? Interestingly enough, there has always been one foolproof way in which I’ve come to inherit much of my knowledge, and I find it to work quite well for almost anyone.

Some people are visual learners while others can look at a book and absorb the information easily. Some of my family members graduated high school without ever really attending, but rather working full-time jobs. This was back in the days in which states didn’t have requirements on attendance, and the reason some of those people ended up being valedictorians of their high school graduating class was due to their ability to absorb information from a book.

I’ve read countless glassware books outlining the history and patterns of the Depression-era plates and dishes created, and one thing is almost constant — it’s very hard for me to absorb the information and remember it. And in the selling-for-profit arena of antiques and collectibles, it’s almost a guarantee that glassware is a must in your knowledge-base due to how much of it makes up an auction’s inventory.

The best way I’ve found is to visually learn by buying on the cheap in bulk. Not all auctions offer this type of free-for-all buying, but many out-in-the-country style auctions in which lots are sold by the box are perfect. While you may not get the highest quality glassware or whatever it is you desire, it is a way in which you can hold pieces, learn the feel and patterns or look of the items, and do the research.

Jeannette Cube Sugar Bowls

One of the most recent examples for me came at an auction in which I bought multiple pieces of American Fostoria and American Fostoria look-a-likes. Most of these flats included other items I was interested in which included some costume jewelry and Bavarian plates (another area in which I was able to research due to these cheap buys). I knew that I would make some money or my money back on the items, so the risk was low and the learning possibilities were endless.

American Fostoria Creamer & Sugar

The flats panned out roughly seven to eight pieces of American Fostoria. Two pieces included a creamer and sugar bowl, while the other pieces were sugar bowls in the American Fostoria pattern. Upon further review and research, I found that some of these pieces were Indiana Whitehall and Jeannette Cube patterns. Here’s some of the evidence against those pieces:

• Colors were mostly used in Jeannette (mostly pink and green) and Indiana Whitehall patterns versus Fostoria‘s American pattern. Assume those pieces are probably not Fostoria patterns, but some Fostoria patterns did have some colors available.
• Jeannette‘s creamer and sugar bowl Cube pieces are highly abundant, so be aware when you see that style of pattern at an auction or garage sale.
• Cube is lower quality than Fostoria, and a lot of people have problems actually deciphering what this means. Fostoria, in my opinion, is much clearer and Cube has clear mold marks whereas Fostoria also seems a tad heavier due to the quality.
• The handles on Cube and Whitehall creamer and sugar bowl are completely different from that of American Fostoria. Obviously, this is specific to handled pieces. The Whitehall pieces are footed, and the footing is also more octagonal than actually circular. A huge tip-off to Whitehall.
• “Cloudy” glass is a good way to describe Whitehall, and Fostoria is crystal clear.

Toby Aulman at AuctionBytes.com wrote an article back in 2001 regarding the differences between these three patterns of glassware, and I encourage you to check it out if you’ve had problems like myself.

Gaining these large lots of glassware is a way to learn about these duplications or similarities in patterns, but it’s also a way to learn about new patterns that you probably don’t know very much about. It almost forces you to learn about them in order to correctly tag them for an EBay auction to inform your customers. Case in point: Cambridge Rose Point.

Cambridge Rose Point Sugar Bowl

I’ve never actually dealt with Cambridge Rose Point, and that’s a rarity for a pattern that is quite abundant. In actuality, I don’t deal with too much glassware, but I am finding that I must in order to remain highly active in week-to-week sales.  I would never remember this pattern by looking in a book, and even though this piece was cracked on the bottom of its base… it still provided me with a fun learning experience.

Picking up a piece of glassware, jewelry, or pottery here and there can be a useful way to learn the specialties of antiques and collectibles. It will surely help out the pro-visual learners out there, and it’ll certainly help you diversify your abilities to spot bargains.