How Hard Can Being an Antique Dealer Really Be?
The trials and tribulations of finding new homes for old things
“The time is 4:15AM”, my phone alarm kindly informs me. Time to wake up and grab a quick coffee ready to jump in the van to go to scour the stalls at Kempton.
Okay, you’ve got me — not every day starts like this, but these days are more common than you would think. The early starts are more than worth it though, as these markets are what antique dealers live for; the chance to find that next gorgeous sideboard that might need a good sanding down and a lick of polish, or the charming little tea set without a single chip or crack. All dealers, like me, are addicted to finding that next special piece to add to their collection.
Why dealers travel far and wide
Many of us like to specialise in one specific thing, whether it is a period of time, a type of product or even a country of origin and generally once we have found the thing we love (and researched it all heavily), we are willing to travel far and wide in order to find and purchase the next piece for our inventory.
Being an antique dealer is easy though right?
Go out, find a few things at a car boot, take a few photos and stick them online. If only it was that easy! Days at auctions, markets and fairs are tiring and can be frustrating — especially if you come away with nothing (admittedly this doesn’t happen often, but it’s hugely disappointing when it does). Early starts, picking through dozens and dozens of different items, bartering with sellers, trying to fit all your wares in the van, getting home and having to unload the days findings before storing it all.
If only it ended there!
And that doesn’t even start to cover the next bit — replacing broken screws, fixing wonky legs, painting scuffs, sanding down dreaded water marks, all ready to be photographed. Not that the work ends there though! Dealers can take literally hundreds of photos of their items in order to get the right one, moving them into different positions, adjusting the lighting, crawling on the floor to get the right angle and even editing the photos once they have been uploaded to ensure the pieces are looking their best which, believe me, can take hours.
The learning stage
The next bit is less physically intensive but can be time consuming — listing. For some this can be just a case of uploading a couple of photos and typing a brief description; for others it means taking the time to investigate the products, finding out the designer, the manufacturer, the date of production, the country of origin before putting all of this information onto various selling platforms — luckily, here at Intique we make the listing process as quick and painless as possible for our sellers and can even import listings from other websites saving dealers valuable time that they can instead use to source, restore or buy more products (or even some downtime to themselves!).
The work doesn’t end once an item has been sold, there’s delivery to be arranged and as always, customers to keep happy!
And so the cycle starts again….
Passion is easy to spot
You will always be able to tell who the people are who love antiques. You can see it in the way they display their shop, the descriptions of their items, the way the take their photos and when the way they will talk about one of their items. These are the people who you want to buy from, these are the people who dedicate every waking hour of their time to educate themselves on new trends, styles, periods, makers and designers and who have a genuine love and passion for what they do.
I’m James Broad, a lover of all things vintage and Co-founder of Intique, a marketplace with personality selling vintage and antique furniture with character.
