Starting An Antiques Business

Part 2  part 1

by Bill Ritchie

• EXHIBITORS

Other dealers plan their year’s trading around the top-class antiques fairs and tradeshows. The more valuable their stock, the fewer sales they need to make in a year to make a good profit. Some run shops which only open one or two days a week. Finding top-quality stock is very time-consuming, so they all depend to some extent on runners (see below).

• ANTIQUE SHOPS

In the larger towns there’s a large array of shop-based businesses. But remember, you’re talking about larger overheads, for the shop, heating, lighting, security, theft and fire insurance and an assistant to hold the fort while you’re away on buying expeditions. For this reason I do not recommend you to rush into shop premises until you’ve had a few years’ thorough grounding, but it is an attractive option for future expansion.

• MARKET TRADERS

There are a great many indoor markets opening up, and can be very prestigious affairs indeed. Other mixed markets (indoor and outdoor stalls) may look very cheerful and picturesque, but the best dealers there, are equal to anyone in the country. Easier to set up, usually with a local licence.

Everyone in the antiques business is very careful about buying from strangers because of the sheer volume of stolen goods on the market. When you’re buying you must be prepared to insist on a name, address, some form of identification and a signed declaration to the effect that the item is the seller’s property. If you want to sell to shops and stall-holders you must be prepared to give this information as a matter of course.

• RUNNERS

These are agents, who on behalf of shop owners, go out buying on their behalf. The knack of success is to buy stock at very competitive prices so that the dealers will give you a good profit buying at your “trade price”, and still make a good profit themselves. One good way to start up is to combine dealing from home with “running”, but only if you’re prepared to be always out on the road hunting. Buying is definitely the hardest area of the antiques business, and the runners thrive on the challenge. They build up a small network of dealers and get to know their tastes intimately

• RESTORERS

The entire antiques trade relies crucially on skilled craftsmen and women to repair and restore items, either at public request, or to enhance the value of recently acquired stock. There are some very good businesses around based on picture restoration, clock or porcelain repair etc. In the furniture trade alone there are polishers, veneerers, turners, joiners, rush and cane workers, and carvers.

WAYS TO START UP

You can set yourself up as a dealer working from home, and go on to be a runner for other dealers. So long as you’re careful to read up on the stocks you handle, and allow for all your travelling expenses, there’s a good living to be made. Always plough back your profits into better and larger stocks.

Restoration is another good way to acquire knowledge, and to cater for a strong market demand.

For the young it can be a good stepping-stone to becoming a successful specialist dealer.

For the over50s it will provide a good standard of living, but not a business you can sell off on retirement, except to people you’ve trained or other restorers with the same skills.

There is a third way, and that is to work as an assistant to an established dealer with a shop. You don’t get much pay, but you have great opportunities to learn the trade, and develop your own selling style with the customers.

Dealers won’t allow assistants to buy on their behalf, but you may have a chance to go alone to the auction rooms, to view items and report back, or you may be given research work to do in the local library.

After a period of time, you can normally arrange to sell some of your own stock in the shop, and build up your own sales until you are ready to go it alone.

At this stage, I have not talked about the auction houses online, but they can be another avenue, where you can start up small, and learn the trade, before moving onto bigger things.

Bill Ritchie helps with developing home based businesses, business ideas, Internet Marketing Tips, plus writes the occasional article, and runs a useful, informative website at http://www.thehomebusinessprofessor.com

                                                                      part 1