To some people, old things have little or no value and to others, an one hundred year old item has priceless meaning and value. One woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure as they say!
What do we love about antiques?
What is it that we love about antiquing? Everything from the treasure hunt, to the find, to getting a great deal on the item down to the smell of a room filled with treasure. There is just something about an object from another time which captures our attention. How a simple material object can grab us by the heart strings and take us back to when we were children at grandma’s house is magic in and of itself. Antiques can tell us stories of how life was for our ancestors and how life used to be for us.
How much has life changed in the last hundred years?
We have come a long way. Can you imagine what an antique store will look like in the next 50 years? Just think of all the little things from only fifty years ago which will become more and more priceless as we move forward in time. Rotary telephones, children’s toys, and especially books. I am predicting that in the next fifty years books will become increasingly more and more valuable. The less we have of a particular item the more valuable the one’s left will become. Just think, that plastic He-Man doll that you played with as a child and snapped the arms off of … it ended up in the trash of course because your mother did not see any value in keeping it. If however, you were told that someday that He-Man doll would be worth thousands of dollars you would have seen more value in it, have kept it safe and today still had it in a safe spot where you can appreciate it from time to time. Why do we value material items? Someone needs to teach us to and sometimes it’s instinct. We can learn lessons from our past and so the value of preservation is not merely a monetary gain for collectors seeking to buy and sell.
Antiques are not merely about high priced old stuff and things, they are about appreciation of history, appreciation of an artisan and of designers who took the time to create something of value that people would buy and then when the artisan is no longer living we remember them through what they left behind. The material objects themselves will out live us and perhaps that is why they increase in value over time.
Will one day an old flip phone become a priceless treasure to a collector? Probably, since the reason we love antiques so much is very psychological! We collect items which bring back personal memories for us. Items of all kinds hold value to the buyer. But what makes some items more valuable than others?
Antiquing is a sport, a hobby, a profession and a passion. Why does anyone spend time in this business? It cannot be about money, it has to be deeper than that. A passion for history and for keeping memories and culture alive is important to human beings and we do that through preserving our material items and keeping them safe for generations to come. Antiques are a part of our world, a part of our history and a part of our heart and soul.
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