Over the past week, we’ve popped into our space at Rural Origins Antiques and moved things around as items have sold. I mentioned previously how one of the things I like about the store is how often it changes. I’ve got three pictures to illustrate that change.
Our antique space at Rural Origins, August 28, 2011.
Our antique space at Rural Origins - September 7, 2011.
Our antique space at Rural Origins - September 11, 2011.
Feel free to play a game comparing the pictures and seeing what’s different. It’s a game we like to play whenever we visit our space to see what has sold. Sometimes we don’t notice a change right away, like a pink vase that appears in the ammo box on September 7 (bottom right of the photo toward the back of the space) that’s gone by September 11.
The Woo Woo Teacup Journal 
Looks like you’re doing well, Mary! There’s quite a few changes there each time!
We’re always so surprised at what sells and what sells quickly. We had a set of Anchor Hocking Fire King jadeite mugs that we put in the space last Thursday. They were purchased by a man from Tokyo yesterday.
Captains chair left after you took the photo:)
During my first venture at community college years ago, I took a career counseling class. One day we filled out a questionnaire that told us our likely paths. Mine came out to be none other than…an Antique Dealer! Just so happens I love antiques, which explains why my interest was sparked by your loom, and my avid Antiques Roadshow watching.
Now you’re living the dream for me, though I know each item requires lots of research, something I know you have no problem with. I hope you have much fun with this.
ps: thanks for following my blog, on the up days…and even the bad ones!
LK – We never thought of this as a business we’d be interested in, even though I work at a museum. Actually, my work at a museum almost makes antique dealing mentally off-limits.
At work we aren’t allowed to put monetary values on the items that are donated for a couple of reasons. One, if we attach a monetary value to the items in our collection, then we have to capitalize them on our balance sheet. They become assets that we have to insure and that can potentially be used to offset any debts. Two, if we were to appraise items – something we’re not qualified to do – those values could be used by people as donation amounts on their tax returns. The IRS does not like the beneficiaries of a donated item to provide a value for tax returns because the beneficiary could potentially inflate a value, thus allowing the donor to claim a larger donation than was actually made.
For these reasons (and maybe others), museums do not typically put monetary valuations on our artifacts, so I’m more attuned to looking for the history of artifacts rather than monetary values. My husband is actually a much better “picker” than I am. I’d rather keep track of the bookkeeping and setting up the displays, the latter of which is very much like creating museum exhibits.
Our good friend Jody is to be credited with getting us started. She’s been selling old books for years and got into the antiques business a few years ago. When she decided to open her own shop, she wanted to make sure she could fill it, so she asked if we had anything appropriate on hand that we might like to sell. Once we sold a few things (on the first day the store opened!), we were hooked. You might want to give it a go sometime, if the stars align.
PS – While I don’t always comment or read your posts right away, I do read them all.