Antiques Fairs, Which are the best for buying at?
ByI spent yesterday trawling round the Antiques fair at Peterborough’s East of England showground. Getting there soon after 7.00 in the morning you would have thought that I would have come home with an absolute car load of bargains. Nope, if fact whilst the pieces I bought are all very pretty there are only five bits of vintage jewellery, no tiles, no pots, no paperweights – oh and I did get one reference book which I had wanted for a while but am way too much of a tight wad to pay the full price for.
Why was it so difficult to buy good stock? The weather was good for a fair, not to hot or cold and nice and dry. The fair appeared to be packed with stalls and the stalls packed with stock. Economics I’m afraid, either stuff was damaged, repro or it was priced way beyond what I could hope to sell at. Do these stall holders actually sell much during their three day fair? Surely they cant just be wanting to sell to the public?
As readers who know me of old know, I stood at antiques fairs for many years before moving my shop on-line and used to make a sparse profit at fairs and only then by pricing stuff way down on its so called “market value” . So I pondered as I pottered home: Which fairs are the best for buying at?
Please don’t get me wrong if you just want a day out, to look at lovely pots, glass, jewellery and all manner of wooden items with a good quantity of junk thrown in too then the Peterborough fair is a great place for you to go. But are there any fairs worth going to for buying these days? What do you recommend? With the new trio of Newark, Lincoln and Swinderby fairs coming up within the next week – are any of these worth a buying trip?
Please leave a comment and let us know.
Anne
3 Comments
October 3rd, 2009 at 1:16 pm
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October 3rd, 2009 at 2:10 pm
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October 3rd, 2009 at 2:27 pm
On this side of the Atlantic there is a Sunday antique market – called the Elephant’s Trunk – in Danbury CT. I go prepared to dealers who might have some high prices but once I begin to talk to the sellers- -and show interest and real knowledge of what is being sold – a fair price is met.
There is nothing worse than seeing dealers over pricing items that in this time of financial instability – it makes me crazy. . I know they want to make money- but there has to be a limit .
In the town of New Canaan CT. THere are many antique shops that carry very beautiful items. Some of them are worth what they are priced at but many more are simply priced for the market they are selling to.
. I collect Dogs so I know roughly the value of what I collect – and what i would pay for any item. One has to realize that when collecting any one item- that items that are considered rare ( in my case – Staffordshire dogs with a pipe in there mouth- or with a basket of flowers are going to be far more pricey ). I have seen many of the dogs i collect priced so high- that the dogs sit in the windows for years.
Another great antique flea market is in Stormville, NY. They have it every major long weekend holiday and for those willing to make the trip it is worth the trip as here you will find major finds for very little.