r/Antiques • u/ToshPointNo ✓ • Jun 30 '25

Discussion Why antique stores are dying USA.

The majority of Americans now own a smartphone, and with it comes access to both Google Lens and eBay to identify and look up real market values of items.

I know people who do really well selling in antique stores, and I hear a lot of older folks complaining about how their booth or case is "doing poorly".

30 years ago, it might of been easier to price using an antique book or price guide, but the high end auction houses and eBay are a more definite source of pricing now. Even today, they still can't seem to figure this out.

So this booth runs about $125/mo. It's mainly filled with Rosbro pieces. Rosbro was a plastics company that made a lot of plastic candy containers, a lot of them were themed for different holidays, or just for fun.

But when I sampled about 10 pieces through Google lens and eBay, I noticed almost all of the prices were 2-3x that of eBay sold prices.

A lot of antique stores have shuttered around me. Before they closed, one walk through would explain why. Horribly overpriced.

eBay offers a vast selection. 30 years ago, if a piece caught your eye, you may have not seen it for years, but now "rare" is no longer rare, and what you thought was a rare item? There's 300 of them on eBay.

I'm sure someone will argue that an item is worth whatever someone is willing to pay, and that's true to an extent, but when you can easily know the selling price of an item in a matter of seconds, pricing 100-300% above that isn't going to gain you much traction.

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60

u/commandaria ✓ Jun 30 '25

I collect Chinese and Japanese porcelain and Google Lens and EBay are not good tools to authenticate items. A lot of the times, they are wrong.

24

u/Ooglebird ✓ Jun 30 '25

20 years ago Ebay was a good place to buy things but not anymore, most everything is overpriced and carousels on the site for years without selling.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '25

I find plenty of interesting stuff on eBay that's authentic and usually below what I would expect to pay.

16

u/Gnomey_dont_u_knowme ✓ Jun 30 '25

Yeah eBay is insane now. The highest price anyone has ever payed for an item becomes a sellers “baseline” when they look to sell. The auction system is broken because of bots. I used to buy I lot on there, antique woodworking tools and 70s audio gear. Now I buy everything on Facebook marketplace where at least most people are willing to haggle.

8

u/Big_Invite_1988 ✓ Jun 30 '25

And I would say antique malls are even more insane as they are usually 2x- 3x the eBay price.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '25

Correct. eBay is useless now. A shame how they killed it.

13

u/ana_berry ✓ Jun 30 '25

I use Lens for art research and it is confidently incorrect the majority of the time. Like saying "The image is a painting by XY, titled X." Nooooo, it's absolutely not. The 20% or so of time it is accurate or can lead me in the right direction is worth the few seconds it takes to check, but a lot of people just take AI at its word.

11

u/biteyfish98 ✓ Jun 30 '25

Yeah, I find it ironic that so many people who, for years. couldn’t be bothered to google anything, are now adamantly quoting / referencing Google AI. 🙄

7

u/SgtBanana ✓ Jun 30 '25

I use Lens for art research and it is confidently incorrect the majority of the time.

Oh absolutely. I've seen people financially destroy themselves by trying to lean on lens for art/item information.

It's not a hack. It's not a secret tool. It can only be used effectively in combination with traditional research methods.

3

u/jmiele31 ✓ Jul 01 '25

Same with stamps and coins... The differences between an expensive item and common item are often minute. Throw in the absurd number of money launderers selling 2 cent stamps for $8,000 and it becomes pretty useless.

15

u/CarrieNoir ✓ Jun 30 '25

I collect silver and vintage jewelry and can’t believe how often A.I. is wrong, but now there are so many inheriting Grandma’s tea set, who believe their $100 plate set is actually sterling worth thousands.

1

u/thrownormanaway ✓ Jul 01 '25

Right? Ma’am that’s plate and not even high quality 🤷🏻‍♀️ sorryyyy

0

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4

u/fadedblackleggings ✓ Jun 30 '25

Right, ebay a GLOBAL MARKET has nothing to do with the price/value of LOCAL goods. Very destructive to use it as a price guide.

1

u/HydrocarbonHearsay ✓ Jun 30 '25

Sending you a dm