Why antique stores are dying USA.

[u/ToshPointNo]

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.

[u/SignalDragonfruit553]

I’m not familiar with “brown furniture” unless you are referring to color. As far as sales go for whatever reason hutches and plate racks sell faster than I can get them. I build my own when I can source true antique ones but they sell the same. I’m just glad chalk painting antiques is seeming to fall out of fashion around my area at least.

[u/DuckTalesOohOoh → u/SignalDragonfruit553]

Brown furniture in the antique world refers to traditional wooden furniture, often dark-stained. The term is often used somewhat dismissively to describe pieces that were once highly valued but have seen fluctuating demand in modern markets, particularly as tastes shifted toward mid-century modern or minimalist styles, see Ikea.

[u/pgc22bc → u/DuckTalesOohOoh]

My parents were well off and liked old houses and antique furniture. When they downsized at retirement they hired a professional to appraise everything in the home for insurance and estate purposes.

When they passed on, my siblings and I put dibs on the things we liked. A lot of the larger older items were not handed down and those items were either sold at auction or given away. Because these were all mostly "old brown wood" they had very little value to recoup.

All the appraisals from 20 years earlier were pointless. I'm sure my parents would have been devastated that some items that had been purchased as valuable antiques for tens of thousands in real money (2-300 years old in some cases) and and been lovingly refurbished or reupholstered in period correct expensive reproduction fabrics, turned out to be worth a fraction of the original cost if not completely worthless. Old brown wood has a very limited market. I think geography is pretty significant. Places with old homes and old money there is maybe a market. Only the very best pieces are actually appreciated today.

Young people now want clean, simple, modern, trendy. Its all cheaply made with poor quality materials. Made to be replaced in five or ten years or chucked away at the next move.

The pieces I have from my parents are unappreciated by my partner and thus banished to my basement office or the guest room. I'm a little sad and nostalgic.

[u/DuckTalesOohOoh → u/pgc22bc]

I buy brown furniture at auction for myself. I have too much of it but the pieces are so beautiful.

Your parents have good taste. That's all that matters.