Being An Antiques & Collectibles Dealer Isn’t Rocket Surgery, But…

The cover of the February 2, 2009 edition of Antique Week teased the following snippet for an article in the National section:

Tough times = more education

Knowledge is power.
Nowhere, perhaps, does that time-honored adage ring as true as in the world of antiques.

I’ll admit, I ignored the article for this long because I’m already pretty done with the “how does the economy affect antiques and collectibles” angle — I get that folks are concerned, but I’ve been around this industry and this planet long enough to know most of these cultured pearls of wisdom strewn before anxious minds. And I was raised to generally believe in education as a wise approach to any problem or circumstance, so “no surprises there” is what I thought and why I avoided the piece in Antique Week. But eventually, as it was the only non-read section left in “the library,” I got around to reading it anyway.

The article, People turn to education when times are tough, by Eric C. Rodenberg, is quite a lovely pitch-piece for antiques education, especially for the Asheford Institute of Antiques™ and it’s director, Charles Green (son of the founder, Peter Green, maybe?), even if has the requisite amount of fear-mongering as motivation for money-making. But let’s start with the positive:

The school has an appraisal program, which includes the conventional methodology used in the field. But, it’s the hands-on knowledge of antiques that marks this school from traditional appraisal programs, says Green.

“The distinction is that we teach the product — we go into great specifics with antiques — something that your general appraisal classes do not do,” Green says. “the general appraisals course may spend two hours on the subject … we make the analogy that it’s like the brain surgeon who says he would really like to become a brain surgeon, but he doesn’t want to have to study all that medical stuff. We focus on that stuff — the antiques. Our graduates have the product knowledge, not just the methodology.”

Which really is another way of getting at the real issue of the business of being an antiques and collectibles dealer. I’ll get to more on that in a minute; let’s face the parts which focus on financial anxieties first.

The institute’s admissions dean, Tony Drew, is quoted as saying that his institute is seeing higher enrollments in response to “recent housing foreclosures and subsequent content sales.” (This quote is also used in Antique Trader’s blog — suspiciously word for word, though it was published on December 10, 2008. If the industry itself is going to beat the economic angle to death, can we get some new quotes or properly record the rehashing?) While all of this might make for great (anxiety based) copy, this whole “in times of economic trouble, increase your income with a new career in antiques and collectibles” thing is getting out of hand.

Antique Week Education Article

Especially when so many folks want to offer entering the world of antiques and collectibles as a lucrative opportunity if not a get-rich scheme; it’s just not that easy. Mainly because there are lots of variables in any business, not just specific to this sector of it. But there’s one factor that most of these articles fail to address which is not only misleading but rather insulting.

While I admire the Asheford Institute (which I’ve no personal experience with) for its dedication past the simple appraisal methodology, I must dutifully state that it takes more than “two years of in-depth college” education to cover the centuries of antiques and collectibles. After decades of experience, I’m making discoveries daily — and by that I mean I’m discovering antiques & collectibles which are off the maps. I’m not saying “no” to education; I’m saying that education must be ongoing in this business.

And to continue your self-education you’ll need a special ingredient to motivate you.

As my friend Cliff Aliperti (recently interviewed here at CQ) very eloquently said to me during a recent discussion about just what makes a successful antiques and collectibles dealer, “The passion comes from collecting, if you just jump into selling you may have a passion for your business, but are you ever going to have a true passion for your goods?”

Cliff and I (and zillions of others) feel that it’s the passion for the goods — the antiques — which is that special ingredient, that “thing” which makes you better as a dealer. It’s what makes you not only willing but wanting to learn more than the bare minimum. We obsessive passionate folks want to “study all the medical stuff.”

Maybe comparing an antiques & collectibles dealer to a brain surgeon isn’t quite the same thing — but Green started it. So let me finish it by saying that in either case I trust the professional who cares the most, who is passionate enough to be driven to know the most.

So, to any of you thinking of about starting in this business, I say, “Welcome!” — and I’ll tell you what most of these others won’t: You need a passion for antiques & collectibles — or at least your area of specialty, should you select one — in order to succeed in antiques & collectibles. You’ll need it to keep yourself educated, to make your customers happy, to not go crazy; and you just can’t get accredited for “passion” or even take a course in it.