Houston Antique Auction Reviews

When you walk into the large metal building positively filled with items ready to be sold at low prices, you are greeted with a lively atmosphere. People of all ages and backgrounds greeting each other with hearty handshakes and talking excitedly while waiting for the fun to start. Most of these people are looking to resale these products at a substantial markup in shops around the city. Some others are just buying for themselves to add to their collection of antiques. One thing everyone has in common is the anticipation of a really good deal.

We've been going to auctions around Houston for over 5 years now and it really is a fun way to spend the evening. There are a few that stand out for us. Greg Majors Antique Auction is a great place to get a good deal on furniture, but as with any auction, you have to thoroughly inspect the goods before bidding. Although most items are of good quality, there are some that are not quite as nice. If you watch out for the duds, you can get some good deals with a nice resale value.

A great place for small items is Kim's Korner Antiques in Richmond. They have had some really nice items from some recent estates that are great for eBay sales. The interesting thing about the rise of eBay is the increased value of small items. With more people starting online businesses, any moderately collectible small item can be quite expensive. Everyone wants something they can ship easily. With this now the case, its much harder to find values in this area. Kim's Korner is one of the few places where this is possible.

There are other decent auction houses around town, but these are the best values. Morton Kuehnert Auction House has some quality items up for auction, but the prices are generally higher and with their recent increase to a 20% buyers premium values are few and far between. Apparently their pending move to the Galleria area is going to be expensive.

We still attend auctions regularly, but most of our items we sell we pick up from alternate sources. If you are not looking for furniture, its really difficult to pick up new inventory at an auction that can be sold for a profit. The rising popularity of these venues increases prices leaving sellers looking for other sources of inventory.

Starting a business in a down economy

Lately we have been pretty steady at posting new items on eBay, but so far sales have been pretty slow. Right now, I think that is to be expected. With the economy in the shape it is right now, the first thing people cut out is adding to their collections. I do firmly believe that things will be better soon and if that is the case, we will be in an excellent position to grow fairly quickly.

Some think that starting in a slow economy is a terrible idea because if businesses do not get off to a fast start, they might not get off the ground at all. Most people get discouraged and quit before they ever get a chance to grow. I think that attitude is why so many businesses fail so quickly. There is always a gap how people think their businesses should work and how well it actually works in the real world. When the two don't match up a less patient owner will shut the doors too soon.

I don't believe that slow sales necessarily means you have a bad product or a terrible business model. I've seen numerous businesses start with extraordinary sales only to fail as soon as there is a moderate slowdown. Slow sales in a down economy help to allow your business to grow organically and give you time to organize and learn what strategies work before you are too busy with sales to make those decisions and plans.

Looking for motivation

I haven't posted in a while, but we are now into the nitty gritty of starting a new business and to tell you the truth, it can be somewhat frustrating. The website traffic has not been up to expectations and it can be quite difficult to find the motivation keep working. I think we have finally found the trick, and its really surprised me that it has helped. We finally worked out a set schedule to keep us on track. I know it sounds boring and part of the reason we decided to start our own business was to keep from having a schedule, but that is the only way we have found to keep doing the necessary work to get this business off the ground.

I've never really been one to keep a schedule, and I've always been a serial procrastinator. Even in college, I was completely disorganized and put everything off until the last minute. I guess that's pretty odd for an accountant, but my lazy ways actually worked for me until now. I still can't stomach keeping a daily schedule; it goes against my very nature, so we worked out a long term schedule that's fairly flexible and gives us some attainable goals to work toward. So far its worked for us and we've been able to find some of that missing motivation.

New stuff

One of the most interesting conundrums we have had lately is when to buy new stuff to sell. We've spent the last several weeks taking pictures of all the stuff we have and creating listings for eBay and our website and so on and so forth. Where do you find the time to search for new stuff. We've got a few auctions to catch up on around here and hopefully that will produce some extra inventory. I'm really looking forward to getting out of here and out into the world. You can really get cooped up when you never leave the house.

Its now after 2am and we are still listing items, so eventually we will have to sleep, but the wonderful thing about working for yourself is that if you sleep till 10 in the morning, no one really cares! Now that my sentences are getting really long, my grammar is questionable to say the least, and my post is ending up nothing like the beginning, I think its a sign that I should stop writing.

Why do people collect?

The antique world is full of collectors. From the person that collects everything of a particular theme, to the completist who tirelessly searches for a pink depression glass sugar bowl to complete a set, collectors are everywhere. The care and research that people put into their collections is amazing. They might spend hours a day on research and thousands of dollars in their collection. I've often wondered why do many people feel the need to collect things.

Like most things people do, in my opinion, collecting really goes back to childhood. As adults, we spend most of our time trying to find our childhood selves. Someone might remember drinking milk out of their grandmother's old china while she baked chocolate chip cookies, and are now compelled to find items with that same pattern to recapture some of that joy of their childhood. This may not always be the case, but nostalgia does play a roll in many collections.

Other people might collect for simple financial reasons. Many times a complete collection can be worth much more than the sum of its parts. Holding on to these over the long term could even produce financial gains if their collection becomes more popular or rare. I think that this pragmatic approach to collecting has its place, but these people are just holding on to their collection until they sell it to a nostalgic collector.

Personally, I like to think of our collectibles business as a mediator for collectors. I like old things, but I have never really had a desire to hoard them. I prefer matching a person with something they love rather than keeping it for myself. Our hope for our business is that over time, we can become a resource for collectors, to find that rare piece they are looking for.

New Ebay Auctions

We're gearing up to put together an eBay run on Sunday. Ebay is a big part of out strategy for the business, so we have quite a bit of work to do to get ready. We did a little research and apparently Sunday is the best day to load auctions on eBay. We actually tried it out on our last posting batch and you really do get more bids when your auctions end on Sunday afternoon. So....we did absolutely nothing today and that means twice as much work tomorrow. Deadlines the bane of the procrastinators existence.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!!!

When you start selling stuff online, no one tells you what a pain in the butt it is to take all of those pictures! One after the other. Set the item up, take a picture. Over and over. Then you upload and find out that some of your pictures came out blurry. Pull the item out, re-shoot it. Its really monotonous work. Makes you think about photographers and their jobs. Sure, there are those that travel to exotic locations and take pictures of interesting places, but I bet for every one of those, there are five photographers just sitting there snapping picture after picture of inane products or people.

Well, really what do I have to complain about anyway. Its not like I spent ten hours digging ditches or hard manual labor. Its really not that bad, and its certainly better than my old job as an accountant!