Peculiar Possessions Blog

Houston Antique Auction Reviews

2010-03-22T13:41:00.003-05:00

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

2010-03-18T11:37:00.003-05:00

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

2010-03-08T09:54:00.002-06:00

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

2010-02-18T01:56:00.003-06:00

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?

2010-02-16T09:15:00.003-06:00

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

2010-02-13T18:50:00.005-06:00

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!!!

2010-02-12T17:24:00.003-06:00

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!

Antique Reproductions

2010-02-11T12:29:00.004-06:00

A lot of people who deal with antiques have extreme disdain for reproduction pieces. To me there are some advantages to reproductions. First of all, a little primer on reproductions. There are really two types. The fist type are copies that the maker tries to pass off as real. These fakes are created by copying old techniques and creating a fake patina, a term which denotes the finish on an antique that only years can provide. These methods are used by con artists to dupe people into believing a piece is worth more than it really is.

The other type of reproduction is an item that was created using old methods, but doesn't try to pass it off as an actual antique. I think these types of reproductions are good because they increase the appreciation of antique styles by introducing it to new audiences. You can find some wonderful deals on nice products by looking for reproductions. We've got a beautiful reproduction wall lamp made in an old style, that is much more reasonably priced that an antique. These types of items can widen the appreciation for old styles without scaring people off with high prices.

Las Vegas light fixtures

2010-02-10T09:49:00.006-06:00

The other item we now have for sale that I am excited about are our Las Vegas light fixtures. These fixtures were actually hung in the Bellagio in Las Vegas. I think that items like this are exactly what we are going for in our business. They are unique pieces with an interesting history.

Here are the light fixtures,

We have a couple more fixtures from the Bellagio to post, so I think we have a nice variety of styles.

Inventory finally added

2010-02-09T18:47:00.004-06:00

Finally we have inventory added to our website. I don't think we realized at all what a challenge it would be to add content to our website. The toughest task was getting the items listed on shopping sites. Right now we have it listed on Google, but we will see how it sells. If it doesn't, we may have to go the paid route. That's the trouble with selling on the internet. There are so many free options with marketing that its hard to justify spending much. Its just a trial and error approach that will show if and where advertising dollars will have to be spent.

Now that we have products online, there are a few items that I am most excited about. As we put more items up, I will post here some of the most interesting.
First, is an extremely rare piece of cast iron. Its a #8 Griswold spider cast iron skillet. We are really excited by this piece because its something that is really hard to find.

I know, you might not be too impressed, but if you were a cast iron collector, you would be drooling over this piece! Check back later, because I have a few more that I am going to share.

New Blog

2010-02-08T21:25:00.004-06:00

Check out my new blog at crtraveltips.blogspot.com! Check often as I will be posting useful information about Costa Rica and what to do in my favorite place in the world.

Why buy antiques, Part 3

2010-02-08T17:19:00.003-06:00

I know my two fans have been itching for the long awaited 3rd part to my guide showing the reasons the average person should buy antiques. Just for you guys I now give you part 3. I think one of the most important reasons people should purchase old items is value. Value doesn't mean cheap. As anyone who has purchased an antique knows, they can be quite an expensive hobby. Serious collectors can spend thousands of dollars or even more chasing the perfect piece to complement their collection. Value to me means what you get out of the product.

When you buy a modern item, you are spending money on something of uncertain worth. Ten of fifteen years from now you either throw it away, or sell it for a fraction of what you paid. Very few items ever become collectible and thus increase in value. This is not the case when you spend your cash on an antique. With a track record measured in decades, you can have a great idea of what the value of an item is before you purchase.

It's not necessarily easy to determine if your potential purchase has value. That is where research comes into play. Before even purchasing, you must exhaust all available resources to determine if the item is even worth the price. If you do this research, you will be rewarded with an item that is not only worth what you paid for it, but also open the door to appreciation in value.

Business focus

2010-01-28T12:59:00.004-06:00

Right now we are thinking of expanding our focus beyond antiques and collectibles. I think that we have a name that really allows us flexibility into our target products. Peculiar Possessions is a name that lends itself to a wide variety of products and gives us flexibility in our focus. For us casting a wide net of products, then focusing on our best sellers might be a good way to go.

One problem with that is the fact that by not specializing, you run the risk of turning off die hard collectors by not having the exact piece for which they are searching. Oh well...there is always a trade off for everything. No matter what direction you take in business, there is always a downside.

In other areas, the Internet marketing plan is moving slooow. When you are starting from scratch with a new website, it is a painstaking process to move up the search rankings. I think that eventually, we will have to move toward spending a little on advertising to jumpstart our model. Of course, we have to post products before we can advertise anything. We are building a very nice inventory, but it is taking longer than expected to get this online.

On the other hand, the eBay side of our business is fairly strong. We've had good luck selling on eBay so far, but the fees are killer. I guess that's the price of doing business. Always a tradeoff...

Personal touch

2010-01-27T22:58:00.003-06:00

I've been working on some of our pictures for our website and it struck me how the Internet has changed the way we want to see things. When you are searching for something, it has to have a picture. When you are looking through classified ads online, you will generally skip over ads without pictures without giving it a second look.

Just a few years back no one put pictures in ads for things they were trying to sell. It was just too expensive. People placed an ad and potential buyers called and looked at the item in person. If someone had a question, they asked when they personally inspected the product. When you purchased something, you knew exactly what you were getting.

So the internet has made more information available to people for cheap, but it has taken away the personal contact that helped facilitate the sale and the piece of mind that comes with a visual inspection. Hopefully we can come up with a plan to bring together the best of both worlds so people can have piece of mind when they make a purchase from us.

Business Links

2010-01-25T09:07:00.002-06:00

Here's a few websites that I used to help us start our business. These are not companies trying to sell anything, they are just good resources that you can use to start a new business. We've found that if you file the paperwork yourself, you can save a lot of money over using a lawyer.

Texas Wide Open for Business
Texas Business Adviser
University of Houston Small Business Development
Entrepreneur.com

These are just a few of the websites I used to get our company set up with the proper governmental entities. Entrepreneur.com is an excellent resource that I still use everyday.

Why buy antiques, Part 2

2010-01-24T17:47:00.003-06:00

Next in the series about the importance of antiques, I am going to discuss modern furniture styling. A common misconception about antiques is that they are old fashioned and not stylish enough for the present day home. In reality, that is just not true. Of course from my subjective point of view, antiques are perfectly at home in any modern household.

From a more objective side, I would suggest that you go to your local "wild and crazy" furniture store where you can always get the "best" deals. In this mecca to easy finance and same day delivery look around at the styles that are available. In general most of their inventory will be weak knockoffs of furniture that was made hundreds of years ago. When you add in the fact that anything you buy there will be completely unoriginal since thousands of the same piece were manufactured, it doesn't seem so stylish to buy modern.

Bren's Birthday

2010-01-23T01:06:00.002-06:00

Well, today is Bren's birthday and I just wanted to let everyone know how much she means to me. Not only do I have a partner that I love, I have one that I can work with and enjoy time with. When we work together its really not work at all. She makes everything we do fun even when we're just sitting around researching or developing the website.

That's why I think we will have a successful business. When you are doing something you enjoy with someone you enjoy spending time with you can work twice as hard without burning out. I think everyone starting a business can learn something from this. Start a business in an industry that you love, and if you can share that with someone you love, then you'll have success no matter what.

So, happy birthday Bren! I love you and I hope you have a great day.

Whats important

2010-01-22T01:13:00.005-06:00

We spent today gathering inventory for the impending arrival of our website. Sure I've finished the guts of the site, but we are nothing without inventory. One of the pitfalls of starting a business is the fact that sometimes, you start to miss the most important part of your business taking care of all of the little things. You work on the website, marketing, setting up accounts, and bowing to the regulations of the ever present tax man, then suddenly you realize that you've neglected your most important tasks.

Anyway, we now have a very nice start, but it is still going to take some time to catalog and assess the value of the merchandise we have. Also, we have some plans for acquiring more inventory in the next few days. After all, how can we make a living if we have nothing to sell?

Ghost Adventures!

2010-01-21T08:55:00.004-06:00

We've been watching this show on Netflix instant streaming and it is hilarious and just a tiny bit creepy. It normally airs on the travel channel and we just can't get enough. Its almost like a few frat guys got together with some cameras and just look around creepy old places in night vision. They are locked in these supposedly haunted places over night and say stuff like, "Dude, it just passed right through me bro," and "Oh my God what the *beep* was that."

My favorite part of the show is the history of the buildings they visit. They go to some really interesting places around the US and I am a serious history buff. In fact, I would watch the History Channel all the time if Bren would let me. But, I have to settle for what I can watch, and Ghost Adventures is a decent substitute.

Clip from Ghost Adventures

Why buy antiques, Part 1

2010-01-19T19:27:00.003-06:00

A lot of people ask me, "why in the world would you want to buy all that old stuff?" Well the short answer is because its awesome! All joking aside, there are quite a few reasons why I like antiques and why you should too. In the next couple of weeks, I will try to wrap my mind around and explain why old things appeal to me so much.

While some people might not care about it, to me the best thing about antiques is the history behind them. These are everyday items that people used long ago. I like that things made hundreds of years ago can still be useful. It gives me some hope for the future. It might seem like everything today is disposable, but I really think that some of the things we use today will survive for us to pass on to the next generation.

So for me antiques are about reverence for the past, a little hope for the future, and comfort in the idea that even when times are rough, some things don't change at all. In part 2, I'll abandon the misty eyed sentimentality and explain some practical reasons for buying antiques.

Cleaning the garage is not fun

2010-01-19T18:32:00.006-06:00

I cleaned out our garage today so I can actually walk inside. Not a very fun task, but sometimes you can be surprised by what you find in the dark recesses of your home. I found an old English pub sign that we bought years ago. Its a really cool piece. I think its going to be the first product on our website.

Hoosier Cabinet

2010-01-18T17:29:00.005-06:00

So we're cruising through Craigslist the other day looking for a deal and Bren finds this:

Its in pretty bad shape, but its a Hoosier style cabinet for $150! Images of dollar signs dance in our head. A little stripping, staining, and replacing hardware with original, and we might make a nifty profit. Then reality sets in. That would mean months of restoration given the limited amount of time we have to work on something like this. Also, considering the amount of original hardware that would have to be purchased, those dollar signs start to disappear. I think we might have dodged a bullet by passing on this deal.

Website finally up!

2010-01-18T17:04:00.003-06:00

I've spent the last 2 weeks in website development mode. That's the interesting thing about starting a business. You have to be able to do everything. Be an IT department, an accountant, shipping and receiving clerk, marketing guru, etc, etc... Sure, you can hire someone to do those things, but when you are operating on limited funds, it helps to be able to do it yourself.

So, I'm pretty proud of our little website. It hasn't been easy, but I think we have something that might entice new customers. Anyway, here's the link, feel free to comment and tell me what a horrible web designer I am!

www.peculiarpossessions.com

Now, if we can just find something to sell...

To eBay or not to eBay?

2010-01-17T21:48:00.004-06:00

One of the first questions that any new business on the internet must ask is whether or not to sell on eBay. On one hand you have the exorbitant prices that eBay charges. An insertion fee, a percentage of the final value and of course PayPal gets a cut. Pretty soon that starts to cut a big chunk of your profits. On the other hand, eBay is the most established auction site on the web. No one can argue against the fact that eBay has revolutionized the antique and collectible market. When you list on eBay, you are guaranteed that potential customers will look at the product.

Whether or not its worth it depends on your goals. If you know you can still make a profit after the fees, then you are probably better off with the ease of eBay. But, if you hate selling out to the man, you can just work a little harder marketing, and probably end up selling without the eBay monster. Don't even get me started on Google.

(Full Disclosure, I use both eBay and Google.)

For more information on selling on eBay check out this message board:
http://www.antique-shop.com/forums/
They have an awesome collection of eBay posts.

What's in a name?

2010-01-16T18:13:00.004-06:00

You might want to know, what in the world is a peculiar possession? We came up with the name for our business about 2am while we were giggling over stupid words. Its funny how sometimes we have our best ideas when we are not thinking very clear. After midnight hopped up on caffeine and you come up with an idea that might shape your whole perception of what your business is supposed to be. With these kind of ideas there's only 2 possibilities. Its either the most brilliant idea ever, or the dumbest thing you've ever come up with.

It wasn't until the next day that we decided that our late night musings might work. Peculiar Possessions is supposed to be a sort of name that makes people think of something unusual or something different. We could have went with Josh's Antiques or something bland, but how boring is that?

Welcome to My Blog!

2010-01-16T15:07:00.001-06:00

A few months ago, my wife and I were both forcibly removed from the workforce. After much deliberation, we decided that we did not want to have someone decide our future for us and we were taking it in our own hands. We came up with an idea and we are jumping in head first on a new adventure. I will use this space to chronicle our struggle to start up a new business, and hopefully I can also give insight to those that might want to start their own business. At the very least I can be an example of what not to do!

We are starting out with a plan to turn our favorite hobby into a working business plan. We started attending antique auctions several years ago and we eventually collected enough to furnish most of our house. Selling antiques and collectibles could be our way to turning something we enjoy into a business.

In reality, this is not a business for the light of heart. Its an area you really have to enjoy in order to do well. It takes extensive research into the value of individual items to sell, which means hours of looking at books and websites just to decide what to buy. Once you decide what to buy, you have to decide what to pay for it, what price it should be, how to market the item, and the list goes on and on. Our choice has been to sacrifice time for freedom.