Antiques and Collectibles What You Need To Know: Defining Antiques and Collectibles

While antiquing, the buyer is often assaulted with a confusing and misleading antique lingo. Antique, vintage, retro, and authentic are words often used to describe an item a seller uses to hook the buyer of an item they appear interested in. To close a sale the buyer may mirror and emphasize the language the buyer uses.

There are, of course other sellers, and buyers more often
found at back yard sales and flea markets, who themselves truly do not know what qualifies as an antiques or collectible. And yes, some items have been reproduced so well that they take an professionally trained expert to identify the authenticity of an item.

The larger and well established auction houses are unlikely to misrepresent and item. They are bound by a code of ethics and have a responsibility to the public to represent as accurately as possible the items they are auctioning. An auctioneer will look for provenance, documentation that the item in question has a history that can be traced, often to famous family lineage.

The formal definition of an antique comes from the US Customs. Their regulations require an item be 100 years old to qualify as an antique.

Vintage and collectible items may describe the same item although there are distinctions. Usually a vintage item is one that is at least 50 years old, often referring to items from the 1950s and 1960s. Collectible items can span the decades, depression glass from the early 1900s is highly collectible as are American Girl Dolls to our young children.

Whatever you call it, if you like an item do a bit of research before paying a price that seems higher than
expected. There are still bargains and treasures to discover. For me, whatever it is called if I like it I buy it, at a price the oftentimes is negotiated.

For my business the criteria is stricter and the ethics of the profession are followed.