These days it is feeling like spring here in Ottawa and I am getting amped up for garage sale and deal hunting season perhaps a little too early.
How I miss the days of dry curb side pick-ups and using my tie downs without winter gloves on. I still haven’t mastered the art of wearing gloves while tinkering around with things – that is not a very Canadian-born-and-raised comment eh?
With all this free time on my hands and a lack of ravishing recycled goods to pick-up, I have been spending quite a bit of time lately trying to complete the first 5 exams of my antique appraisal course. I have been learning all about antiques for pleasure & profit.
When I haven’t been hitting the books hard, I have been seeing the face of buying and selling antiques change all around me. I have seen a sheer rise in the online garage & estate sale scene and a continued increase in online vintage shops.
I am curious if I am the only person that doesn’t like that this has exploded online and enjoys going to antique shops, physical stores. I appreciate the internet as much as the next person (or maybe more) but I think it would be really sad to see the rise of the virtual antique and vintage shopping experience mean the demise of the store.
Part of what I thrive off of is the search for that awesome thing, I never knew existed. You find it, you figure out what it is (the history behind it), you cherish it. Sure, you get what you want with a search engine but what about all the rest. No mystery, no curiosity, no surprises.
I would be just fine if I never saw another virtual garage sale advertisement again. I think I will take a poll soon to see what you guys think, whether you prefer the antique store experience or see the appeal in the instant shopping experience that is only mouse click away.
Life is divided into three terms – that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future.
~William Wordsworth
P.S If you want your own store one day like me, take a peak at my post on How to sell vintage, antiques and more like a pro. Just a little opinion piece on a Monday.
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