Summer 2007 Newsletter
Collectors News Volume 28•2
Last Updated: June 6, 2007
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The market is moving in totally directions with the staple, standard antiques often being ignored by new mediums such as photography. There has always been an interest in early photographs but it is the modern photographs that grab the headlines. Andreas Gursky (German) 99 century II colour cybachrome diptch sold to a Russian trade buyer in London recently for 1.5 million pounds! Looking at this photograph one was reminded of coloured boxes and bottles in a dollar store. It can be easier to sell this type of art for big money than often regular art. The collecting world has moved forward at a very fast pace to the point that major antique fairs display and sell some original modern works. The profile of the new breed of Western buyers indicates that largely they are very busy people with limited shopping time. They are the computer generation which they use to track down items whether they be in shops, shows, auctions or listed online. The internet has had a dramatic effect on our business. We actually sell things online to local customers who don't want to make the trip to Granville Street. And with fewer people putting up with the hassles of air travel, a website can be a very useful sales tool and can make the difference between profit and loss. It is a lot of work and expense but does point the way should store overheads become prohibitive. The internet does have its down side in that the rapport so essential between collector/buyer and dealer is diluted. The 'net' has also had a detrimental effect on our book sales. We couldn't figure out a couple of years ago why our general book sales were grinding to a halt. After conferring with our publishers and distributors we all came to the conclusion that everyone was 'googling' for information and eschewing books. (Publishers tell me, it's not only book on antiques but atlases & other reference material that's been hard hit.) There is a lot of incomplete and sometimes misleading information on the net but if you have a computer that is costing you, the rationale is that it costs nothing but time to seek information. |
The great thing about some online merchandising is the quick turnover. We can buy something, list it and have it on its way out of the shop in less than a month as opposed to it sitting in the shop for months or years on end waiting for that right customer to open the door. A lesson which I haven't always taken to heart was given in my young bookselling days back in the seventies when I went around the department stores like Woodwards and Eatons. The buyers then told me “Robin, we like these books, but if they are still sitting on the shelves three months from now, we won't re-order them.” This is as true today as it was back then and I am only attempting to buy things now with fast turnover in mind. This means keeping on top of fashion trends, buying names and buying the best. Market forces often move in mysterious ways as we all know and it's impossible to get it right every time although one does get a gut feeling for things when you run a small business. We can often tell which way things are going 6-9 months ahead of the economist's reports in the papers. The long lasting real estate boom has been a boon for the construction industry and suppliers with spinoffs to decorators and their wealthy clients. But average salaried person has had to look at 30, 35 and 40 year long mortgages to qualify for a property loan. (It now takes 70% of incomes in Vancouver to pay for a home!) This is 'keep you awake at night' stuff. This, on top of everything else like coping with record gas prices, food costs and increased taxes all, of which, on wages that never come close to keeping up with inflation. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that something has got to give even with these incredibly low interest rates. It already has with antiques with many people cutting back on high maintenance items connected with entertaining and instead going for the cheap and disposable and only looking instead of buying when they visit stores. |