Featured Trending Towards Smaller Collectables?

Hey Antiquers,

Wanted to get your thoughts on a line of thought I've been pondering.

Recent trends show that the U.S. is becoming a much more urban nation with many younger people flocking to dense urban centers where they are largely living in much smaller living quarters than previous generations. Micro-apartments and tiny houses are the "in thing" currently in the architectural world.

I was wondering how this impacts collectors. Are these city dwellers going to stop collecting or are they going to change their focus to smaller, more compact collectables that take less space to store and are easier to move in our mobile 21st century lifestyles that involve more frequent career/housing changes?

What smaller types of collectables are still cool but are also compact? Perhaps items like coins, stamps, and jewelry will benefit.

Your Thoughts?

 

It happens to be the situation now that smaller items are the most favorable of antique/vintage goods.
My own conclusion about that is based on the effect of internet shopping, auctions, and the cost of shipping. The smaller the item, the lower the costs. This appeals to collectors and resellers, who all have to add shipping to the overall value of items as an investment, or as a cut to their profits.

I, as an internet seller of 15 years or more, have seen the Post Office fees go up and up, due to their own financial problems, where letters are a thing of the past, and parcels are now their money makers.
In the last five years, they also have cancelled their reasonable shipping choices for us, to ones that benefits them the most.
I used to buy a lot of large items, and resold them easily, worldwide. Now the high costs makes that impossible, there is no profit for me, and often buyers pay more for shipping than for the antique/vintage item they purchased.
Hence, the decision to go with small items, or low cost items, that are not a high risk to ship with the less secure and cheaper shipping options.

If younger buyers would rather collect smaller items for their small homes, that works well for everyone. But I think today's working generations are more inclined to spend their available cash on new technology of all kinds, rather than old stuff.

 

I think we have lost most of our collectors. There will always be some collectors but collecting has gone by the wayside for the most part. People spend their disposable income on things they can use, technology, and eating out. Something to hoard and dust is not at the forefront of their minds.

 

I agree with what too many said above.

The cost to ship bigger items to buyers is a deal breaker many times, unless the buyer really, really has to have the item.

I have tried my best to shift away from big or very heavy items when out treasure hunting. I have turned away from items that I used to buy regularly simply because I know it will be so expensive to ship. I make exceptions when I feel it is an item that a buyer would still buy even with costly shipping, but that is rare.

Around here tho, the houses are getting bigger and bigger, not smaller.
But my area may not be a good example of many neighbors.

 

Agrees, you just don't see many young people out & about at antique shows or auctions that you did 25 years ago, they are just not interested at the present time.

 

" at the present time "......that's the key !
At some point .....I think these people will gravitate towards collecting items of higher value & older age.......but you'll need a crystal ball to say, what or when !

 

Another factor is the high cost of utilities such as heat, hydro-electricity, internet connections, gas, or whatever your needs are in your locality. The bigger the home the higher the cost. I can see how, houses might get smaller today, as resources are getting more and more expensive.

 

Don't get me started. Just when you thought architecture couldn't get worse or less impressive. Most tiny houses remind me of caravans and trailer parks, which is what they are in a way.

 

My take is that youngsters today arent really into the provenance for an item as much as the "look". They dont seem to care if its a 18th century hand carved mahogany side table from the estate of Cornelius Vanderbilt as much as wether its cheap and will hold their gaming console ! Its been my observation that funky sells,be it from the 40s or 90s. Ive seen the oddest stuff fly off the shelves,but at the same time watched gorgeous Waterford crystal go begging.
I do think as the millennials mature, and if the economy EVER stabilizes,we might see it change,but I dont know if victorian/ornate/"fussy" will be coming back anytime soon. It depresses me to watch Antique roadshow and see how much gorgeous,quality items have lost value.

 

@johnnycb09 If it's "weird" it's in, if it's serious or "just pretty" but not cute, it's out. 30-year olds and younger don't want to go through any effort when it comes to running a home. Everything has to be practical and casual, yet trendy. The era of dinner services is long gone.

Many of them admire old furniture, it often just boils down to them not caring enough. So ikea wins 9 out of 10 rounds.

 

I feel the same way, even when AR shows the price remaining the same, that is an illusion, as inflation by itself over 15 years, would have had an effect if it had stayed the same value.
So in reality, very few items have increased in value.
I like to bet as to the outcome of each piece. It's the rarer, most outstanding and meaningful items that are still doing well, even some ephemera, which used to be the lowest type of antique investment can do well. You never know....lol

 

Us old folks, past 65, would not mind small houses, or granny houses. Better than those awful senior 'government funded' tiny apartments. I hope some contractors and builders see the light, and the opportunity for new small house developments for us. I know there are already senior communities with small houses, but there is a whole lot of conditions and legal commitments with those outfits, where the house is not really yours, you are leasing it.... so no equity or estate value for your will's beneficiaries.

 

Agree with most of the above. 30-something and younger just doesn't collect antiques. As people grow older, they value stuff that has lasted longer. That's the hope to which I cling.

I still love Victorian, so there! Now's the time to buy. The question is, of course, will it ever come back?

 

For us, it's a very odd world we live in. Nothing made today is meant to last, never mind becoming antiques.
We have become used to replacing most things after a few years, instead of a few decades. We have nostalgia for the way it was, when we were growing up, with no credit cards, and purchases were made carefully over a long period of time. Which made you appreciate them even more.
I think that lays the foundation for the appreciation for antiques. Today there is no such foundation, as all is replaced with the newest and the latest. Can't imagine what another 20 years will bring....

 

Guesses antiques printed with 3D printers!
No muss, no fuss and BAM! a couple clicks & out pops your antique

 

So do I, If I love it and it can fit in my house I buy it....Sometimes I don't know until I get home if I can fit it in.....

Things go out of favour and then at some point they come back around again.

 

I found some Hudson Bay Blankets at an estate sale the other day. I realized as soon as I saw them, I could not take them home. My place is too small for big stuff like that plus the shipping would have been costly.

 

Can you imagine hundreds of years from now, most of our belongings and antiques will likely no longer exist. Goodness knows what the world will be like. Sooner or later, all the things accessible to us now will be gone forever or in museums much like the ancient artifacts today. Distressing if you think about it. And every time they demolish an old building, part of history is gone.

 

I think there is truth in the above statements, as each person feels the impact where they live or how they sell.

I'm a little under 50 and have been selling online primarily since 1997. In Georgia, there were two types of pickers usually, the more 'mature' or 'aged' picker who focused only on antique items. The other picker I witnessed regularly were the 20-30 year olds who used their phones to look up everything and focused on the electronics, some newer dishes, etc. Things more current. As someone in the middle, I regularly went by both (sorry) and grabbed items and went about my own pickin'. I don't know where my age falls in.

In Texas, it is vastly different. At least in my City and every surrounding around me. There are large, cool, 'trendy', yet, antique stores in every town. The antique stores are not the 'green painted furniture', they are designed to be 'cool', some affordable, some not, highlighting the old. Very little new, it is all about design. Dishes, signs, metalwork, etc. I have had two conversations with different people, one man and one woman, one younger, one my age. They love vintage and go out to the sales here trying to scoop it up and have trouble finding it. The finds are here... (I didn't post my neat-o vintage Alka Seltzer display I got at my first garage sale here last weekend for less than .50 cents - look those up in completed on the bay).

On the other hand, when I go into one of the main local stores I shop for treasures, I never see any of the college folks in there yet, but I've only been a couple of times. I have been told they go in regularly.

As a dealer.. I find myself starting to stay away from things associated with older names, like Bobe Hope, Pogo the Possum, etc. I felt a gut punch a few years ago when a 20-something said they never heard of 'Staying Alive'.

 

@FunkyFinds
I envy you, you are on the cusp of two generations, where you would fit in both. My latest collecting crush is for antique and vintage East European glass, and the collecting community for those ranges from about late forties to early seventies.
I think you will be prime in another 10 years, once us old folks have given up. Hope you do have an environment where you can use your experience and knowledge. Hard to say what the future holds. But then, I did not think I would be doing this at this age either.... who knows....lol.