Antiques on the Cheap: A Savvy Dealer's Tips: Buying, Restoring, Selling

by James W McKenzie

Overview

Learn how to get the best deals at auctions, flea markets, and shops and how to spot items that can be repaired to increase their value. Then find out how to resell your purchases.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781580170734
Publisher:	Storey Publishing
Publication date:	07/01/1998
Pages:	226
Sales rank:	685,354
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 9.03(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

James W. McKenzie is a self-employed antique dealer and restorer who has more than 20 years of experience working in various antique businesses and has put much know-how advice into his book Antiques on the Cheap. He has had 27 years of hands-on experience in restoration work and selling and currently restores American art pottery for other dealers. James has been married for 35 years to his wife, Wanda, and has two daughters and three grandchildren. He lives in West Virginia.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Buying

1 Taking the Mystery out of Auctions
2 Other Sources of Merchandise
3 What You Shouldn't Buy
4 What You Should Buy
5 Getting Good Things for Nothing

Part II: Improving

6 Cleaning Wood Furniture
7 Marbleizing and Other Trick Finishes
8 If You Absolutely Must Strip
9 Refinishing
10 Trunk Restoration for the Amateur
11 Tricks for Cleaning Silver and Brass

Part III: Fixing

12 Mending Chipped and Broken Pottery
13 No-Sew Lampshade Re-covering
14 Renovating and Converting Lamps
15 Resurrecting Frames and Mirrors
16 Furniture Repair for People with Few Tools

Part IV: Selling

17 Where to Sell
18 How to Get and Keep Customers
19 Pricing Your Merchandise
20 Some Basics of Business

Glossary
Suggested Reading and References
Sources: Suppliers and Manufacturers
Index

Editorial Reviews

Although neither of these guides to antiques is particularly scholarly, McKenzie's is certainly more credible (albeit less fun to read) than Loomis's. McKenzie provides useful tips--not only for the business pro but also for the flea-market junkie--on how to rummage for, buy, and sell antiques and on how to establish a profitable business, with suggestions on such matters as calculating inventory turnover and handling tax records. He provides information on how to do minor repairs on collectibles and also offers guidance on major restoration projects, such as rebuilding old trunks or resilvering mirrors. The writing is straightforward, the advice is practical as well as easy to understand, and the book would be of interest to most antiques buffs. The title of the Loomis book pretty much sums up its content. While it does offer tips on "the hunt" and subsequent bargaining (and the etiquette of dealing with sellers), its primary focus is on the dating and identification of a wide variety of antiques (everything from World's Fair collectibles to Shaker furniture). While Loomis's breezy style may annoy some, readers familiar with his television appearances and videos will probably find this book enjoyable. Because his information is occasionally contradictory (he asserts, for example, that porcelain was first produced in Europe at the Meissen factory in Germany in 1709; two pages later he states that the French made porcelain in 1673), this book should not be considered an essential purchase unless there is patron demand.--Margarete Gross, Chicago P.L.

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