16.11.2004 - How do I know if what I am looking is old? This usually comes down to experience and it is where your local antiques dealer will come in handy. The more antiques you look at, handle and learn about, the easier it becomes to tell the difference from old antiques to new ites. What you should look out for is the material used in the item. Look for materials that are not used often in modern production, hand made or hand crafted ornamentation or even a certain style that indicates the piece comes from a particular time period.

16.11.2004 - What makes an item a “collectible? Anything item with VALUE that people collect can generally be termed a collectible. The word to emphases is value, as there may be someone out there collecting old phone books. These obviously do not have much value. However, cardboard cereal boxes and bottle caps are considered collectibles due to the fact that there is a community out there that collect these items and assign them value.

16.11.2004 - What Is An Antique? You probably have heaps of items lying around the house that could be valuable. So how old do these have to be to be considered and antique? Technically speaking, an antique is an item that is at least 100 years old. What this means is that most Victorian pieces are now true antiques. You do though, hear the term "antique" being losely applied That means that most Victorian pieces are now true antiques. However, you do hear the team "antique" beeing loosely applied to many different kinds of items. For example, many may view a figurine or toy from the fifties as antique. Personally, my viewpoint is items under 100 years old are collectibles and all other items are genuine antiques. You will though see anything with collectible value in antique shops regardless of how old they are.

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