Another "ethical" question: should there be a law?
Maryann
"Antiques." At the door you are greeted by a suit of armor. Inside
there are, at any given time, maybe 3 or 4 pieces of high priced, very
nice, antique furniture. the entire rest of the stock is high end
gift items. I go there to buy candles. He has a line of decorator
candles that are lovely. He does not try to sell these gift items as
antique. Nothing is misrepresented except that the shop is not an
antique shop. I am sure that the sign and the armor bring in lots of
folks like me who spend lots of time prawling antique shops. It
works, He now has me as a customer for his candles and it is the
first place I go when I have a wedding gift to buy but is it ethical?
Should a shop that advertises itself as an antique shop be required to
have at least the majority of its stock be actual antiques? What do
you think?
Maryann
Double D Auction
dressing to draw in customers. It is a bit unethical & I do feel that
if he advertises as an antique shop, the majority of the merchandise
should be just that. I suppose he would be legally correct, since it
is not false advertising.
Instead, his sign should read Antiques & Gifts. While bringing in
customers looking for antiques, how many customers might he be losing
by not advertising the gift items?
Debbie
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Mike Wilcox
>
> Near Charleston, SC there is a shop with a big sign out front
> "Antiques." At the door you are greeted by a suit of armor. Inside
> there are, at any given time, maybe 3 or 4 pieces of high priced, very
> nice, antique furniture. the entire rest of the stock is high end
> gift items. I go there to buy candles. He has a line of decorator
> candles that are lovely. He does not try to sell these gift items as
> antique. Nothing is misrepresented except that the shop is not an
> antique shop. I am sure that the sign and the armor bring in lots of
> folks like me who spend lots of time prawling antique shops. It
> works, He now has me as a customer for his candles and it is the
> first place I go when I have a wedding gift to buy but is it ethical?
> Should a shop that advertises itself as an antique shop be required to
> have at least the majority of its stock be actual antiques? What do
> you think?
>
> Maryann
Hi Maryann, the big problem as I see it ,is a lot of owners of "Antique
shops" wouldn't have a clue what a real Antique is anyway ;~)), they
plead ignorance anytime I bring up the subject. No one seems to want to
rock the boat on this issue, certainly not the ones with Antique less
Antique stores. If there were any regulations regarding the Antique
content of their stores they might actually have learn something about
Antiques and then make multiple trips to the dump with their old stock
;~)))
--
Mike Wilcox
Wilcox & Hall Appraisers Online
http://www3.sympatico.ca/appraisers
Ronnie McKinley
>Should a shop that advertises itself as an antique shop be required to
>have at least the majority of its stock be actual antiques?
In an ideal world a shop that "advertises" itself as an **antique
shop** should have ALL its stock as "actual antiques" but alas the
times are a changing, life is tough in the old antique trade these
days and the good old and somewhat confusing buzz word "antique"
always plays its own part in the marketing ploy.
My business card, letter headings, handbills and any adverts I place
on the behalf of my business all clearly state .. "antique, victorian,
later furniture and objects" ... the "later furniture" is always open
for debate but in my case, the later furniture (and later objects)
usually means Edwardian but I will stretch my absolute dateline,
depending on the piece, to (circa) pre-1930 but that's it!! NOTHING
later in the furniture line and certainly no candles or the twee dime
a dozen repros. Victorian of course means "Victorian - 1837-1901" and
antique means pre-1830 (or pushing it at pre-1837) pre-1830 would be
the normal dateline over here for antiques.
You will find this is more or less in line with the major and the
mainstream **antique** auction houses in the UK/Ireland, their antique
auction sales (furniture and objects) will usually be advertised as
"antique, victorian, later furniture and objects" each will determine
their own final dateline .... unless it's a specialist sale in which
case the appropriate and applicable dateline will be adhered to by the
auction house.
The 50 year date line as applied in this ng is meaningless in the UK
and the 100 year old dateline certainly does NOT mean "antique" and
the 100 year dateline, is not the be-all-and-end-all, the final, the
last word definition of an Antique Shop. A shop in the UK selling and
stocking the **majority** between 50-100 year old wouldn't really be
classed an antique shop (unless they specializes in the Decorative
Arts) a shop where the **majority** of the stock is pre1837 (1830)
would be certainly classed as an antique shop. Many of the UK *trade
associations** would require a shop/dealer to be stocking a majority
dateline of pre-1830 before allowing membership to their associations,
unless the shop/dealer is a specialist in Art Nouveau and/or Art Deco
but *Nouveau and Deco* applying in strict sense, that is, the
appropriate and CORRECT datelines.
That's the story from here, Maryann. I really don't think "ethics"
play any part in it, the shop is either a good antique shop, or a bad
antique shop, their normal everyday stock will determine which. :)
Ronnie
=====
Barry L. Van Hook
>Should a shop that advertises itself as an antique shop be required to
>have at least the majority of its stock be actual antiques? What do
>you think?
Maryann, I completely agree that the owner's ethics might be questionable, and
it would certainly annoy the hell out of me if confronted by such
misrepresentation. But it would be a far greater "sin" to enact legislation
policing such actions, especially when accompanied by the necessary
beauracracy and taxation to implement, enforce, and administer such a law.
And if it weren't truly and evenly enforced, then why bother except to harrass.
Barry #36
Barry L. Van Hook (van...@asu.edu)
Management Department, College of Business
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-4006
Phone (480) 965-1217 FAX (480) 965-8314
Maryann
I wish we had definite definitions used here as you do there. I love
jumble shops and used stuff shops because you never know (Anything can
be anywhere) but it does annoy me when they say antique and there is
nothing in there older than I am! That would make it an antique for
this group but not in the real world.
Maryann
>In rec.antiques Maryann wrote:
>
>>Should a shop that advertises itself as an antique shop be required to
>>have at least the majority of its stock be actual antiques?
>
Kat
That annoys me a little bit too mainly because when you
walk into the door your expecting something more grand or
at least furniture and sometimes its just dusty small junk.
I love jumble and junk shops too and the ones in Europe
always usually have something interesting and old especially
by American definitions. But then sometimes this happens
with real antique shops and you walk in and they say
"this is from the Swedish Gustavianskt late 18th century period
and its actually a copy from the 1850's. But sometimes its
just the dealers lack of knowledge about the age of the
item and not always meant as a deception.
But my one great annoyance is when something is badly damaged
and you can see that damage clearly in more then one way and
the person selling it thinks just because its really old its
worth alot even if its badly damaged and fixes the prices
according to this assumption.
So here are my pet pieves sp?
1. Overpriced damaged items
2. Stores that call themselves Antique stores that have nothing
but rusty tools, coins from the past 30 years, etc
Only two so far.
Regards,
Kat
Paula Wood
>Path:
Mary, This just my opinion. I would kinda be a little upset if I walked into a
shop that siad antiques & didn't find any. Even collectables that would gain
value over a period of time.
I would ask the owner where his antiques were. I would like to see them. If he
didn't show me even a collectable that would gain in years. I would kinda
question his motives on his selling tactics.
Passing a law on something like this would also on the other hand open up a
whole can a warms you wouldn't want to start. Trust me.
Cause if they passed a law on antique shops just because one is not. The
collectables that would gain age & value do to years wouldn't have a chance to
become one. Also we have enough laws on the books now in all states that are
messing with our American & foreign History as it is.
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't like what the gents doing & neither do the
rest of us that buy, restore, collect & sell really old antiques. But, the fact
is that places like that might be open for a time being.
Once word gets out by people that stop at the shop there aren't any, usually
not always those kinda shops don't survive. Unless they get smart & start
selling antiques & collectables.
Plus, you never know when antiques might show up at that shop. Sometimes to get
a business started, at least around here, they start with what they have &
build.
This person might have a storage space somewhere building his stock up with
antiques & collectables. One never knows.
Best to ask the shop owner if he will have antiques coming in sooner or later.
Then if he just says I sell what you see, I would question his ethics.
But, for now. Let it ride. Time will tell.
Sincerely Paula
Truth, Justice & the American way is true
then home come our government is so crupt.
Delete Fada from email, Paula,
Haltom City.TX. 76117
Kat
Ditto to your..........
Quote:
"Plus, you never know when antiques might show up
at that shop. Sometimes to get a business started,
at least around here, they start with what they have &
build."
Exactly what I plan to do with my tiny antique shop
hopefully opening up in March.
I'm such an over collector I already have items to place
into my shop and I haven't even went on a shopping spree
for old items yet. My storage space will be relieved
somewhat once my store opens.
What I plan to sell is mostly from the late 1800's to
early 1900's with a few more trendy things from the 50's
but I mainly want to focus on the Swedish country style
look.
Regards,
Kathleen
Paula Wood
>Path:
Thanks Kat! Just thinking logically on business.
There's lots of business out there besides antique shops that start out the
very same way to get themselves off the ground until stock or invitory can be
bought or items already bought that are in storage moved to that location.
You have to have room before you can move anything, plus, catologing the
storage items, priceing them, keeping running sheets of what comes first & what
comes later.
This gent might just be selling the small items he came in with to make room
for other stuff. One never knows until time goes by.
>
>Exactly what I plan to do with my tiny antique shop
>hopefully opening up in March.
Wish you luck on your new shop.
>I'm such an over collector I already have items to place
>into my shop
That's great. >I haven't even went on a shopping spree
>for old items yet. My storage space will be relieved
>somewhat once my store opens.
That's what I meant. Shopping sprees & over clogged storage spaces. Heaven only
knows with new shops where everything my come from.
>I mainly want to focus on the Swedish country style
>look.
Sounds good. I don't know much about Swedish items but, I love old fashioned
country sytle items.
They are so History.
My kitchen is done in the country style way. The cabinets might be 1958 but,
the appliance are alot older.
Also the paint job is country light cream yellow with the blue trim. You know
the color of blue on those duck decanters for the kitchen flour, sugar, coffee,
tea, deacanetsr. Well, the ribbon around the ducks neck color is the trim color
of my kitchen.
I have a old enameled kitchen table blue & white that goes in there. Soon as I
find some chairs, it's coming into the dinning area. Because the kitchen &
dinningroom now are kinda open to each other since we took out that awful
monster L shaped counter & the cabinets we kept hitting our heads on.
Paula PS. Remodeling with original cabinets is fun but, very hard work.