RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1476

Copyright © Harry Rinker, LLC 2015

Are Printed General Antiques and Collectibles Price Guides Still Relevant?

E. G. Warman’s “Warman’s Antiques and Their Prices,” America’s first general antiques and collectibles price guide, appeared in 1948.  Initially purchased primarily by dealers and “kept under the table,” it gained acceptance by the general public in the late 1960s.  Warman’s stood alone until 1969, the year of the first edition of Ralph and Terry Kovel’s “Kovel’s Antiques Price Guide.”  In 1977, Dorothy Hammond published the first edition of her “Pictorial Price Guide to American Antiques.”  When Stanley and Katherine Greene bought the Warman rights in 1981, Collector Books and Krause Publishing published their own general antiques and collectibles price guides shortly thereafter.

In the mid-1980s, Warman Publishing issued “Warman’s Americana & Collectibles,” edited by Harry L. Rinker – the first price guide specifically devoted to the 20th century collectibles market.  By the mid-1990s, all the general antiques price guides, with the exception of Dorothy Hammond’s guide, expanded to include collectibles categories, most adding “collectibles” to their title.

American general antiques and collectibles price guides were text driven.  In England (Miller’s) and Australia (Carter’s) general antiques price guides were picture driven and middle to high-end market focused.  Auction houses and dealers provided the images, captions, and values.  There was no vetting of prices.

What role did the general price guide editor play?  First, the editor selected the collecting categories that appeared in the book.  Although all general antiques and collectibles price guides contained basic traditional collecting categories, the selection of the secondary and tertiary collecting categories had potential market impact.  The addition, deletion, or combining of collecting categories were closely followed by collectors and dealers.

Second, pricing was subject to interpretation.  Multiple pricing techniques were used.  Some editors used “sell through” prices, relying on auction results or prices reported from the field.  Other editors used “representative” prices, averaging auction, reported sales, and field pricing.

General antiques and collectibles price guide editors were aware that although their pricing was only meant as a guide and not an absolute, collectors and dealers used the pricing in the guides to set market prices.  The standard pricing approach focus on what a collector of an object would pay if he/she desired the object and did not own one.  The correct interpretation of this is that general antiques and collectibles price guide prices favored the high side of the pricing curve.

General antiques and collectibles price guide editors faced a dilemma when prices dropped within a collecting category.  Ethically, editors were required to report the market as it existed.  Conflicts arose when an editor was faced with a value that he/she felt did not reflect the true secondary market value of an object.  No matter how objective an editor tried to be, subjectivity reared its ugly head on occasion.  Fortunately, most American general antiques and collectibles price guide editors resisted the temptation to prop a market decline in a collecting category, even though collectors’ clubs and dealers pressured them.

From 1948 until the late 1990s, the prices that appeared in the general antiques and collectibles price guides came from four basic sources.  The first was field research.  The editors and members of their staff went out into the field and made note of the asking prices found at antiques and collectibles flea markets, shops, and shows.  They spoke with dealers about what sold and at what price, often accepting the reports without question.  Another assumption made was that the field prices were accurate.  No editors reduced them by 10 to 20 percent based on the possibility of a negotiated sale price.

Auctions results were the second source.  A false assumption was made that the winning bidder was a collector who would remove the object from the marketplace.  In reality, many of the buyers were dealers who expected to resell the object at a substantial profit.  Historically, only the major auction houses published prices realized lists, which were distributed only to catalog subscribers.  It was not until the 1990s that regional and local auction houses followed suit.  By the 21st century, most auction houses posted prices realized on their internet websites.

In the mid-1980s, a number of general antiques and collectibles price guides created a Board of Advisors.  Members of the Board, usually dealers, submitted listings with prices.  While a few price guide editors did field check prices, other editors published them as submitted.  Few questioned the vested interest of the Advisory Board members.

The arrival of the antiques mall in the early 1980s provided the fourth source for pricing.  Malls provided editors with the ability to collect pricing data over a wide range of categories.  The prices were deceptive in that most mall dealers were using the values in existing general antiques and collectibles price guides to set their asking prices.

By the late 1990s, several general antiques and collectibles price guide editors began incorporating values found on eBay.  Since these values often were lower than field values, dealers raised serious objections, especially when a shift in the scarcity of an object impacted its secondary market value in the negative.

Although there always was a global market for antiques and collectibles, the internet revealed its true extent and raised the issue of whether a value was “American” or global.  Antiques and collectibles quickly evolved into two groups – those that could be sold only in their country of origin and those that had a worldwide market.  When a worldwide market existed, did the American general antiques and collectibles price guide author report the value in terms of the American or the global market?

All general antiques and collectibles price guides faced a time delay.  At a minimum, they were reporting prices what were six to nine months behind the actual market.  Since most were issued annually, the prices often were a year or more out of date.

Why are printed general antiques and collectibles price guides in trouble, that is to say, experiencing continuing sale declines or disappearing from the scene?  First, they continue to focus on the established “traditional” collecting categories.  They are not adapting to the changing collecting tastes of younger collectors.

Take any general antiques and collectibles price guide to an antiques and collectibles flea market, mall, shop, or show and ask this basic question:  How many objects do you find offered for sale covered in the collecting categories found in the guide?  The percentage is decreasing annually.  If you test it against listings on internet auctions and storefront websites, you will find far more instances where it does not provide comparables for an object than when it does.

Second, general antiques and collectibles price guides are shifting the balance back to the antiques sector as opposed to increasing the collectibles collecting categories.  This is especially true of those American general antiques and collectibles guides that have converted their formats to the English/Australian priced picture guide format.  Rather than being guides that appeal to the general collecting public, they are now guides with an elitist appeal.

Third, the American general antiques and collectibles price guides no longer accurately reflect the total market picture.  By favoring only middle and high-end listings, users do not have a true picture of declining prices in the common and low to middle-end portions of many collecting categories.

Fourth, dealers have lost confidence in the American general antiques and collectible price guides.  As a result, they no longer encourage their customers to buy and rely on these guides.

Fifth, American general antiques and collectibles price guides remain collector focused.  Today, collectors represent less than 25 percent of the buyers in the secondary market.  The decorator, amateur or professional, is the principal secondary market buyer.  No general antiques and collectibles price guide, American or foreign, takes the decorator segment into consideration when setting price.

Sixth, the decline of the general bookstore and antiques and collectibles specialized booksellers at flea markets, shops, and shows has reduced sales.  Amazon.com does not highlight general antiques and collectibles price guides but buries them among the hundreds of thousands of titles on the site.

Seventh, customer loyalty has been lost.  Few now buy the latest edition each year.  In fact, most individuals in the trade buy a general antiques and collectible price guide only every few years.

Finally, the role played by editors in terms of creating and maintaining customer loyalty has been lost.  Editors are no longer seen in the field.  Many editors are unknown to the individuals buying the guide.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  Selected letters will be answered in this column.  Harry cannot provide personal answers.  Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned.  Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5955 Mill Point Court SE, Kentwood, MI  49512.  You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.

You can listen and participate in WHATCHA GOT?, Harry’s antiques and collectibles radio call-in show, on Sunday mornings between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM Eastern Time.  If you cannot find it on a station in your area, WHATCHA GOT? streams live on the Internet at www.gcnlive.com.