Where to buy antique furniture bargains?

Find out what retailers don't want to share with you!

Where to buy antique furniture bargains? This is probably a well kept secret that most antique dealers don't want to share with u. Obviously every dealer has his own strategies, but these are the most important resources that one way or another are used by the professionals!

1) Local auctions
2) Adds in newspapers or internet
3) Exporters
4) Flee markets
5) eBay
6) Directly offered by private sellers

Depending on your location these are the most common ways your antique dealer is buying his antique furniture. All of these apply when u are located in the US or Europe. Of course in less developed countries or countries with less history in antique furniture, we have to skip a few of these strategies. Ok, lets take a closer look at our possibilities to buy antique furniture bargains!

Local auctions and flee markets

Are great places to buy antique furniture bargains, we have the possibility to look and feel the items before buying or bidding on them, so with a little experience in recognizing antiques, probably the best way to purchase your furniture. Of course these are very time consuming methods, so for the very busy people under us with less spare time on there hands, this will not be the most practical method.

Exporting companies

Are only profitable when buying at least a 20ft container of furniture, most of these companies will not allow u to buy individual items (at least not at the wholesale export prices), so u will pay very similar prices of what your retail antique dealer in the States is asking. So for the American citizens interested in buying European antiques not the way to go, especially taking under consideration that u will have to pay for shipping your items from Europe to the States. When located in Europe these companies could be a good way to buy antique furniture at a rather fair price, just because u will not have to pay any import or shipping. Still know that you are not buying from the source and are still paying more then if u would look for these items at auctions or flee markets. Advantage is of course that it is much less time consuming, all your options are presented at 1 location.

Direct deals

(heritage, store out of business,...) are of course also a great way to find bargains, but the chance that those people are going to find the individual collector are very slim. So this is probably only a privilege professional antique dealers have.

ebay

And now there is one way left to buy antique furniture bargains, eBay! This is the easiest method to write about, simply because it is an auctioneer that is located all over the world. It would just take us to far if we had to refer to all good local auctions, flee markets, newspaper adds, etc. all over the world! But an eBay seller can even be located in your own street! The closer the location is the more u save on transportation costs. European Furniture Imports, S.A. is very active looking and buying great antique furniture bargains at the European eBay. Why? Because European antiques are our specialty, and where to look for best then where they were originally made? U can obviously adapt the same strategy for American or Oriental antiques!

Although eBay is a great way to buy antique furniture bargains, there are several tips I would like to share with u before starting to buy antique furniture on the internet. First of all eBay is perfectly safe to buy and has plenty ways to get refunds in case something would still go wrong (for example: no delivery, item arrived but not as originally described). I do not know anybody who had a irreversible bad experience buying true eBay. Basically because buyers are very well protected by the eBay system. I'm not going to write down the whole eBay structure and legal conditions, just remember you are safe when dealing on eBay! For all technical information I suggest you take some time to go true all of that on there website. The only thing I want to achieve here is, to give you some fast and easy to apply tips to buy antique furniture bargains on eBay (that u can also find on there website, but it will take u much more time to go true all of them) Ok, so here we go!

Lets say we are located in the US and looking for antique furniture bargains. My first recommendation would be, buy local, keep the additional import taxes and shipping in mind when bidding on a piece located in another country. If buying a European or Oriental piece located in the US, you will buy most certainly from a dealer or hobbyist already, so it is only fair u will have to pay a little more then when buying the same item in the country of origin.

Read the description carefully, any damage or imperfection should be mentioned by the seller (obliged by eBay, if not it will effect the ebayer's ratings, and no serious eBayer would like that!). Note: "Remember that antique furniture in his original pristine condition commands the highest prices and is always scarce. Don't dismiss pieces with blemishes, as long as the wood itself has not been damaged. Surface spots can often be treated by a good restorer."
Ratings of every ebayer is shown at the top right corner, so it's very easy to check there liability. Know what and from who you are buying or bidding. Do not hesitate to contact the seller for additional information or pictures, serious ebayer's will gladly reply with all information requested by you.

If the asking price looks too expensive and there are no current bids on that piece, u can wait until the auction time is over and in most cases the seller will put the same item back for sale at a lower starting price. I bought a few items at half the original starting bid, the 2nd or even 3rd time they re-posted the same piece. But of course this is not a rule, a little bit of luck is always needed. Staying on top of your bids and hope nobody will over bid you. That is what makes finding bargains on eBay such a exciting experience! Sign up for a FREE eBayaccount and find out who is selling bargains in your city!

The last advice I would like to give u, is to also read the terms and conditions of the seller as careful as you did with the description. It is as important as the description of the item, if not even more important! It will give u the shipping costs, and the way they accept payments. Some small private sellers do not always offer shipments, they can ask u to pick up the piece yourself, on the other hand, there are also sellers that make more money on the offered shipping rates then on the item itself! So READ carefully, once you have won the bidding on a certain item u will have to purchase in order not to get banned out of the great eBay auctions forever.

I specifically spoke about buying furniture on eBay, but u can find almost everything on eBay! The bigger the items are the more complicated the search will be, because there are more things to consider. At your left hand site under the navigation bar we set up a listing of different antique categories, to make it a little easier for you to immediately go to the specific piece you might be looking for. Keep in mind that it is only a fraction of what is currently offered but it's a great way to get started on your search for great bargains! Once you click on an item it will automatically take you to the specific category and you will have full access to ALL the items currently live on auction.

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