Can you imagine what tomorrows antiques will be! The furniture your great grandma had in her home can now be classed as antique if she lived in the early 1900s. A piece of furniture becomes an antique after fifty years, although most antique dealers prefer it be older than that.
Tomorrows antiques do not get a lot of consideration, as when people decide to modernise their homes much of the furniture that they class as out dated often ends up on the council rubbish tip and is lost forever. How ever many an antique dealer and antique market traders will visit and browse through the discarded items and may come across something of value.
An old chest of drawers or some other item of furniture may look scruffy and well worn, and not worthy of consideration, but these are often tomorrows antiques. These items of furniture can be restored to all their original glory by an expert restorer or sometimes by someone learning the art of restoring furniture. You can browse around an antique market and many of the items on display look like pieces of junk, many are rusted or torn and dilapidated but to a dealer or a discerning customer they can be just what they are looking for.
In the old days a rag and bone man as we called them, used to come around with a horse and cart and collect all the so called rubbish. In exchange he would give a few coppers of even a balloon or lollipop to the children. This would encourage the children to push their mother into finding some piece of old junk to hand over in exchange for these delights.
Many of these rag and bone men became very wealthy people through your generosity in getting rid of your rubbish.
Jumble sales are still held in church halls, these contribute towards the upkeep of the church. As many people who help out at these sales, and who contribute the goods to sell are often elderly people, quite often old items such as ornaments or jewellery can be found that could be valuable.
I was doing auctions on eBay and I decided to visit a jumble sale at a local church. I felt decidedly self conscious about it until arriving to face a queue I noticed some very well dressed people in front of me. They looked as if they were visiting a high class auction sale instead of a jumble sale, and that fact put me at my ease.
I did not find a lot at this jumble sale but I did buy a large quantity of old car magazines. These I sold on eBay for quite a profit and they went to America. Many people collect antiques for the love of it, while others look at the monetary value; what ever you do it for you probably still enjoy the search and the enjoyment when you find your antiques.