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 Starting and Running an Antiques Business
by Fiona Shoop
 Books
and articles giving advice on how to become an antiques dealer
can make me shudder with disbelief at the ignorance of the trade
shown by the author. Not with this one, though.
Starting and
Running an Antiques Business
is written by Fiona Shoop who started collecting when she was
six years old and dealing when she was ten and that was more than
20 years ago. She rounds out her expertise by writing articles
for many of the UK's specialist antiques and collectables magazines
and newspapers.
The book starts with
the basics—do you want to be a part-time or full-time dealer?
Where do you buy your stock? How much capital do you need to start?
These are just some of the questions answered. The author goes
on to cover trade discounts, both when buying and selling, where
to sell with the advantages and disadvantages of the various methods,
i.e. antiques fairs, centres, auctions, shops and the internet.
Buy Starting
and Running an Antiques Business by Fiona Shoop from
Amazon.co.uk
(not available from Amazon.com).
Fiona devotes a whole
section of the book on the relatively new aspect of buying and
selling antiques—the internet. There is no doubt that she
is in favour of it as uses it herself but she still gives information
on some of the problems and when and how to exercise caution.
The book also covers
such details as how to safely clean various types of antiques,
how to wrap them and whether or not it is worthwhile to buy damaged
pieces.
There is another section
on specialising in selling various types of antiques like furniture,
ceramics or jewellery with information, again, on the advantages
or disadvantages of each speciality. For example, dealing in furniture
is probably a bad idea if you are small and delicate so unable
to lift heavy furniture, unless of course you have willing, strong
helpers on hand whenever you need them.
The last section of
the book gives the basic business information that is so often
forgotten by would-be antiques dealers. What do you do about income
tax, VAT and insurance when you become a self-employed antiques
dealer? The answers are here.
This is probably the
best book I have ever read on the subject of becoming an antiques
dealer. It is comprehensive and, importantly, easy to read and
not without a touch of humour. Read Fiona's definition of the
3Ps on page 61—I promise you that it's true!
If you have ambitions
to become an antiques dealer, do yourself a favour, buy this book
now.
Quick Facts
Title: Starting
and Running an Antiques Business
ISBN: 1-85703-834-7
Author: Fiona
Shoop
Publisher: How
To Books Ltd
Number of pages: 320
Binding:
Paperback
Price: £12.99
Copyright © 2002 by Carol
Fisher All Rights Reserved
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