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To quickly understand the categories of old items, you can use a simple 'generational' method. It helps to perform an initial sorting and understand what you are dealing with, whether it's an item from the recent past or a piece with a century of history.
| Category | Description | Example and Value |
| Junk | Things you no longer use but feel bad throwing away. | 2005 VCR, 100 ₽ |
| Vintage | Things your parents didn't throw away. | 1979 vase (crystal, silver), 5000 ₽; 1965 'Kiev' camera, 1000 ₽ |
| Antiques | Things your grandparents didn't throw away. | 1910 silver milk jug, 10000 ₽; 1943 Katana, 100000 ₽ |
To quickly understand the categories of old items, you can use a simple 'generational' method. It helps to perform an initial sorting and understand what you are dealing with, whether it's an item from the recent past or a piece with a century of history.
The main principle is to determine which generation of your family the original owner of the item belonged to. This allows you to intuitively divide items into three main categories.
Besides the simple method, there are stricter definitions. It's important to distinguish between the terms 'antiquarian' and 'antique,' as the former refers to an expert person, and the latter to the items themselves.
An antiquarian is a person who is knowledgeable about old items and can professionally determine their purpose, value, and market price. An antique, on the other hand, is a category of items that meet certain criteria.
The key formal characteristic of an antique is its age—it must be over 50 years old. However, age alone is not enough. A mandatory condition is the possibility of identification: determining the author, date, and place of production.
Many antique items are so ingrained in daily life that their owners may not even suspect their true value. Ordinary-looking items inherited from ancestors can turn out to be real treasures.
Often, people pay no attention to old furniture or decorative items, considering them just part of the decor. However, it is among such things that rare and expensive pieces of interest to collectors and connoisseurs can be hidden.
The antique value of an item is not a random quantity. It is formed from a combination of several key factors, each contributing to the final appraisal. Understanding these elements helps to determine the potential of an old item.
The final antique value and, consequently, the market price of an item are formed from various combinations of these components. For a comprehensive assessment, each of these points must be analyzed.
Let's consider antique value using a specific example: shoes from 1894. The material value, in this case, is almost zero, as it's likely just leather and wood. The date of production, of course, adds historical value to the item.
A well-known manufacturer's brand might slightly increase its collectible value. The difficulty of replication is not a significant factor for shoes, as modern technology can recreate any model. The edition size, however, plays a key role: were the shoes custom-made or mass-produced? Uniform army footwear is of the greatest interest to collectors.
Provenance becomes the key factor. If a photograph of a historical figure wearing similar shoes can be found, it creates a legend and significantly increases the historical value. For shoes over 100 years old, their condition has little impact on their practical or decorative value. The circle of potential buyers is very narrow: clothing collectors, a shoe workshop for decoration, or a museum.
It's important to understand that not every old item is an antique in the full sense of the word. True antiques are typically valuable items originally made from expensive materials. Old shoes, cast-iron irons, or sewing machines most often fall into the category of 'everyday items.'
Any old item has a certain value, whether it's historical, cultural, or memorial. However, not every one of them has a market price. Old shoes might be interesting to a narrow circle of specialists but will not have a high monetary valuation on the broader market.
Using a classification scheme based on types of value allows one to quickly distinguish antiques from vintage items and junk. This approach also helps identify the circle of potential buyers and, after monitoring the market, form an approximate price for the item.
