{"id":5665,"date":"2016-08-28T03:57:25","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T03:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/javafurniture.com\/news\/?p=5665"},"modified":"2016-08-28T03:57:25","modified_gmt":"2016-08-28T03:57:25","slug":"antique-dealers-struggling-in-weak-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/antique-dealers-struggling-in-weak-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Antique dealers struggling in weak economy"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Art Garcia, Telegraph Correspondent<\/div>\n

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Nobody\u2019s beating the door down to get into this place,\u201d is how John Willis, an employee at A-Art\u2019s Antiques & Appraisers on Sutter Street in Folsom, describes business during a recession.<\/p>\n

He said a key signal of a bottoming of the economy\u2019s decline is consumer spending and it\u2019s very apparent right now.<\/p>\n


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\u201cThe bottom line,\u201d he said, \u201cis people have been without money for so long that if they had something to sell, they\u2019ve already sold it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar woes are heard from Judy Hansen, manager of the Folsom Mercantile Antique Mall, also in the Folsom Historic District, where more people are bringing in goods to sell than customers coming in to buy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had lots of people bring stuff in, looking for cash,\u201d she said. \u201cSorry to say, we keep buying whenever we can from people but there\u2019s no rush to buy things from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hansen tells of people coming by car or truck, \u201casking us to come out and take a look at what they have, mostly small things. We\u2019ve had people who had to give up their house, some who did have antiques to sell but mostly the antiques are marginal, not much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hansen said home-related business is down, mirroring the housing market\u2019s decline.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurniture and antique furniture sales are just down,\u201d Hansen said. \u201cPeople are not as interested as they were a few years ago. They\u2019re just staying away from buying.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mall will be open for the 42nd annual Fall Antique Street Fair coming Sunday, Sept. 20, and they might buy sales space on Sutter Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sell a little bit of everything and that\u2019s what people are bringing in \u2014 jewelry, knickknacks, small pieces of furniture, China, glassware, linens, occasionally toys, some dolls, books, records, old radios, sometimes souvenir kinds of swords. There\u2019s very little in clothing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s usually less expensive things, under a hundred bucks. They\u2019re trying to make rent or get rid of whatever they can deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

But hard times haven\u2019t hit every outlet that buys, as well as sells. This year, for example, business \u201cabsolutely\u201d has been positive for Gilbert Aguayo, who for the past 13 years has worked from his Folsom house as owner of Old World Upholstery.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people went to look for new furniture and found prices were higher and quality no longer there. A lot of new furniture today is cut out of particle board and some have plastic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

So far, his business this year is up about 20 percent over a year ago.<\/p>\n

The uptick comes from a combination of finances and sentimentality. People want to save money or memories or both.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften they learn after shopping for new furniture that what they have is far superior to what they can buy and made of solid hardwood and frames that aren\u2019t cheap,\u201d Aguayo said.<\/p>\n

A furniture upholsterer for 60 years, the former butcher apprenticed under an Austrian disciplinarian of the old school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I call my business \u2018Old World\u2019, because that\u2019s the kind of work I do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Aguayo works alone, with wife Elvira doing the sewing for furniture upholstery repair and replacement.<\/p>\n

Because the price of gold has been at its highest levels in U.S. history, striking $1,038 an ounce about a year ago and recently selling in the mid-$900s, trading has been brisk at Placerville Coin & Bullion on Main Street in Placerville.<\/p>\n

Gold sold for less than $300 an ounce several years ago.<\/p>\n

Price has had more to do with the activity than any effects of the recession, largely because people want to shift their savings and investments from dollars to the safety of gold as a hedge against inflation and a further sinking of the U.S. economy, according to shop owner Jamie Lowman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of strange because it goes against recession thinking,\u201d Lowman said.<\/p>\n

Her shop deals in scrap gold, jewelry, sterling silver, coins, gold bars and dental gold.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s sure some of the selling is caused by financial hardship.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are buying and selling. They don\u2019t tell me why they\u2019re selling,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m sure some of it is because they need the money.”<\/p><\/div>\n

Source : http:\/\/edhtelegraph.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Art Garcia, Telegraph Correspondent Nobody\u2019s beating the door down to get into this place,\u201d is how John Willis, an employee at A-Art\u2019s Antiques & Appraisers on Sutter Street in Folsom, describes business during a recession. He said a key signal of a bottoming of the economy\u2019s decline is consumer spending and it\u2019s very apparent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-furniture-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}