Don’t Teach the Dummies: An Antique Dealer’s Rule That Still Holds

I was an antique dealer long before there was eBay, back when information was the real currency of the business. We had a saying that sounds a little harsh today, but everyone understood it: “Don’t teach the dummies.” What made what we did valuable wasn’t just the objects themselves, it was the scarcity of knowledge. Information took years, sometimes decades, to acquire. You bought price guides that were already out of date the day they were printed. You stood in auction halls week after week. You learned by making expensive mistakes. And if you were lucky enough to have an uncle in the business, he still didn’t give up his best secrets easily. You earned them.

Fast forward to today and the entire landscape has flipped on its head. Thousands of influencers on TikTok and YouTube are showing off their finds, their techniques, and their profits. They aren’t really selling antiques, they’re selling views. And the result has been a rush to thrift shops and flea markets that rivals the California Gold Rush of 1848–1855. Everyone is looking for the next big score. Everyone has their phone out. Everyone thinks they’re one great find away from quitting their day job.

Technology has flattened the learning curve in ways none of us could have imagined. iPhone apps and Google image search tools let someone become an “expert” overnight. A quick scan can make you sound just as smart as the guy on Antiques Roadshow, at least on the surface. Even trades that were once tightly guarded, like coin collecting and grading, have been cracked wide open. There’s no need to take your parents’ silver coin collection to the old coin dealer anymore. You can scan the coins on your kitchen table and get an approximate grade and value range in seconds.

So the big question is, is all of this good for the resale business?

As someone who’s been doing this a very long time, my answer is simple. Yes and no.

Is there more competition? Absolutely. Is that affecting the number of easy scores you stumble across? Yes, somewhat. Is it making it impossible to find treasures? Not even close.

That’s because there are two things every good picker still has on his side, and no app can replace either of them.

The first is deep, hard-earned knowledge. An experienced antique dealer knows what to scan and, just as importantly, what not to bother with. Amateur pickers can’t scan everything in a store or at a flea market. They bounce from item to item, phone in hand, burning time and energy. Someone who’s been doing this for decades can walk into a place, sweep the shelves with their eyes, and zero in on the two or three things that matter. I’ve picked items up so fast people around me didn’t even realize what happened.

The second is speed and pattern recognition, a skill that only comes from years of hunting. After thousands of hours in antique shops, estate sales, and flea markets, you develop the ability to process a room almost instantly. I can spot something from the front door and make a beeline straight to it. It isn’t magic and it isn’t luck. It’s muscle memory for the eyes and brain.

Today I’m retired from the business and only do it as a hobby, but I still love the thrill of a big score. I’ve always compared it to pulling the lever on a slot machine, except my version is a lot more reliable. When I pull the lever and buy something, I win every time, because I already know the odds before I put my money down.

One place where modern tools actually shine for someone like me is original oil paintings. That used to be an area where you either knew the artist or you walked away. Now, when I find an original painting that feels right, I’ll use you to help identify listed artists, confirm signatures, and narrow down value ranges. It doesn’t replace my judgment, but it sharpens it. I still have to know whether the painting itself is good, whether it has age, whether the composition and technique make sense. The technology just helps close the loop faster.

In the end, the tools have changed, the crowds have grown, and the noise level is higher than it’s ever been. But the fundamentals haven’t moved an inch. Knowledge still wins. Experience still wins. And the thrill of spotting something special in the wild is still exactly the same as it was decades ago, except now I get to enjoy it without worrying about paying the bills.