I’ve been buying and selling antiques, collectibles, jewelry, and just about anything else you can imagine for most of my adult life. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned over all those years, it’s something pretty simple.

Something is only worth what somebody else is willing to pay for it.

Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? Well, you’d be surprised how many people forget that, especially when prices are going through the roof.

Take Bitcoin, for example.

Here’s something that didn’t even exist 20 years ago, and today people are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a single coin. Not a physical coin, mind you. Just a digital entry on a computer network.

Now, I’m not saying Bitcoin is worthless. Obviously, it isn’t. As long as people are willing to pay good money for it, it has a market value. And people who bought it years ago and sold it for a profit certainly made some serious money.

But here’s what interests me.

Bitcoin doesn’t produce anything. It doesn’t pay interest, doesn’t generate earnings, and doesn’t manufacture a product. Its price depends on what the next person is willing to pay for it.

People talk about Bitcoin being scarce because there will only ever be 21 million of them. Well, scarcity is certainly important, but scarcity alone doesn’t make something valuable. I’ve got plenty of things that are one of a kind that nobody wants!

And that brings me to something I’ve experienced firsthand.

Back in 2019, after almost 15 years in business, I decided to close my antique and home décor store and liquidate the inventory.

Looking back, that might’ve been one of the smartest business decisions I ever made. And the funny thing is, I didn’t even know it at the time.

My store was loaded with antiques, furniture, artwork, pottery, glassware, collectibles, and all kinds of decorative merchandise. And back then, this stuff was worth real money. People wanted it, and they were willing to pay for it.

Well, fast forward seven years, and holy smokes, have things changed!

Merchandise I was selling all day long for $50, $75, or $100 back in 2019, you’re lucky to get $10 or $20 for today. And some of it? Good luck finding a buyer at any price.

I’m talking about Blenko glass, American art pottery, Longaberger baskets, Limoges porcelain, Precious Moments and Hummel figurines, vintage appliances, Depression glass, cut crystal, collector plates, silver-plated serving pieces, and fine china.

Even a lot of the old Griswold and Wagner cast-iron cookware that collectors were chasing has taken a beating.

And don’t even get me started on brown furniture!

Beautiful mahogany dining room sets, china cabinets, desks, and reproduction antiques that once sold for hundreds or thousands of dollars are now sitting in thrift stores with prices that would’ve been unheard of when I was selling them.

And here’s the kicker.

Not one thing about the merchandise changed.

That beautiful mahogany table is still the same table. That piece of American art pottery is still just as well made. That Limoges porcelain is still just as beautiful.

What changed was the number of people willing to pay for it.

My generation, the baby boomers, is downsizing. Decades of accumulated collections are pouring into estate sales, auctions, thrift stores, and online marketplaces. Meanwhile, younger people have different tastes and don’t necessarily want the things their parents and grandparents treasured.

Heck, a lot of them don’t even want a dining room, let alone a dining room set!

It’s basic supply and demand. Too much merchandise chasing too few buyers.

Now, I want to make something clear. The people who bought these things years ago weren’t making mistakes. They bought things they loved, things that were desirable and valuable at the time. Many enjoyed them for decades, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.

But the market changed.

And that brings me right back to Bitcoin.

You know, back in the 1600s, people in Holland were paying extraordinary amounts of money for certain tulip bulbs. During what became known as Tulip Mania, prices climbed to ridiculous levels before collapsing in 1637.

The tulips didn’t suddenly become ugly. People simply stopped being willing to pay those prices.

We’ve seen similar speculative behavior with dot-com stocks, real estate, silver, and all kinds of collectibles over the years.

Now, I’m not predicting Bitcoin is going to collapse like tulips did. Nobody knows that. Bitcoin could go considerably higher, or it could lose a substantial portion of its value.

My point is that a high price today is no guarantee of a high price tomorrow.

And there’s an important distinction here. A business can produce earnings, a bond can pay interest, and a rental property can generate income. Those things give you something beyond simply hoping somebody will pay more for them later.

Bitcoin doesn’t have those kinds of cash flows. Its value depends heavily on continued demand and confidence in its usefulness and future.

And that’s where I see the connection to the antique business.

For years, people believed certain collectibles would always hold their value because they were old, scarce, beautifully made, or highly desirable. And for a long time, they were right.

Until the buyers started disappearing.

Now, I wish I could tell you I was some kind of genius who saw the decline in the antique market coming back in 2019.

I wasn’t.

I closed my store because I felt it was time to move on. That’s all there was to it.

But boy, am I glad I did!

Had I held onto that inventory, I’d be sitting on a whole lot of merchandise today that wouldn’t bring anywhere near what I sold it for seven years ago.

And that’s really the lesson I’ve taken away from decades of buying and selling.

There’s a time to buy, a time to hold, and a time to sell. And sometimes knowing when to get out is a heck of a lot more important than knowing what to get into.

I’ve watched people fall in love with what they own, whether it’s an antique, a collectible, a piece of real estate, or an investment. They remember what they paid for it, what it was worth at its peak, and what they think it should be worth today.

But the market doesn’t care about any of that.

The market doesn’t care what you paid for something, what it used to be worth, or what you think it ought to be worth. It only cares what somebody is willing to pay for it today.

That’s true whether you’re selling a $50 Hummel figurine, a $5,000 mahogany dining room set, or a Bitcoin worth tens of thousands of dollars.

And there’s one more thing I’ve learned.

Just because everybody wants something today doesn’t mean everybody will want it tomorrow.

Believe me, I’ve spent enough years in the antique business watching yesterday’s treasures become today’s thrift-store bargains.

And sometimes, the smartest person in the room isn’t the one who bought it cheap.

It’s the one who knew when to sell.What are your thoughts about cryptocurrency?

View all responses