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Reference Archive

• Coin Collectors World Apart. Editorial
• How One Organization Assists New Collectors
• 200 Million Collectors in America. Part 1 of a series.
• 200 Million Collectors in America. Part 2 of a series.
• Kennedy Collecting and the Aging Process
• Getting Younger People to Collect
• Memories Made in Adolescence Fuel Collecting

Getting Younger People to Collect

How do we attract more young people into the antiques and collectibles business? This is a question I've heard from show managers, antique mall owners and even auctioneers. AntiqueWeek's recent questionnaire shows that many of our readers are in the over 40 category.

Is it possible to get people in their 20s and 30s interested in the business and if so how do we go about it?

One show manager speculated that she couldn't get younger people to replace her retiring dealers because many of the younger people were attracted to the Internet. However, another show manager told me that he thought the Internet had the potential to bring younger people into the antiques business more quickly because they would become hooked on buying and selling online and then want to expand their business and inventory by looking in more traditional places.

I wish I had some answers to this, as I know the business could only grow stronger if more people were interested. I'll throw out some thoughts, though, and hopefully we can get some type of meaningful dialogue going in letters to the editor.

One thing to remember is that what is considered an antique or collectible to people 10 to 30 years younger than you, is certainly not what you would consider it. When I first came to AntiqueWeek and had a few of my grandmother's dishes with me, I decided to collect more of them. The dishes were called Colonial Homestead and they were made in the 1960s and '70s. At the time many people didn't stock such recent dishes. To dealers in their 50s and 60s, the dishes I wanted as a 25-year-old had no appeal. Now that I'm in my 40s, I find it much easier to find my Colonial Homestead dishes. My problem is that they are taking on rather exorbitant prices. I used to pay no more than $1 for a plate. Now I see them priced from $5 to $15 each.

I got a big lesson in how age affects what we all look for when I took Lauren Campbell, our new assistant editor, on a field trip through an antique mall. Lauren is 20 years younger than I am.

I was showing her the differences in glass types that she has been writing about when she said, "Look, Pound Puppies!"

My first thought was, "Pound Puppies, what are they doing in an antique mall?" Then my second thought was, "wait a minute, she found something in the antique mall that caused her to stop and exclaim over it and pick it up."

Over the next few days I began to think about this Pound Puppy thing. When I came to AntiqueWeek in 1985 I started to collect Marx Johnny West figures. Those were the toys I loved from my childhood. In 1985 they were incredibly cheap, but it turned out not to be one of the collections I kept and developed. Instead, I sold what I had about eight years ago. It is a move I've always regretted. Thunderbolt, Johnny West's horse, now can be found in all antique malls priced around $20 without any tack or accessories. In 1985 you couldn't have found someone to give that horse to and it sold only if it had all of its accessories. I've seen Johnny West in his box priced in the $100 range and some of the figures have been much more.

My interest in Johnny West items stemmed from the fact that these were the toys I played with. Lauren's age group had Pound Puppies and My Buddy dolls. To successfully attract the younger generations I think we have to pay attention to what interests them as children and not ignore that when stocking a booth.

Just for fun I looked for information on Pound Puppies. Mike Bowling of Cincinnati came up with the idea as a toy for his daughter in 1984. They became the No. 1 selling toy in 1985, '86 and '87. Hanna Barbera produced 26 episodes of Pound Puppy cartoons. The puppies were retired in 1989, but were reintroduced in 1996 and they are still being made.

I surfed over to eBay and found 199 listings for Pound Puppies and 189 listings for Johnny West items in "current auctions." The numbers were about the same for completed auctions, however very few Pound Puppies were selling and I didn't see anything over $20, whereas Johnny West items were regularly selling in the $50 to $150 range. A Jimmy West Canadian figure had sold for $227.50. Two Newborn Pound Puppies, MIB, sold for $18.50.

I'm not sure what parallels can be made between the Pound Puppies and Johnny West. I know that when I was in my 20s I wished I could have found more Johnny West items in antique malls and shops. It wasn't until I reached my mid to late 30s that these figures started to appear regularly and by then I didn't like the prices.

Before you all start picking up pen and pencil to write letters telling me you don't want to see malls filled with Pound Puppies any more than you wanted to see them filled with Beanie Babies, let me say that I don't either. I would rather see a nice piece of 19th-century stoneware or a funky 1950s piece of glass with colored dots. But, I also appreciate that not everyone wants what I want.

Maybe antique shops and malls should consider putting in a special section for items made in the 1980s and '90s. If a person starts collecting Pound Puppies at $1 or $2 each, then when that person starts to make more money, he or she might start collecting Steiff animals in the $100 to $200 range. Antique show managers could focus on finding one or two dealers who specialize in newer collectible toys and items.

The important thing I think is to get the collecting gene activated in people as soon as possible and get them used to shopping antique malls and shops as well as auctions and shows.

If you have any ideas on how to attract younger people into the antiques industry, please share them with readers in a letter to the editor. 200205