The antiques & collectibles market has changed a great deal in the last 7 years that Five Katz Antiques has been open. It is radically different from what the experience gained over the last 30 years of buying and selling antiques had me prepared for. Many things are collectible. The goal is to buy it […]
As many different types of antique stores, vintage shops, retro dealers and other secondhand stores as there are, there are probably as many different ways these stores value and price their items. Prices at thrift stores used to be far less than they are today. Part of this rise is due to factors such as […]
I decided to take a break from writing about antique related items and situations and try something new. When I am not at the store, and have some free time, I read. When I was young, and owned my bookstore, it was science fiction and classics. As I have gotten older, I find that I […]
Twenty Bucks… There is an interesting phenomenon out there. It happens to many people every day, mostly men, but they really don’t understand it or are aware of it. Some are, but with most, it happens on a near unconscious level. It’s not malicious, it just happens. What is this strange occurrence? “It was only […]
I often get calls at the store from folks who are looking to sell their items. Sometimes it’s a single item (a piece of furniture or a doll, for instance), other times it’s an entire collection. I never know what the next phone call will yield for the store. Many times, people will come into […]
How do small businesses create polices? It’s easy; they don’t. The customers do. I know, you are asking how that happens. Well in a nutshell, policies are created when something happens that’s outside of the business owner’s experience. As small business owners, we try to anticipate everything that could happen that could affect us. It’s […]
Here at Five Katz Antiques, I have been long frustrated with Google’s privacy policies. In fact, I have not been a fan of anything “Google” for a long time. Their products are not intuitive, frustrating and not user friendly. I stopped using their search engine in favor of “Duck Duck Go” over 2 years ago. […]
Collecting antiques can be a fun and rewarding hobby on many levels. It doesn’t have to be a hobby that breaks the bank. Not all antiques belong in the British Museum or have to cost as much as the Hope Diamond & there is much more to the hobby than buying low and selling high. […]
I have noticed lately that some small businesses are offering a discount if you pay with cash. It got me thinking and wondering if this was really a good idea. Credit card fees can be expensive. No one wants to pay them. They are yet another expense that a small business has to deal with […]
In case you are not familiar with craigslist, it’s essentially an online free classified ad website. It was started by Craig Newmark in the mid 1990’s to highlight events in and around the San Francisco Bay area. It is now used in nearly 70 countries and in multiple languages and has many categories such as […]