What Kind of Antiques Can Beginner’s Start Collecting?

Estate sales can be wonderful places to hunt for antique items and collectibles that can be grabbed for decent prices. Don’t think it’s always going to be easy to take home the item you desire, however, because it can be very competitive as well. Other buyers and professional antique dealers are also trying to get to the treasure before you do so they can resell them.

Do not let that scare you away though as professional antique dealers will usually stick to finding antiques in their specific area of expertise, such as paintings or books. Keep in mind that sometimes estate sales shoppers will get to the home hours before the doors even open. This is because some estate sales only allow a certain amount of people in the door at the same time. This means you need to get there early if there is something in the home you truly covet.

If you are new to buying antiques at estate sales and want to try to break into it at a reasonable price point try your hand at collecting some of these suggested items. They are highly collectible and are pretty easy to resell.

Mettlach Beer Steins are collectible oversized German beer mugs that are typically sold for anywhere from $10 to $50. They are often mixed up with other steins that have been reproduced and are then sold for less value than what they are really worth. These steins were produced between 1885 and 1910 and are often sold on sites such as eBay for hundreds of dollars. These items are great antiques to look for because they have distinguishable marks that make them easy to identify, there are a lot of reference books available for them, there is a steady market and the prices of them are pretty stable.

Sterling silver is very common among estate sales even though a lot of people may not even know that they have sterling silver on their hands. Sterling silver can be in forks, jewelry, knives and more. Typically sterling silver will be marked with the purity of the silver and sterling silver is 92.5% silver with 7.5% being other metal. The letter “S” or “SS” could also mean that it is sterling silver. Sterling silver is not magnetic so you could keep a magnet on hand as well to wave over the pieces. Alternatively you could take the silver to a jewelry shop to get a second opinion if you are unsure.

Hummel figurines are usually priced around $30 to $100, but there are rare Hummel figurines that can go for hundreds and thousands of dollars. What you want to look for on these Hummel figurines is the marking “M.I. Hummel” and the trademark on the bottom. There are also marks of authenticity that tell which year the figurine was made and serve as a collector reference. The best way to find out the true value of a Hummel figurine is to send it to a certified appraiser or look it up online to determine what they have been recently selling for.

https://youtu.be/mK0F8pQgnM4