New York - Over the last ten years the options for antique dealers and vintage enthusiasts on where best to sell their wares online has become an increasingly refined process that has resulted in not only more precise and exact decorative arts listings, but has also created a wealth of new topic-specific industry websites specifically geared to such sales. Gone are the days when dealers were stuck with a broad spectrum two-choice listing on either eBay or Craigslist, or the sometimes unreliable and confusing categories of Facebook's Marketplace. Today, antique and vintage dealers can choose from a myriad of site-specific options when it comes to marketing their inventory online.

To find out what sites worked best, staff writers at the school spoke to a number of industry insiders to get their take on how some online sales platforms have created or developed new approaches related to the marketing of decorative arts items, in order to offer dealers more choice and options when it comes to promoting their goods. Below, we've tabled some of those results.

Offerup is one of Janet Cowers favorite selling sites. Cowers, who operates her own antique and vintage business in Portland, Oregon, says one of the sites best features is the integrated ability for buyers and sellers to negotiate out a price (hence the name). She's also fond of the regional approach whereby sellers and buyers can meetup to avoid any shipping fees. While some service fees can apply, they're not huge she says. As with many of today's best sites, you’ll need to download the app, provide some good quality photos, a well-written description, and a listing of your general geographic location. Cowers says she takes inventory that hasn't moved in a month and places it on Offerup at a discount. "So far the results have been outstanding," says Cowers, "I've really been able to save on the shipping of big items by loading-up multiple orders and delivering them in a single day to different local customers at one prearranged location." According to Cowers, she uses a large parking lot at a nearby conservancy hiking trial as a drop-spot, since it's highly visible, free, and offers lots of room for unpacking and packing-up for her clients.

Going one step further on the regional purchasing and selling scale is Bookoo - a site that claims its legacy comes as a result of yard sale fans who decided to create a site for other yard sale fans (minus the actual going to yard sales part). Wendy Dalton who runs two vintage Etsy shops from New Jersey, says she's a believer. "I buy almost as much stock as I sell," she notes. "However, the great thing about Bookoo is how local it is - sometimes I'm literally only a block away from picking-up or selling some of my inventory." Dalton says she's used Offerup as well, but thinks prices are better on Bookoo. "They want everyone to know their site is garage sale sourced," she says, "which means you have to buy right in order to sell here and still make a profit." The registration process is straightforward though, and according to Dalton, once you're account has been setup, Bookoo lets you list an unlimited number of items. "I really like it because it has more of a community feel than some of the other sites," says Dalton, "It's almost like a chat-group!" 

Thomas Dryer is also a fan of regional buying and selling. Hailing from San Francisco with both an online presence and bricks & mortar shop, Dryer says he previously used eBay for his online sales but became tired of the escalating prices. Today, he says he's switched to eBid for listing and selling some of his finer vintage stereos from the 1970s and 80s using a local pick-up option. Aside from their very low commission rate of 3%, Dryer feels that eBid is a great alternative for those wanting to avoid rising fees associated with conducting business on eBay. "They have literally all the same features as eBay," says Dryer, "including the ability to import any of my items on eBay, directly over to my eBid account, which means I can get a lot more exposure for some of my items." Dryer says that his sales have been just as good on eBid, and that he's currently considering a lifetime membership for $50 that would drop his already low fees even more. "It's a win-win," says Dryer, "I'm saving money and selling more."

New York - Oh, what a difference a few years can make, especially when it comes to the world of the decorative arts. From proclamations of "It's over," to "people just don't want that old stuff anymore," the claims relating to the demise of the antique and vintage industry over the last twenty years have been about as plentiful and exaggerated as those levelled against the famed American satirist, Mark Twain. In fact, not only has the antique and vintage industry been thriving recently, but since the onset of the pandemic, the public's demand for decorative arts items from the past has literally exploded across every major sales platform to be had - from bricks and mortar shops, to pop-ups, and every conceivable type of online concern in between - the antique and vintage industry is now experiencing a wave of popularity and profitability that up until now, has never been seen before.

Another piece of the puzzle, at least according to Christina Williams, who runs a number of high-end consignment shops in and around Atlanta and Savannah, thinks the explosive growth of interest in antique and vintage furnishings is also likely a direct result of price. Why? Because, for the most part, consignment pricing for quality items is almost always going to be cheaper than purchasing comparably newer items, which makes the consignment option an attractive proposition for savvy buyers, especially during uncertain economic times. Williams says her numbers over the last twelve months have been so strong that she now has a 'buy team' that scours high-end Atlanta neighborhoods with homes for sale in an attempt to beat out Estate Sale companies for the rights to sell the clients goods and chattels. "Demand is so strong," says Williams, "that if I didn't get to some of these houses first, and come out with a signed contract, I probably wouldn't have enough inventory at months end to stock my stores."

Statista, an international company that specializes in market and consumer data for businesses, says that conservatively they expect the antique, vintage, and consignment furniture resale market to increase by over seventy-percent in the next few years. So what's fueling this current market growth? Well, for starters, many analysts point to the changing buying tastes of young Millennials and Gen Z consumers who started the "used" trend with vintage clothing, while seamlessly transitioning that into used furniture. Originally part of the Ikea mindset, many began to finally balk at the uniformity of design, and instead sought out uniqueness in not only their clothes but home furnishings as well. Now, with some discretionary income finally arriving, Millennials and Gen Z'ers are pursuing even more one-of-a-kind purchases that are in keeping with their collecting preferences, and which often come with a more expensive price tag. In fact, in a recent survey conducted by Chairish, over thirty-one percent of Millennial and Gen Z respondents said that they had become much more interested in buying used, vintage, and antique furniture online over the last two years, than in the two years prior.