Gotta Love It...
As I flipped through a wholesale catalog that came to the store yesterday, I noticed many of the pieces in it were reproductions of items that were used half a century or more ago. There were lots of small things like galvanized trays, buckets and other containers, tool totes and tin “advertising” signs. There were also larger pieces like harvest tables, trunks, chests of drawers…..a literal “buffet” of things to choose from.
As I looked at page after page, I kept thinking, “hey, we have one of those in the store and it’s not a repro”. Now, don’t get me wrong, reproductions have their place and we have some marked as such, but (like I’ve said before, there is always a but), if you have the opportunity to buy the real thing, I would. Why, you ask? I would for three reasons. One, unless you overpay or don’t take care of the piece, you shouldn’t lose money on it if you sell it. Two, the real thing is almost always better than a copy, kind of like real money is better than counterfeit. Third, many times the reproduction is more expensive than the original.
Notice I said earlier, “if you have the opportunity to buy the real thing”….of course if you don’t have the chance, the time or the inclination to buy an original piece, there is nothing wrong with buying a reproduction if you love it.
And that’s the bottom line, old or new, antique, reproduction, pristine, beat-up or somewhere in the middle, all that really matters is that you love it…k
February 10, 2015