Antique Clock Collecting: Buying From a Dealer

Video Transcript

"Of course you should ask what's the best way to buy an antique clock? We've talked about auctions and that's probably the way that I would think at least to get that education and start finding ones that you're interested in. But by the same token I don't want to deny as a clock dealer that I would encourage you to buy from dealers like me. People who stand behind their clocks, who've preselected them for you in a way, found ones that they think are both good quality, good collector importance, good condition and they're going to be guaranteed to give you more than a few weeks service. Hopefully will outlive most of us if they're serviced properly. What I probably would steer you away from is online buying unless you really know what you're doing or you're prepared to do some restoration or some arguing with the seller. I myself have bought clocks online that I was disappointed with. The descriptions were inadequate. Perhaps on purpose, perhaps just through ignorance of the seller but unless you can really handle that clock, see it in person, listen to it, you have a good chance of being disappointed. I know a lot of people have bought a lot of clocks online and been happy with it. So, perhaps it's just the beginner I would dissuade from it, otherwise as more of a clock expert you'd know perhaps what the pitfalls are and you'd be able to deal with any of the mistakes that you made by buying online. There's ways of knowing what's coming up both in shows and in auctions. There are a couple of papers. One of them that most collectors look at is the Antique and Arts Weekly. Or better known as the Bee. This is a weekly paper that comes out of Connecticut. Many articles and press releases related to the antique trade but also just page after page of auction announcements. And in many of them you'll see clocks being sold or you'll see actual entire clock auctions being advertised. Again that comes weekly. A monthly Maine Antique Digest which I should say is the antique publication that my wife writes regularly for. This has more in depth articles. Really tells you what happened at the shows. What happened at the auctions. Who bought what and why when they can find out. But certainly also the same quantity, intensity of advertisements for upcoming auctions and shows telling you where you might find some clocks and some clock dealers or good collections being sold at auction."