 Hello guys, welcome back to my channel. I am so excited to actually be sitting down and filming a video for you because I have not sat down in front of my actual camera, my microphone, the entire setup in probably like seven or eight months since I actually purchased this house because as you guys have know, if you've been following along here on the channel, which if you have not, make sure to click that subscribe button and also click the bell icon next to it. We have been renovating the duplex that I purchased about seven months ago into such an incredible home. And so far we have already finished the movie theater room downstairs, started in the breakfast nook and also finished up the kitchen. So there's been a lot of stuff happening on the channel. We moved into the space, have kind of settled in and I feel like I wanted to start incorporating more of my older content per se. I always started this channel as kind of sitting in front of the camera and talking to you guys or doing DIY projects. So I'd love to add these kind of tip or hack driven videos into my channel every now and then. So let me know if that is of interest to you guys. Of course this also means more videos, which is always a plus. But today I'm going to be sharing with you guys 25 of my top vintage and antique shopping hacks. And these are ones that I have compiled over the past couple of months. I've had a folder on my phone. I've been adding to it. And I'm like, I have to do a video on all of these tips after a while. And I finally feel like we have a compiled list that is great to share with you guys. And I think this video actually could be super beneficial. So we have 25 of them. We honestly need to get right in. I also wanted to let you guys know that vintage drop number two is happening on March 26th at 10 a.m. over on loanfox.com. The first one went so well. We sold out of everything in nine minutes. It was crazy, so save the date. My first one is the easiest one. And that is to go into antique or vintage shopping with an open mind. I feel like if you're going into an antique store or you're going into a flea market looking for a specific ashtray, it is or a specific vase, whatever it might be. It's always hard to come across something that you really wanna find in such a cluster of items. But I feel like if you go in with an open mind, you can always come across pieces that you can use in other spaces as well. That's really what I've been doing over the past couple of months, as you guys know. When I go shopping at flea markets, I might buy a small painting that I might wanna use for the guest room. I also might find a vase that I don't know where I wanna use it, but I know that it kind of fits the theme of my house. So I always go in with an open mind. You can find quite a bit more, I feel like. And it's always hard to find that one-off item that you're looking for. Whenever I think of vintage and antique, I always think of wood furniture. And there are a couple of kind of telltale signs that you could tell if a piece is older or if it's high quality. And that is actually through the jointery of the furniture. And jointery is where the wood pieces kind of meet up. So where they either create the drawer or they create the actual structure or casing of a dresser. The jointery can tell you quite a bit. So there is a pretty common one called the dovetail joint, which is more so, it's still commonly used today, but it comes with a higher ticket value. So normally those pieces are higher quality as well. That type of jointery is a little bit harder. It's normally hand-done as well. There also are some other very specific vintage or antique jointery methods. I've seen like a scalloped one before that has these little pegs on the inside. Looking at the drawer of the furniture piece can really tell you a lot about it, whether it's an older piece of furniture or whether it's a high quality piece of furniture. So always pull out the drawer, look at the joints whenever you're looking at wood furniture because it can give you a little bit of an indication as to where it's from. My third and fourth tips kind of go together. And this is showing up early at a flea market and showing up late at a flea market and what those can do for you. So our third tip is all about the early bird special and a lot of flea markets actually offer this and it's where you pay a little bit more but you're actually able to go in around the times that the vendors are actually able to go in as well and start shopping items before sunrises, before people start getting out of bed, before people start showing up at the flea market. And this is a great time for you to take advantage of all of the pieces, purchase things that you see that you love. But what comes with this of course is you do kind of have to wake up early. So that's something to keep in mind but if you really wanna make sure you get some great deals, you might wanna show up for the early bird special but my fourth tip kind of goes into staying later at antique stores because I myself am not an early bird. I'm not waking up at 4 a.m. to go to the flea market. I'm sorry. I mean, I probably would if I knew there was something I really, really wanted but I'm somebody that likes to show up at 2 p.m. wait for everyone to start closing down their little booths and then I walk by and ask, oh, that dresser you have there, you probably don't wanna bring that home. Like I'll buy it for half the price and then most of the time they're like, oh my gosh, okay. I didn't wanna bring it home anyways and that is how you can get a great deal. So if you stick around the flea market until the very end, a lot of people don't wanna bring those heavy or bulky items back with them or even any of their items in general. They brought them and unloaded them to sell to you. So offer them something a little less and normally you can actually get away with it towards the end of a flea market. My fifth tip is one that I have used so many times. I've shared it with you guys on the channel before and that is Google Lens. If you've never used Google Lens before, I use this for almost every single vintage in antique purchase I purchase because I'm always nosy about what other people are selling them for online. So essentially Google Lens is great because you could take a photo of something like if you're in the antique store, if you're in a vintage shop, you could find let's say this glass. You wanna know the origin, you wanna know some more details about it. You can actually take a photo on the Google Lens app and it will pull up images or pieces that look exactly like it online and kinda give you a little bit more history on the piece. It can also show you comparable prices, stores that are also selling that same item. So I love using Google Lens just to find more of the origin, where the piece came from, what year it could be from, a little bit more history. And also, of course, we love knowing the price point because sometimes you can come across pieces that are worth a lot. Tip number six is more so for flea market shoppers but always, always bring cash if you can because a lot of times vendors at flea markets, they prefer cash. We all love it under the table deal. They prefer cash and so if you bring it, a lot of times they won't actually tax you on the piece and a lot of times you can actually get away with being like, sorry, I only have this last 20. Do you think that you could take that and then they'll be like, um, I guess I can. There's a base for $70 and you only should bring out $3.20 and you have $60, you know, you can offer that and I feel like it's much more of a pleasant offer because you're showing three bills, if that makes sense, than just saying like, I'll send you $60 over Ben Moe. Now, I know number six was about bringing cash but number seven is about bringing a cart which could be so helpful you guys. The first like 10 flea markets I went to, I shared a cart with someone which was great because she brought a cart with her and I shared it with her but we were constantly making trips back to the car because we were finding so many great pieces, filling up the cart with both of our stuff, having a rolling cart is going to save your life, it's gonna save your back, it's gonna save everything because I've had so many times where I've been at the antique store, fully carrying my items or like the flea market carrying all my pieces and having a car that you could put everything in is especially when it's hot outside, you have to walk to the car is so enjoyable. So I highly, highly recommend bringing a cart. Paintings versus prints can be a little challenging but also I feel like there are some like significant things that you can look for in paintings to tell them away from a print. The first thing of course is to just look at the piece if it's completely flat, if you could tell that it was literally printed on a printer then clearly it is a print. Normally paintings have at least a little bit of texture so if you kind of hold the painting sideways and look at it and kind of tilt it back and forth in the light, you could traditionally see a little bit of like the acrylic paint or maybe the oil paint texture on the surface or even some brush strokes, you can kind of see the fine brush hairs in the paint as well. Also taking something out of the frame is a great way to get an idea of if it was painted or not, if it's on a canvas, if it's on a piece of board, the quality or really just the direction of the art piece can really be told by what's kind of hidden underneath the frame. Just that tiny little edge right on the edge there can tell you if it's a stretched piece of canvas, if it's an older piece of canvas, if it's been backed with anything, if it's been restretched, there's so much that you can actually tell by the back of a painting or like what's actually underneath the backside of a painting. Kind of stemming from that too, a lot of people think that prints actually aren't valuable but prints can actually be quite valuable. There are a lot of artists that just do specific set of prints. So maybe zero to 60 and they only had 60 prints of that. So if there's a number on the backside like 42 out of 80, that's like the 42nd print of an 80 print run for that specific piece. So it could be valuable, keep that in mind too. This next tip also has to do with artwork. And this one's actually about the staples on the canvas. So if canvas is stretched around the frame and it's using nails, the nails are traditionally before 1940. So that can kind of give you an indication of how old a piece is. But if they use staples to staple the canvas to the frame, that traditionally means that it was done after 1940. So that can also give you an indication of how old a piece is and kind of steer you in a better direction to find maybe the artist or the origin of the piece. Our 10th one is all about haggling. Now I am not great at haggling. I feel like some people are great at it. Some people are not, I just get shy. Like, and I get kind of scared that they're just gonna tell me absolutely not. But if you're good at it, feel free to do it at two of these three places. I mean, you could probably do it at all three if you wanted to, but I feel like haggling works best at antique stores and flea markets, especially at flea markets because you're normally dealing with the person that owns that item right in front of you. And then typically the owner of the antique store is who you're gonna be dealing with or it might be like an antique mall where they can just reach out to the person. I feel like they communicate with the vendors in the antique mall quite often. So never be afraid to haggle in an antique store or a flea market. However, I feel like thrift stores, it might be a little bit more challenging. I've just recently gotten into estate sales and I've only actually been to, I think, three estate sales. However, Justin has actually provided me with some great knowledge about estate sales. And he said that a majority of them actually start full price the first day and you actually can't really haggle on any of those prices because estate sales normally go on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So on Friday it's gonna be full price. On Saturday it's gonna be 25% off and then on Sunday it's gonna be 50% off and that's when you can actually haggle on that third day. I'll see people trying to haggle with the person that's running it and they'll always be like, nope, sorry, you can come back the last day and see if it's still here. But this is a set price because essentially someone else can buy it at full price on Friday or Saturday before they were to sell it for a lot discounted on Sunday. So if you do wanna go to an estate sale on the last day, you're probably gonna get a pretty good deal. Next tip is a pretty simple one, but it is to just make sure to bring a tape measure with you. If you are shopping, especially for specific pieces or for furniture, make sure to measure your space that you're putting the furniture piece in before you head out and also make sure to bring the tape measure with you. That way you can measure whatever it is while you're on the go because you never know, especially if a flea market is packed and there's a lot of people, you might be kind of not fighting for specific pieces, but there might be someone else trying to find a piece and you just wanna make sure that if it fits what you need, you're gonna grab it before someone else does. If you're into shopping for silver, whether it be, you know, a silver bowl, trays, cups, goblets, if you will. I see so much silver and you always look at it and I always feel like silver looks so expensive even when it's super tarnished and old looking. There's just something like a quality about silver that looks extremely expensive, but there actually are some kind of markings on silver that can give you a little bit more of an indication as if it's real or if it's authentic or if it's silver plated and that is with a 0.925 stamp. So that actually means that the makeup of the silver piece is 92.5% silver and then the other 7.5% is like a base metal because silver, 100% silver is just too soft so you actually can't create anything from it. They have to put and mix in like a copper or something with it in order to harden it. So if you see a 0.925 on the back of anything, that will mean that it is sterling silver and the majority of the metal inside is actually silver and there's also fine silver which you can actually find like point, I think it's like 0.99 or something. This is all for my jewelry making days. If you see silver plated, that means that the piece was dipped in sterling silver and just has like a plating of silver on the outside. This one's actually really interesting and that is if you find a made in, like if it's made in Thailand, made in China, made in Korea, whatever it might be, if there's a made in sticker, I feel like a lot of times you see those and you're like, oh, this is new, like this is from 2006, like this was just recently made but made in and then wherever it's from actually dates back to 1919. So that's when they started adding those stickers to pieces. So you actually can find authentic vintage and antique pieces with like a made in China or a made in Thailand sticker. It doesn't actually mean that it's more of a modern piece and I feel like that's something that you might pass up. You might see something like, oh, this is definitely newer, like it's not something that I want but maybe think about Google lensing it to see if it could be older. If you're out shopping for architectural salvage, whether it be new windows, glass doors or even like an old hutch, there's actually type of glass that's known as wavy glass and this is a glass that was made, I don't know how long ago, it's just an old, old type of glass different than how they make it now and it kind of has a slight wave to it where you can actually see a bit of like a rippled texture on the glass. It's actually really, really beautiful. I love wavy glass. So if you do notice the glass isn't like super smooth and you can see directly through it, there's like a slight ripple or it almost has more of like a handmade quality to it. That can actually date the piece back quite a bit as well. A little tip for a better deal is to purchase more than one piece from a vendor. So if you're at a flea market and you find, you know, a vase that you like from this vendor and he's stern on $60 as the price, it's always great to look around their booth and see if you can find maybe one or two other items that way you can kind of bundle them together and then give them a combined price. So let's say the vase was 60 and this other piece that he has was, I don't know, $30 and it was like a little tray. You might be able to combine them and get it for 80 as opposed to 90 and a lot of times vendors kind of see that as more of a value to them and they're getting rid of two pieces and they're still making money. So if you do want a better price and the vendor isn't going down on it, consider bundling some items and you might be able to get a better price. Always asking questions is a great thing to do as well because you could find out from the vendor, you know, maybe where the piece is from, where they got it from, if there's a story behind it. I just love knowing the history of every single piece that I have. Like I, and I feel like I do too. Like if you were to go around my house and be like, oh my gosh, I love this. I will be like, oh my gosh, I got this at a flea market and the vendor told me like I have this like little footstool piece and the vendor told me that it used to be a geisha's headrest. I forget the proper term of it, but I think about that all the time. How the stool that I have on my bookshelf is actually a antique geisha headrest to keep their head and all of the hair that they had from actually touching the ground. So I found that to be so interesting and you could find so much about specific pieces if you just ask. And also if they know nothing about the item and they're selling it for way higher than you would ever pay for it, that's a good indication that they probably don't even know what the price of it is either and they're just selling it at a high price point. Always walk around an antique store or a thrift store two times because through the cluster of everything, you are not gonna be able to see everything the first time. I'm sorry. And there are so many times I have walked through and I've gone through a second time and you walk through the first time then walk back the second time the opposite direction. The second time that you walk back, you might pinpoint or see some things you might have not seen the first time or you might even see some things in a new light that you might have not recognized the first time. So I always suggest walking through two times if possible. When shopping for vintage and antique rugs, something to look for is the front and back of the rug to start with. So when I bought my living room rug that's in here, I actually was seeing the backside of it and I loved the way that the backside looked. I was able to actually tell that it was hand knotted as well. Hand knotted rugs also are incredible. You could traditionally tell if something's hand knotted because the design is on the front and backside. And normally with a hand knotted rug, the design is more prominent on one side and then a little bit more subtle on the backside. One side will be more tufted and then the backside will be more knotted. So it gives you two variations of which side you can use, which I really love. And also tassels on an older rug are normally actually like made into the rug. So they're actually woven or implanted in the end of the rug, whereas modern rugs traditionally have a backing on them. So they're single-sided and then the tassels are actually sewn on. So that's a great indication as well. The tassels are sewn on, it's not an older rug. Something else to look for in old paintings is a term called crackalore. And this is essentially like cracking that's on the very top of the surface. And I feel like this is just automatically a sign of an old piece. And I personally love the way that this crackalore finish looks. And it's basically where like the top varnish kind of gets a little cracky and you can actually see the cracks in it. I feel like it actually adds to the antique or vintage vibe of the piece. Something Dustin and I actually do all the time when we're at antique stores, which a lot of you guys are gonna be like, ew, that is so gross. I mean, we don't do it all the time, but we have done it before, is tapping something on your tooth to be able to tell if it's plastic, if it's ceramic, if it's metal, like whatever it is, you can actually kind of get an indication of what it is, which sounds so weird. But if you like tap a little bit of plastic, like you can tell it doesn't hurt. You do glass, like it kind of doesn't hurt, but you can definitely tell that it could hurt you. Even like resin or like heavy plastic pieces, sometimes I kind of want to know if they're ceramic or I don't know what something's made of. Tap it on your tooth, like that's kind of strange, but if you really, really want to know, tap it there and it will give you an idea. Transferware versus hand-painted. So what are both? I mean, I feel like hand-painted, you already know what hand-painted is. But what is transferware? So a lot of times older dishes or I mean, even modern dishes are made by this. It's essentially where they kind of push down this sponge on top of this design and then it's pressed on top of the plate and that's transferware. It's where the design's transferred on ink and then transferred to the plate. So it's kind of like a machine system that does it. And a lot of times it's not perfect. So you can kind of see where the design might be cut off. It didn't transfer perfectly on the plate. Whereas hand-painted, normally the artist creates a perfect motif on the piece. It has a little bit more of a free-flowing design to it and it also can be more organic, I feel like. You might even be able to see brushstrokes or such. So that's a great way to tell if something's actually like a transferware piece or highly produced or if something's hand-painted and it might be like a one-of-a-kind item. Something we love doing is looking for signatures on the bottom of pottery. I love picking up a piece of pottery and if it's signed I instantly wanna buy it. Like something about just a person making this piece and just having that kind of history behind it and they had this at one point and who knows where it's been since. I love finding a signature on the bottom of a piece of pottery. A lot of times this is called studio pottery. So it's like a one-off piece from like a studio ceramic artist or something. So those are also great pieces to look for at the thrift or antique store. There's been so many times I've gone antiquing or to a flea market where I found a huge hutch or like an oversized sofa. I mean, not so many times, but there has been times where I found something that I'm just not able to transport and there actually are apps like Dolly or Lug and this is not sponsored in any way that you can have a person with like a big huge van or a moving truck come pick up your piece and deliver it for like $100. So just keep that in mind. Like if you do find a piece of furniture, there are apps, again, they're Dolly and Lug. I use them all the time though. And my last tip is to make sure what you're purchasing is something that you love and this is more so pertaining to people that are shopping for themselves and not like shopping to resell. If you are out shopping for antique or vintage, I feel like it's kind of hard to put a value on this random glass. But if this to you is worth $20 and you can seat in your house and it adds that quality and that character that you like, spending your money on that is reasonable. So I feel like a lot of times when you're shopping for vintage and antique for yourself, just kind of put a value on that piece at what you would spend on something like that for the spot that it's going in, whether it was new, whether it was old, what you would value something like that at. And I just feel like it makes the reasoning of purchasing something a little easier sometimes or it kind of reasons you to not purchase that item. But of course, if you guys are not into vintage or antique shopping, I actually have vintage drops all the time over on loanfox.com, well, not all the time. We've only had one in the past. We've been collecting, curating, photographing, packaging, all the items for the new drop which is actually coming up on March 26th at 10 a.m. So make sure to save that date in your calendar or you can even head over to loanfox.com. I'll put the link at the top of the description box below where you can enter your email that way you are notified when the drop is active and just get kind of some notifications before so. And yes, I hope that you guys loved these 25 antique and vintage shopping hacks. I kind of wanted to compile this together even though I know there are so many different means to shopping vintage and antique, whether you're doing it on your phone, on eBay or Etsy or whether you're doing it in person at a flea market or an antique shop, there are definitely things that you can kind of keep in mind to make your next shopping endeavor that much better. But I've been talking up a storm. I'm going to let you guys go. Let me know in the comment section below if you have any other additional vintage or antique shopping hacks. I love having conversations with you guys down there and I feel like we always teach each other something new. So leave all your comments down below and I will catch you guys all in my next one. Have an amazing rest of your day. Bye guys.