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Ahoy there, welcome once again to 'Blog Post Monday'.  I hope you're all keeping well.

Now, I don't know about you, but I do love a good antiques TV show.  From 'Bargain Hunt' to 'Antiques Road Trip', to 'Salvage Hunters' and 'The Bidding Room', I enjoy watching them all.  But having worked in the trade for a while, I have noticed a regular occurrence.  Customers use these TV shows as part of their negotiation techniques, as if they are supposed to lend weight to the discounts they receive, and it proper winds me up!

It got me thinking... Whilst I absolutely adore these TV shows, overall, do we think they have a positive or negative impact on the trade?  I need to be careful what I say here because I have interviewed a fair few legends from said shows, but it is an interesting quandary.  This is the subject of today's blog post and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

So, as always, get that kettle on, pause this afternoon's episode of [enter favourite antiques show here] and let's discuss the pros and cons of having so many antique TV shows...

Ahoy there shipmates!  It's that time of the week again!

Well, I've been a busy boy this week.  I had a special item of mine valued and put in for auction, so I'll be telling you a little bit about that, and I also ventured out for a little bit of an antiques rail trip.  I visited some lovely shops and centres, and a blimmin' awful one, which I'll be venting about too!

So, as always, get that kettle one, hold on to your hats and let me tell you about my antique rail trip... *cue the jingle*

Welcome once again to another instalment of 'Blog Post Monday'.

This week, I'm going to talk about a subject that I've wanted to talk about for a long time, but have felt too nervous to because of the divisive nature of the subject.  Yes, that's right, I'm talking about 'Brexit'.

I should stress that this post is NOT about whether it was right or wrong for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.  Quite simply, this post is about the effect that Brexit has had on your antiques business, whether that's positive or negative.  I will be sharing my own personal experiences with you and I hope to encourage you all to share yours too.

So, as always, get that kettle on and buckle yourselves in because this could be quite the ride!

Welcome once again to 'Blog Post Monday'!  I hope you're all keeping well.

I read recently about a guy called Nelson Molina.  Molina is a retired refuse collector in New York.  He collected trash for over 30 years and during his rounds, he would keep an eye out for treasures within the trash and let's just say, he collected quite an amount!  In total, Molina has collected around 40,000 pieces and he's now turned his collection into a museum.

This got me thinking... How much stuff, is too much stuff?  I'm always fascinated to see the kind of things people collect.  I've seen people collecting all sorts during my 37 years of living.  The outright weird, the rather wonderful and the damn right dangerous!  In this week's blog post we're going to be talking about collecting.  I'll share a few of my stories and I want to hear yours too!

So, as always, get that kettle on, take a seat, if you can find one underneath all those collectibles, and let's find out, how much, is too much...?

It's 'Blog Post Monday' once again!  Welcome, welcome, welcome....

Over the course of the past year I've written a few posts about interesting and exciting finds I've experienced during my time as a collector and dealer.  Most dealers like to share stories of their favourite and most fruitful buys, but we're not so forthcoming with the disastrous ones...

Like many of us, I've had my fair share of idiotic buys.  But let's be fair, there's just so much to learn when you're starting out in the antiques and collectibles trade, and it's only natural that you should make a few mistakes a long the way.  I think they call it "learning the hard way" and by jove, haven't I had my moments!  And, for a change, I thought this week I'd be upfront and honest, and share with you some of my worst buys of all time.

So, as always, get that kettle on, settle into your favourite chair and make sure you've got a spare pair of pants to hand, as I regale tales of my most disastrous buys...