About Our Antique Business

Back When...

I am a born antiquer, junker, borderline hoarder. Buying and selling antiques runs in my blood and has been a part of my life since early childhood. I have been a buyer, seller, dealer, collector, hoarder, and accumulator of antiques and old stuff for over 60 years.

My initial education in acquiring and appreciating antiques and collectibles began as a child in the late 50's - 60's working with my mother shopping curbside in New Jersey during monthly "junk pickup" week.   One person's garbage is another's treasure was a valid concept.

Mom would gather up junk and sell treasure. She was such a fanatic that the town we lived in instituted an ordinance against having more than 2 yard sales in the same location per year. She overcame that roadblock by simply moving the venue around to friend's or neighbor's yards. I remember those days, experiences, and the finds fondly! Mom's dead and gone but the gene carried through.

I went through the typical phases of a young collector.  As a kid, I hunted for, bought, sold, or traded baseball cards, coins, military related stuff, critters, fireworks, and most anything else that happened along.

After moving to California in the early 70's I would regularly pick the local dump to supplement my meager income. It was a time when people were still throwing away some great stuff including antiques and other valuables. I was a monthly hit at the Flea market going in full, and coming out empty. Many months I made more money doing that than working in construction. 

But for the most part that era, and the times of easy antiques ending up on the roadside, in the dumpster, at the dump, just waiting to be brought to market, are over. I moved on. At some point a bell went off that I was wasting time pounding nails. Going into antique stores and seeing stuff I was selling for $5.00 and $10.00 at the flea market being offered up for $50.00 and $100.00 in shops was a wake-up call. My first time at the Brimfield Antique Show in the late 80's was like being reborn, and the first tool show I attended and completely sold out at was something both I and a lot of other people remember fondly. 

Carole, my wife and partner, is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Vassar. She has a degree in Anthropology and a deep appreciation for all old things, not just bones and stones. She has a keen sense and ability to interact with people that makes her eminently qualified to rummage around in other people's stuff while they are still watching. My approach is a bit rougher. The differences in our experiences, education, and approach are complimentary though, and have helped us stay focused and to evolve this business and our style of buying and selling antiques into what it is today. Without her I might still be rummaging around the dump, thrift stores, and flea markets.

Changing Times

Before the advent of the internet (BI) during the 80's and early 90's we would spend 8-9 months of the year on the road and on the East Coast in our pursuit of antiques. We would go from antique shop to antique shop, antique show to show, one club meeting to next and auction to auction, buying and selling antiques with reckless abandon. The supply of great antiques and collectibles, and as importantly, great buyers of them, seemed endless in those pre-internet times. It was an exciting, fun, educational, and rewarding time period.  And it seemed there was no end in site, on the horizon, or anywhere else.  WRONG!! 

The Internet happened and a new reality began to take hold.  The internet signaled the end of that previous seemingly endless era of cheap and easily obtainable supply of antiques, and the beginning of a new age After Internet (AI ) had dawned.

The world of antiques and how to buy and sell them changed rapidly.  At first we were slow to adapt, and were resistant to the coming changes caused by the internet. MISTAKE! Reality is hard to ignore though, and we soon realized we were not getting any younger and it really was a changed era. We had to adapt, and the way we conducted our business had to change. Our two antique-related Web Pages www.Patented-Antiques.com and www.Antiqbuyer.com were created, and we entered the new era of internet antiquing.

Today

Today our internet antique websites  www.Patented-Antiques.com and  www.Antiqbuyer.com are our way of meeting the new challenges in the ever-changing world of buying and selling antiques. I imagine it has been an experience much like getting one of them new fangled telephones or a gas powered vehicle was for the operators of antiques shops and sellers of antiques in the earlier times.  (Way Before Internet or WBI)

We still routinely make house calls from contacts generated from our sales-oriented antique website www. Patented-Antiques.com and our sister site www.AntiqBuyer.com which has a lot of specific info about the different categories of antiques we deal in, as well as a large data base of Past Sales Results for specific antiques we have sold in the past.

We are always interested in buying collections of antiques or single great pieces. The days of going from show to show, or shop to shop, and hitting every out-of-the-way shop between here and there in the quest for quality antiques are basically over. We still make periodic cross country trips to follow up on leads and pick up stuff we have arranged to buy or sell on consignment, or attend a few decent shows that remain, but our road warrior days of antiquing are about over. 

We have been actively Selling Singer Featherweight Model 221 and 222 Portable Electric Sewing Machines online for over 20 years! We are the largest and best Singer Featherweight Sewing Machine sales website on the internet! We purchase outright and also sell many Featherweights on consignment for the owners--- if your Featherweight is in excellent condition, and especially if it is one of the more unusual variations, we can help you too.  Click here for more information about selling or consigning your Singer Featherweight.  Click here to read testimonials from some of our happy customers.

Collecting Clubs

We are or have been members of numerous collecting groups such as MWTCA, PNWTC, AFCC, ATTIC, ISMACS, KOOKS, MSICC / PITCA, EAIA, PATINA, CRAFTS, APES, ACME and others. These and many other collector clubs are / were valuable sources of information and knowledge, and without exception are worthwhile expenditures of time and money for collectors and lovers of antiques. Our advice to all collectors is to join such an antique collector club today and participate.  It is a very rewarding experience.

Our Goals

The primary goal of this internet antique website www.Patented-Antiques.com   is to provide you with a high quality, high-profile, easily accessible location in the "new antique marketplace" on the internet to both buy and sell antiques.  We fully  understand and are constant witnesses to how the antique marketplace has been changing over the past few years.  This site will provide you with a new and viable alternative to the old and now obsolete ways of both selling and acquiring antiques.

We strive to provide you with a  reputable, knowledgeable, and hassle-free venue to sell your individual antique or life-long collection of antiques that are of interest to us.

If you have a single antique, or a collection of antiques to sell please Contact Patented-Antiques.com at patentedantiques@gmail.com giving us your PHONE NUMBER  and other contact info and we will get back to you ASAP.

  To view examples of the types of antiques and collectibles we have previously sold and are always interested in helping you sell please visit our Past Sales Archive Pages at our sister website www.AntiqBuyer.com.

Thanks!!
Larry & Carole

We do not have an open shop!  The Internet is our only storefront.  For more info on this please see the FAQ / Questions page.  Thanks!!

Please Note:  Important

Because of the volume of requests, severe time constraints, and a full time work schedule, we cannot respond to all of the individual requests for free online appraisals, "eppraisals", valuations, or general information requests about individual antiques we receive.  Please see the FAQ page for more info.

 Thanks for understanding!