High Tech Meets Old World

The Best Antique Sites

If you collect it, you'll find it here. Billed as the world's largest virtual antique mall, TIAS.com Antiques and Collectibles has an almost mind-numbing 1300 categories to search from and more than 200,000 items on any given day. TIAS organizes items for sale on sellers' pages, and then collects and groups similar items into something resembling a large bazaar, where vendors tout their wares from their individual stalls. The result is that each seller's pages look very different, with little consistency between them. But the selection is astonishing: The pottery category alone had an astounding 211 pages of listings on one day when I was browsing.

Use the drop-down menus and the search function if browsing seems overwhelming. Searching can turn up great results: I found some pottery I was looking for (that was a bit too pricey), as well as some great old toys, within a few minutes. The site's use of thumbnail photos, with brief descriptions of the item and price, make quick searches easy; if you want a larger picture and more details, just click the thumbnail. This arrangement is a welcome change from most other antique sites, which feature full-size images on each page and take forever to load over a dial-up connection.

Site: Works in ways similar to an auction, but feels like shopping at a store (or, sometimes, a flea market). Individual sellers will haggle with you over prices, but this isn't an auction site.

Shipping: Since shipping charges depend on the size and weight of the item, and insurance is added as well, buyers and sellers must negotiate shipping charges after the sale closes.

Pricing: Prices are close to those of brick-and-mortar antique stores. Remember to estimate the cost of shipping and factor that in before you buy.

Comments: I love this site for its ease of use, speedy page loads, and large selection of hard-to-find items.

Love that return policy. If you're hesitant about buying antiques over the Web, Antiques Online offers an easy out: Return any purchase, no questions asked, within three days for a full refund. The site is set up to help novice shoppers feel comfortable with the online experience; the most technical question you're likely to be asked is whether you want to view the site with or without frames. (Pick the frames option to speed page loading.)

Thanks to clear, sharp photos of more than 20 categories of merchandise, as well as detailed descriptions, you're likely to get a good sense of the item you want to buy--but you need to pay attention to the shipping costs. I found a Bakelite pin from the 1920s, and the price was great at $45. But the $6 shipping charge seemed high for something that weighs just a few ounces.

Site: Easily navigable for novice Web antique buyers. Offers a broad selection and detailed product information.

Shipping: Individual dealers set their own prices for individual items, but the site clearly lists shipping charges and factors them into the total price.

Pricing: It's hard to compare prices charged by antique sites because so many items are unique, but the prices seemed fair.

Comments: This site's layout and operation is less overwhelming than some others.

What it lacks in selection, it makes up for in quality. By no means the most thorough antiques auction site, Old and Sold Antique Auction is a great place for auction beginners. Old and Sold is set up to work just like EBay, with buyer and seller ratings, bid histories, and interesting feature articles about antiques, updated monthly.

The selection of merchandise isn't large, but what you find is of very high quality. The site offers amazing eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and early-twentieth-century jewelry, housewares, pottery, and decorative heirloom objects. Because Old and Sold is fairly small, you have a better chance of finding a bargain here than on a popular, heavily-trafficked site such as EBay.

Site: Selection of high-quality, unusual antiques in a familiar auction setting.

Shipping: The seller sets the shipping price. Make sure you factor in the cost of shipping insurance.

Pricing: The potential for bargains is high here, so keep checking back. For fragile or valuable items, or if the seller can't accept a credit card directly, try using an auction escrow service such as I-Escrow.

Comments: Rare and esoteric items seem more common at auction sites like Old and Sold than at sites run by more traditional dealers. It was nice to find both Native American and Amish items--normally hard to come by in stores--for sale at this site.

Freelance journalist Valerie Rice hopes to bring her collection to Antiques Roadshow someday.