In the last post, I talked a little about narrowing your field when looking for vintge gifts. Today, let's talk a little about what makes something collectible.

When you are looking for vintage gifts, you need to know a little about value. Most of this is common sense. For instance, which has more vintage value: a 50 year old dresser, or a 50 year old piece of jewelry? Unless the dresser is unusual, the jewelry is probably more valuable. One reason for this is that the jewelry market began much later. There are many examples of furniture that is over 100 years old, even hundreds of years old. But finding jewelry from before 1900 is rare.

So, use common sense. Whatever item you are looking for, consider the market. Do a little research, and you will find very quickly what age you should be looking for.

Now, here's some tips for preforming searches. Be a specific as you can. Don't search for "vintage clothing" if what you really want is a dress from the 1920's. In that case, search for vintage 1920 dress.

If you end up with a lot of results that are reproductions, use this search phrase: vintage ITEM -reproduction. That will remove results that are reproductions.

Other search terms to use: vintage, antique, old, original, authentic.

In the final article, I'll talk about authenticity and how to decide who to buy from.