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Tagged: vintage
- This topic has 4 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 3 months ago by Nancy.
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01/02/2017 at 10:44 am #9368
The definition of vintage is important to me as I sell many items on ebay that I describe as vintage. As it is often used as a marketing term and, IMHO, often deceptively to extract the buyer’s money.
Having said all that, I think the term vintage is partly subjective. If 1996 seems vintage to you, it is. But to me vintage means quality from years past. Quality is totally subjective.
Here’s a definition from Webster’s that fits my definition best:
denoting something of high quality, especially something from the past or characteristic of the best period of a person’s work.
“a vintage Sherlock Holmes adventure”
synonyms: high-quality, quality, choice, select, prime, superior, bestIn addition to vintage bike parts, I often ebay vintage stereo equipment and I think the term is absolutely abused in that arena. That 1979 store brand stereo is just old. It was not particularly well made, it didn’t sound great when it was new and the materials and components were not of high quality. To me, not vintage.
But if this ****ty old stereo was the one in your living room when you were a kid and you remember discovering your mom’s Beatles albums on it and the Beatles blew your young mind and you came across the very same one in mint condition at a thrift store and it gave you warm and fuzzy inside… we can certainly call it vintage.
Also, in bikes and stereos, it is fair to say that quality took a nosedive. Quality late seventies stereo manufacturers had been battling it out to create the best sounding stereos possible. Somewhere around 1980,they started to give up. Cheaper but arguably inferior technologies were used, build quality went out the window and profits went up. Similarly, I’m a big fan of old Raleighs. A Raleigh Sports or Sprite from 77 is vintage, while 4 years later Raleigh quality slid hard as automation, outsourcing and changes in ownership took their toll.
I had a hard time thinking of my 1980 Raleigh as vintage as the frame was not built in Nottingham and many of the components were made in Japan.
What are your thoughts?
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01/02/2017 at 10:58 am #9372
I don’t equate vintage with quality. It’s often true but to me doesn’t preclude an item’s vintageness.
I also sell on etsy. On etsy you can’t sell anything unless it is vintage or handmade. Vintage is deemed anything 20 years or older. Did they set that limit or is that from some other source? I don’t know.
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01/02/2017 at 11:30 am #9382
I agree with Nancy. When used as a noun and referring to wine it is meaning the year of the grape. Vintage 1940 or Vintage 2014. It represents the year bottled. But according to the dictionary it does include “usually meaning of quality”. But with wine, the 2014 “Vintage” may be a better year for the grape and thus the wine of “better quality” yet newer.
But to those of us that are re-sellers we refer to vintage as a time-period date stamp. Vintage thus older, Antique is fairly accepted in local and world wide auction houses as 100 years old or older, except in certain categories.
Yes it is a marketing tool. Many Ebay buyers are looking for collectibles that are older, movie prop masters are looking for period pieces, museums are looking for period pieces so vintage fits into that marketing ploy. “Vintage= thus an older period, which is as stated above is relative. I am 69 years old, I find items that fit into many styles, mid-century, retro, atomic, art deco, Abstract Modern, Hollywood Regency, and now even Shabby Chic all representing time periods to us.
My big question, especially since we are just about to open an Etsy shop brings a bigger question into focus. Who policies this 20 year rule. First a seller has to be able to even find a date stamp on an item. What if the item is 18 years old, who can prove it is not 20 years old? What or who at Etsy even tracks this? Some companies have been in business since the 1930’s, 40′ 50’s and still made the same ceramic pieces they did then using the same molds and the pieces look the same. Is the piece I am selling only 14 years old or 45 years old?
I am also a an artist. I have a sketch book of ideas going back to the 1960′ and 70’s. I also have brushes, canvass, paints that are that old. I decide to do a painting useing 50 year old concepts, 50 year old materials, he only thing “new” is the assembly of the art object. Is that new non-vintage by way of only a physical action or is it very vintage by way of conceptualisation, material age? What does Etsy do if you have a modern reproduction of a ceramic piece but are unaware of it and only an expert can tell the difference? I know that Roseville pottery was sold years ago and the new owners still use the same molds to make new pieces.
So, we have thousands of items we have removed from our six antique booths we closed down and are moving online. We are going to still use the term vintage on anything we know is definetly dated at 20 years old or older BUT ARE ALSO going to list items that are less than 20 years old and know no one at Etsy can tell the difference. Again who at Etsy can differentiate between something 19 years old and something 21 years old in the real, true vintage world of commercial mass production?
Also being a master fine art print maker, I can tell you also that many new highly technical manufacturing processes that are capable of dead on detail reproduction of older objects and prints. I see many art prints that were produced by a 22 color, second generation Piezo head laser printer with archival inks making Giclee’s these days. I can tell the difference but only under a 30x power loupe or higher. I have even had to go to a 100x power microscope at times.
I pose a question to you…Can you tell the difference between a real $20 dollar bill and one of the new counterfiet $20 dollar bills? Or tell the difference between a new real $20 bill or a “real” yet old $20 dollar bill that has been kept in a archived plastic sleeve since it was first produced years ago but looks brand new?
So, if an item has any traceable means such as sku number, bar code, mfg. serial number, model number, etc. then keep it off Etsy. But if not, then it is going to be fair game for all of our “VINTAGE” items. Etsy opened the door by saying they will allow “Vintage”, now they will have to pay the price to build a manpower team to police everything that gets listed under that heading and I just don’t think they will or can.
Just my opinion here guys and many things to ponder. It is what makes all of this fun, for us at least. 🙂 …
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta.- This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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01/02/2017 at 2:07 pm #9405
All we can do is research. When that fails us, we probably have a range of years in our minds. If I’m pretty confident but not certain, I’ll go with my gut.
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01/02/2017 at 2:45 pm #9408
No-one polices etsy for vintage as far as I know. I’ve been selling for over three years and have never been questioned. I’ve also never seen anyone post in the forums about having a problem with their listings.
Part of the etsy listing form is a required field where you choose either ‘1997 and older’ or a specific era. Before that field you choose if it is a supply or a finished item. If it is a supply to make something it can be any age even new.
If you want to ‘beat’ the system and list things newer than 1997 but say that they are older I don’t think anything will stop you. Or if you just aren’t sure you can guess that it is 1997 or older. For me it’s not so much whether etsy will catch something I sell newer and close my listing its the satisfaction of my customers. I want to be as sure as possible because I want happy customers. If I’m not sure of an era I choose 1997 or older because I am always sure of that. I don’t sell items that are so close that they could be 1998 or 1997 or 2001…. Most of the items I sell are pre 80s or they have dates on them. If there is no date with a little research I can identify the era. I sell many craft patterns and kits which are dated. Books which are always dated. Pottery, art, household items are all pretty easy to research. I have a harder time with clothing so I usually just sell clothing that is 80s or older. I don’t list 90s clothing. I think people who are younger have an easier time with 90s clothing. They can remember when they wore a particular style or item and know if it was early 90s or late 90s.
Anything you make art wise is fine. That is how etsy started; a place for people to sell their arts and crafts. It doesn’t matter when you made it or the age of your materials.
Hope that helps
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