Whenever I am out and about at an antique mall or flea market, there are some basic rules of etiquette that I follow.

Here are a few of them:

Put items back where you found them.  You picked up an item with the intention to buy it, and along the way you decided not to.  That’s more than fine—make sure to put it back where you found it.  Antique malls and flea markets have booths for dealers to stock with their items—this way the dealer gets their items back.

If you happen to bring a drink in with you, see if it is ok to bring it in with the people that run the shop.  I have run across several shops that don’t allow food or drinks in the front door.

Make sure that you follow the golden rule of antique shopping—buy what you like when you see it.  If you let it go, it might not be there when you come back for it.

And remember to watch where you walk and keep an eye on your large bags or purses that you bring with you.  There is one rule that I have seen stores enforce quite a bit—you broke it, you bought it.

This is a small handful of the common etiquette that you will run across while antique shopping.  What have you run across?

Looking for a new and inexpensive wall hanging for the house or apartment?  Have you ever thought about framing a piece of sheet music?

Old sheet music can be picked up cheaply at most flea markets that are near you.  A lot of the time you will find a stack for you to go through to find a potential candidate.

American illustrators have created many colorful images for music pages—historic scenes, beautiful landscapes elegant ladies and gentlemen, funny (even cartoonish) like figures.

Whatever you like can be found as an illustration.  That and a cheap frame and voila! Suddenly you have a new masterp

This is a few items that you can use as artwork.  What have you found to turn into a great wall hanging?

One of the questions that I get asked quite a bit is “How do you find inventory to sell?”.  I literally cannot count how many times that I have been asked this, and here’s a list of some of the ways that I find items to sell:

Auctions, garage sales and even estate sales are three of the easiest ways that I find inventory.  One trick that I do is to look in my local paper and online for sales that are in my area.  Another thing that I do is to look for signs that lead to a sale that may not be advertised as well.  I have found some good deals at sales that are not well advertised.

Here are some other ways that I have found some inventory:

I have also found items to sell that were thrown away.  There have even been a few items that I have gone into a dumpster after.  When you do this, you need to be careful because that could be something in the trash that could hurt you!

I also picked up items that have been put out with a FREE sign by them.  This could be someplace like the curb or in a garage sale—you never know where you might find a free bin!

There have also been a few times that people want to get rid of something and they let me have it if I haul it away for them. It always pays to look when you are out and about—you never know what you will find.  Where have you found items to sell?

There are times when you buy an item and you realize that you WAY overpaid.  Or you find out that the items a reproduction.  You stand there and start to kick yourself over it.  There are even times when you are interested in purchasing an item and not sure about it.  As collectors and dealer, we eventually will get to that point.

There are some questions that you need to remember that are very useful.  What are they you ask?

What do you know about the item?  Do you know when it was made?

Is it the real deal or is it a reproduction, and how do you know?

Has this item been repaired?  If it has been repaired, where and how was it repaired?  Was it restored?

Do you know who made it, and what was it used for?

These are all great questions to help you out, and you will eventually add to this list over time.  Any honest dealer will be more than glad to answer any and all of these questions for you.

There’s one great rule of thumb that I have for this—if you still have any lingering questions or doubts about the item, just walk away from it and think about it.  If, over time, you feel that there’s something about it that isn’t right, don’t buy it.

What kinds of questions have you asked about an item?