The Price (Isn't Always) Right

For the past 42 years, Virginia Johnson has run the Town of Vienna Fall Antique Show, and she says there's one thing people who come to see it can count on every time.

"This is not like a craft show or flea market type of thing," Johnson, who took over the show in 1968, said. "These are all real dealers, none of which have been in business for less than 20 years."

At this year's three-day show at the Vienna Community Center, which ran Oct. 8 to 10,  20 dealers came from across the east coast to showcase their pieces, both to long-time customers and to buyers trying to purchase antiques for the first time.

Many new antique buyers may go to a show thinking the most expensive pieces are also the most coveted. But dealers at the show this weekend agree that cost is not the most important factor when it comes to buying and selling antiques: They are more concerned with how unique the item is as well as its rarity.

Patricia Oakes, of Silver Spring, Maryland, boasted a jewelry set that belonged to the late Hollywood actress Mary Pickford, which Oakes acquired from Pickford's estate sale several years ago.

 "I like to find those rare pieces that really have a story behind them and have more inherited value than the naked eye can see," Oakes said.

In fact, price and rarity can be two independent variables when it comes to antiques, they said.

"It doesn't have to correlate," Angela Greenberg, owner of Cottage Garden Antiques in Fairfax Station, said. "Sometimes you can sell something that's exceptionally rare, but it doesn't have to be expensive."

Take the Monopoly Golf Edition board game Carol Pierce, of Carole's Antiques in Springfield, was selling. The game set was only $15.00. but is a rare collector's item because Hasbro no longer mass-produces the Golf Edition of the Monopoly game.

Pierce became interested in antiques because her mother-in-law was in the antique business. When she died, she and her husband decided to go into the business themselves.

But now she's closing up shop and slashing a lot of her prices, including for the monopoly game set.

Pierce didn't say the economy forced her shop to close. But Johnson said it is stopping people from antiquing as much as they used to—some patrons who came to the show this weekend even turned around at the door when they learned there was a $5 entry fee.

"There's no more young people coming," Johnson said about recent buyer trends. "Some of the people that started coming to the show in its early years were 30 and have grown up with us over the years. But we just aren't seeing anyone in the 20 to 35 year old range these days."

But dealers said they hope that will change, and offered two ground rules to younger people thinking about making a purchase: always appraise pieces of jewelery, and research items in advance so you're able to ask the dealer questions specific to their pieces.