Back in mid-October a helpful Facebook friend suggested a site for me to check out.
Why they suggested it, I suspect, was that they noticed that I tend to be helpful in giving advice on antiques & collectibles when people ask, and I have been...umm...griping about ways to make this online thing "pay"...and that I tend to give away my advice for free.
This particular site would allow me to be paid for my services.
I thought that was just the kind of alternate money making opportunity I needed....!
I checked it out, and it seemed like it had some good potential. I have over 20 years experience in this business, know my stuff, am a honest sort, have a good reputation, etc....so, what the heck, I'd go for it!
So, I tried to sign up....
However, they had requirements...which is to be expected. However, one of the things they required was an "antique appraiser's certificate...."
Wait a minute....you mean a certificate from an "appraisal school" where you pay, they teach you how to "appraise" and turn you loose on the unsuspecting public, who are unaware you need not have any knowledge about the items you are appraising?
And you can even get these certificates via a HOME COURSE ordered online?
Don't get me wrong, some appraisers can be very, very good, and immensely qualified...
....but some can be REALLY bad.
As a dealer I have gone to view items that had been appraised by a "licensed appraiser", and could do nothing but allow my eyes to roll uncontrollably....
Sometimes you are invited to buy, or rather, make offers, on someones "antiques", and you find they have been appraised at 10 times market value by a "trained licensed appraiser." You will look like a fool in the eyes of the owner, no matter how reasonable an offer you make....you could even offer full-bore-retail-on-an-ideal-perfect-sunny-day and still look like an idiot or rip-off artist.
Works the other way, also. If you are going to hire an appraiser to appraise your grandmother's oak dining room suite, make sure they are actually familiar with what they are appraising.
Scenario:
You tell the well dressed appraiser the suite is Stickley.
They then walk up to it, touch the table top in a soft, caressing fashion.
You think: "My, they sure do appreciate quality furniture....I made a good choice!"
But, little do you know, they are thinking:
"Hmmm, weird, doesn't seem sticky to me."
So, an appraiser is really only as good as their knowledge, or their sources of knowledge. A dealer friend and her daughter both got their appraisers certificates after attending an out of province course. Given their excellent reputation in the business, they were asked to appraise antiques, estates, etc, a fair bit. I also happily recommended them in my list of appraisers I felt were qualified, when people asked for a recommendation of an appraiser.
But, I knew they did their research, and did not try to assess items from areas they were not familiar with. They could easily and were quite qualified to appraise china, formal antique furniture, glassware, etc...but, if they came across vintage toys, advertising items, nostalgia-type things, I'd get a call for assistance and/or advice.
Other appraisers tend to...well, "wing it."
So, when I came across the "appraiser certificate" requirement on the site, I thought, well, ok, you need to filter out people who are not all that knowledgeable...but, it is well known in this business that a "certificate" doesn't mean much in many cases. Plus, their little requirement makes my credentials worthless....over 20 years experience means NADA in their eyes.
So, I delved deeper into the site....
And I found experts in such fields as Animal Care, Plumbing, Health, etc appraising antiques...!
So, I wrote the operators of the site a "brief" email...thus:
I am an antiques & collectibles dealer with over 20 years experience in the field. I was going to register on your site as an expert. However, I see your "qualifications" include having a "antique appraiser" certificate.
In this business, it is well known among dealers that having a certificate to appraise does not actually make you truly QUALIFIED to appraise antiques in general, especially when the objects require specialized knowledge.
ANYONE who wishes to pay a fee and attend a brief course can get an antiques appraiser certificate.
Not everyone has a lifetime of experience, vast libraries of reference books accumulated over years, which trumps any certificates. I am one of the people those same "appraisers" approach for advice. Eliminating those of us with true experience, and a wealth of knowledge is eliminating the majority of those who you should have doing assessments of items on your site. I have already seen inaccurate answers here. Also, those answering antiques questions DO NOT have antiques appraisers certificates, but are experts in some OTHER field totally unrelated to the antiques business....this is akin to having a plumber do your electrical work... But, yet you keep the real experts out of the picture....I'm confused as to the requirements of an antiques appraisers certificate, when you allow someone with certification in a totally unrelated field do assessments of items...
And their reply?
Hi,
Thanks very much for your valuable feedback. I'll be sure to pass it along to our product development team. Please be sure to check back again in the future to see if any changes are made to the credential requirements for the Antiques category.
Best wishes,
(and yes, it was unsigned....no name...just "Best wishes,")
So, that was Oct 15th....
Shall we check out the current requirements? I do need to see if I should go get a dog groomer's certificate and do some antiques appraising and give medical advice....
So, I selected my category, "antiques"....
Filled out all my info...
Messed around a bit...AH, ok, here we go...
I am now an EXPERT at...well, before I reveal the site, let's make sure I AM registered as one of their "experts."
BUT, it does seem they changed that "appraiser certificate" requirement! Got to give them credit for that!
I'm impressed!
Oh, wait...jumped the gun....looks like I am still waiting for my "profile" to activate...so we might still hit a snag...
*yawn*
Now am still waiting for a photo for my "avatar" to upload...
Yes, of course it is going to be my neon sign...cool, ain't it?
Still waiting...not sure if this issue is my Internet connection, computer or the site itself...
I need a thumb twiddling graphic of GIF about now....
Ok, got an "error" page...trying again....
Guess what I found....
HEY, finally!
Ok, so now I need to verify my identity....
Filled out the stuff.....submitted...
.....and now it wants some of my Passport info???
You have to be kidding...!
Here is what it asks for:
"Starts with P, is 44 characters long"
"Passport line 2: (44 characters long)"
And THIS is what it all means...
Yeah, right, I am going to go give them my passport info? Got 2 answers for this one..
(a) No, I will not.
(b) I don't have one right now ANYWAY.
Ok, so if I skip that and answer the "4 questions" they ask as "qualifiers"...
Four questions at which I roll my eyes as I read them ---ooooooohh geeze......I'm getting dizzy now......
Got to stop that eye rolling....whew...
All the answers are available to you with no effort (IE:Google), I might add, if you didn't already know them. They are also questions which I'd suggest are not exactly what I'd say are qualifiers as to being an "expert" in antiques. All stuff you may or may not have learned over the years...depending on what areas of interest you have, items you have dealt in, etc. It is possible that you could not know any of the answers, but have been in the business for 50 years, and more qualified than most of the dealers out there.
So, in any case, I answered the questions....I guess they still need to "check" my answers....you;d think it would be an instantaneous "pass or fail"...not hard to program that into the system. Oh well, just have to wait.
But, I think I may also be able to get by the "passport" requirement....which shows up only because I put in CA instead of leaving the default "US" for country....
Nope...got my hopes up....as it turns out I end up getting: "First Name / Last Name, Address, Date of Birth do not identify you enough to proceed"
So much for that.
Oh, an email popped up to inquire about other ways of ID verification...ok, will inquire via that....
Will let you know what happens....So far this has been, well...
ANNOYING...
And, really, EXTRA annoying....seeing as once I had reviewed the questions (and amounts people are willing to pay for the answer)....I could have made easily $100 by now giving some of those people their answers...
But, at least I did get a blog post out of it!
Why they suggested it, I suspect, was that they noticed that I tend to be helpful in giving advice on antiques & collectibles when people ask, and I have been...umm...griping about ways to make this online thing "pay"...and that I tend to give away my advice for free.
This particular site would allow me to be paid for my services.
I thought that was just the kind of alternate money making opportunity I needed....!
I checked it out, and it seemed like it had some good potential. I have over 20 years experience in this business, know my stuff, am a honest sort, have a good reputation, etc....so, what the heck, I'd go for it!
So, I tried to sign up....
However, they had requirements...which is to be expected. However, one of the things they required was an "antique appraiser's certificate...."
Wait a minute....you mean a certificate from an "appraisal school" where you pay, they teach you how to "appraise" and turn you loose on the unsuspecting public, who are unaware you need not have any knowledge about the items you are appraising?
And you can even get these certificates via a HOME COURSE ordered online?
Don't get me wrong, some appraisers can be very, very good, and immensely qualified...
....but some can be REALLY bad.
As a dealer I have gone to view items that had been appraised by a "licensed appraiser", and could do nothing but allow my eyes to roll uncontrollably....
Sometimes you are invited to buy, or rather, make offers, on someones "antiques", and you find they have been appraised at 10 times market value by a "trained licensed appraiser." You will look like a fool in the eyes of the owner, no matter how reasonable an offer you make....you could even offer full-bore-retail-on-an-ideal-perfect-sunny-day and still look like an idiot or rip-off artist.
Works the other way, also. If you are going to hire an appraiser to appraise your grandmother's oak dining room suite, make sure they are actually familiar with what they are appraising.
Scenario:
You tell the well dressed appraiser the suite is Stickley.
They then walk up to it, touch the table top in a soft, caressing fashion.
You think: "My, they sure do appreciate quality furniture....I made a good choice!"
But, little do you know, they are thinking:
"Hmmm, weird, doesn't seem sticky to me."
So, an appraiser is really only as good as their knowledge, or their sources of knowledge. A dealer friend and her daughter both got their appraisers certificates after attending an out of province course. Given their excellent reputation in the business, they were asked to appraise antiques, estates, etc, a fair bit. I also happily recommended them in my list of appraisers I felt were qualified, when people asked for a recommendation of an appraiser.
But, I knew they did their research, and did not try to assess items from areas they were not familiar with. They could easily and were quite qualified to appraise china, formal antique furniture, glassware, etc...but, if they came across vintage toys, advertising items, nostalgia-type things, I'd get a call for assistance and/or advice.
Other appraisers tend to...well, "wing it."
So, when I came across the "appraiser certificate" requirement on the site, I thought, well, ok, you need to filter out people who are not all that knowledgeable...but, it is well known in this business that a "certificate" doesn't mean much in many cases. Plus, their little requirement makes my credentials worthless....over 20 years experience means NADA in their eyes.
So, I delved deeper into the site....
And I found experts in such fields as Animal Care, Plumbing, Health, etc appraising antiques...!
So, I wrote the operators of the site a "brief" email...thus:
I am an antiques & collectibles dealer with over 20 years experience in the field. I was going to register on your site as an expert. However, I see your "qualifications" include having a "antique appraiser" certificate.
In this business, it is well known among dealers that having a certificate to appraise does not actually make you truly QUALIFIED to appraise antiques in general, especially when the objects require specialized knowledge.
ANYONE who wishes to pay a fee and attend a brief course can get an antiques appraiser certificate.
Not everyone has a lifetime of experience, vast libraries of reference books accumulated over years, which trumps any certificates. I am one of the people those same "appraisers" approach for advice. Eliminating those of us with true experience, and a wealth of knowledge is eliminating the majority of those who you should have doing assessments of items on your site. I have already seen inaccurate answers here. Also, those answering antiques questions DO NOT have antiques appraisers certificates, but are experts in some OTHER field totally unrelated to the antiques business....this is akin to having a plumber do your electrical work... But, yet you keep the real experts out of the picture....I'm confused as to the requirements of an antiques appraisers certificate, when you allow someone with certification in a totally unrelated field do assessments of items...
And their reply?
Hi,
Thanks very much for your valuable feedback. I'll be sure to pass it along to our product development team. Please be sure to check back again in the future to see if any changes are made to the credential requirements for the Antiques category.
Best wishes,
(and yes, it was unsigned....no name...just "Best wishes,")
So, that was Oct 15th....
Shall we check out the current requirements? I do need to see if I should go get a dog groomer's certificate and do some antiques appraising and give medical advice....
So, I selected my category, "antiques"....
Filled out all my info...
Messed around a bit...AH, ok, here we go...
I am now an EXPERT at...well, before I reveal the site, let's make sure I AM registered as one of their "experts."
BUT, it does seem they changed that "appraiser certificate" requirement! Got to give them credit for that!
I'm impressed!
Oh, wait...jumped the gun....looks like I am still waiting for my "profile" to activate...so we might still hit a snag...
*yawn*
Now am still waiting for a photo for my "avatar" to upload...
Yes, of course it is going to be my neon sign...cool, ain't it?
I need a thumb twiddling graphic of GIF about now....
Ok, got an "error" page...trying again....
Guess what I found....
HEY, finally!
Ok, so now I need to verify my identity....
Filled out the stuff.....submitted...
.....and now it wants some of my Passport info???
You have to be kidding...!
Here is what it asks for:
"Starts with P, is 44 characters long"
"Passport line 2: (44 characters long)"
And THIS is what it all means...
Yeah, right, I am going to go give them my passport info? Got 2 answers for this one..
(a) No, I will not.
(b) I don't have one right now ANYWAY.
Ok, so if I skip that and answer the "4 questions" they ask as "qualifiers"...
Four questions at which I roll my eyes as I read them ---ooooooohh geeze......I'm getting dizzy now......
Got to stop that eye rolling....whew...
All the answers are available to you with no effort (IE:Google), I might add, if you didn't already know them. They are also questions which I'd suggest are not exactly what I'd say are qualifiers as to being an "expert" in antiques. All stuff you may or may not have learned over the years...depending on what areas of interest you have, items you have dealt in, etc. It is possible that you could not know any of the answers, but have been in the business for 50 years, and more qualified than most of the dealers out there.
So, in any case, I answered the questions....I guess they still need to "check" my answers....you;d think it would be an instantaneous "pass or fail"...not hard to program that into the system. Oh well, just have to wait.
But, I think I may also be able to get by the "passport" requirement....which shows up only because I put in CA instead of leaving the default "US" for country....
Nope...got my hopes up....as it turns out I end up getting: "First Name / Last Name, Address, Date of Birth do not identify you enough to proceed"
So much for that.
Oh, an email popped up to inquire about other ways of ID verification...ok, will inquire via that....
Will let you know what happens....So far this has been, well...
ANNOYING...
And, really, EXTRA annoying....seeing as once I had reviewed the questions (and amounts people are willing to pay for the answer)....I could have made easily $100 by now giving some of those people their answers...
But, at least I did get a blog post out of it!
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