The Role of Art & Antique Dealers An Added Value
The longevity in dealers’ associations with buyers generates better customer relations, with “no hard sell” and greater nurturing of close and long-lasting relationships. The importance of familiarity, close personal contact and services and long-term relationships was one of the most frequently cited advantages by collectors. Buyers felt it was important to build a rapport over time with a dealer, and longer-term relationships allowed them more personalised and focused collecting. Some also felt there were important knowledge and value benefits to being a return customer rather than a more anonymous bidder at auction.
viii. Services: Dealers often provide more services directly to their clients such as valuing, appraising, repairs and restoration. They are often better equipped to conduct these services as they are more hands on, higher skilled, engage in more research and often conduct more work in-house.
ix. Depth: Dealers often engage with clients in greater depth, offering advice, education and an appreciation of art and antiques. Dealers help to establish both taste and condition, and go beyond restoring goods to tracing a work’s life story, ownership and other important historical elements. Some dealers claim that they help to shape tastes by enabling buyers to appreciate what is the best quality in a particular category, while letting them develop their own individual preferences. Education and advice were frequently cited by buyers as an advantage of using the dealer channel, some citing the depth of understanding it offered, while others noting simply its convenience and efficiency for gathering information and knowledge on the market.
x. Trust:Many dealers felt that they are more trustworthy and ethical than auction houses as they have to stand by the goods they sell and offer full buyer recourse. Some felt this helped to reduce fakes and forgeries, while others reported that they were generally more transparent in relation to condition, provenance and quality. This was echoed by many collectors who described dealers as more honest, reliable, credible and likely to have more integrity in relation to their businesses than auction houses.
xi. Low Stress: Large infrequent purchases such as art and antiques can be stressful for buyers, and dealers can offer a much less pressured point of purchase versus an auction room where emotional and competitive tensions are often high. This was a very commonly cited advantage in the collectors’ survey, with a high value placed on being given time to consider a purchase and make thoughtful and non-emotional decisions. Many dealers offer the possibility of taking an item home to try it out before purchase, and in general offer a much more calm exchange of ideas and thoughts which leads to more carefully thought out transactions. Collectors stated that the possibility of returning items or reselling them in future as an important advantage of buying through a dealer.
Some more practical advantages noted by collectors included the ability to view items directly, personally, and if necessary repeatedly, plus factors related to convenience, particularly the ability to tailor visits and appointments to their own busy schedules.
44 Historical & Future Perspectives
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64