Collectors Weekly is an online resource for people interested in
antiques
An antique () is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely to describe any object that i ...
, collectibles, and vintage items. The site pairs live auctions with original content, which ranges from encyclopedic essays to multi-sourced articles that aim to illuminate the cultural history of objects.
History
Founded in 2007 by
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
-based antique-telephone collector Dave Margulius, the site has since grown into a directory of more than 1,800 different types of objects people like to collect—from
action figures
An action figure is a poseable character (arts), character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game, television program, or sport; fictional or historical. These fig ...
to
Zippo lighters. Until 2011, Collectors Weekly shared staff and financial resources with the
Quizlet website.
In 2017, Collectors Weekly was purchased by Barnebys.com. Its staff of three writers and editors share an office in The Grotto in San Francisco.
Collectors Weekly uses a number of factors to determine how much a collectible is worth, the primary ones being the item's condition, authenticity, rarity, current market demand, and value.
Collectors Weekly has three main areas of focus—its category pages, a community known as Show & Tell, and hundreds of long-form articles and interviews, which are presented contextually across the site. Each of its category pages features a written description known as an Overview accompanied by a selection of filtered
eBay
eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...
auctions, which can be sorted by highest bid, the number of people on eBay watching the item, or the time left in the auction. Users can also see about a month's worth of completed auctions in any category. The site's "Show & Tell" section allows registered users to showcase items they collect, as well as to get feedback on their pieces from other collectors. Finally, Collectors Weekly writers publish articles that often delve into the technological and social histories of objects. Some of these articles are presented as long-form interviews with antiques experts, while others are shorter, photo-driven, blog-style posts. Recent examples include articles on the history of Hawaiian hula girls, a 1960s rock band called the Charlatans, and the 16th-century practice of using applied beauty marks to cover facial blemishes.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Official Website
Collecting
Self-publishing online stores
American review websites