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Of course you should ask what's the best way to buy an antique clock? We've talked about
auctions and that's probably the way that I would think at least to get that education
and start finding ones that you're interested in. But by the same token I don't want to
deny as a clock dealer that I would encourage you to buy from dealers like me. People who
stand behind their clocks, who've preselected them for you in a way, found ones that they
think are both good quality, good collector importance, good condition and they're going
to be guaranteed to give you more than a few weeks service. Hopefully will outlive most
of us if they're serviced properly. What I probably would steer you away from is online
buying unless you really know what you're doing or you're prepared to do some restoration
or some arguing with the seller. I myself have bought clocks online that I was disappointed
with. The descriptions were inadequate. Perhaps on purpose, perhaps just through ignorance
of the seller but unless you can really handle that clock, see it in person, listen to it,
you have a good chance of being disappointed. I know a lot of people have bought a lot of
clocks online and been happy with it. So, perhaps it's just the beginner I would dissuade
from it, otherwise as more of a clock expert you'd know perhaps what the pitfalls are and
you'd be able to deal with any of the mistakes that you made by buying online. There's ways
of knowing what's coming up both in shows and in auctions. There are a couple of papers.
One of them that most collectors look at is the Antique and Arts Weekly. Or better known
as the Bee. This is a weekly paper that comes out of Connecticut. Many articles and press
releases related to the antique trade but also just page after page of auction announcements.
And in many of them you'll see clocks being sold or you'll see actual entire clock auctions
being advertised. Again that comes weekly. A monthly Maine Antique Digest which I should
say is the antique publication that my wife writes regularly for. This has more in depth
articles. Really tells you what happened at the shows. What happened at the auctions.
Who bought what and why when they can find out. But certainly also the same quantity,
intensity of advertisements for upcoming auctions and shows telling you where you might find
some clocks and some clock dealers or good collections being sold at auction.