Rule number one:Unless you have thousands to throw away on advertising, let someone else do the advertising for you.

I see many dealers either try to start their own website and advertise or they go to a larger antiques mall and set up a shop where they have to advertise their own collections anyway. Many of these dealers spend hundreds on Google or Overture advertising and do not get enough return on this investment.

My advice is to find a service that will advertise for you but does not charge an advertising fee. The larger auction sites are a good example but they are not for everyone. They can be expensive and you may not be able to sell at a satifactory price. Look instead for a dealers mall that is popular in the search engines, either in the natural or paid for listings, that works off of commision. In this way your advertising will be free and you will pay little if anything if your items do not sell.

Rule number two: Use only sites that are made for professional dealers.

Professional antiques and collectibles dealers need to have certain tools.
a. They need to be able to load pictures, and lots of them, add a great deal of decription.
b. They need to have a shopping cart that allows them to accept any form of payment they need. They also need a history of sales and commisions charged.
c. They need a space to call their own. Any site a dealer uses should be able to give the dealer a URL that will show only their own items, not everyone else's on the site. It would also be great if you could search withing each dealers items

So sit back and let someone else worry about the advertising and make sure it's free.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marc Fischer is managing partner of JosephMarc.com a website for professional antiques and collectibles dealers