ABSTRACT
A market in used objects has always existed in so far as humans made items of value and had a means of exchange by which to purchase them. Before industrialization, useable objects such as furniture, ceramics, weapons, and textiles, were extremely expensive investments (either in money or labor) and would be handed down through the family. If defective, the object would be repaired rather than replaced. Since such objects were a type of property that could be moved, the term for furniture in many languages is a variation of mobile. It is because of their mobility that these objects were often used as collateral to secure loans, and the pawn shop became our earliest form of antique dealer. With time these objects become obsolete, either because newer items can serve its function better, or its stylistic features have gone out of fashion. Obsolescence is an essential feature of the antiques world, and many of the items collected on the antique market are essentially obsolete in their original function, that is, something newer and cheaper will perform the task better, for example, antique cars, weapons, scientific instruments, jukeboxes, peasant butter-churns. These kinds of items are not collected to be used for their primary function, but rather for the aesthetic and historical properties these objects possess.
