American Antiquities

ON THE ROAD

2011-04-07T07:57:00.000-07:00

I was once accused of just doing something - anything - when I was unsure what to do. My accuser was my boss and an important business mentor in my life and he was right. My gut reaction when things aren't going as I think they should, is to do something . . . even if it's wrong to do something. American Antiquities has suffered and enjoyed that business axiom for 20 years and we are once again practicing it today with this writing.
A few years ago when fuel prices were spiraling upward as they are today and diesel fuel was cheaper than gasoline, we invested in a somewhat fuel efficient diesel powered vehicle for distribution. Shortly thereafter diesel became more expensive than gasoline and to my knowledge has remained so despite the fact that diesel is less expensive to produce ... so much for doing something!
Most everyone appreciates and we understand the importance of the face-to-face contact we establish and maintain with our current and potential customers. As best we can tell no other street-sheet-based print media publication maintains a larger market footprint than American Antiquities, and we plan to keep it that way. We expect to continue growing both the print and Digital branches of our media package by prudently taking advantage of any and all opportunities as they arise. In spite of usurious fuel prices and fill ups approaching $125, you will continue to see my smiling face as I visit your shop to remind you how we can work together and help each other prosper.
I must admit, I sometimes feel as though I've written and spoken too much about the advantages of using our service. We truly believe we have the best service for the least amount of money available in the market today. We've used every catch phrase and fact sheet imaginable to explain what we do, and I still worry you may not understand the full scope of what we do ... otherwise you would be our customer.
Our most recent attempt to keep you up to date is available on the index page of AmericanAntiquities.com. Click on "Our Bottom Line for Improving Your Bottom Line," and you will be almost up to speed. To be fully apprised also review the back cover of The American Antiquities Journal and notice how we are growing the GPS Atlas by offering a wide range of new services to complement that part of our package of services. We hope these new offerings will go viral and establish us as the premier national guide for the American Heritage tourist … so much for doing something.
I look forward to seeing you On the Road, Art

THE AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES JOURNAL

2011-04-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

THE AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES JOURNAL

is published two times a year and features interesting articles, an events calendar listing antique shows, events and fairs and festivals. Our Antique America maps geographically locate a variety of businesses that appeal to the antiques enthusiast. The full print version of the Journal is widely distributed. If it is not yet available in your area you may wish to subscribe. If you are interested in becoming a part of the American Antiquities website, please see our list of services and prices.

The Spring-Summer 2011 issue is ready for distribution and available for download at http://www.americanantiquities.com/journal.html

Our publication is theme based and this issue is primarily about magic and magic history. I think you will find the articles informative and interesting.

We have events and classifieds as well as places to go in "Antique America". We geographically list places for shopping, dining, lodging, recreation, entertainment, art & historic points of interest for The American Heritage Tourist.

Here are a some of our major features in the issue:

There's Gold in Your Attic - Blue smoke and mirrors – It’s magic

The Indescribable Phenomenon

Is Magic Disappearing?

Mamzelle Marie - Voodoo Queen of New Orleans

8 to 80

2011-02-25T13:23:00.000-08:00

My father passed away when I was 5 years old and my mother did not remarry, even though she was a beautiful young woman in her early 30's … but that's another story. The point is, my first male role model as a preteen, aside from my older brother, was a larger-than-life used car salesman. He looked like a movie star and exuded the confidence of a royal family member. All the neighborhood girls swooned in his presence, and all the guys wanted to emulate his every move.
My brother and I were privileged to have after-school and summer jobs working for him at his home and car lot. Working at the lot was particularly interesting because we could observe him in action practicing his trade.
He would often taunt his salespeople by saying, "Give me a customer and I’ll sell ‘em! Any customer, 8 to 80, crippled, blind or crazy and I‘ll still sell ‘em! “ He was good at selling cars and motivating others to sell for him. He soon became a very successful new car dealership owner who provided a very comfortable living for himself and his family.
The over-arching message of this posting is not how politically incorrect his statements were in the '50s, but that business needs customers to be successful… and that's what we do at American Antiquities… we bring you customers. The print media side of our business is tried and tested and obvious in its unparalleled offerings. The electronics side of our operation is easy to quantify.

2010 numbers are follows:
42,505 unique visitors to our websites
19,797 revisits
175,831 pages viewed
812,332 hits

ALL OF WHICH WILL BRING YOU CUSTOMERS TO BUY YOUR INVENTORY

DO THE MATH

2011-02-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

At least once a year we have a chance to "do the math" and get some idea of where American Antiquities stands in the "media world" scheme of things. The Super Bowl last Sunday was the event, and cost per exposure is the comparison we made.
Sunday February 6, 2011, a lot of really smart, highly paid marketing executives from 33 really big and very successful corporations decided to pay $3 million for each of 50 advertisements during the Super Bowl. The spots were 30 seconds in length and were aired once that day and viewed potentially by a little over 100-million football fans. That works out to about 3¢ per exposure. Keep in mind that does not include production costs which often exceed the spot cost.

Considering our readership, unique visitors, and the bottom-line cost of tapping into everything we do, our cost per exposure is 2/100 of one cent. In other words those really smart, highly paid marketing guys paid at least 15 times more for one exposure than they would've paid had they chosen American Antiquities. Don't you make that same mistake!

Frozen Solid!

2011-02-03T12:10:00.000-08:00

Ice, Ice, Ice, Ice, Ice
Just got back to the office after a few days. Our parking lot is an ice skating rink. As a matter of fact so is our back yard at home.
Hope you all have made it through the last few days safely. Now it's back to the business of business.
Don't let your business get stale. Try new things.
American Antiquities has a great package.
http://www.americanantiquties.com/ Click on "Our Bottom Line for Improving Your Bottom Line" for all the great programs we offer.
Nancy

You Should Use the Internet to Improve Your Business

2011-01-20T10:41:00.000-08:00

You should consider making the Internet a part of your business. We did in 1993 with the launching of our flagship site, American Antiquities.com. To this day we regularly review the features of our sites to make sure we are staying abreast of the latest popular innovations. We were fortunate the first few years of our Internet experience to have had 2 Internet service providers partner with us to help with the details necessary to establish an important presence on the Web. Without the assistance of EriNet & MainNet we would probably have suffered economically & administratively to the point of having to incorporate the Internet into our business. With nearly 2 decades' experience working the Web, we are now in a position to do for you what EriNet & MainNet did for us.
American Antiquities will establish, manage, & maintain a professional presence on the Internet for less than any comparable service available in the market today.
Browse our site for the facts & give us a call.

Don't be a bump on a blog

2011-01-12T07:28:00.000-08:00

Don't be a bump on a blog. Use the Olde News Blog to write about your business and see what others think of you. List your events and sell your inventory. This is all FREE. The only thing it takes is your time and I hope your business is worth your time. See for yourself at www.TheOldeNewsBlog.com

Help Me Understand !

2011-01-07T07:49:00.000-08:00

Other things equal, i.e. one is not buying from a friend or relative, how is it that a business person will pay more for fewer products or services? Your customers won't & neither should you. Help me understand why some are opting for Sunday Driver Directories over American Antiquities.
AW

The Know-It-All?

2011-01-04T13:27:00.000-08:00

I am from time to time affectionately referred to by some in the office/shop as a know-it-all and a control freak. I, of course, know nothing could be further from the truth and present two points to support my position:

#1 I need only refer to my OSU grade point to establish the fact that I do not know it all.

#2 When you review all the services we provide (see "Our Bottom Line for Improving Your Bottom Line" at AmericanAntiquities.com), one can easily conclude that no one person could effectively control most, let alone all, the things we do.

On the other hand, there are some things about which I feel certain. One of those is that every ongoing retail business must do all they can to encourage customers to visit their store and purchase their inventory. I also know that American Antiquities is the best deal from a service and cost standpoint available in the market today to accomplish both these goals.

And we back up that boast with a written guarantee! (Once again, see "Our Bottom Line for Improving Your Bottom Line" at AmericanAntiquities.com)

Thank you to those who may and who are Asking American Antiquities.

AW

The Urbana Antique Show

2011-01-04T11:04:00.001-08:00

Art & I went to the Urbana OH Antique Show & Flea Market today, visited with friends & clients, & as usual, found some great bargains. Our dealer friends are happy with their sales, & along with them, we encourage you to contact Steve @ 937-788-2058 about a space.

No Soliciting does more harm than good.

2011-01-03T06:40:00.000-08:00

Until recently suggestions we draft tweets & blog postings and use Facebook and You Tube to establish and build business relationships were not considered the best use of our time. However, with the new year and a new local, state and National political mix and the promise of a more job friendly business climate we have reconsidered.... so here goes. You've just read our first blog and this is our first tweet of 2011: A "No Soliciting" sign on your front door does more harm than good!

Cheap Advertising

2010-05-18T12:33:00.001-07:00

If you want to bring tourists to your area, go with The American Antiquities Journal. They are inexpensive & go all over the Midwest. You can see what the magazine looks like in a .pdf file on their website AmericanAntiquities.com. You can have a nice ad for less than $1 a day. LESS THAN A DOLLAR A DAY! That's unheard of in this day & age. Also you can send photos of things you have in your shop ... that's free if you have an ad, & photos are put on their website too.

The "Spin Zone" at American Antiquities - # 9 Live Storefront

2010-02-16T07:53:00.000-08:00

This is the ninth & final posting in the "Spin Zone" at American Antiquities. With this posting you have at last the complete Cliff’s Notes version of the story of American Antiquities, for now … Watch for future postings announcing a free DVD summarizing 1 through 9 & more exciting innovations.

This last note for now in our series involves a service for allowing anyone who has access to the Internet to browse your business as though they were in the building. We call it "Live Storefront" & you can preview how it works from the index page. Click on "Live Storefront" & take control of a pan, tilt & zoom video camera & browse one of the rooms of our shop. We plan to announce the availability of this new service in the Spring/Summer 2010 edition of The American Antiquities Journal, which will hit the street in April. Imagine making money while you sleep by having your business open 24 hours a day, seven days a week with no payroll!

One word of caution, as is the case with most interactive services on the Net, "Live Storefront" works best with high-speed connections.

Art

View the Video

The "Spin Zone" at American Antiquities - #8 Dot Com Boom # 2

2010-02-16T07:48:00.000-08:00

This is the eighth in our series of postings & covers a period of time near where we are today at American Antiquities. We were & are doing so much it is not possible to convey in one sitting the scope of our services to existing customers, let alone new prospects. The non-option of cutting back to a simpler service in the middle of Dot Com Boom # 2 seems a sure plan for disaster, so we decided to use all the new interactive information services to spin the story of American Antiquities … the "Spin Zone." See Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, & our website for the whole story.

If you are operating an ongoing business & take the time to suffer through this series of text & video messages, you will find something to help your business do better. I literally guarantee it … see our warranty at the bottom of the page "Our Bottom Line for Improving Your Bottom Line" on the index page.

Trust me, we are not going through this "Spin Zone" rigmarole because we think we’re cute or clever … we are simply trying to convey on a clear, concise & contemporary manner who we are & what we do, for both your & our benefit. That’s the way it works the best. We both contribute to each other’s success symbiotically.

Art

View the Video

The "Spin Zone" at American Antiquities - #7 Run Early – Use GPS

2010-02-16T07:45:00.000-08:00

This is the seventh in our series of postings in the "Spin Zone" at American Antiquities. This episode deals with the trials & tribulations of travel … something with which I have extensive experience. For the record, just since the start of business December 1993, I have worn out nearly four vehicles driving more than one million miles soliciting business & delivering publications for American Antiquities. I have been lost in every major city within 600 miles of Springfield OH, &, unlike most males now understand it’s OK to stop & ask directions. Driving in an unfamiliar locale at night looking for a destination you have never before visited, using only a map to guide you can be very trying.

You may recall (See posting # 2) the original & overarching reason for The American Antiquities Journal was to help customers find you. Over the years we have upgraded & reorganized our Antique America inset maps to make them better, & until a few years ago they were the best we had to offer. Now we have two more print media publications, GPS Antique Atlas & GPS Atlas, & two websites GPSantiqueatlas.com & GPSatlas.com & offer on demand browsable CDs of both sites that are updated.

I cannot exaggerate the time, energy & money savings I enjoy using GPS when I am on the road. Handheld GPS units have been one of the most popular gift items for several years & use of the technology is growing in popularity as the concept spreads to cell phones & other devices. As usual, we were the first to see this coming & offer you a way to tap into it.

Art

View the Video

The "Spin Zone" at American Antiquities - #6 ASK American Antiquities

2010-02-16T07:41:00.000-08:00

This is the sixth in our series of "Spin Zone" postings & deals with the two-year period just after adjusting to cure our first bout with growing pains. The extra time we created for ourselves was used as planned to grow market share & expand our geographic footprint. That was the easy part.

The hard part was coming up with something sufficiently beneficial to offset the loss of contact we suffered by switching from a monthly to a quarterly. We clearly understood the parallel & complementary nature of our magazine & our website, & the importance of our shop to test the effectiveness of any new features. As we pondered options for the best next step, we decided to make our website more accessible.

We did so by building four ASK machines (Advertising & Sales Kiosks). We placed them at high traffic antiques malls throughout our market area & moved them regularly for maximum exposure. Keep in mind, the Internet was in its early years & few malls had Internet access & virtually no small shop had computers, let alone Internet access. We therefore out of necessity configured our ASK machines to operate without Internet access by utilizing a zip drive to provide a snapshot view of our website. We updated the zip disc often, but were looking forward to the day we could provide live Internet access via our kiosks … but that’s a subject for future postings. For then, we enjoyed the cutting edge advantage our ASK machines provided.

Art

View the Video

The "Spin Zone" at American Antiquities - #5 Growing Pains

2010-02-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

This is the fifth in a series of "Spin Zone" postings & deals with our first set of important decisions precipitated by the way we were doing business. The problem arose because of our success, but could have been very harmful to our business if we had not made some adjustments. The crux of our dilemma was how do we continue to grow geographically & expand our client base & serve our clients as a monthly "street sheet?" i.e. hand-carry our publication to our clients & use them as distribution points to target the market.

We were at that time working in six states & running out of time to do all we need to do to operate as usual & grow. We were suffering growing pains.

The solution to the situation in which we found ourselves was threefold.

# 1 We switched from a monthly to a quarterly publication.

# 2 We upgraded our publication from a colorless loose-leaf tabloid newspaper to a tabloid magazine, stitched & trimmed with a full color front & back covers.

# 3 We used the extra time allowed by the changes to think even further outside the box for ways to better serve our customers, clients, readers & browsers.

See further postings for examples.

Art

Click here to view the video

The "Spin Zone" at American Antiquities - #4 Our Rapid Growth

2010-02-05T08:24:00.000-08:00

This is the fourth in this series of postings to help you understand our services. Although we are not at the midpoint of our message, I would like to pause and reflect on where we were in our evolution at that point in time.

The time was early 1994. We had just established a working model of our entire business plan, and were poised to impress the market with the most cost-effective, interactive, multi-media marketing service available … all we needed to do was spread the word.

For the remainder of 1994 & most of 1995 our focus was to grow our market share & expand our market footprint. We did so by hiring sales & distribution personnel, who not only accomplished our primary goals, but also provided valuable information about others in the market. By year-end 1995 we had blanketed Ohio & grown into the five states that border Ohio.

During that same period we added features in our print media & experimented with imaginative ways to utilize the Internet to incorporate immediacy into our service. The titles of some of the new features were the Events Calendar, More Select Internet Sites Directory, Snapshot Gallery, Shows Section, Fairs & Festivals, & Antique America. Some of our early ideas regarding the Internet are still in the offing, but we were among the first to offer a password-accessed & managed WebStore in the form of a web page on our website. The WebStore project was put on hold for lack of demand, but future postings will reveal other exciting Internet innovations.

Long story short, we found our legs quickly in the media business & used them effectively to jump ahead of our contemporaries & lead the industry. We plan to maintain our advantage by constantly looking for creative ways to better serve our customers, clients, readers, & browsers.

Art

Click here to view the video

The "Spin Zone" at American Antiquities - #3 Our Website

2010-02-01T13:41:00.001-08:00

This is the third in a series of postings which will eventually detail all our services in the order in which they were developed, so you might see the logic & enjoy the benefit of what we do. Almost at the same time we saw the need for The American Antiquities Journal, we saw the need for AmericanAntiquities.com. We were ahead of the curve in 1993 and have maintained our leadership to the present. We are rarely at a loss for ways to challenge ourselves & have over the years tried & tested & accepted & rejected many ideas … the subject of which is for future videos & blogs.

For now the groundwork has been laid with our shop, The American Antiquities Gallery, our publication, The American Antiquities Journal, & our website AmericanAntiquities.com.

Go here to watch this video

The "Spin Zone" at American Antiquities - #2 Our First Print Publication

2010-02-01T13:39:00.001-08:00

This is the second in a series of postings we are making to explain in detailed & digestible form who we are & what we do at American Antiquities. The subject of this posting is The American Antiquities Journal and, in particular how it came about & what it is meant to do.

The idea of The Journal occurred to us shortly after we opened our shop, The American Antiquities Gallery, due to most of our customers asking if we knew of other shops like ours in the area. More often than not, they would also ask if we could recommend a good place to eat or spend the night. Many would also be curious about other points of interest, such as museums, art galleries, & historic sites. Long story short, we recognized very shortly after opening our shop, an opportunity to start a parallel & complementary business to serve an industry that benefited more than any I know from networking. Thus was born, Dec 93, The American Antiquities Journal.

Go here to watch the video

The "Spin Zone" at American Antiquities - #1 Our Shop

2010-01-29T05:58:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the “Spin Zone” at American Antiquities. This is the first in a series of short serialized blogs to spread the word about American Antiquities. YouTube, Facebook and Twitter will complement our project, which will culminate with a free DVD of all the archived information chronicling the evolution of our business.

This first blog starts at the beginning, mid-year 1993, with the opening of The American Antiquities Gallery. The Gallery is a joy to operate and has revealed opportunities we would not have seen otherwise. In addition to directing our growth, our shop has provided extra insight for devising and evaluating new services for our clients. I have often said, “If we had not opened an antiques and collectibles shop, we would probably not have the media business we enjoy today.” In sum, our shop was the start of it all.

Go here to watch the video

Art

American Antiquities Commissioned to Sell Iconic Works of Art

2010-01-20T08:59:00.000-08:00

American Antiquities of Springfield, Ohio is pleased to announce that the company has been commissioned to sell three iconic works of art originally components of Columbus, Ohio’s City Center Mall. City Center opened in August 1989 and is scheduled for demolition within the next few months.

The three works of art include the 40-foot Marshall Field’s Tower Clock, a 22-foot aluminum sculpture titled “Valentine Column” by William Crovello, and a 9-foot bronze titled “Black Bronze Form” by Bernadine Silberman.

All the works of art are one of a kind.

For more information go to www.AmericanAntiquities.com

2010-01-19T10:26:00.000-08:00

American Antiquities