New MAD Places

A feature of our new blog is MAD Places. No, we are not angry. Every now and again we will update our blog with new Full Featured Business Listings on Michigan Antiques Directory. We love full business listings! When it comes to antiques / collectibles / vintage businesses, there is no such thing as TMI. Recently added are:

Burgess Antique Center   Located in Galesburg, Kalamazoo County. Antique mall located in downtown Galesburg within a historic seed company, we have the look and feel of an old time store!

Robin's Nest  Located in Gladwin, Gladwin County. Vintage and antique mall located between West Branch and Gladwin on M-30, we have a high end shop without the high prices!

Welcome to our new stores!

MAD businesses can enhance their Internet presence and visibility with one of our Mini Web Sites. With a slide show of your interior, your storefront and a scroller to detail your events and sales and a large description area to fill to the brim with keywords, a Mini Web Site will deliver a lot of bang for your advertising buck. Lake Shore Antiques was our first Mini Web Site. Click on the image below to take a look.

We are running a special on Mini Web Sites for the month of December. Email us for the instructions to set up your Mini Web Site and mention the coupon code DECBLOG to waive the set up fee and take 25% off the first year hosting cost. This will reduce your start up cost from $144 to $90. A Full Feature Business Listing is required to have a Mini Web Site.

We hope you all have a great month!

Best regards,

John & Leslie

John Fiske "In My Opinion" column worth reading

John Fiske, of Fiske & Freeman, is an antiques dealer in Ipswich, Massachusetts. He specializes in 17th century English furniture and other things from the 17th and 18th centuries. Not only does he run a very successful online antiques business (he has a shop but admits that it's closed more than it's open), he is also an extremely articulate and thoughtful writer with a concise and global perspective on the business of antiques. He writes a regular column, In My Opinion, for The New England Antiques Journal. If you have been pondering the place that Gen Xers occupy in the business of antiques, I highly recommend that you read his latest column The X Factor. While you're there, check out the archives of his past articles. It is, in our opinion, a column worth reading.

Best regards,

Leslie

Welcome to our blog!

Of course we would have to have a blog, right? Personally, I love blogs! There are so many talented, creative and informed people out there and the things that I have learned, the insights that I have gained and the perspectives that I have considered are nearly endless. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not claiming to be talented and creative. However, I am endeavoring to be informed and then to share that information with you.


Let me back up just a bit and clarify what Michigan Antiques Directory or MAD, as we call it, is about. We don't sell antiques. We help antiques / collectibles businesses in Michigan sell antiques... and collectibles and yes, even that controversial vintage. Those businesses are stores and malls, dealers and their web sites, fairs, markets, shows and, to some extent, auctions. Truth be told, we don't know much about antiques per say. I was a dealer for about seven years. I LOVED the hunt and arranging my booths. I really enjoyed hauling items out of a barn or basement and cleaning it up to find the treasure underneath the layers of years of neglect. Truth be told again, dealing in antiques was not my forte. But, while I was a dealer, MAD was born (you can read the very short story of this on our About Us page) and here we are.


So, what are we doing here? This is our place to share with you the fruits of our research about marketing antiques and collectibles businesses. What are the trends? What are other people doing to promote their business? How can we build better relationships with customers? Just who the heck are the customers anyway?! You know, all that kind of stuff. We'll also post for the collectors. What people are doing with antiques these days - decorating, design, cool finds and such for those of you are are not in the 'business' of antiques. This is for all us folks who just plain love antiques whether you buy them, sell them or both. Got something to share? Tell us. Got a question? Ask it. If you're a blogger and want to guest post, just let me know. We are looking forward to this new feature of Michigan Antiques Directory. Talk to you soon!


Best regards,


Leslie