Vintage Home Furniture

Is there a market for Swedish Antiques?

I live in Sweden and there is a surprising number of antiques here in the northern area. In fact there is a early 1600-1700s horse carriage which is in really good condition in my husband's backyard. I was wondering if there is a market for me to sell antiques (brokering mainly) for US customers. I'm currently unemployed in Sweden.

Public Comments

1. IKEA have beaten you to it..........
2. I think there are. I subscribe to several homes and gardens magazines and I always see features incorporating Swedish and Scandinavian antiques. I suggest you search the web and study the offerings of these websites. The Swedish embassy lists the Swedish companies in the US http://www.swedenabroad.se/pages/general____7539.asp and one of them is an antique furniture dealer Avolli, LLC http://www.avolli.com/ Consider the following in making your decision: - what Swedish antique items are commonly sold by these stores and catalogs? - how are they selling the items? - where are the items located? - if the items will be in Sweden, how are you going to ship them in a most cost efficient manner? - how are you going to introduce your antique sellers to the US market? - how big of an investment is this business and whether you have the resources (esp. considering that you are currently unemployed) - how are you going to build contacts between the two countries? - who is going to be your main clientele - are you going to sell directly to American customers or are you planning to deal with furniture and other antique dealers?
3. There may be a market for these antiques in the United States, but you would need to know how to ship them, fill a container, get bills of lading, etc. etc. When I was an auctioneer I shipped antiques over from Wales, but it was with a broker who knew what he was doing. Many United States auctioneers would like to find nicely priced antiques, but you would need to understand your market and what you could provide.