VIDEO: What is the Future of Antiques?

A majority of people who appear on the popular PBS TV show The Antiques Road Show have no idea what their item is worth and a majority of the items brought to the show are worth about $75, said Stuart Slavid to the crowd assembled at yesterday's monthly Temple Beth Am Brotherhood breakfast.

Slavid, a Framingham resident and member of the Temple, is a vice president at Skinner's Auctioneers & Appraisers. He joined Skinner's in 1989 and is an expert in ceramics. Slavid is also internationally recognized as one of the foremost authorities on Wedgwood pottery. He is also a regular on The Antiques RoadShow. One could say antiques is in his blood. His parents owned an antiques shop in Wellesley.

Slavid told tales of antiques he has encountered during his career. He also talked about the current market for antiques and what the future holds for antiques.

He said high-end antiques continue to sell well, but that the middle market has become soft. He told the audience that when he was a child, children collected coins, stamps or baseball cards. He said today's kids have no interest in collectibles. "They are  into gadgets. They are not collecting. They are accumulating a bunch of stuff," said Slavid.

He said young adults are not any better. He said they are not into collecting antique furniture . Instead, they purchase a "room in a box" from Crate & Barrel, Ikea or Pottery Barn, he said.

He told the audience he worries who will be buying collectibles 25 years from now.

The rest of the world doesn't have the same view of antiques like Americans. He said in the early 1990s Germans purchased a lot of antiques. In the late 1990s, it was the Japanese. In the early 21st century it was the Russians, and now it is the Chinese.

"I hope I live long enough that it is the Americans," Slavid said.

He said the Internet has brought buyers from all over the world to the auction houses. He said during any given auction, there can be buyers in the room, on the phone, on the Internet, etc. "People can be anywhere and bid," he said.

For example, he said an Anna Pottery Stoneware Centennial Snake Jug, made in 1876, and estimated at $20,00-$30,000, sold for almost $44,000 at auction.

Another example he gave was of a porcelain teapot, estimated again at $20,000-$30,000, that sold at auction for $95,000; as it was one of only 200 known pieces in the world.

He said a hot commodity today is silver, which is now at $40 a ounce.

He told the audience he is named in a lot of people's wills. He said he once had a woman come up to him at a BBQ and said "I know you. You are the person I am supposed to talk to when my parents die."

He said people list him in wills, so that their children will go to someone who knows the worth of a collection before they pick up a phone book and call "A Antiques." He said once an antique business estimated a collection of 150 teapots at $3,000-$5,000. At auction, they sold for $1.5 million.

He said a collection of music boxes sold for more than $1 million, while a Wedgewood china collection sold for $300,000.

As is the case with The Antiques Road Show, the stories from Slavid were as interesting as the pieces he presented on slide.

Afterwards Slavid took a few questions from the audience, including one on whether Elizabeth Taylor's estate would fetch a lot at auction. Watch his thoughts on the video Framingham Patch shot.

Audience members were fascinated with his stories and asked the Brotherhood to schedule him to speak again next year.