EBay, Collectors, Flea Market & Antiques

Harry Rinker, who wrote Antique price guides most of his life, wrote one that was about collecting. He noted how we buy in our peak income years - 40-55 - and tend to buy what we remember or what our parents had. As time passes the oldest stuff becomes less valuable. And he was surprised when the internet happened at the sheer volume of stuff that had been hiding in storage. There is not much demand for a lot of it.

The Roaring 20s and the Victorian era had some disposable income but populations were much smaller so there wasn't as much of it to survive.