Page 42 - VE Magazine - Issue 42

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Most dealers have followed your journey, some find you inspirational, but why do you think other dealers think you’re arrogant and big headed? Put it this way, nobody ever says anything
to my face, and if I was bothered about what other people said about me, I’d be curled up in a ball, hiding under the bed right now. I couldn’t care less what anybody thinks. I very much plough my own furrow, it’s not arrogance, its confidence. I don’t know everything and I always say I don’t know everything. I know one per cent of the antiques trade, if that, it’s such a massive subject. I’ve never professed to know any more than that.
Do you get on with most dealers in the trade?
Yes. There’s a couple of dealers that I don’t like, and they don’t like me, and that’s fine. If I were selling fish, they’d be a fishmonger who didn’t like me and if I were building dry stone walls, they’d be one who didn’t like me and I wouldn’t like him. It’s just one of those things, move on. I’m very happy doing what I’m doing.
ber-November 2018 / ve www.vintagexplorer.co.uk
What about those who have “heard this”, or “heard that” and formed opinions without having met you? It’s childish, tittle-tattle. “He’s this, he’s that, he’s the other!”, every now and then I’ll hear something, but generally they’ve never met me. If I hear something’s been said, I’ll ring them up and talk
to them. They’ll be two different types of dealers, the pantomime dealers who just need something to talk about, and then there’s an older generation of dealers who just moan! I stopped doing a lot
of the fairs a long time ago, because I got sick of people moaning “It’s not like the old days!”. Well, it isn’t like the old days, so get over it and move on. I know what I’m doing, and I’m very happy to be doing what I’m doing, and I always help out people wherever I possibly can. I can guarantee you one thing, all those moaning dealers, will
have had someone walk into their shop and buy something, because those people watched Salvage Hunters and felt confident to do it. They can moan all they like... I won’t stop promoting them. I have my eye and my knowledge, nothing else. There’s always going to be dealers that you’re never going to please, but I’m just not interested, I really
don’t care. I do my own thing, if you like it, great, come along for the ride. If you don’t, I don’t give a monkeys! I am who I am. I’m a happy man.
What has been your biggest regret?
A lot has changed obviously, my divorce, moving house, I’ve had to move my business twice in the last two years. A lot has changed, and we’re still working on things and getting things right, but I have an amazing team of people around me, and we all work very hard. I don’t know – what am I these days? Am I an antique dealer? A TV antique dealer? What am I? It’s a very strange thing these days. All I ever wanted to be was an antique dealer, but now this TV thing has come along and taken over.