University launches UK's first antiques auctioneer course

A university today launched Britain’s first ever course in auctioneering and valuation.

School leavers hoping to become the next David Dickinson will be taught the secrets of spotting an antique in the two-year foundation degree.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1061098/University-launches-UKs-auctioneer-course-students-learn-spot-antiques-like-TVs-David-Dickinson.html

WEADA Members’ Antiques Fair - The First One!

As many of the members of Sellingantiques.co.uk are WEADA members, we wanted to give the new WEADA Members’ Antiques Fair a mention...

Details are....

This first WEADA Members’ Antiques Fair is now confirmed.

This very special event will be called

The West of England Antique Dealers’ Fair at Taunton

The Fair will run from 24 - 26 October 2008 with a Preview Evening on Thursday 23 October

The venue will beTaunton School Sports Hall, Taunton, Somerset

To be organised by Cooper Events Limited on behalf of WEADA

For all enquiries please contact Cooper Events Limited,PO Box 15
Burnham-on-Sea
Somerset
TA8 2BY
Tel: (01278) 784912
Fax: (01278) 792687
info@cooperevents.com
www.cooperevents.com

Welcome Artware Fineart

We're delighted to say that Artware Fineart have signed up as a full member of Sellingantiques.co.uk. A big welcome! You can visit the Artware and Fineart website at www.artwarefineart.com and you can view their stock here.

Welcome Stratford Antiques and Interiors

We're delighted to say that Stratford Antiques and Interiors have signed up as a full member of Sellingantiques.co.uk. A big welcome! You can view their stock on this page

Antique Dealer Control Panel - "Captions" Explained

Every now and again we get an email asking what "Captions" do. Well..here we go for an explanation...

If you click on the "Tel Email About Us" blue button at the bottom of your control panel you will open your "update contact details" page. This enables you to change your tel number or address etc.

Well...at the bottom of this page you will see "Captions - to be shown underneath your listings".

So what are captions?

Here's the scenario: You want to add a sentence or two to the description of all of your listings. Rather than to copy and paste the same piece of text into each of your descriptions, you simply add the text as a Caption. This means that this caption is automatically added to every listing.

Examples of a caption....

"We're open every day from 10am - 6pm. You can find us off M4 Junction 6. We do offer a delivery service - email us for details"

"Every antique displayed is covered by our 100% money back guarantee. If you're not happy, we'll give you a full refund"

So why are captions so cool?

Lets say you have 100 antiques being displayed on Sellingantiques.co.uk. Using a caption allows you to add generic text to each of the listings. If at any time you want to change the text you only have to update your "caption" and all your listings are automatically updated.

Sellingantiques.co.uk Visitor Stats Explained

This post refers to the visitor statistics shown in the antique dealer control panel.
A common question dealers ask is: What is the difference between the thumbnail views and the detail page views.

Thumbnail (a thumbnail is the small photo) Views:
This figure will be substantially higher than the detail page views. A thumbnail view is registered whenever a category page is loaded or a keyword search is performed. Each of the items on the page shown registers 1 thumbnail view. Normally there are 8 items shown per page so each of the items registers 1 thumbnail view.

Detail Page Views:
This figure will be about 2-5% of your thumbnail views. A detail page view is registered when a user clicks on your thumbnail photo to be taken through to view the detail of the item. Once a visitor clicks through to read the detail then 1 detail page view is registered. Clicking through to the detail page shows some interest on behalf of the visitor.

Hope that helps!

Control Panel Listings

Within the antique dealers control panel we have added the "move to next page" at the bottom of your listings as well as it appearing at the top. Thanks for the anonymous feedback for this suggestion!

Control Panel Update: Comments Box

Within the Sellingantiques.co.uk control panel we have added an anonymous comments box at the bottom of every page. Now antique dealers can send anonymous suggestions, ideas (even complaints, hopefully not too many of those!) quickly and easily.

Visitor Statistics - back up and running

The Sellingantiques.co.uk simple visitor stats have now be re-activated. The stats show you how many times your antique thumbnail photos have been seen, and also how many click thrus to the detail page. If we have provided you with a website, you will need to upgrade to the latest version in order to use these stats. All stats have been reset to zero as on 17 Sept 2008.

"Washstands" and "Lowboys" - New Categories

You'll notice that we've added a new "Washstands" and "Lowboys" category on the list of categories on the left of each page. These are listed under furniture. You can view the new Washstands here and the new Lowboys here.

Welcome to Mill Court Antiques

We're delighted to say that Mill Court Antiques have signed up as a full member of Sellingantiques.co.uk. A big welcome! You can view their stock page here.

Google Position for "Antiques"

Following our continued efforts with getting Sellingantiques.co.uk to the No 1 position for the keyword antiques. We are now at position 12 on Google.co.uk. This means that we are at the top of page 2. Lets see how long it takes before we are on page 1. You can see our position on Google here

Yahoo Position "Antiques"

We've got a great position on Yahoo UK. if you type in "Antiques" were on page 1. This is bringing in some great traffic volumes. You can view the Yahoo listings for antiques, here

Donegal Antiques - New Website Design

Sellingantiques.co.uk have provided an upgraded website design for Donegal Antiques. You can see the new version of the website at http://www.donegalantiques.com/

Bill Huey Antiques - New Website

Sellingantiques.co.uk have provided the new website for Bill Huey Antiques. Bill Huey Antiques are based in Northern Ireland. You can see the new website at www.billhueyantiques.co.uk.

Visitor Statistics

Visitor statistics are currently not available to antique dealers in their control panels. Due to security enhancements, the statistics system is being re-built and should be finished sometime towards the end of Sept 2008.