Online community helping keep antiques alive
A community of Staffordshire-based antique dealers has embraced the social media world to promote their wares.
Salvage Sunday was created by antiques dealer Drew Pritchard, one of the stars of the television show Salvage Hunters, who came up with the idea of a social media showcase during the first national lockdown.
Using Instagram, the showcase gives each dealer within the Salvage Sunday Dealers community a chance to show off their collections through live or pre-recorded videos on their own accounts.
Tom Murray from Nothing New in Stafford is one of the participants in the community, working with his wife Sam to promote their collections each Sunday.
He spoke about being part of the community and what they did to help each other.
Mr Murray said: “There’s now about 30 dealers and we all share each other’s posts and make videos to post on the Sundays.
“It just seems to work through Instagram and through the dealers WhatsApp group that we have, which means we can help each other and look at what we buy for certain clients.
"It’s been good to do it on Instagram as while we’re in lockdown, we can show a number of items in a short amount of time.”
The live pieces begin each Sunday at 5pm with a live piece from Drew Pritchard, which includes a live chat with participating dealers.
Each dealer is given a slot and can either do a live video or a pre-recorded video of their selected items, giving a brief history, condition report and price.
Mr Murray said: “I really do think something like this has got the potential as it brings groups of people together and helps everyone out. I think it’s the way forward.”
For more, go to @salvagesundaysdealers on Instagram.
