Antiques and Vintage Items

Buying antiques of all types is one of the biggest commercial uses of the internet. Due to the long history of many antiques, and the fact that many are family heirlooms and other pieces in the hands of private non-collectors, getting the proverbial great deal on an antique found in someone's attic or at an estate sale has been made easier with the advent of the internet.

Online, you can reach deep into pockets of the world far beyond your local flea market, antiques dealer, or even antiques mail-order company. People all over the world, not just your country, sell fabulous antiques on the internet, often using large vendors like eBay and Amazon.com.

On MMS we currently specialize in nautical antiques and also have some antique quilts, listing some great items from eBay that you will not find anywhere else. The nature of these listings is that they often change; what's available now may not be seen again for a long, long time. These aren't pieces sitting in some big cookie-cutter warehouse; most are truly unique, one-of-a-kind antiques. When you see something you want, you have to jump.

This is one of our most popular categories, and we are happy to provide the special listings in the format that we do. To those who have found great antiques they are happy with we say congratulations and thanks -- and to those who have missed out, been outbid on some great piece, or forgot to check back often enough, all we can say is better luck next time and don't give up!

Antiques for sale

We search the web for vendors who sell antiques, select the most relevant ones and sort them into specific categories so you can see a larger selection of offers.

Articles (antiques)

Mystery or misery on the high seas? Crew eschews GPS to sail by sextant

In 1854, a wooden ship called Mystery completed a successful voyage from England to Australia. And in 2008, a crew pulled up the anchor on that vessel's spiritual descendant, Spirit of Mystery, to make the same voyage with the same technology. Namely, Captain Pete Goss and his three-man crew (son, brother, brother-in-law) are using the sextant and the stars...

eBay emerges as an unexpected hotbed of high-priced antique diving helmet sales

Although eBay would seem to be a less efficient place to buy something as bulky and obscure as an antique diving helmet, in fact there are some exquisite, unique examples changing hands for large amounts. Looking at recently completed auctions in the Antique Diving Helmets category, a surprising seven helmets sold for over $1000 (ranging from $2,280 for a...

New 11-part series about exploring shipwrecks to air on Discovery Channel

The Discovery Channel, long known for its interesting but artificially melodramatic series about the natural world and history, has recently announced that it will be producing eleven episodes of a series that follows a company searching and collecting treasure from shipwrecks around the world. The exploration company is Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., which...

Historic Civil War shipwreck faces uneasy future in its Marine Sanctuary home

The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, sixteen miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, NC, is home to America's first such designated shipwreck: the USS Monitor, an iron ship that went down during the Civil War. The designation was given in 1975. Although the ship is still in reasonable shape, with several sections of it having been removed and put on display...

Stash of first-ever US gold coins (worth $100K each) found in Gulf of Mexico shipwreck

Divers exploring wrecks in shallow water in the Gulf of Mexico have located the remains of a 19th-century paddle wheeler that had, among other exciting treasures, a bunch of coins that are the first gold coins ever minted in the United States. The coins were minted in New Orleans; in Charlotte, NC; and in Dahlonega, Ga. The Civil War stopped the minting for a...

Antiques