Start close to your knowledge and work outward from there. Grab anything you can get your hands on for a small price and you’ll learn.

I started with Lionel Trains, and now do all boys toys, real railroad items, dishes, cast iron cookware, books, vintage car parts, and tools. The only books I do are railroad books and picture books of small mining towns. I’d also grab early editions of 12 step books like AA and NA, but I never see them.

Over the years I’ve dropped lots of stuff off at the local thrift stores because it wasn’t worth selling. Right now I have a box with some vintage glassware, an old slide projector, and some items I picked up along the way that aren’t worth selling. Just stuff I grabbed when I was buying trains that I thought was worth investigating.

This is one of my hard rules. If the items I pick up aren’t worth selling, I throw them out or donate them to a thrift store and take the tax deduction.

I learned a lot about antiques by doing eBay consignment sales for thrift stores. I’d take anything that I thought was worth selling on eBay and list it on eBay. If it sold, I gave the store the money less my fees. If it didn’t sell I returned the items.