The Vacant Era! What Era of time do you collect?

It seems everyday I will get a call from someone asking what something they have is worth. In general it is hard to suggest any value over the phone or via email with pictures. Many times the caller will use terms like Antique, Vintage or Victorian and they have no idea what those terms mean. In fact I am often confused myself and that is easy to do. A recent call by a young man wanting to bring his "Antique" furniture by the store to sell it has generated this blog. When he arrived he had a truck full of put together furniture, an entertainment center, microwave cart, and a stereo system. At first I was kind of in shock as I looked around for the camera. Surly this was a set up by some friends to give me a hard time! Alas it was not. The young man in question did indeed have some of his grandmothers stuff she had given him. All was made in the 1980's or later but to him it was old and antique. It is all a matter of perspective. I have only been in this industry for a couple of years and everyday I make mistakes finding the right words to call something. I thought I would take a minute to relay some of the more common phrases and what periods of time they refer to.

 Antique - Generally anything over 100 years old. But this varies depending on what you are referring to. Guns for example must be produced before 1898 to be classified as antique. For cars it is generally accepted they are antique if they are over 45 years old. This will vary from state to state in regards to licensing. Furniture is probably the most common item referred to as antique.

 Vintage - In general anything from the 1970's or early 1980's. Again the term becomes confusing depending on what you are talking about. Clothing for example is considered vintage when it is anywhere from 20-80 years old. Wine is called vintage when 85-90% of the grapes used were picked in the same year, and that varies from country to country.

 Retro - Many people consider things to be Retro if they are from the 1950's-1970's. As you can already see different terms will cover the same period of time.

 Mid-Century Modern - Mostly a term used to refer to furniture from the 1930's-the 1960's.

 Brass Era - This was a term that applied to early automobiles that used a lot of brass in their construction. Generally the time frame of 1902-1916.

 Victorian Age - The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901.

Mod Period - In general the time of the 70's, 80's, and early 90's.

Primitives - These can be from any era and are generally considered hand made, rusty, junky looking things like wooden boxes, saws, and other tools from the farm.

 And the list goes on and on. Steam Punk, Industrial Age, Depression Era, Turn of the Century, Art Nouveau, Art Deco ...............

Now its time for my favorite period - I have taken the liberty of naming this myself.  1990-2013 I refer to as the Vacant Era!.  Most younger people go around with a vacant look in their eyes only seeing I pods, Video Games, Computers and Social Networks.  They all use new technology that is obsolete the day they buy it and if they buy furniture or things for the house it is compressed cardboard, sawdust and made in China.  The Vacants will inherit the world and have no appreciation of the time, art and creative minds that actually conceived and built most of what we have in this life.  Before long they will just use their 3D printer and make anything that has been created before.