Antique dealers here say their industry is struggling and many brick-and-mortar stores are closing, due in part to changes brought by the accessibility of Internet shopping.

Owners of the businesses that remain say foot traffic is down, and that the popularity of online retail, particularly auction sites, has significantly changed the industry.

"The Internet has affected business greatly. It has taken away business, and prices have dropped because of the Internet," says Jan Lindsay, owner of the Vintage Rabbit Antique Mall, which she has operated on north Monroe Street for about 15 years. Lindsay says four antique stores on Monroe have closed in the past year or so.

"eBay changed things," says Cheryl Custer-Branz, who operates the antique and collectible events company Jim Custer Enterprises here with her husband, Clint Branz. Jim Custer Enterprises holds two antique and collectible shows at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center each year.

"It didn't keep people from going to the shows, but it tended to drive up the price of antiques" for the dealers seeking wholesale deals, cutting into their margins, she says.

"Business is terrible," says Beverly Nevin, namesake and owner of Aunt Bea's Antiques, which she opened more than 15 years ago in the Garland district and now operates in a storefront amidst a row of antique and second-hand shops along Market Street in Hillyard. "There's no way to sugarcoat it."

On a recent afternoon in her store, Nevin counted on one hand the number of customers who had come in that day and the phone calls she had received. The plate of cookies she puts out each day on the front counter still was mostly full.

Marie Ann Duffie, who operated an antique mall called Collectors Showcase here until 2002, says the advent of eBay influenced her decision to close her store when she lost her lease at the store's Market Street location. Duffie now focuses solely on running estate sales and doing antique appraisals, and the space that Collectors Showcase occupied on Market is still empty.

While Nevin and others say the recession has contributed to the problem, they add that business has been decreasing for some time as people have moved away from collecting.

Duffie says that even people who collect no longer need to scour local stores looking for that perfect piece to complete their collections.

"People can sit at home and plug it into the Internet and find what they want very easily," which drives down prices, she says.

Sue Bergman, proprietor of B&B Junk Co., an antique mall on Market, says she believes the initial frenzy of individuals selling items themselves via eBay rather than to dealers has subsided.

Yet, other Internet innovations, such as Web sites that offer free classified-like advertising, now have begun to influence buying and selling behavior, Lindsay says.

"I think craigslist is starting to take a chunk out of business," Lindsay says. "If you can sell your stuff for free online," rather than take it to an antique dealer, she says, "why not."

Antique stores have fewer walk-in customers, but there are fewer stores to vie for them, Lindsay says. She says four antique stores have closed just on Monroe in the past year. Nearby, Ruby Street Antiques, a prominently located shop known for its collection of large and esoteric yard sculptures, is liquidating its inventory and closing soon, citing soft sales.

Lindsay says most of the bigger names in antiques here when she opened the Vintage Rabbit now are gone. For example, the Spokane Antique Mall, a fixture in downtown Spokane for nearly 15 years, closed in 2002, citing a downward trend in antique sales even then.

Back in 2000, there were more than 70 antique shops and malls listed in the phone book here. Now, some 50 are listed.

Those that remain do what they can to get their names out. Nevin says she supplements her work at Aunt Bea's by running estate sales on some weekends, as do other Spokane-area dealers.

"I'm hoping it generates some business for the store," Nevin says. She says she's cut back on advertising, scaling back her budget just as her customers have scaled back on their spending.

Despite the difficulty, new stores are popping up, too, Lindsay says.

"I don't know why, because it's a tough economy," she says.

Treasure Towne, in Post Falls, is one of the newer antique and collectible malls in the region, having opened about a year ago. Owner Maureen Moss says that although the first six months were rocky, foot traffic is picking up, and the market is seeking to develop an identity as an eclectic mix of vendors to appeal to a broad range of customers. The 32 booths at her mall are full, she says. She says its vendors are selling items both large and small, and she's included artisans and crafters in the mix, to appeal to a variety of customers.

"We had a large antique buffet that sold for almost $1,000. Then, there are others who come in and buy baseball cards for 50 cents," Moss says.

Mall owners such as Lindsay get to see a cross section of the market, since they rent out space to a number of vendors, in exchange for monthly rent and a percentage of the vendors' gross sales receipts. There are 30 dealers currently in the Vintage Rabbit, Lindsay says.

Lindsay says she encourages the dealers in her mall to continue bringing in their fine antique pieces, because those sell well in the local market. Even dealers however, often perceive that they can get a better price by selling their finer pieces via the Internet, she says.

The problem for the mall owners is that if the dealers don't bring into the store items that will sell well, the mall's revenues drop, and it's difficult to cover costs, Lindsay says.

Adapting to the changes

Though there's been a shift in the marketplace, some dealers say there has been a certain cache or entertainment value added to collecting through TV shows, such as the Home & Garden Television channel and the Public Broadcasting System's popular Antiques Road Show.

The popularity of events such as Custer's has grown, says Custer-Branz. Founded 34 years ago by her father, Jim Custer, who has since retired, the shows have increased in size as the county fairgrounds' exhibit spaces have been expanded, and still sell most of their booth space, she says.

Web auction sites have contributed to some new interest as well, as people begin again to attach a value to things in their homes, Custer-Branz says.

"eBay opened everyone's eyes to collecting," she says.

Also, the Web can be useful for dealers, such as helping them to sell items that aren't moving in the storefront, keeping displays fresh, Lindsay says.

Though people in their 20s don't seem to be collecting in the same way people used to, there is a cadre of younger shoppers looking for better-made or retro items, which aren't true antiques but can help a store add volume to its sales, Bergman says.

"I see a lot of young people in here looking because they are looking for something different or better-manufactured" than what they find in new-furniture stores, Bergman says.

The industry always has been cyclical as far as what's popular and what must gather dust for a few more years before it comes back in vogue, dealers here say.

"It's a constantly changing market, as far as what has held value," Custer-Branz says.

Decorating magazines drive those trends a lot, Bergman says.

"If people see it in Martha Stewart Living, they'll come looking for it in the store," the Vintage Rabbit's Lindsay says.

What people are looking for varies widely, Moss says, so Treasure Towne seeks to provide for an eclectic mix of retailers.