Antique King: Buy, Fix, Sell

Small-town America, 1989. You inherit a dusty antique shop, a debt, and a magnifying glass. Everything that walks through that door is a judgment call. Every customer brings a piece and a story — an inheritance, a dowry chest, a flea market find, an estate being cleared. The story is part of the evidence. Ask where it came from, how old they think it is, whether there are papers, whether it has been repaired. Contradictions show up on the item card in rust-colored ink. Then look closer. Sweep the magnifier across the piece for hallmarks, seams, wear patterns and tool marks. Every tell you find fills the authenticity meter — and every wrong spot costs you the customer's patience. Skill never hands you the answer: the meter tops out short of certainty, and the last call is always yours. Buy it wrong and it hurts. A replica bought at real prices is a slow loss — you can still sell it…