The old saying goes, buy something foremost because you like it. That’s because appreciation is rarely a sure thing. A look back at episodes of Antiques Roadshow since 1997 in fact show that since then lots of classic antiques have only lost value. The look back reveals that in some episode instances over the past 15 years, more values have gone down than up. A look specifically at a San Francisco episode showed the majority of items featured on the show had gone down in value. Not everything went down in value of course, and some items gained significantly. Notions of appreciation and are less likely to be at the forefront, however. This jives with the results of our own ongoing survey which shows attributes of “investment” and “appreciation” getting low positive scores.

Watch a look back at Vintage Pittsburgh.