So, I will confess that my wife is a jewelry addict. Or to put it mildly, she never met a piece of jewelry (in her favorite stones or styles) that she did not have to own. There are serious addictions in the world that are both illegal and dangerous, and this surely aint one of them, yet, I have to say that it is still an expensive one that has prompted a lot of impulse buys. When I say that the jewelry market baffles me, its not that I dont get it. For me there are three factors to how it works. 1) Antique jewelry is generally meant to be worn (the exception being perhaps mourning jewelry that while worn is not in fashion right now). So, to buy it is to want something that you will be see and wear all the time. 2) Antique jewelry is a real hedge against the inflation of the modern jewelry market. People will spend a fortune at a mall jewelry store to purchase a stone that in fact is a re-cut older stone that could be easily acquired for less in the antique jewelry market. 3) Style matters. My sense has been that if you like Art Deco jewelry that you will buy just Art Deco. It is rare, in my opinion, to find the collector who runs across the centuries unless they collect a certain stone. Where I get baffled is in the metal end of it all. Yes, we live in tough economic times when gold and silver are seen as a hedge against inflation. I get that. But I dont get a gold tie tack or a silver sheath for a cigarette lighter being marked up to crazy pricing because they are 14-carat or sterling. Before the bullion folks jump in and tell me why, please note that I am not dishing on their passion. Rather I wonder who is going to buy a 14-carat gold tie tack for $95? Who wears tie tacks, and the amount of gold in that teeny tiny tie tack is so small who will waste time melting it down? It just seems as though gold and silver fever has bitten people hard, and they dont know how to respond to it. In the antiques world, the mantra is always buy it because you like it. Why? Well, first of all because antiques, whether in the home or worn as jewelry on the arm, are a visible manifestation of who you are. Second, to be blunt, if you buy it and like it, then maybe you wont get so mad when the price goes down in the future. Thus, buying the silver sheath for a cigarette lighter because it is sterling makes no sense unless you are going to put a lighter in it. If you dont smoke, then it becomes a lump of silver sitting in your drawer that may go up or, more likely, will go down in value. Its a mystery market to me. Born to collect should be the motto of Peter Seiberts family. Raised in Central Pennsylvania, Seibert has been collecting and writing about antiques for more than three decades. By day, he is a museum director and has worked in Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Virginia and New Mexico. In addition, he advises and consults with auction houses throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, particularly about American furniture and decorative arts. Seiberts writings include books on photography, American fraternal societies and paintings. He and his family are restoring a 1905 arts and crafts house filled with years worth of antique treasures found in shops, co-ops and at auctions.