Concord Antiques — Attraction in Concord

Let me start by saying I enjoy the thrill of visiting well rated, and new to me Antique Malls. This place really and truly disappointed my partner and I. I should say that we live in central Connecticut and traveled 2hrs 45mins there with excitement, only to be let down. I have a thing for Vintage, Victorian, Edwardian, Art Deco, etc....pieces of jewelry. The selection of jewelry was average, although they feature "Jewelry" on their web page. They should mention most of the jewelry selection is Silver and Native American, none the less beautiful pieces if that's your thing. I did however find a gorgeous Vintage Sterling Silver marked 925 ring that had a huge (maybe 8ct) round brilliant cut, what was Advertised to be Blue Topaz. The price a mere $110. A deal I thought. I then asked the woman behind the counter if the stone in fact was genuine. She replied that dealer was very reputable, and if it was marked Blue Topaz it was. I brought my jewelers loupe and the stone just seemed to clean to be genuine or a phenomenal deal. So I asked, since we drove 2hrs 45mins, if I bought it, and had it tested and turned out not to be genuine could I return it? At which point an older gentleman piped in with No Returns! The woman behind the counter again assured me something could be worked out if that was the case. We left empty handed that afternoon. But the whole 3hour ride home, and the entire night all I thought about was that ring. The price. The deal. And the dealer was supposedly reputable. I slept on it. I woke up in the morning and still the ring was on my mind. I had to have it! So I called Concord Antiques at 10am when they opened to let the woman who answered the phone I wanted/needed that ring, and would be driving back that day. Another 3 hour drive one way. I get there. I'm ecstatic! I asked to see the ring, I couldn't wait! And the actual dealer who was selling the ring happened to be there. She talked it up, how great the price was, how it was a signed piece, (which was not true, not with my jewelers loupe anyway). Then she told me she had 30years experience in jewelry. Let me remind you that the tag on the ring 💍 advertised it as a Silver and large Blue Topaz Ring $110. So I asked the dealer with all this experience of 30 years if the stone was genuine, as ADVERTISED, because it was quite a nice stone and a deal. To which she replied No it's Cut Glass, as was prevalent in Vintage pieces. Ummm, yes, but you FALSELY ADVERTISED the ring..... UNETHICAL! The worst part of the whole ordeal was that I drove 12hours in total for a BIG LIE. Please be careful if you shop there. I would never recommend this place to...

This is a lovely store run by lovely women. They have very nice things. It is over priced for sure, but more or less on par with other antique/consignment stores in the area. My only criticism is this: when someone spends close to $400 over two days and is a regular customer of your store, regardless of the dealer's price, it is not uncommon(and it is certainly a more classy gesture of good will) to knock a few bucks off of a large sum purchase. In this instance, the very kind lady forgot to charge me for an item which I was unaware of until I mentioned my purpose for using "both of them". She realized her error and without any concession whatsoever, the cashier proceeded to charge me full price for the item and she also informed me that the discount of $4 they had initially offered on said item(s) was not valid because I was using a credit card and not paying by cash or check.

I don't fault the cashier for doing her job but I do find this to be a very petty and pretentious policy of the establishment, not a good business practice, and somewhat out of touch with the times if you are that desperate for each and every credit card processing fee-- it is unfortunately not the first time I have encountered that attitude at the register. I guess it depends on who might be working at the time.

I won't say I'll never shop there again but this certainly leaves a bad taste in one's mouth and could have been easily avoided, in my opinion.

UPDATE--- correction: based on the hastily, poorly and nastily worded comment by the owner to the above review, I will not be shopping there again. As a fellow business owner, one needs to be able to take criticism, sit with it and respond sensibly when necessary. All these comments prove is that you are out of touch with your own establishment, as well as the public and have a very thin skin. I wasn't looking for a freebie, I was looking for your cashier to own her mistake and take responsibility for it, which she did not, and instead, rather rudely asserted her position. You do give discounts(just not with a card) and I didn't know that policy because I had never asked for one before. My mistake. You've certainly put me in my place by discouraging the idea and allowing everyone to read your words here publicly ... I am sure folks will be flocking to your doors now. 😆 Only proved my point. I'd knock two more stars...

This place has very little to offer. We walked in and were like, "oh this kind of place." Mostly stuff people make or attic finds from only a decade or so ago, hipster things, dishware and plates. Over priced and spread out to use up the space. It's okay if you happen to be in the area. Don't be fooled by exterior photos, it's small inside. Don't be like us and drive 3 hours to get there, walk it in 5 minutes, only to do it again taking care not to miss anything desperately trying to find anything to buy to justify the trip, and failing.

Response from the owner 11 hours ago It is a shame you spent so little time browsing the shop. We have wonderful reputable antique dealers in the shop and your comment seems out of touch with the shop. It appears you have made similar reviews of other shops here in NH. Response from me. I have reviewed 3 stores similarly due to the hen being similar in experience. I E. Driving two or three hours to get to a location that have either amazing reviews, or post photos showing extensive selections of goods only to get there and be woefully disappointed. My cousin drove up from Pittsburgh to go antique shopping with me. We had limited time to visit so we wanted to make the best of it. Carefully plotted a route based on the types of stores and size depicted to have the greatest yeild. However we wound up so put off by the locations and felt lied by the depictions. We blew the whole weekend at these places only finding one of any interest, we should have gone to the locations we normally go but decided to try different locations this time. I only see him once a year for a weekend. Twice upon a time in Brattleboro and Jeffery's in Lunenburg along with a bunch on 101A are great. But we decided to hit a different loop. And nearly every store was a disappointment. We walked the store twice, first time skimming but when we completed the store in under 5 minutes we were both like, "wait, that's it? It looked so much bigger on Google." So we took our time on the second pass TRYING to find something that was not over priced and interesting but only found an old bathtub made into a coffee table and it wasn't that interesting but he almost bought it for his old home, but decided it wasn't what he really wanted and...