Nora Curl, a 51-year-old woman from Pennsylvania, has some advice for anyone who wants to make it big on the antique market. She started her journey two decades ago and has built considerable wealth in this period. So, many people want to know how exactly she started and how she stayed relevant for over 20 years.
According to Curl, she didn’t start with a degree in antiques. In fact, she studied communication at Allegheny College in the ’90s. While working in Hollywood during her free time, she realized she had a love and knack for finding and identifying antiques.
She had a good eye for unique pieces and easily recognized the real deals from the fakes. “On weekends, I would go to auction houses, museums, junk stores with friends and just kind of treasure hunt. I would say, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a Tiffany vase, or that’s a Steuben glass piece,” she said.
After discovering her talent and passion, Curl pursued it and got a degree in connoisseurship in fine and decorative arts in 2002. Immediately after, she moved to New York and worked several jobs in the industry. She worked at magazines, antique storage companies, and a gallery space handling “original [paintings] that Norman Rockwell did.”
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She continued and assisted artist Nelson Shanks, who had “the third best collection of late Renaissance early Baroque work in private hands in America.” Her career went strong for ten years, but then her mother fell sick.
In 2012, she had to move back to Pennsylvania to help her mum, who has a rare congenital disease. As expected, Pennsylvania has fewer opportunities than New York, so Curl needed to restrategize. After much thought, she applied for an online antique valuation job on the expert advice site JustAnswer.
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This turned out to be one of the best decisions Curl ever made. Although she pays a monthly fee to get access to her clients, she also makes a good profit from the site. In 2022 alone, Curl made over $124,000 from working full-time on the site. This is quite impressive and solidifies her as an expert in her field.
However, Curl wants people to understand that she didn’t achieve all this in a flash. It took a lot of hard work and dedication to reach this level. She has some advice for anyone who wants to follow her path or build a similar career.
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First, she says one has to “invest in yourself.” Take courses, exams, and more, knowing they’ll help you in the long run. “It took a lot of examinations, a lot of courses, and a lot of writing. It was almost like going to college all over again,” she said.
She also added, “Don’t rest on your laurels. Invest in yourself.” She also emphasized that a career on JustAnswer, or perhaps on any other online platform, is “not a guaranteed income.” Therefore, even if one uses the site full-time, it is safer and wiser to “find areas in your expertise where you can supplement extra income” because the need of the site fluctuates.
In conclusion, an online job might seem easy, but it requires just as much dedication and skill as any other type of job.
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