Hope

Firstly, though only tangentially relevant, their textbook definitions refer to specific things: antique is used to describe the age of furniture and domestic items, while vintage specifically refers to the age of wine.

But for those of you shopping for old books, home decor, clothes, toys, etc., here are some glossary terms so you can discern whether a seller is informed, clueless, or just plain old lying.

Antique

At least one hundred years old, or close enough. The copy of Anne of Green Gables pictured above was published in 1935, making it nine years shy of being a "true" antique but to the savvy collector it still passes.

Vintage

At least twenty years old, and rarely any younger than that—if it wasn't at least twenty years ago, the nostalgia for it likely hasn't kicked in and it's probably still in circulation. The sewing magazines pictured above range from the 1960s to 1970s.

Vintage "Style"

A brand new item that either reproduces or mimicks an old-fashioned appearance. This is a fair business practice as long as the seller is open about the fact that their product is brand new. Two of the tins pictured above are recent* reproductions of discontinued product containers. The one is the center is a legitimate antique.

Antiqued (verb)

Similar to "vintage style" but with more effort in that an item has been made to look very old, rugged, and weathered, often including faked patina or purposely faded coloring. The above photo is of a 1970s decorative wall spoon that was painted to look a hundred years older—antique styles were a huge influence in the '70s.

Retro/Retro Style

Not a reliable indicator of age, but of current nostalgia. If you see this on a product it is likely referring to something unique to its time period, especially short-lived things like toys, jewelry, clothes, and graphic design styles. Currently this word is used heavily on items in the 1980s–2000s range, but also iconic 1950s–1960s styles. The fast food toys picture above are from the late '90s to early '00s.

Other Labels

"Victorian" frequently, and inaccurately, used to label anything pre‐1940s and post-Medieval, rendering it absolutely meaningless in most cases.

"Y2K" gets tagged on anything from 1990 to 2009. This is inaccurate as y2K is literally in the name, "year 2000." Should only refer to the futuristic pop styles unique to 1999–2001.

"MCM" and "mid century" have also lost meaning. Both are derived from a specific late 1940s–1960s furniture and interior design style known as mid century modern, but are frequently misused to describe any item or style ranging from the 1930s–1980s.

"Art deco/nouveau" these are just style names, not indicators of age. Both styles have also had multiple comebacks, so be aware of that if you are looking for genuine antiques.

"Is any of this writing related?" Sure, if you want it to be. I just wanted to talk about words and history, and hopefully help some folk not get ripped off online. Also, don't blindly trust sellers just because you trust the site. Even sites with good reputations can't weed out every phony.

Entire post dedicated to the lady selling Smurf toys from 1980 as "antiques."

Thanks for reading!

———

*If you consider the '90s "recent."

interestingly, you also learn a lot about how much somebody can annoy You before You try to physically kill Them -- and, if you grow as a person in a healthy way, experiencing this with siblings can teach you how to not let people annoy you most of the time

and there are other lessons. One time i needed an extradited passport from the American Embassy in England [because they took mine away when i arrived at Heathrow airport, stranding me nearly broke in England all summer and forcing me to do circus performance on the streets for enough money to survive, but that's another post]

Anyway they made me jump through crazy hoops, and one was the Embassy said even though i was THERE IN PERSON after having waited in line for more than two hours to make an appointment, they could not make me an appointment in person, and i had to use their website to make the appointment or, they said, i could call to make the appointment but warned that the phone call would not be a good way to do it.

Well, the website had clearly been created by someone's nephew in 1995, and was so bad it was literally impossible to use, so i called. The person who answered told me they were unable to make an appointment by phone and that i had to use the website. They did not care that i had tried and was unable. I said "I was told at the embassy that i could call to make an appointment" to which they simply repeated that they were unable to make appointments over the phone.

At first i was sooooo frustrated, but then as they were telling me for the 3rd time that they were unable to make appointments by phone, i felt a wave of familiarity wash over me. This person was doing the same thing my siblings and i used to do to each other, and there was no way they were better at it than my siblings had been. Also, as a low ranking public facing bureaucrat, as long as i was polite and calm, they were NOT ALLOWED to hang up on me.

So i settled into the familiar game - with a cheerful and stupid tone of voice, i said "But i was told i could call to make an appointment"

"I'm sorry, but we are unable to make appointments over the phone"

Filling my soul with the kind of mindless patience that lets you torment a sibling past their breaking point simply because you have an entire day of nothing ahead of you to fill, i repeated brightly "but i was told i could call to make an appointment"

after about our sixth cycle of this, they said "let me put you on hold" and then hung up on me - i am absolutely certain this was done on purpose in a way to create plausible deniability

As i hit redial, i remember actually thinking how my siblings were far more diabolical adversaries in games like this, how our torturous childhood interactions was a baptism by fire that had perfectly prepared me for this exact moment.

This person did have a job, they HAD to answer the phone when i re-dialed the number, and as soon as they did i said "hello, i think we must have been accidentally disconnected -- i was told i could call to make an appointment?"

bonus/proof:

A baby is never doing something to upset you. They don't act up to piss you off. They act in the only way they know how, and yes, sometimes the behaviour they're drawn to isn't great! That's why you guide them and comfort.

1. borrowing misery from future

2. carrying grief of the past

Carolina Milanesi, an independent technology analyst, said Google is trying to make its cash cow business — search — richer and more personalized, and it will make shopping easier. But there is a risk that users may have fewer choices about what to click. "Right now it's: I ask a question, I get a bunch of answers and I feel that I'm in control as to which answer I take, or if I'm looking for something, which product I'm going to end up buying. That is going to be less so going forward," she said. Milanesi envisions AI-enabled search and agents proposing products to consumers — perhaps even those they have requested — but with less clarity or choice around where it's coming from. "If you're going to say: 'I want a pair of Jordans, go find them,' you're not necessarily sure what steps have been taken and whether the AI has used a source or a store that was paid for and therefore came up in the search results," she said, "or if AI actually went and did their due diligence and picked the best for me as a customer."

And here's one from Time magazine (May 20, 2026):

While Google already has “AI Mode,” the company will now power the whole search bar through its new Gemini 3.5 Flash model.  Instead of the classic list of blue links, Google Search will now also generate a custom page with an AI-generated summary of what you’re searching about, which will then trigger a conversation with AI Mode on the main page, allowing users to ask follow-up questions—similar to the kind of layout you would see when opening ChatGPT.

And a little more from Time's article on how this may affect the websites that we are trying to search for: