An antique shop is a retail store specializing in the selling of antiques. Antiques shops can be located either locally and with the advent of the Internet found online. An online Antique shop can also be located within an Antique Mall, where an individual Antique seller can open a shop and display their items for sell within the mall.

Normally their stock is sourced from auction

Auction

An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...

s, estate sales, searching at flea market

Flea market

A flea market or swap meet is a type of bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered. It may be indoors, such as in a warehouse or school gymnasium; or it may be outdoors, such as in a field or under a tent...

s or garage sales, etc. Many items may in fact pass through multiple antique dealers along the product chain before arriving in a retail antique shop. By their very nature, they sell unique items and are typically willing to buy items, even from individuals. The quality of these items may vary from very low to extremely high and expensive, depending on the nature and location of the shop. Frequently many antique shops will be clustered together in nearby locations; in the same town such as in many places in New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

, on the same street such as on Portobello Road

Portobello Road

Portobello Road is a street in the Notting Hill district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London, England. It runs almost the length of Notting Hill from south to north, roughly parallel with Ladbroke Grove. On Saturdays it is home to Portobello Road Market, one of London's...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, or even all under the same roof in one antique mall, though frequently in that case it may be referred to as a stall rather than shop, especially if that antique dealer has another larger non-mall location.

Antique shops may specialize in some particular segment of the market such as antiques furniture or jewelry, but many shops stock a wide variety of inventory as well. Additionally a shop may have an online component as well, or even be an online-only seller and have no physical shop.