There are so many dealers and antiquities out there; it can be difficult to know exactly where to start making your own collection of antiquities. The first thing of course is to find a dealer.
The internet is home of many antiquities dealers. If you go to the web site of the IADAA (link below), you will find listings of the dealers online who are members of this organization. This is probably the best way to find a dealer, because you will know right from the start that they are a good dealer if they are a member of the IADAA. When I first started I had no idea what I was doing, and just started searching for antiquities dealers on search engines, after happening upon that first dealer with the Hellenistic necklace.
The next question is of course: what do I buy from these people? That is more a matter of taste than anything else. Antiquities dealers’ web sites are normally set up in different ways. You can usually search their catalogue by historic period that you are looking for artifacts from. Sometimes you can also search for type of artifact, like coins, jewelry, idols, etc.
I personally don’t have a particular favorite period, so I try to find dealers that will allow me to search by type, and I can just browse through and see if there is anything I like. However, if you are interested in a certain period, such as Ancient Egyptian, Roman, Hellenistic, Islamic, etc., you can search for antiquities in this way as well.