There are lots of social media influencers and creators online who specialize in antique hunting and thrifting, but when it comes to restoring such items, this practice is often contentious, with many claiming it ruins the vintage item if not done carefully.

Vintage restorer and antiquer Cozy Anastasia is one such content creator who has recently garnered attention for restoring an antique tennis racquet in a viral video that has racked up over 3.6 million views in just a couple of days.

Many commenters on the post are now arguing that her restoration of the 100-year-old item made the antique lose its value.

Cozy Anastasia is an Instagram creator whose content focuses on restoring antique finds. Many of her videos have gone viral before due to her skills and the quality of her restorations, with many commenters praising her work over the years.

However, the recent situation has proven to be quite different with her latest viral video, posted on September 13th, where she restores a century-old tennis racquet to make it functional again.

Anastasia begins the video by showing the state of the racquet as she found it, with its old, broken strings and wooden frame not in the best condition. The object was definitely no longer usable, though it was a beautiful vintage item in its own right.

She then proceeded to cut and remove the old strings, along with some of the racquet’s other old, weathered elements. After that, she cleaned and sanded down the wood, blew off the remaining dust, and proceeded to polish the wooden components.

Anastasia finished the restoration process by stringing the racquet up with more modern, brand-new strings. After she was done, she also demonstrated that the racquet was fully functional again, showing herself hitting a few tennis swings with it on a tennis court.

However, instead of the usual outpouring of comments marveling at Anastasia’s restoration of the item, this time the comments were overwhelmingly negative.

"Destroying an antique racquet just to suck at playing tennis," one commenter wrote, a sentiment that was echoed by many others.

Among the negative comments, there were also those who wanted to know why Amastasia had sanded off lithographs and removed other valuable parts, like the original strings, during her restoration process.

According to many antique collectors and restoration experts, it's generally recommended that one avoid heavy sanding or removing such elements that make the item unique to its time and give it character, as these are largely considered what makes an antique an antique.

However, there were also many comments that defended Anastasia. These commenters argued that, as she had bought the racquet, she had the right to do whatever she wished with it.

Others also pointed out what they perceived as excessive concern over the racquet. “People genuinely raging in the comments because a stranger restored an antique that they would have never even thought about in their entire life had they not seen this video,” one commenter wrote.

In the end, Anastasia has gotten both a beautiful antique and a great tennis racquet out of this restoration, as well as a good amount of interaction on her Instagram account — though one could argue the vintage item has lost some of its original charm and history.