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 Replies: 9 / Views: 1,829 |
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Valued Member
United States
228 Posts |
I went to an estate sale on sat. morning the guy who puts them on tipped off my wife that the previous inhabitant was a collector of everything/hoarder of nice items. What was there blew me away spent 17 on a clock that worked that had a 20 year old price tag that said $1,200. Then I found these medals just the amount of detail on them was enough to make me spend some money. No price on them so I ask, I'm told 35 for each container of coins I'm buying a few things so I haggle the price end up spending 28 a piece. I make it back to my car and take one out and examine further on the rim it says silver and my heart drops I got 36 silver pieces and 60 Bronze, I spent the afternoon looking up sold prices on ebay took the lowest possible sale prices for each item as not to over value. I made 2000 dollars on my investment. I'm 25 and hope to pass these on to my kids because they are just so beautiful. Here are some links so you may investigate and see pictures. http://www.franklin-mint-silver.com...s-medals.htmhttp://www.ebay.com/itm/Longines-Wi...em1c2fcbb94aAll my Coins came in Holders shown in second link not the fancy box in the first. Thank you for reading. And just for good measure...... some dancing fuit    |
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Valued Member
 United States
228 Posts |
Oops!, upon further information exploration I found that I may have over valued the bronze a bit. I was looking at sold prices and needed to look at what was happening right now so I made 1800 on my investment still is cool for me!
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Pillar of the Community
United Arab Emirates
557 Posts |
Wow! Good score for you, congrats! I really like estates sales, you never know what you'll find.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2335 Posts |
That was a great score but I have to ask who was holding the sale? If it was a company/individual that handles sales for a fee that's a huge mistake & a sure sign of incompetence. If it was an individual it's evidence that they should have hired a competent professional to handle the sale. Don't get me wrong....I love to shop at those type sales. I just wonder what in the heck people are thinking.
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Valued Member
United States
228 Posts |
It is a guy who does it as a side business and sets everything up and does all the advertising for the event. He was hard to talk down a few things that he had a lot of knowledge on but I just dont think he knew what he had.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2543 Posts |
You may have to readjust your profit margin a little further. I am pretty sure the Franklin Mint coins are sterling silver and not .999 silver. Even sterling, 36 one ounce coins are $925 , still a great score  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2335 Posts |
Quote:
It is a guy who does it as a side business and sets everything up and does all the advertising for the event. He was hard to talk down a few things that he had a lot of knowledge on but I just dont think he knew what he had. I'm in the antique/junk business & help a group that handles estate sales. I won't say anyone that works with the group know everything there is to know about pricing. I will say that between all of us we know a lot, & have the sense to research if we aren't sure. Based on what you paid for the medals & the clock you mentioned I suspect the guy has a pretty narrow range of knowledge & doesn't research. That's bad for whoever lets him run a sale.......& good for buyers. I'd attend every sale he has. |
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Valued Member
United States
318 Posts |
Hey trdhrdr007, I've heard that in the antique business it pays to occasionally put out a very underpriced item here and there. Somebody gets a score, then they keep coming back for the rest of their lives. Any truth to this?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2335 Posts |
There are all sorts of business models & I suppose there might be people somewhere that do that. It's not something I see around here. I do see people that think they got an underpriced item because they go by book values. There has been a huge change in the antique biz over the last several years. Things that sold for hundreds a few years ago may have a market value of 1/4 or less. Around here the only way you get a screaming deal is if the seller doesn't know what they had. That happens on a fairly regular basis & is something I have done myself. It's impossible to know about everything & even diligent researchers let things slip through the cracks. I probably make 25-35% of my income from items that were underpriced due to lack of knowledge and/or research. In the case of items made from PMs that generally means items that are unmarked, marked with foreign hallmarks or marked in a difficult to find location. Anything else is either something sold by a new dealer, sold at a yard sale, or is something that isn't popular here but might sell well on ebay or to a customer in another market. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1721 Posts |
Quote:
I've heard that in the antique business it pays to occasionally put out a very underpriced item here and there. Somebody gets a score, then they keep coming back for the rest of their lives. Any truth to this? From my experience (and I speak as an auctioneer/dealer/customer/buyer, I have never heard of a 'professional' dealer letting an item sell for less than value so they can get free word of mouth advertsing or to lure people back. When you work for a client, you should always seek the most money possible for that client. Plus, the more you take in, the more the dealer makes too. Giving away a high ticket item would make no sense. A mistake makes more sense. There are numerous dealers here that operate with a know-it-all mentallity. Some dealers have such a bad reputation for over-pricing their stuff that many other dealers won't go to their sales. Last weekend I went to the second day of an estate sale and I found a small silver spoon that was priced $4. I noticed the mark on the spoon to be early and I knew it was a nice coin silver piece. When I went to pay for the spoon it was reduced 50 percent because it was the sales second day. I paid 2 dollars for a 15.1 gram, 1846 Lewis Hyman (Richmond, Virginia) coin silver spoon. Why was this still at the sale? All I could think about was what I missed the first day of the sale. Dealers may make a lot of mistakes but shoppers can make them too. If you leave it behind, I will grab it. |
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Replies: 9 / Views: 1,829 |
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Posted 03/24/2013 7:37 pm
