Featured John Bieber & the Edelweiss Chest

$7500.
On lot 54, 10 to go

 

YIKES! sold for 15,000. hammer with BP 19,000.
About HALF what it was passed on 6 months ago!
Seller made a BIG MISTAKE!

 

Ouch

 

TOLD YA!
I was tempted myself, was registered, it was a BARGAIN!

 

Seller made a FOOLISH decision last Oct, 35k was damn FAIR.
Whoever advised the seller at Freeman's should be FIRED!
Not only did they short-change the seller but Freeman's as well.
YOU'RE FIRED!

 

True, Freemans lost $5200 in buyer fees plus another $2-$3K on seller side. Expensive mistake.

 

Indeed, VERY!
OTOH, someone got a stone-cold BARGAIN!

I was sorely TEMPTED to hit that bid button but, self-control got the better of me.
I already have a Bieber chest plus a half dozen other blanket chests so no need.
The main reason though is Bill DuPont, he died last summer in a freak accident and happens to have one of the finest early furniture collections in the nation that is in private hands.
Sooner or later there will be a sale.................

 

Somebody was dancing all the way home, and they did NOT work for the auction house.

 

That's gotta hurt!

Did anything do well?

 

I don't know I wasn't really paying attention as this Bieber chest was my only interest at this sale.
The sales strategy here was HORRIBLE! remind me to never sell anything at Freeman's.
It was a very nice example in good condition but there were condition issues, replaced feet for one thing that auction house did not disclose. (maybe they didn't know)

Indeed, this was a 35k chest that Freeman's managed to discount to 19k in the space of 6 months.

 

Poetic justice would require that the new owner be one of the disappointed bidders from the first auction. A shame that we'll almost certainly never know.

 

I suspect a dealer bought this so it will likely surface again in the next year or 2 in a retail setting. PLENTY of room for profit with this chest.

 

Thanks for this. This was a good lesson in auction sales strategy. I learned that you need to carefully evaluate your reserve price, and not to reintroduce an item too quickly into a limited market.

 

My guess is it'll surface for the 35 grand in a major antique store somewhere, and some decorator will buy it for a "discount" of 28 thousand to sell to a client at full price. (LOL) Everyone goes home happy except the original seller.