A Brief Butter Mold Rant, LOL!

Holy cranberries, Bat Man! I was just checking out the prices for antique butter molds on eBay, and while I adored the pricing for the most part; I was shocked that some of the more expensive molds (around $75.00) was the wheat sheaf patters, which happens to be THE most common and widely executed butter mold pattern win creation! It's hardly rare, so I wonder why they are commending so much?

Also, I have just been told, by a specialist of antique butter molds to use a food grade mineral oil--the sort that one uses on their wooden bowls and butcher blocks, etc. So, I may be trying that. Dunno' why I couldn't find any in des Moines at Wal-Mart. (I just happened to be running errands today, in the heat.) Though I did pick up some Brasso for use on a beautiful brass table lamp that I plan to re-wire and clean up to look like knew! I just wish that I could find a beautiful lamp shade that I like since every one I see for sale is quite ugly and isn't pretty enough! I'll try to upload a before-and-after photo of the lamp. Looking back, I really should have bought both for a matching set!

 

Glad you got that food grade mineral oil recommendation!

 

Thanks!

 

Phew....I swear, local antique dealers and vendors seem to despise it when dealing with sellers who are armed with knowledge and know when they are charging way too much for whatever they are selling--at least from my in-person accounts of some very rude sellers who refused to lower their set prices at flea markets and antique malls.

I even poured my heart out to one woman about how my family's family china had been stollen, thinking she might give me a better deal when I saw the same China pattern at her shop. (Not that I was telling her that this was the same set!) But, nope! She was even rather stern with me upon sharing my tale.

 

You can probably find someone who redoes lamp shades.

 

There could be many reasons why the items are "overpriced". The seller may not know the true value, they may have overpaid, they may like the item and not be to keen on selling it but an inflated price would ease the pain, and many more. If I see an item wildly overpriced I keep walking. I would be insulted if someone lectured me on my price and then made an offer considerably lower then the price I was asking. If I was overpriced due to ignorance of value I am not inclined to take the word of an aggressive buyer on the spot to give a huge discount. It would require research at a later date so I could learn for myself. You will not be making any friends with that tactic and you may hurt yourself in the future when the price margin may be more reasonable and you make an offer that the seller would usually accept but they remember you from an insulting experience so they won't budge. Just my opinion but it sounds like you may be insulting some sellers in your quest.

 

Veeeeeery interesting!

 

I would like to make my own, to be honest, but can't find anything inspiring that would match the base of the lamp itself.

 

I would never be insulting, nor am I ever aggressive. In fact, I always try to be polite and compassionate. try to very logically and sympathetically explain the history of the item and what the value is. However, and maybe this is just because it's Iowa, but I have been treated very rudely by sellers for hauling over prices, as if they are supposed to be set in stone. At one time I asked a vendor what a price tag was since my eyes wouldn't focus, and he gave me such a dirty look for asking! It was $60 for a used book that is still in print and retails for $30!

 

Same here, there will usually be a better priced one somewhere else. And if I have to wait years, I will wait years, it will come.

We used to sell through a site here in The Netherlands which seems to attract people who offer ridiculously low prices for antiques and jewellery of reasonable value. Most sellers put in their listing that they don't reply to offers below a certain amount, but that doesn't stop some people.
Accepting a lower price is a favour, as is payment in installments, it is not something you should expect. A few weeks ago someone on Etsy tried to bully me into accepting installment payment, which I don't do after a bad experience. These people just don't have a clue of common courtesy, and I never reward bad behaviour.

 

If you can that would be spectacular for it's not an easy thing at all to do.
You'd surely have buyers.
I knew a woman in San Diego who sewed truly spectacular ones and would donate frames I found to her.

 

Sounds lovely, but I plan on keeping the lamp for myself.

 

Did you try looking in the pharmacy section? That's where I usually find it. I think in the stomach section.

 

No, but thanks for the tip!

 

Noooooooo.....
I meant if you got good at making shades you could probably make and sell shades...

 

I live in Iowa, too, and my impression of behavior here is very different! Maybe that's because I lived in Chicago for quite a while. It seems that people in Iowa are much more polite than some are in large cities.

 

I am from Northern Missouri, not far from Iowa, and we can all be the nicest people here until we suspect we have been slighted or insulted then "Katy bar the door" because we can be the biggest jackasses too!

 

My parents had a barn behind the house and then shops in town. I started helping when I was 8 - 60 years ago. The old story, "this was my grandmother's exact thingamabob" is so trite. Dealers have heard it all. Maybe in your case it's true, but it doesn't help. The way you get a deal is to be a dealer. Get a Tax ID and show it. Then you get a dealer discount in some cases. You have to remember this - when you go into the supermarket, you don't haggle at the cash register over your corn flakes. Many dealers have priced their items at what they need to stay in business. If they give out discounts left and right, they won't be in business.