Featured Silver Finds

These estate runners often miss stuff. I was at a sale a few years ago and there was a big box of "silverplate" sitting on the floor in a box, candelabras, some broken, etc -- I think they were asking $20 for the lot, no takers the first two days of the sale. No one wants silverplate anymore. Last day was half price and I decided to poke around in the box. Right away I saw one or two sterling pieces (!) suddenly a no-brainer at $10.

I mention this because one of the estate runners was a fairly well known person in the business. All I can think of is maybe they became overwhelmed with the organization of the sale, they gave some underling instructions to "pull aside anything marked "Sterling", but of course there are other marks indicating sterling. Anyway, I wasn't complaining.

 

thanks for all the replies folks

lol, I was wishing @MrNate lived close by, he has the touch that brings silver back to life

yes, I was wondering what they got rid of at their other sales.

yes, I was happy the green stuff came off so easily on it, looks so much better

I heard today there was no family, the sale was through the Provincial Government so I don't feel badly scoring the silver. Apparently they hire a company to empty the house quickly so the property can be sold.
Will update once I get everything cleaned up and figure out what is scrap or worth selling separately

I have to say how uplifting this forum is - I live on my own so when I score something I can come here and all you wonderful people understand how much fun it is. I tell my cats but they don't get too excited So, many thanks to you for all your replies

 

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u need better cats !!

 

We love to be cheerleaders when someone else scores big!!!

I very much understand the need to tell someone who will understand the joys, trials & tribulations of this craziness we all love doing.

 

You were too busy saying "K. Thanks.bye" Around here when I find a box of silverplate, the other metal tends to be...pewter. WHen they don't have high prices on the pewter. (sigh)

 

Could the broken handle be from a hairbrush?

 

I definitely didn’t mean you should feel bad when I made that comment. Just that the company failed in their job even to earn a commission for themselves. Agreed that it so nice to have folks to share these things with that will appreciate the score. I don’t have anyone in my life that really loves or even likes this stuff. They can appreciate profit made at the end of a score and say “oh that’s cool” but they don’t really appreciate the items. Having people that understand it makes all the difference.

 

birds of a feather , eh ???

 

Very well done, cxgirl, you should be proud of yourself because you spotted silver where no one else did. You just use your brains and experience. Well deserved find.
I was wondering about these estate sales, we don't have them here. I guess they are not able to focus on every piece in detail but it is assumed that they know at least the basics of the jewelry stuff - the marks for precious metals. Well, if it were some ex otic mark from afar, then OK but these apparently are well known Westren world marks. Anyway, no reason for remorse it went to the one who deserve it.

 

One would think a Canadian would recognize a British hallmark, but sometimes they get missed.

 

not all Canadians ....... are Canadian !

 

Fer sher! It’s strange being isolated in something that means so much to you. I suppose I should go out and make friends that I can talk about this type of thing with but that would require effort, and being nice, and being social. Yuck!

 

you would think they would know the basics but it’s shocking how little many know about so much. Certainly some are on top of their proverbial shit but definitely not all. The luxury of being a collector or reseller is typically time and financial investment in the items that owe you $$. The only way to get that money back out and profit is to know the stuff. The way I rationalize some of these estate sale folks not knowing their stuff is there’s such an overwhelming amount of it and so many sales, one after another that they don’t have time to know it all or thoroughly examine every piece. If they researched every area of collecting, every piece, they would never make any money because every big estate would take them a month. When I walked into the world of reselling five years ago or so I knew next to nothing. Now I know more about most things than most of the estate sale runners in the area. I have the time In-between purchases to learn though. They are just on to the next sale. I’ve realized many of them aren’t collectors or lovers of the stuff. It’s just a business for them. The ones that do love the stuff are the ones that know the stuff. I was surprised to see one guy that owned a big store who also did sales hire another estate sale runner to come in and do his jewelry pricing. Then I realized this probably isn’t very uncommon. I guess we have to be grateful. Where they don’t have the time to know it all and examine and research every item is where we find the profit. That in addition to our negotiation skills and other factors.

 

Sure the incompetence of estate sellers (and other sellers, too) is good for our folk It is always like this - knowledge is the most valuable good.

 

knowledge , is power !!

 

It's also $$$$$.

 

As my mother always says, nothing is a coincidence. This silver was meant to belong to our @cxgirl .

There she is, totally unaware of all the decisions that have been made before she got there to put those pieces of silver in a free box. Someone casually mentions that she should go out there and look at the Christmas lights. We have no idea how many people rummaged through those boxes before she did.

She is the only one with the knowledge to recognize the little treasure trove. It was all meant to be. God is good and thank you Jesus!

 

Sorry I'm late!!! This find is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!! And in the free pile no less! I'm sure it must seem shocking that an estate sale doesn't know their stuff, but if you look at enough places, you get to find heaven in a box! I can imagine it now as you are going through a regular day, not expecting miracles and out of the corner of your eye you see items...the heart starts to race, you are trying to not get too excited...you grab the first piece (my bet is you grabbed one of the big mirrors first) and slowly rotated it, and in half a second there are the marks.....

I know for me personally, once I find one mark, I'm OUTTTTTA there, to carefully look over the rest of the pieces in my car....Or maybe I put the box in my car quickly and race back to the estate sale to see...did I miss another treasure?

It's such a hefty pile of treasure, congratulations and this is the best I've seen from you in 2023!