Featured Finds Thread

ya maybe

 

I haven't needed one yet...despite the antiquities (which I am shocked to find so easy in England). But I also work with an agency who makes sure that I am covered with whatever documentation I need before I send things off for packing. I of course pay them a fee but since they do such a good job guiding, negotiating, packing and shipping for me, it's well worth it. (Antique Diva's).

 

Those sailor trunks are great! I love that train, lloyd. Evelyb, the blue earrings are my favorite. Aaron, the martini glasses are so cool!

I went to a bi-annual community yard sale at a local fire hall. It was 91 degrees and dripping wet humid, and like evelyb, I dragged myself out of bed. Not much there, but the people were ridiculous. How ridiculous, you ask?

1. I was looking at some costume jewelry. The woman says $2 each, so I pick up a frog brooch. Oh, no, that one is $10. Okay, no thank you. So she says to me "there isn't anything real in there if that's what you are looking for" and she proceeds to tell her friend she has more jewelry to bring out. I politely ask "May I see it?" then she says "No, I don't have anymore."

2. Then this woman has jewelry for 50 cents, and she is a dealer. I pick out an old GF locket, and she tells me she doesn't have change for a one-dollar bill. I just give her the dollar and tell her I will come back later. When I come back later, the 50 cent bin is gone, and I ask where it is. She said, "Oh, I want to sort it." I ask to see it again, and she won't let me see it. Forget about the other 50 cents. She tells me she has some "good" jewelry starting at $20 dollars and up, and it is all stuff I wouldn't buy for $2.

3. I then spot a table where a woman has mostly newer jewelry and some older jewelry, and I see a cameo necklace set in costume metal, no big deal. She wants $20. No thank you. So then I see a nicer cameo set in sterling, more modern, say 1960s, and she says "That's $40. If I had a shop, I would charge $75 dollars, but I don't have a shop." I didn't have the heart to tell her I buy cameos at antique shows and mall for $15-$20 all the time, set in GF and sterling. These people need to stop googling ebay to set their prices or list on ebay.

4. I look at a modern copper and earring bracelet set, and I ask how much. "Oh, those are copper, I need $10." I look around at the table, and I notice when I pick up the box they are in that there is a neon $5 sticker on the set. I show the woman, and she says, "Oh, I guess I want $5." Twilight Zone.

So I did find a few things, not much, and I need to upload the photos. This I found last week in a lot of older jewelry at a thrift shop. I thought the beads were glass, but when I tested them on the Presidium today, they came up high in the garnet, tourmaline and iolite category. It is on string, and some of the beads are clear, some have a little white section in them, and some are nearly half clear and half opaque white....I am thinking some kind of quartz, but you guys will probably know what this is, so here goes:

The necklace

Beads close up

And more close up, note second bead on the right, bottom, white section

 

Marko, I know you don't have the same "personality" I have but . . . whenever I run into a seller who has a sign that each (whatever it may be) is a blanket price ($2 each let's say) and then wants to go up on the price, I admit the "debil" (misspelled on purpose) must get into me because I keep a straight face except for a slight smile and a soft voice and say "Oh, I am sure you are right. You won't have any trouble at all getting $35.00 or more for that before the end of the sale."

Sometimes I am soooo baaaad, "baaaad to the bone" as they say.

.

 

Love the Bible box!

 

Oh, I'd say more of a Shit Disturber......& that's spelled exactly the way it should be !! Bawhahaha!!!
& yes...I like your style !

@ Marko....it seems there are more and more of these folks out there, and yet again i'm reminded of the dealer who grabbed away the gold brooch from me and after biting it , threw it in her bag ..not letting me buy it....

 

@Marko - those look like glass from here. I've seen similar ones before, just don't ask me where.

As for those dealers...yep. Ran into a similar one today. I paid her $4.50 for a pair of enameled bird earrings, those 80s things from China, just for the pretty. Then I threw in a 14k nursing association pin for fifty cents.(LOL) She'd obviously never louped it for marks, since I saw the hallmark on the clasp with my bare eyes. I didn't dare let on of course since she's just the type to take it away from you if she thinks it's something good that she missed. She also wanted $7 for a sterling ring ...but sold me some single earrings for 75 cents, including one that I scrapped out this afternoon. It was 14k and had an onyx cab glued on. The glue died when I got it home. No loss!

 

Evelyb, they definitely test past glass on the Presidium.... on the high end of garnet/tourmaline/iolite and they seem hand-cut due to the irregularities. Some one on the ebay jewelry board suggested they are Lemurian quartz....I have to loupe them and look closer. I never heard of Lemurian quartz, but I googled it, and examples look like these beads. I contacted a crystal expert who has written books, and he said there is no way to tell once it has been cut....I haven't seen another necklace or beads like this online, and I have been googling for hours. Lemurian quartz is found in the Himalayas and Tibet- I am getting that vibe from the type of clasp used. When I look closely, I thought it was dirt, but there are orangey specks on the quartz- you can see hints of orange on Lemurian quartz. It is difficult to photograph due to reflections.

Yeah, dealers miss stuff all the time. Why do you think I haunt antique malls on rainy days?

 

Some Lemurian quartz pics

 

99% of the time I am nice..... sometimes I say "Well, if you had a shop, you would have to pay for booth rental, or if you owned the store, a lot more overhead." And when they tell me "that's what they get on ebay," I say "Well, THEY have to have an account, have a Paypal account, take the pictures, upload the pictures, print the shipping labels, pack and ship the item, and have good feedback to continue to be a seller. All of the above costs money and there are ebay and Paypal fees involved." GRRR!

 

I tell em....this ain't ebay !
& that may be what they ask...but not what they get !!!

 

I remember a country flea market where the booth owner had printed out the ebay pages for items similar to his......
at that point i looked around for a paper and pencil to make a drawing.....of the item....and showing a much lower price.....

 

Lemurian quartz is a "new age" sales pitch term,most of it comes from the mines in Brazil.The orange coloring is usually iron stains which can be found in specimens worldwide.

 

I think I've had one yard sale in the last 10 years. I priced the stuff to go!

If you haven't done decent research before selling, it's too late at the flea market.

Several sellers have tried that at auctions I've been to. They usually stop when they hear people laughing about it.

 

Marko, are they getting used to seeing you??? Or is one of them on this site??

 

GRRRRRRRR.....at the point when they go UP on the price, I would HAVE to give them a SNIDE "Keep it....You need it much more than me then" and politely walk away with a grin!!!!

 

Muppet today was trying to sell Alpaca as silver. <sigh>

 

The rule is you can go down, but not up. Unless you marked it and no one's seen it yet of course. I found a really nice piece of German porcelain at a moving/estate sale once. It was professionally run, but the people running it and I know each other. They had the piece marked $4, but I know that manufacturer, and it was a horse head figurine. They quietly remarked it to $40 and someone snagged it within 5 minutes.

As for the alpaca thing, I've seen that more than once. Oh it's "Alpaca silver". uhmmmm, no.

 

I went to an annual church book sale on Saturday (last day of the three-day sale) and was lucky enough to find the book I describe below.

If any of you have an interest in kaleidoscopes (their history and construction) then the book described below may be one you want to keep a lookout for.

Through the Kaleidoscope . . . and Beyond by Cozy Baker, Beechcliff Books (Annapolis, Maryland) 1987, hardcover, 200 numbered pages including an index, the bibliography, "The Brewster Society," and information regarding the author, with numerous color photographs as well as black and white photographs and drawn diagrams and illustrations.

 

Here's my find; by Robert Adamson, quite a big name in Seattle glass; he founded Glass Eye studio, and is assistant director of Pilchuck Glass School. A nice pebbly matte finish outside, and glossy inside.