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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;MrNate, post: 4284592, member: 5515&quot;]Barkersgma, I&#039;m always trying to find ways to equip our less experienced silver enthusiasts with the right clues that will make them successful. So I&#039;m going to first address a few concepts that can keep our fellow silver collectors out of making bad financial decisions:</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Be careful with assumptions like &quot;it looks like sterling&quot; as [USER=63]@cxgirl[/USER] mentioned. Noticed that right after she said it looks like sterling, she went and confirmed that the pattern was indeed made in sterling. I can&#039;t begin to tell you how many listings I&#039;ve asked to see additional photos for, only to find that my &#039;keen eye&#039; was fooled by a heavily plated set of flatware.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. When you build a wealth of knowledge, you are naturally going to recall some sterling patterns; this gives you a huge advantage over everyone else. What you are also likely to recall easily is whether the pattern was ever made in silverplate or stainless. Just figuring out that it&#039;s a sterling pattern is rarely enough information to make the gamble; to the best of my knowledge this pattern was never made in silverplate, but some patterns get renamed when made in silverplate, or are made by a different maker altogether. So finding the sterling pattern is one thing, but confirming it wasn&#039;t made in silverplate is another issue (trust me, I&#039;ve made this mistake). </p><p><br /></p><p>3. So, what is the <u>BEST</u> clue you could ever find, if you were looking at photos? Well, in my opinion the best clue <u>ever</u> would be the word STERLING...and it turns out if you look closely in the photos, that&#039;s exactly what you see. So, here&#039;s where it is:</p><p><br /></p><p>If we take the photo below, and zoom in, we can see some faint words stamped on the blade of the knives. The knife in the center is the clearest to observe. So when I looked at this, I can faintly see GORHAM, and a word on the center row that roughly looks like STERLING. Those two clues made my search tremendously simpler; go to the Gorham page and scan through the patterns, and there&#039;s lyric. Now that I had the pattern name I could go on google images to find a similar knife (depending on when the set was made, what gets stamped on the blades changes) and I&#039;m expecting it to say GORHAM, STERLING HANDLE, STAINLESS BLADE. Now when I look at the zoomed in image it appears very clear that&#039;s what I&#039;m seeing. </p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s the beauty in that clue: I don&#039;t have to ask the seller for any more information, and I also don&#039;t think I&#039;m really gambling anymore. Based on the size of the set, I would expect the melt value to be at least $800, so the purchase is a no brainer from there. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]344365[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]344366[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]344367[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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