Featured Jewelry Dealer Selling a Lot...

As long as the shareholders get theirs, they DO NOT CARE about what sellers think or feel. Or that we're quitting in droves. Or that the legislation big corporations are trying to pass wil eviscerate the Law of First Sale. (you own it, you can resell it) More than VERO already did. It's supposed to protect buyers from people selling fakes, but what it really does is make it so only a few authorized dealers can sell anything whose manufacturer is still in business. That's what the trashing of the jewelry search was about too - so they could add Authentication (that doesn't - and isn't available to 95% of jewelry sellers. But they have to pay for it anyway.)

Meanwhile, I bought two genuine pair of shoes that FELL APART on my feet as I was wearing them. One in an estate sale, the other on Zappo's. Did the shoe companies care? "Too bad for you. Go away." Nope. Protect people from fakes? How about protecting us from scummy manufactuers of the real stuff. New Balance and Munro in my case. Nike is notorious for not giving a rip too. Meanwhile, oh we must protect people from fakes and keep Grandma and Grandpa from raising Christmas present/health care money.

 

"Enshittification" is the word of the past few years. Investment groups only want Line Go Up which is of course unsustainable. Buy a company that makes good returns, eviscerate it by cutting quality, fair trade, labor wages, etc., then scrap it for parts (my fav is when they "license" the former great brand name to cheap Chinese manufactories) and burn the rest down for trades and tax breaks....which of course we pay for. I hate it with a burning passion. I make as much of my money go to local, small business, and second hand as I can but it gets harder and harder to do...especially if you don't live in a city.

 

Seconded. As a joolie, both Trifari and Napier were closed down and the names sold off to the Chinese. I no longer buy either. I buy most of my clothes except my underwear in smaller charity thrifts or at church sales. Or tag sales. I will NOT shop for groceries in Stop&Shop, aka Giant, or Ahold Delahaize. Formerly Royal Ahold, of whom I said their name was typoed - the 'd' on the end was supposed to be an 'e'. Time has not improved them.

Meanwhile, I fully expect my crapp Ill Will to fold up when its lease runs out. They send so much of anything good on line that I honestly don't know how they make rent.

 

Agreed on silver. Silver doesn’t sell nearly as well as I’d like. For just the nice quality flatware and hollowware. Like the above average stuff. Unless you’re selling it cheap just a bit above spot or at spot. I was pretty surprised by this as silver was my whole channel into selling to begin with. There are niches within silver that sell well, there are names and patterns that sell well, once it’s old enough it sells well. For just nicer quality, good names but not super spectacular it really doesn’t move fast at good margins above melt. I’ve had to learn to be much more picky with silver when buying for resale.

 

The one silverplate that continues to blow my mind in the market (even on damned Ebay)-is Christofle.It's got quality,history,but it's plate w/ an almost mythic attraction ?

 

I scored a pile of flatware this Winter. Sold it to an antique seller for under melt, but I bought it for literal pennies on the dollar. A local antique merchant had a buyer refuse silver. Doesn't want to deal with it. Most silverplate isn't worth buying unless you're selling it by the pound to crafters. Sterling goes to the pawn shop mostly, if you're willing to sell for half of melt. Otherwise don't bother.

 

Yeh Christofle is interesting. It sells incredibly well, you’re correct. The quality and design is definitely good so I understand why people like it. I don’t quite understand why it commands such high prices though. There are comparable quality plated goods available that would sell for a small fraction of a similar Christofle piece. I was incredibly lucky once to buy an auction lot of sterling that also included some unnamed silverplate without photos of the marks. Turned out to all be Christofle. I did better on it than the sterling. There was 6-8 pieces or so. I guess along with the quality it’s just the name, like Tiffany & Co. or something. Tiffany silver which was often made by big named firms will sell for multiples of comparable pieces made by the same company. You could have a Gorham piece made for Tiffany next to a Gorham piece of even better quality and the Tiffany marked piece will sell for much more. “What's in a name? That which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet.” ….may smell as sweet, but it won’t sell as sweet!

 

I had a cross just like that. Ivory-colored. And it indeed have a stanhope. Missing it's beaded chain though. Remembering it as celluloid but, on second thought, believe it to have been bone.

Debora

 

I love that rhyme and the truth of it.

 

Mappin and Webb plate sells ok. And if you’ve attributable Christopher Dresser designs, all bets are off.

 

Some really ornate flatware patterns sell well too. Most aren't worth the effort.

 

I don't know much about it except what my mother has told me. They do sterling as well, quite a bit of it. I actually just googled why is christofle so expensive Apparently they're one of the best names in the world and have been since 1830. They furnished services for the Orient Express and the Ritz in Paris, so I guess they're something of an Hermes of the silverware world? My mother certainly has held them in high esteem.

 

I sort of waited to see what would come of the lot I put together. It ended last night at 131 euros. Made 100 profit! 2 bids, but thats a nice chunk to get the vide grenier season started..

 

Im continually surprised that silver doesn't do well. Old silver is fine, but anything made in the last 80 years is really hard to shift unless its got some other quality about it. Ethnic jewelry does well I've seen for instance. But not silver for the sake of silver.

 

And it has been doing well for ca 150 years. Of course it has to be true ethnic/regional jewellery, traditionally worn by locals.
Some souvenir ethnicky stuff also does well, but most doesn't.