Featured The story I never told over the summer

Good evening everyone. This is a bit of a confession post (in a way)....I had a find over the summer while I was on my business trip, and at the time I decided not to post it. To be honest, I wasn't even sure why I didn't post it, but I figured maybe I would wait awhile for the dust to settle, or maybe it would be one of those finds that never gets posted. Well, I decided today that it was just too amazing not to share with all of you. If you'll indulge me for a bit, I'll share some of the details.

So this all actually happened back in July, and I was away from home for a month on business. I decided during the trip to try to search online for silver and I posted some of my finds during that time on here. I had mentioned at the time back in July that I might have a great find to share, but then I got gun-shy after the deal happened and I didn't post it. At the time, I was searching long distances away because I had nothing but free time and I didn't mind driving to get some silver. I recall very clearly in the middle of the afternoon, I stumbled across a listing with the simplest title "Silver Items" and this was the first photo:









And of course my first instinct was to send the seller a message and try to get some more details. They responded fairly quickly and the seller stated that all the items were real silver. So my heart started racing and all I wanted to do was to drive to meet them as soon as possible. And naturally, they couldn't meet until the next day...So that night I could barely sleep thinking about this deal possibly happening...

I woke up very early the next morning and started making the long trip to meet the seller. Flash forward about 3 hours and I was almost at the seller's house. Normally when I go to pick up something, I'm trying to offer my cash and leave the situation fairly quickly, but my curiosity was peaked, and I decided I was going to hang around as long as the seller wanted me to, and try to figure out the story of why they were selling a beautiful collection.

Well, I ended up staying for almost 45 minutes talking to the seller, a really nice person. And I can tell you this was a situation where they knew what they had, and they were interested in getting rid of it quickly and easily because they needed to clear out a room for another purpose. It was a nice house, a nice person not desperate for money and knowing exactly what they had. It was an easy, relaxing conversation and I definitely felt the seller was completely comfortable and happy to sell to me. Sometime in the middle of the conversation, the seller mentioned that they would be listing a set of flatware soon online.... My response was something like "well, while I'm here, I'd be happy to take a look at them, and obviously there's no pressure from me if you would prefer to just post them online."

Given the friendly discussion we had, coupled with the seller's interest in clearing out the storage room, they showed me the flatware set. As soon as I looked in the storage box my jaw almost dropped straight out of my mouth. I was thinking to myself "keep your composure, keep your composure Nate"...And patiently I waited maybe 5 seconds, and finally I said something like "well, I would definitely be interested in the set, just let me know the price that you think is fair and I'll let you know if it works for me." I should emphasize here that there was zero pressure on my part, because more than anything I wanted the seller to feel comfortable with the sale, because at the end of the day that's what matters. So after maybe 20 seconds, the seller comes up with a number that he considered fair. I'm not going to say what it was, but it didn't take me long to say yes to the high end of his estimate.

We shook hands, and the deal was made. We continued to chat for another 20ish minutes and it was a great conversation. Overall I feel very blessed for the combination of luck, timing, and skill that led me to the most insane find I'll probably ever have in my life. The seller was a wonderful person, and I know that they walked away feeling content with the transaction. 20 or 30 years from now, I'll probably look back on this one somewhat unbelieving that it actually happened, but it did. Here's a few photos, far too many items to even try to describe or list individually. Everything in the photos is either coin silver or sterling, very few weighted items. The Pièce De Résistance is the sterling set of Gorham Chantilly flatware; over 150 individual items in the set.

 

So what do you do with all that? Melt it all down?

 

WOW, WOW, WOW, well done Mr Nate

lol, I can well imagine you didn't get much sleep

love this part

Sounds like you treat people fairly Mr Nate, I think karma was paying you back

I love to read your adventures of Silver Hunting, you have the gift of putting pen to paper. I hope you continue to share your adventures with us

 

just WOW........that's all I got !!!

 

WELL DONE AGAIN NATE !!! ... WOW !!! ... Joy.

 

Very patiently.
Great story and great haul, Nate Silver Nose did it again!

 

The great Nate silver slayer strikes again.
I am curious too, what do you do with all that silver stuff?
No pressure to tell us.

 

Lovely story and even lovelier finds.
Do you have a vault where you keep it all?

 

That's quite a haul, Nate!

 

No melting for me. I did decide awhile back that anything that was weighted, and not really amazing looking would just get scrapped and sold off.

 

Basically yes! Atleast from the items I’ve kept.

 

I don’t mind sharing. My strategy in the long run is to sell, scrap or send to auction most of the items I’m collecting. In the meantime, I like cleaning them up and enjoying their beauty for the time that I own them.

 

I definitely try to treat people fairly. I can tell when speaking to people online when they don’t trust me, or anyone for that matter. So sometimes they’re downright surprised with honesty/integrity. I can’t say that I blame them, but I choose to live my life believing most people are decent and honest.

 

I didn't mean that you melted the stuff yourself! I just meant "sent for melt" or scrapped.

 

Now I know why the rest of us cant find diddly! Well done,Mr. Nate.

 

I was signing on this morning thinking it would be fun to see a Mr Nate post

 

Here was I thinking you were organizing an elaborate formal dinner for the whole town.

 

WELL DONE, ONCE AGAIN, Mr NATE!!!!!

 

Hi Mr. Nate. But we’re you anticipating a further sale and carrying around that much extra cash ?

 

I’m always carrying around a certain amount of extra cash hoping for an extra sale.