Hidden Treasure?

Buy what you like…if you like it, chances are someone else will too. That’s the theory.  In the interest of making this blog a little more interactive, we’ll find out if it is true together.

A couple of weeks ago, I was checking out a local auction’s preview pictures and ran across this picture.

The Box Lot at auction.

As you can see, it is a very small picture of several box lots.  Fortunately, with this auction, you can click on the picture and see a slightly larger version.

A larger version of the Box Lot Picture.

Check out the red item in the upper-left corner.  It looked like a set of ruby glass scales to me.  Hmm, that was kind of interesting. I hadn’t seen a set of those in years.  But usually, if an item is special, it isn’t in a box lot….so the big question was “Is it actually worth anything?”

There were still a few days before auction, so I did some research.  I looked the item up on eBay, with the following results.

A scale that sold on eBay recently for $29.95

It wasn’t quite the scale I was looking at, so I went to the other pricing source I use, www.priceminer.com.  It is a membership-based pricing resource that I really appreciate.  The results in this case, however, weren’t all that helpful. But this set was fairly close, and had an eBay sold price of $46.00.

Priceminer Listed  Scale which sold for $46.00

So that at least gave me a starting point, though honestly I thought the one at auction was much prettier!

Still uncertain, I decided to twitter about the item, and discussed it with one of my good twitter buds, Linnetwoods.  Linnetwoods runs the twitterhood (Check it out!).  She really liked the description of the scale…and I did too.  So I decided to make a trip to the auction to see it in person.

Once I got to the auction, I nonchalantly took this picture and sent it to Twitter so Linnetwoods could see it.

Discrete photo of the scale at auction.

At this time I could see the other denizens of the box lot:  a ruby glass chicken on a nest and two Pyrex butter dishes.  Linnetwoods seemed to think the scale was a pretty item, and CarolD jumped in and agreed (twitter discussions can become multiperson very quickly) and I really liked it myself.  So I bid.

After some competition, I won the bid. Now, if this were just business, I wouldn’t mention here what I paid.  After all, I am going to put these items up for auction.  But we’re going to have some fun, so I’ll tell you I won the lot for $35+$3.50 buyer’s premium totalling $38.50.  Not all that far from what the other scale sold for on eBay.  However, that includes the chicken and the butter dishes, too.  As well as a funky crystal nut dish and an M&M camera.

The items that were in the box lot.

The items from this box lot went up for sale today on eBay. You know what I paid, and honestly, so will the buyer because they will have access to this blog.  Putting that aside, we have until Sunday (July 5^th, 2009) to see how it all goes.  And after Saturday, I will post to the blog what the results were. Below are pictures of the items. You can click on the pictures and it will take you to the eBay Listings.

This is part of what being an antique dealer feels like…pretend it is your time and money on the line.  Watch the auctions, and see if they do well.  Stay tuned and see if I found hidden treasures, or lost my shirt.  We can enjoy the experience together.

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