I have learned a few things over the years but perhaps the most important one is not to be afraid to take a chance when your senses tell you to. I took a chance on a painting once and it is still my best buy: the Frederick Morgan that sold for $115,000. No, you shouldn't be foolish, but after searching your knowledge base and finding no reason not to buy an item, pulling the trigger should become easy. This is what separates the successful dealers from the also runs.
Over the last two weeks I have managed to spend several thousand dollars on many items but perhaps the one that will ultimately be my best buy was a bronze plaque by the well known sculptor, James Earl Fraser. Cecil was with me and it was the first piece that was bought. What really caught our attention were the newspaper clips that showed the very same piece selling for $1150 in 2007 and another one that sold for $4370 in 2005. I have to admit I know very little about these plaques but, just because people are willing to sell items cheaper than what the market was a few years ago, it doesn’t mean that when the fear of an economic panic passes, the values won't return to where they were before.
You shouldn't count on a re-occurrence of past values when you're deciding what you want to offer but it should be a factor in your judgment. Yes, I believe that the plaque will sell for at least double the price I paid, but if I could get what others are asking for theirs, then it will have been a real treasure for me.
Again, I must encourage you to search for the rare and unusual items. The ability to set the final price may be more difficult, but your competition will be reduced tremendously. If you have an item that no one else is selling, the buyer must decide how dear it is to him before buying. But if the same buyer has an opportunity to buy an item like yours from several people, he has much more bargaining power or he can simply wait until he finds one that has been reduced to the price he is willing to pay.
Here is a tip for you. In the event you are able to buy a genuine bronze by a listed sculptor, the best place to sell it as a general rule isn't eBay, because of all the fakes that end up there. Bronzes should be sold at the major auction houses and, even with their fees, you should still come out much better. When you have a question about where to market your treasures, the Daryle Lambert's Antiques and Collectibles Club members will always be there to help you. In the future, I will be placing questions on the blogs that have been sent to us. In fact,
Doing this blog, I checked some sales on eBay and ran across a Tiffany bronze lamp base that I sold several years ago for $3500. It just brought well over $7500 so I think that I will go to bed and brood. Just kidding, because I hope that with that $3500 I have been able to double my money many times since the base was sold.
www.darylelambert.com
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment