Gold & Silver – Daryle Lambert’s Antiques and Collectibles Blog – When to show.

My question to you is, when an opportunity presents itself to you are you ready? Let’s suppose you unexpectedly ran across a large number of real bargains. Would you buy them without hesitation?


Do these seem like reasonable questions to you? Would you like to know why I’m asking? Well, as you know, I am on my way back to Chicago with very little to show for the trip as far as business goes. Yes, I stopped at several antique malls on the last day but afterwards I asked myself "why?" While I was away, I called my friend Cecil and we agreed that I would stop by on my way back through Franklin, Kentucky to say hello because he works there some weekends.


I arrived at the mall and Cecil wanted me to look at a few of the booths belonging to a lady named Dorothy who sold over $25,000 from her booths last month. Try telling Dorothy that business is slow. I picked three items that I thought were bargains and figured my day was over.


Cecil suggested that we just look at a few other booths so I followed him as he was weaving from one booth to the next. All at once he stopped in his tracks and stared at a couple of showcases. They were both filled with special items made of gold and silver with a sprinkling of pottery and other items on almost every self. But it wasn’t the items that caught Cecil’s attention - it was the note taped to the glass “40% off all items”.


Now it was time to get serious! Both Cecil and I began to make piles of items for me to purchase. First, came a wonderful royal blue porcelain vase with heavy silver overlay and large five toed dragons decorating it; next was the 800 silver waste bowl, then the sterling chocolate sipping straw (something I had never seen before). I was like a kid in a candy shop. When I finished, I had an oriental snuff bottle, several Indian silver signed pieces, a sterling cigarette case and a Kewpie stick pin in its original box. In all, I purchased 27 separate pieces that should triple my money at a minimum. The gold and silver pieces were purchased at less than the value of the metal they are made of


Always be ready to act at any time because the opportunity may only present itself once.