Antiques and Collectibles – Daryle Lambert’s Antiques and Collectibles Blog - I miss them

In my life I have been very fortunate and few things have been taken away from me that I care about. I can no longer say that, however, because for the last couple of days I haven’t done the things that bring me fun and profit. After I return home on Sunday, I hope to get my condition checked.



Why do I tell you this? It is because I now realize that there are no guarantees. Day after day, I have written this blog to assure the readers that they can have fun and make profit from the knowledge that they acquire. Don’t take that for granted. This experience has shown me that we aren’t in control of everything in our life, but God is.



Starting next week, I will be giving you specific information on antiques and collectibles that will hopefully inspire you in the pursuit of your treasures. I am once again going to spend more time in my personal pursuit of treasure so I can share it with you. It has been my purpose to try to encourage all the readers to pursue success, however, it seems I may have forgotten that the best way to lead is by example.



I am going back to my basics by searching for quality American art pottery and art glass. In fact, I have several customers whom I need to respond to. I also will be negotiating on a Harvey Joiner painting and you know how much I love Kentucky artists. By doing these things, I hope to once again feel the joy of personal success which I can pass on to you. This is still the greatest business in the world and this accident has brought this back to my attention. God bless and keep praying…

God’s Grace – Daryle Lambert’s Antiques and Collectibles Blog – His blessings

Antiques and collectibles are definitely important in our business but there are far more important things in our life.

I may have suffered a serious injury to my back today while riding go carts with my son, Joshua. Hitting head on with another car that was going in the wrong direction, it literally knocked my shoes off. I was unable to move for several minutes and sharp pains ran from my shoulder to the tips of my fingers on my right hand. The attendants helped me out of the car onto the ground. I laid there for fifteen minutes while the pain subsided and Joshua called his mother who came and assisted me to the car. We considered going to the hospital but we decided to go home for the night to see if there is improvement. The pain has not eased in my back but Vickie and Josh are giving me wonderful attention by providing medicine and hot packs for my back.


As the accident happened, I saw life flash past me and the possibility of being a paraplegic for the rest of my life. All things are ultimately in God’s hands.



With the help of my family, I hope to continue my blogs for the rest of the week. Please pray for Vickie because she is worried and for Joshua because he is scared. Prayers for me should be directed to Jesus, that I would be in his hands and he would provide me protection. I am currently unable to walk without assistance but I hope in the morning that this condition will have improved. God bless.

Survey – Daryle Lambert’s Antiques and Collectibles Blog – I need your help

After 3 years and a maximum effort, it is time to have a survey of where we are going as a Club. The Daryle Lambert’s Antiques and Collectible Club has gone through several transformations but now seems on target to achieve the initial purpose of its creation. I am wondering, however, if our members really want what we are offering.



The basic framework for achieving success with the guidelines set out in my book “31 Steps to Your Millions in Antiques and Collectibles” are completed and now the only element missing is the members' participation in the program. I realize that every member doesn’t have things at the present time to sell but if they aren’t buying and advertising to buy, all the knowledge that we share with them will be for naught. Why do I make that statement?



We now have an active affiliate program and the classifieds up and running but there has been only limited response to both. With the large number of members in the Club, it seem that the section in the classifieds called wanted (where members can list what they are searching to buy totally free) would be filled with almost every member's name and what they want to buy. This is the best way I personally know of to get customers for our members. Every member has this right and I can promise that it will help each one in their business.



So I would like for my readers to send an email to me at daryle@darylelambert.com answering these five questions:

1. Why haven’t I completed my want ad on www.darylelambert.com?



2. If I have items for sale, why haven’t they been listed on our site?



3. Will I be using the classifieds in the future and if not why not?



4. What would it take to make the www.darylelambert.com classifieds more appealing to members?



5. What other suggestions do you have that would make your membership something that you would use more often?







I personally feel that as our site becomes better known it will be real competition to sites such as Craig’s List and eBay. Bob and Ondre are working overtime to get the listing in the marketplace and classifieds picked up by Google and Yahoo which will be a tremendous plus for our listing members. With the quality of our listings the customers will come.



I will be returning home Sunday and hopefully your response will help in our future plans.

Fossils – Daryle Lambert’s Antiques and Collectibles Blog – You say what?

Well I arrived in the Smokies safe and sound. After we spent some time getting our place in order, Joshua, my son, said it was time for an adventure, so off to town we went. One of his favorite things to do in Gatlinburg is to mine for gemstones so we set out to find a place where this activity is done. Before we got to our destination, however, he wanted to visit a shop that featured fossils.





To my amazement, these fossils really caught my attention and as I browsed the shop the prices also became interesting to me. It was fairly easy to pick up a specimen that was priced over $1000 or more. I continued to browse around the shop, memorizing as many of the prices as I could. This was going to be a subject I needed to research. I believe the reason that fossils caught my eye was that I often see examples of them at garage and house sales priced very cheaply. But my question was “If I buy them, is there a secondary market out there?”





As usual, I went to my old standby eBay. At first, there were listings under fossils that didn’t pertain to what I was looking for, but at about $700 there they were. A shark's tooth, crab and snail all over the $700 mark. Then around $400, I began to see examples of the ones that I have been passing up at sales and auctions. All of these were completed sales on eBay so now I know what I have to do in the future: buy them. Dinosaur and shark teeth are bringing over $1000 if they are old and large, and other fossils are also bringing premium prices.





I believe I am going to spend more time with my son because it seems that he has the magic touch when it comes to finding collectibles that fit the rules set out by the Daryle Lambert’s Antiques and Collectible Club, that is, to buy items where you can at least double your money when they are sold. First it was coins, then flying items, and now fossils. Even in today's economy, it seems these categories are still doing well.





Do a little research on fossils; they might be for you. Most dealers wouldn’t touch a fossil so if you obtain the knowledge you may be in a game all by yourself. What could be better than that?

Antiques on Your Trip – Daryle Lambert’s Antiques and Collectibles Blog – Call ahead

Going on a trip? If so, be prepared when the time arrives. Be sure you have all the tools in your bag that are essential, like price guides, business cards and a jeweler’s loupe. But that isn’t all the preparation that needs to take place. Be sure that you call ahead to the dealers and others that you know at your destination and along the way.


I am on my way to the Smokies and the rules that I just gave you are the ones I follow when I am away from home. You might ask why you would call ahead and that would be a fair question but there is a reason, I assure you. By calling ahead, the dealers have time to get together items that you might be interested in or hold items back for you to see first when you arrive. This will save you time and also prevent you from searching through lots of pieces that you would have no interest in.


The next item that needs attention is the route of your trip. I get a map and circle where I know I’m stopping and then I go to the computer and search for other destinations that look interesting if I have the time. Don’t over commit time to your business, however, because vacations are usually a family outing. Even if your business is important, your family is far more important. Ask your family members if it is okay to stop along the way and I promise you this: They will only say no if that is all you want to do.


Here is where you really have the advantage on the stops you make. I usually make it completely clear to the dealers that I won’t be back this way far a long time and if we are going to make a trade it has to be now. I have found this very advantageous in making deals because "cash now talks" as the old saying goes. Dealers seem to be willing to make deals with people who are passing through because it is the only shot they have at them and there won’t be a tomorrow.


Since space is usually at a premium, don’t buy just anything and be sure you always save space for that real treasure that might be at your next stop. I have personally found items as I travel that have paid for the trip many times over. When I visited my friend Murray in California, I was able to buy several pieces. The best was a very rare Royal Doulton experimental figurine that later sold for over $5000. If you run out of space, you can always have the dealer ship the items to you.


I have made mistakes in my treasure hunts while on the road and I will share only one of them with you. I was in Florida with my family and my wife’s parents and to make me happy they took me to a flea market. I ran into a dealer who had two Weller water sprinklers, one a duck and the other I think a frog. He was head up east and needed to make a sale, so after much negotiation he quoted a price of $5000 each. I considered the offer for a long time, even browsing the rest of the show, before going back and telling the dealer that I would pass. It was only a few months later that I saw these very pieces sold at auction, one for $17,000 and the other $15,000. That wasn’t a happy day for me but it did make me trust my first opinion more often.

My 220 page book about how to make money buying and selling antiques and collectibles is FREE with your membership in the Daryle Lambert's Antique and Collectible Club. Join Us Today

Tomorrow is Too Late – Daryle Lambert's Antiques and Collectibles Blog – No going back

 Watch this one.

 

How many times have I shared with you that when something is on your mind you should settle it before going on to something else? That sounds simple enough, doesn't it? Then add the fact that if you have been dealing in antiques for over 45 years, this rule should be permanently embedded in your head, right? You probably know that I am talking about myself and warning you not to do what I did.

Earlier this week I was browsing through the classifieds and in one ad there were three large Royal Doulton mugs that were to be sold. I noticed that two of the mugs were very common but the third was the rare one called The Clown. I gave it very little attention but did make a note to myself to call the conductor of the house sale to ask more about the mugs later. The week passed and on Friday I saw the note and went to www.estatesales.net to locate the sale but the ad had already been deleted and I was unable to find the sale address or the number to call about the sale.

Why should this matter, I am sure you're asking. Here is the reason. I thought that over many years of collecting Doulton I had accumulated most of the information I would ever need pertaining to Royal Doulton. As a general rule that would be true. If you remember I wrote in my book about the Pearly Boy mug I bought for $165 and sold for $6500 because of the special decoration. But seeing these three mugs nothing really jumped out at me because on its best day The Clown mug might bring $1000 today.

Before I attempted to find the ad on Friday for the house sale (by the way the sale started on Friday), I though that it might be good to just glance at the Doulton guide to be sure of myself. The first two were mugs that I may have given $35 for but The Clown was a different matter. You see my memory served me well because The Clown was listed for just a little over $1000 but here is the rest of the story. There is a rare version of The Clown that has red hair that will bring over $5000. You guessed it. The sale that I considered attending had the red haired clown and I will never know what it sold for. The price could have very easily been $250 or much less if they didn't do their research at the sale.

The older I get the truer those old sayings seem to be. Remember this one: "Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today." I am sure there is someone here in the Chicago area who is smiling all the way to their bank and it could have been me. Knowledge is wonderful but there are times when knowing where to find knowledge and using resources are just as important.

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks but in my case I just need to do the tricks I know over and over again. I hope that you can learn from my mistakes.

My 220 page book about how to make money buying and selling antiques and collectibles is FREE with your membership in the Daryle Lambert's Antique and Collectible Club.  Join Us Today

Gold Coins - Daryle Lambert's Antiques and Collectibles Blog – Time to sell

I have given the sell signal on gold several times over the last three years and those that listened made money. I believe it is that time again, with gold still over $1200 an ounce. To show that I follow my own advice, I am listing two 1880 five dollar gold pieces mounted as earrings in 14 karat gold mounting. They will be on our site www.darylelambert.com in the classifieds today. For the readers of this blog, there will be more coins listed soon. If you have any coins to list, I hope you join us.

There is always a time to cash out of any antique or collectible and I have seen more dealers that I have known hang on to something just because they thought the value would continue to appreciate, only to have the bottom drop out of the market. First to come to my mind is the friend I have who fell in love with Beanie Babies. He bought Beanies by the gross and still has most of them. If he sold them now, rather than make a profit, he might lose 75 % of his investment. At one time he could have easily doubled his money, but now they are just taking up space.

This is how I feel about gold coins that aren't key pieces because as the value of gold declines the coins will drop equally. Now is the time to take your profits and run. I would not be surprised to see gold below $1000 per ounce by November because, as it becomes more apparent that there is going to be a huge change in Washington, the political climate will settle down and gold values will drop. Watch as the gold hawks on television push harder and harder to convince you to buy; you will then know that the peak in prices have been reached.

This is even a great time to sell gold to the smelters because they are paying 90 % of spot prices in some cases. Most gold coins have very little collector value today unless they are in near mint condition so to get such a high price relative to spot makes a lot of sense. If you are buying gold coins be very careful because there are more and more fakes coming into the marketplace.

For all those gold hawks, I have these two pieces listed at a very fair price on our site www.darylelambert.com. If gold does go to $3000, as the ads say, you will make a killing. I'm selling my gold and hope to start buying back at $850.

I hope that the readers like the changes on the classified pages and if you have any additional suggestions please email them to myself or Ondre. Our emails are listed under “staff” on the home page. One little note: if you are having trouble posting photos with your listings, it is probably because your pictures are too large. If you size them down you shouldn't have any problem.

My 220 page book about how to make money buying and selling antiques and collectibles is FREE with your membership in the Daryle Lambert's Antique and Collectible Club.  Join Us Today