Periodically I get mad at my small town auction. There is one buyer, who insists on either buying everything, or ringing prices up. Then she sells stuff cheap. Last week she sold a Czech Glass Art Deco Bracelet for 24.99, describing it as Victorian Carnelian. (need to insert emoji of eye roll here) When this happens, I need to convince myself that I can find treasures elsewhere. So today I took a road trip up I-95 to a different auction house. This one sells jewelry lots, in little bags, but posts pictures online, so that you can see what will be offered. So when I think of it, I check out there website, enlarge my viewing screen to 150%, and try and see what they’re offering.
This is a comfy cozy auction. Seating is provided, the auctioneers wear suits, and pictures of the items are projected on a large screen tv. Fancy stuff. No Amish pretzels here. Since this is a fancy city auction, you also get charged with a “buyers premium”. It ranges from 15-21% depending how you pay. This is like going to Walmart, and at checkout they charge you an extra 15% for the honor of shopping. This makes no sense to me. And it messes you up while you’re bidding. I forget to add the extra 15% to my bid in my mind.
The jewelry section starts first thing in the morning, this being the city, first thing is 10:00. Huddled in one corner of the showroom, we bid on little baggies of jewelry. Last night I went through the website and wrote down which lots were most promising (there were about 100 lots of baggies) When I arrived this morning I opened up the interesting baggies, snooped around to see what was in the. What I’m looking for is interesting glass, you might be looking for sterling silver, modernist pieces, we all have different interests. I was really happy with what I won, 5 lots, one bag of 37 bracelets was 100.00. Personally, spending 100 dollars for a baggie of jewelry slightly freaks me out, but I’d done my research and knew I would be getting some goodies in the bag.
In the bracelet bag was one of the best art glass bracelets I have ever seen, missing a hard to replace stone. I may repurpose it, but I need to do some research with a Costume Jewelry group to see how viable replacing the stone will be. In the bracelet bag I also found Whiting Davis, Kramer, a tiny scarab bracelet, a Sandor Bangle, and some mid century pieces.
I ended up spending 299.00! Ach. This is a lot for me to drop at one time. And 45.00 of that is the buyers premium I pay. I don’t even get a Cracker Jack ring for that. But, I ended up with 99 pieces of jewelry I think are sellable. That averages out to 3.00 a piece. That’s a number my brain can work with.
So I walked out of there happy with what I got, I’ve run out of interesting jewelry to list, I still have hundreds of pieces, but they’re just not the greatest pieces. It was raining cats and dogs (and cows) when I came out, I could barely see the car in front of me. I drove with the baggies in the shot gun seat, and I must confess fondling the beaded treasures during stop lights. I’m just so happy with what I found today.
Tomorrow is Wed, I’ve packed up jewelry to sell, hope to meet up with my auction buddy Todd for lunch in the Amish restaurant, and maybe I’ll finds some more treasures. But I don’t have to buy anything, because I’m happy with what I got today. This is my favorite piece, a porcelain dragon by Toshikane, Japan