This Weekend’s Finds: Costume Jewelry Galore!

One of my specialties, albeit a strange specialty, is vintage costume jewelry. It’s definitely a specialty that you wouldn’t normally associate with a guy in his late-20′s, but I learned quite a bit from my mother over the years as well as the huge inventory of jewelry that she had after she passed away.

Due to the selling of that inventory and the abundance of jewelry I’ve found during some of the great years I’ve had in re-selling antiques, it’s tough to pass it up. This weekend ended up being a huge week for jewelry. Here’s some of the great finds:

• Huge Ledo Clear Rhinestone Brooch with Baguette Stones
  

  Ledo Clear Rhinestone Brooch

• Very Unique Gold-Toned Enameled, Link Cheetah Brooch
  

  Vintage Cheetah Brooch

• Gorgeous Hong Kong Orange Plastic Brooch and Earrings Set
  

  Hong Kong Orange Plastic Brooch and Earring Set

• Vintage Layered Navette Rhinestone Brooch with Unique Center Stone
  

  Unique Layered Rhinestone Brooch

• Gorgeous Forrest Green Flower Rhinestone Brooch
  

  Gorgeous Green Rhinestone Brooch

• Renoir Matisse Triple Leaf Copper Brooch and Earrings
  

  Renoir Matisse Brooch & Earrings

I also bought roughly $300 worth of jewelry that nearly filled my entire van in order to grab these items, so we’ll see if all of the vintage Avon and vintage Trifari/Monet pieces I found will make me some profit. A lot of colorful vintage wooden jewelry from the 1970′s and 1980′s as well. I’m still a bit hesitant as to how I’ll do.

This Weekend’s Antiques & Collectibles Highlights

This past weekend was somewhat of a dud for increasing my inventory, but it did provide me with enough inventory to work for two straight weeks on eBay sales. Some of the more interesting pieces we picked up are below:

• Devon Ware Fielding’s Stoke-on-Trent England Wash Basin
  

  Devon Ware Fielding's Wash Basin

  Very neat painted wash basin from the “Stoke-on-Trent” conglomeration of cities that include Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton.

  

  Devon Ware Fielding's Wash Basin Mark

  I was able to track down the exact marking at ThePotteries.org, a site devoted to Stoke-on-Trent pottery. I found that Fielding’s was founded in 1879 and shut down in 1982, but the mark above dated the piece between 1917 and 1930.

• Royal Albert Bone China “Val D’or” patterned Creamer & Sugar Bowl
  

  Royal Albert Bone China Val D'or Sugar/Creamer

  I wasn’t too sure about this buy, but the gold trim of both pieces was in immaculate condition, leading me to believe that it’s probably a rarity to find that type of condition for these pieces. They generally sell, but we’ll see if my $3 investment turns into something bigger.

• Antique Cast Iron Door Knocker
  

  Antique Cast Iron Door Knocker

  I bought this simply because I thought it was a neat, old piece. I imagine the previous owner painted it, but the ornate designs and facial features made me believe I could get some solid return. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like door knockers are a huge return on investment.

• Our best costume jewelry finds of the weekend
  

  Vintage Enamel Leaf & Rhinestone Flower Brooch

  

  Coro Multi-colored Rhinestone Floral Brooch

  These were probably my two best pick-ups this weekend. I was able to get steals on these as they were in one large lot of other goodies. The top piece isn’t marked, but it’s very unique in that it has the enameled leaves with iridescent stones.

  The bottom brooch is all Coro, and it’s gorgeous. The only problem is two missing baguette rhinestones on the frame, but other than that — excellent find.

Saturday was an excellent day, but Sunday was more or less a bust. Jewelry went out of control for pieces not really worth the bother. Little old ladies battled it out like pit fighters over pieces that probably could have been bought new for less.

Glassware was a bust as well. I was beaten out consistently by one man who bid over my profit margin, and I just wasn’t going to blow money. We came away with some furniture to re-sell for profit, but certainly not worth the trip.

Overall, it was a two-faced weekend. The good and the bad. Hopefully, it’ll get better.

Quick Tips on Finding Value in Vintage Postcards

Seaside Inn of Daytona Beach, Photo By Worthpoint.com

Bonnie Wilpon over at Worthpoint.com has a very interesting read regarding the values of vintage postcards and what to look for when buying or selling these great pieces of history. Street views of towns and cities are one of the hot topics in the article, and it talks about how their value is worth much more than your standard mountainous, scenic view of the Rocky Mountains:

Subject: What’s on the picture side of the postcard? The more likely the scene is to have changed, the more valuable the card. A view of Main Street in Peoria, Ill. will have more value than a beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains—even if the scenic card is from 1906 and the street scene is from the 1960s. General scenes can often be found in dealers’ 25¢ to $1boxes at postcard shows, while busy streets often range from $4 to $25 or more, depending on the town, age, condition and amount of detail.

More unusual postcards that feature scenes of everyday life that aren’t normally scene are usually worth more. I can attest to the fact that there are many collectors who like postcards that show factory work, occupational scenes, and various landmarks within smaller towns that have changed. There was a time a few years ago in which Post Office scenes were highly sought out.

This quote, however, is quite surprising:

Today, in general, views are “hotter” than greetings—just the opposite from the time I started collecting in the early 1970s. Common greetings are often found for less than $1, while particular signed artists and extra features can boost the starting price to $5-plus.

I’ve haven’t dabbled heavily into postcards, and this is probably why. I’ve had a plethora of embossed greeting cards that don’t seem to sell, even though they look the part and the age of many of the postcards we see in today’s antiques books. Unfortunately, the market has went south in that particular facet of postcard collecting.

The article also points out some interesting subjects to keep an eye out for when buying cards:

• 1907-1915 is considered the Golden Age of the Postcard, so those years are definitely worth looking for within the context of the above mentioned uniqueness of the postcard
• Condition is everything. Even dog ears or creasing can decrease the value by half.
• It doesn’t really matter if the card was sent in the mail or not unless the postmark is on the front. Railroad Post Office markings, small town postmarks, and special event postmarks can make cards more valuable.

Postcards have always been a foreign market to me, but I have dealt heavily in real photo postcards before with great success. Even with that experience, it’s hard to know what the market is attracted to, but these tips should definitely help auction goers and garage sale fans.

Determining Which Auctions to Attend During Hectic Weekends

Going, going, gone!

One of the dilemmas that constantly hits my radar around Wednesday and Thursday of the week is what auctions I’m going to attend on the weekends in order to gain some inventory. Right now, I’ve had a problem keeping a weekly stream of inventory to push to eBay, and I’m currently running on a week-by-week basis as to whether I’ll list or not. Preferably, 50 items per week is my limit, but I’ve fell well short of that this year.

There are a number of contributing factors to this is that I haven’t pulled the trigger during junk auctions on the boxes of stuff to be bought in fear of having too much inventory in my one-car garage, but when I have started to bid heavily — I’m normally able to get rid of the inventory fairly quickly with nice profits.

The hot auction season is also a factor as the early months of the Spring are pretty competitive for dealers with the same mentality as myself… I need inventory! Prices fluctuate from rather high to a medium level while the late auction season sees a lot cheaper prices.

This all correlates to the question as to how dealers strategize about which auctions to attend. Some dealers tend to go to the upper-echelon auctions that feature better quality antiques and collectibles while others tend to drudge through the less-advertised auctions that feature bidding on large lots rather than choiced-out pieces. I tend to hit the latter, although I love to hit auctions that are somewhere in the middle.

What’s your strategy, and how has it worked out? Is attending auctions with higher quality items worth it, or do too many dealers drive prices out of this world?