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Here we go again with old Chinese stuff selling for more than it should be worth..... at least something is making a  comeback in value!

Just sharing yet another vintage lamp we sold....

This was an amazing piece that came with ownership history. It was a gift from the Queen of England to a US captain who lended aid to a British ship in distress in 1866. Not only was the end-cap engraved but it also had the original letter of recognition and even a family tree of the individual. This should be in a museum and I assume the buyer will treasure it as such. I suspect it could have sold for more had we fished for a bit, but the opening bid of $1,000 was certainly fair.

I can't believe someone bought this. In fact, the buyer emailed me right after and said "Curious piece, I can't believe I bought it, it just caught my eye. Thank u.' Seriously viewers, this not something I want to try to consign and I wouldn't have paid $5 for it if someone brought it into the store. But, we found it on a clean-out job and made the effort to find it a good home and made a little money. What you don't see is all the things we list like this that never sell ....

I love vintage lighting - the uglier the better - just sharing another one we sold

Old costume jewelry can sometimes be worth as much as fine jewelry but it does take some recognition skills and even some salesmanship ability to get top dollar.

Specialty hobby and crafting items that were made in limited quantities can be in big demand and finding a model kit like this that was never built can be a premium piece to enthusiasts. In fact, we can sometimes get a higher price than our research tools indicate simply because items like this just don't come up for sale too often. 

Things like old radios, sewing machines, typewriters, etc. are a dime a dozen but give me one in an unusual color and I'll turn it into cash.

Pieces like this can be so hard to sell but it's definitely a feeding frenzy when they finally do.

Most hobbies have various quality levels of accessories and such for all budgets and model train dioramas can go to a whole new level of hardcore. 

Toy trains were never just for kids and some hobby grade models made of brass are worth a fortune. 

Old book can be a hard sell as no one seems to read anymore. The time to research large collections usually outweighs any value found so we have to have a quick eye but every now and then we find a winner

Like I was saying - older Chinese stuff seems to be hot right now... and anything WWII related is always in demand.

Some things are just plain hard to sell and we have to be creative to get them found amongst the myriad of junk for sale on the internet. 

Like I've been saying, certain styles of retro furniture can have big appeal. Accent pieces like this are hard to find and although it took us a long time to sell, someone half-way across the country felt it was worth the price AND the shipping cost as well. 

Old car parts can be in demand but sometimes they sit on our shelves for a while before selling.

This little table was probably $900 new, so you'd think selling it second hand for $275 would be no problem. But let me just say that the ONLY reason I was able to get it sold for even that much is that the legs came off and I was able to ship it in a box to someone who wanted it half-way across the country. In our store, people would expect to pay $100 or less for a little piece like this. 

People all over the world will buy the strangest things but in order to make that sale, you have to do the work to sell one item to one person at a time and get it to them in undamaged. This old call box is on it's way to Switzerland!

This figure was probably about $10 new and 2002 wasn't that long ago but toys are always in demand. Someone who was a kid then and is now an adult (with a job and money) may be looking to reclaim childhood memories - and the value is even greater if said toy has never been taken out of the box!. 

I love old lighting! Here is yet another piece we found a new home for.

Old Chinese stuff seems to be pretty hot right now but there is no rhyme or reason as to what types of items. Anything made of jade, cloisonne, soap stone, cinnabar, agate, silver, or brass has potential though. 

The market is pumped up for anything to do with transportation from years gone by - stuff pertaining to planes, trains, automobiles, gas and oil, are in demand. Even in less than perfect condition some pieces can sell for great prices.

I love seeing stuff like this and piece like this do still sell but like many things, the values are way down and probably won't come back. We've learned that things that were special to us are not wanted by our children so just get rid of them now and take what you can get.

I almost NEVER take fine china as no one wants it these days and packing a shipping a set is a royal chore. I will say that this one style is killer and since I got it on one of our house clean-out jobs I did make the effort to find it a good home.  

Here is me capitalizing yet again on the Mid Century madness.