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This is another piece that would have sold for a little more if we had documentation. Post WWII to present day, maritime diving technology has improved so much that recovering artifacts from long sunken ships is relatively easy. Finding buried treasure was even a way of life for some until in the 1980's International laws were passed making it illegal to collect and sell salvage that might otherwise belong to certain nations. Things that were stolen hundreds of years ago are quickly remembered when someone has a way to get them.

Another neat old light quickly sold for a fair price....

I've mentioned before that Native Indian pieces usually sell well. In order to have significant value, pieces like this require provenance which is some type of documentation stating how old it is and where it's from. There are so many brand new 'souvenir' pieces on the market that the collectors are gunshy about spending big money without knowing for sure. We didn't really have much to go on with this and we still got a fair price simply by talking up the estate that it came from.

Historical ephemera will always find it's way to a good home - I'm showing just the 'dance card' but this was a complete invitation to The Ball honoring Prince Edward's visit to the US in 1860, nearly 100 years after we broke off from England so it was a pretty big deal. Usually pieces like this are thrown away by the following generation but the fact that the original owner's children and grandchildred thought to save this made the buyer (who was in Canada of all places) very happt!

We're having fun peddling antiques from the Far East this month from our latest estate. Some of the pieces from this lot are hitting big sale prices! I actually had someone more knowledgeable than myself take a look and nothing appeared to be 'museum quality' but sometimes the collectors 'think they know' something and get carried away. In some cases we try to do extensive research about the things we sell but other times it's best for us to plea ignorance and let the general public decide the value via an eBay auction.

There is a broad line between being a 'picker' and a true antique dealer which I'm trying to cross but I can only stomach so much of Antiques Roadshow. I don't see many 200+ year old Asian pieces so when I do, I get a little nervous as my biggest fear is selling something for much less than what it actually might be worth if properly described.

A friend of mine who is also a dealer was helping me at a job last week and he literally stumbled across this in the back yard. I'll be totally honest in saying that I might have missed this beautiful beast so I'm glad he saw it. He actually wanted to buy it and I offered it to him for $200 knowing it was worth more but he declined. You might ask why would I sell something for less than what it's worth but other dealers are actually among our best customers and being generous with them usually comes back around.

Smaller sales are our bread and butter and we have to find value wherever we can. While we didn't get the expensive handbags from this job, we did find the dust covers and knew that some collector or dealer would want them.

Anything that says 'Not for Sale' requires close inspection as collectors will pay big money for things that were not available to the general public. This 'Uncorrected Proof' copy was actually donated to a library and given to one of the librarians as they already had plenty of copies. A nice bonus for a county job!

There is still a market for fine art pottery but just like everything else, only the best pieces bring great prices.

Most decorative figurines like these have gone way down in value. I'm sure there is a 'price guide' from 20 years ago that will say these are worth hundreds but I beg to differ. Some pieces like these are still collectible but the people who want them are fewer and farther between these days. I'll mention that we don't take consignment items with an estimated value of less than $50 but with things we buy on our treasure hunts, many of our bread and butter sales are in fact under that mark.

I almost never take clothing on consignment. With this dress suit I found, I knew it was about $1,000 new so I had it dry cleaned and stuck it out on eBay. I'm crossing my fingers that the buyer doesn't try to send it back for not fitting but despite providing full measurements it's happened before and it wouldn't surprise me ;p

Old advertising always sells well - even something as mundane as a shipping crate. We have a couple of these left for sale in our store so grab them quick!

Not many people would suspect that this my-little-pony looking figure would be worth $100. Most pieces like this are worth nothing but the art of what we do is being able to recognize a certain brand or even a 'look' that stands out from all the junk.

I'm posting this to say that while $50 isn't a huge sale, these couple throw pillows were hundreds new and most people would have just tossed them. We recently managed a fairly affluent estate and we knew everything was nice so we didn't underestimate anything. As professional 'pickers', we can't afford to leave any stone (or pillow) unturned.

Toy soldiers have been around for thousands of years - these dated back to the 1800's and had great color but the flats just aren't quite as collectible as others.

Dolls for boys! I had a collection of these 'models' (dolls) and they were all hand made by one indivdual. Originally they were a couple hundred dollars new but the artists didn't have much of a following so $50 Greenbacks was all we could get.

Quality vintage textiles can be hard to sell and a stain or visible wear is the difference between a donation or in this case, $100 bill.

This was a really neat piece from WWII - a map of Germany lithographed on a silk hankerchief, givien to soldiers who might wind up behind enemy lines showing them a way to get out of dodge.

This piece had a lot going for it - it was a beer advertisment, art, and a history lesson all in one. The owner had originally paid $5000 for it but it had a condition issue which kept it from being worth what he actually paid. It is a rare piece and sometimes people simply overpay for things when there isn't a good sounding board for value. Even had it been perfect, we fished for a couple months but 750 was all it was going to bring.

Generally silver-plated pieces have limited resale value unless they are particularly interesting like this

Just keeping with my tradition of sharing all the vintage lighting we sell...

We've previously mentioned how crazy some people can get over costume jewelry and being able to identify something as being special is the key. This piece had been in our back area for months waiting to be placed on the floor for a mere $10. Our regular friend Phoebee offered to help sort and stage some of our holdings and discovered this little bird which sang us the sweet tune of $370!

This was a really special piece - a 19th century drawing by Wounded Swallow of the Sioux peoples. It was recreated in the early 20th century with additional data regardng Native American affairs and distributed among known tribal chiefs across the country during a time when the US Government was negotiating reparitions. The subject matter made it valuable in itself but condition issues and lack of additional provenance kept it from being more valuable. I think we got a fair price and it went to a good home and that's all we could hope for.

We do have some luck selling furniture on the Internet and for some really nice pieces buyers will pay to freight ship them but usually the cost of the shipping makes most items not worth the effort. Designer pieces can do well though and this little stand was small enough for UPS