Taking the Plunge

I've been around Antiques and Collectibles since I was old enough my mom could trust me not touch things :) Bought a pair of Green Glass Civil War Sun Glasses at 8 years old for $3.00.

I started to collect Pin Up Art, still a true love of mine. But never considered trying to make money, much more a living with my vast interest in all things Fine, Old, Odd, Unusual, Rare, or just plane BEAUTIFUL!

I went into this Big Ol' Barn Mall Shop every few weeks while going to my JOB :( After awhile I asked about Space..thinking that I had a few "Smalls" I might sell out of a Locked Glass Case for $45 a month. Honest I didn't think I'd sell much.. But I made the 45 in a day and had a profit of $20 dollars by the end of the week..... but what to do with a dwindling Glass Case? Go to Auction of course! It took about 4 weeks of Saturday Nite Auctions and I went to the owner of the shop..."I Need more Space" He rented me a room upstairs in the Farm House $100 a month. I timidly asked if I would be able to make the rent each month. He told me " Your biggest challenge will be keeping an inventory" Thinking that he was setting me up, that room was so far off the beaten path that if anyone did find the room, they could have a field day stealing anything they wanted! It did happen but not as much as I feared.

Turns out my biggest problem was keeping an inventory! I was buying anything that was CHEAp, that I felt I could at least DOUBLE UP, most of the time it was %200 - %500 some times MUCH MORE! Of course these where CHEAP Items and even a %400 profit was not a lot CASH! But I was paying my rent and selling to MOSTLY Dealers! I started to learn that Women where going to be one of my BEST TARGET Markets. If they where Artists EVEN BETTER! Had I had a good Bank Roll to start with, I may have lasted longer and made it a livelihood. As it went the Owner Sold the Barn and I didn't want to start over in a new shop, so I had the BEST GARAGE SALE EVER.. so said the Dealers that came! LOL

So for the next ten years I worked real jobs and hated the fact that even though I was making money I couldn't go to any Auctions to spend it. So for years I just reminisced about the past that coulda mighta been had I known a little more and had a little more Buying Power!

Lost Jobs and no money now has me looking at auctions once again, started looking, and the bug came back, only BIGGER and Higher Quality, and a commensurate hike in the prices I was willing to look at. How can one dare to look at a Painting sell for $600 and knowing...cause you looked it up, is worth in the nice neighborhood of 5k - 9k! As you watch it sold for $600, saying to your self...." Oh my thats, another 3500 dollars I'll never see."

I'm no longer THAT interested in Art Pottery, aside from some exceptions, I'm board with Roseville, Weller, Ect.
Very nice things not knocking them... Just that I want to focus on the real neat and cool and possibly very valuable.
The ONE of a KIND, the What the Hell is it?, The WOW now thats just NEAT! The Find Me another Just like it! and you can't!

I found that general merchandising ( the normal things most dealers wouldn't think of being with out ) Hurricane Lamps, Chewed up Fishing Lures and cheap Duck Decoys, Head Vases, was not going to cut it in the long run! I needed something that SOLD FAST, that I could budge a great deal on price, from 500% to 50%, and that i could get at auction with out wasting a lot of GAS running all over just to find the $2000 Hand Carved Carousel Horse from the 1860's is really a Machine Cut Cheap Philippine fake made in 1978 worthless! Then you gotta tell em WHY you don't want it and even holding your nose over it. Yeah tell someone they have a worthless fake They Believe is the real deal! Even the most tactful would blush.

So I found Small Tables and chairs to be the ticket, they are at every auction, and sell cheaply normally anyway. I was buying nice chairs not great for $1 to $20 and Great tables for as little as 25 to $150 Nice ones too. I could mark up %100 or more and always sold them! I knew a dealer I use to run with, we where at a JUNK YARD Auction, WOW what a fun time that was! Anyway my buddy buys an entire BARN, a for real Big Red Barn, Full of Chairs ( he bought the chairs not the Barn! )and parts of chairs! hundreds and hundreds of chairs, hangging from the rafters, stacked 10 high almost every square foot of space was taken up by CHAIRS! All One Money for a DOLLAR! $1.00 ! One Stinking Dollar Bill! I don't care how hard times are, your gonna make money with that deal. Who had the Space to store that many chairs? Well He did!

Or the farm Auction where I passed on over 60 Hubcaps! Good Clean and some very rare like Edsel, all one money a lousy DOLLAR! No way to cart them home!

On the subject of being nice.... I love to be nice and treated nice, with just one exception, A rule I put in place after the a fore mentioned Farm Auction..... NEVER, EVER, Never Ever, be nice to that little old grandma bidding against you, over a Hand Painted Stoneware Bowl!

Here's the Story of how being nice lost me perhaps $10's of thousands.

Early on I went to inspect the Lots, it was blistering hot that day, i brought a umbrella chair/ walking stick, love those! Water and plenty of "Soda Pop Money" As I wondered around the farm, I saw the nice, the junk, the ok, Some early Playboys with 1st and 2nd editions worth at the time $1000 to $500, I passed. They sold for $10, lucky fella! But I was saving my cash for only One Item. One I saw early in the morning, and had to wait and wait. As the auctioneer pounded out the Farm Rakes and shoves, Red Wing Crocks and Flow blue dishes so Stained with cooked meat juice you could hardly see the patterns, not to mention even worse large chips and Half Plates, went for as much as $375!

I tried to stay awake and move around, talk to people, who weren't all that interested in talking to me. Every once and awhile I'd mossy over to the flat bed wangon where 'My Treasure" was hiding. Placed on the flat bed mixed in with all kinds of Hay Hooks, Wooden Pulleys, Bails of rope, was a small flat bottomed stoneware bowl.

When I 1st saw it I was a bit confused, it had a hand painted image of a Souther'n Shack, the door is open and a woman is looking out the door, over the degrading front porch, holding a Old hand made Hickory Broom. Her look is that of disgust.
Along the bottom in hand lettered script says: "Whare's that DAWG O' a Husband O' Mine!"

Wow! NEAT, Cool, it was old too I thought Pre civil war, narry a chip nor crack, just that good crazing, I flip it over to find a makers mark of some sort, and to my delight and surprise there was none, instead there was another Image. This time It's answers the wife's question. As there in the Back Yard is the Cloths line and the DAWG house, with 2 pairs Human feet sticking out form the Dog House door, one pair a white male on top of female Black Feet! I just about dropped it. I had no clue to value or age... but must of been around the Civil War when it was made. I'm Guessing it was made in the south, or as I found it in Minnesota, it may have been some sort of Northern Propaganda to free the slaves. A slap at the South Perhaps. I didn't know but I knew I wanted it... all I had was 350 dollars and no way to call for a quick loan..... this was going rock I felt, I WANTED IT BAD!

The day only got hotter, I was getting tired, heat exhaustion, I stayed under the open air tent and chatted with the old ladies and men who where so board, only bringing the wife, they coulda cared less.

How many Sad Irons did this guy collect? On and on it went, when are you getting to that flat wagon? In a few hours, I can deal with it.

Flat wagon Time I run to it and stand far in the back so the Auctioneer could get a GOOD VIEW of my Bids! Earlier in the day I would start a few Bids rolling for him... Corn Seed Planters, Who wants em at $1.00? No One, but When someone Bids a Buck..... all the sudden it must be worth 2, then 3, then 4... get my drift? At the 2 dollar bid came I was OUT! And LO and Behold the Unsaleable at One Dollar, becomes a Bargain at $4? Do that until the Auctioneer Knows YOU are out there!
Notice how often he will LOOK TO YOU TO START IT FOR HIM! Worst thing to happen is you get stuck with a buggy whip for a buck, Deal with it :)

He holds up the my Grail of Hope... I'm thinking I could steal this for 50 to 100 USD. He starts low ballin it, 5 dollars, 10, 15, Bids from all sides of the wagon until it hit 80 dollars or so, so there was up to that point MUCH Interest in that Bowl.
Now I figure Stealing it is out, so I'm going have to scare and confuse the other bidders, knock em out of the hand, like a game of TEXAS HOLD EM". I raise $125.00, Auctioneer smiles, points to the lil ol granny, who bids 150. Well is she serious about the bowl? We are the two left bidding. My jump Bid Spooked em, Silence stood over that flat bed, everyone was looking at the 3 of us. $200 I Bid, it reaches $300 and I'm lookin right at her, She's playin her cards tight... she has a larger chip stack, I'm at a disadvantage. I only have 50 left and No way to get more that day. I move all in

She goes 375 and that was it, over. I should have talked to the Auctioneer Before it went up, letting him know I only had cash, but if he let me go over I'd cover the rest in ONE DAY, sometimes they will do that for you.. depending on things :P

Well I wanted to be a gracious looser and walk over to her. "Thats a Very Nice Bowl you just won, I wanted it very much, but hadn't the funds to go higher." She looked at me and said with Acid tongue, " Then why didn't you stop at 250!" She then went on to tell me she was buying as a GIFT for her Grandson, Bla bla bla, I was Sandbagged by that Wolf in Grannies Clothing!
Well never again, today we have Cell Phones and Friends who have credit cards!