Provenance
comes into play when something rare is handed down through a family - like on "Antiques Roadshow"...and usually comes into play when someone is trying to date a handmade piece of furniture, or a really rare early item.
I've seen a few midcentury items showing up on the US "Antiques Roadshow" and one chair, the owner said he bought it at house sale.
My tirade above was to respond to anyone who felt guilty about the circumstances that a piece found its way to a second hand store....the buyer needs not worry about it (unless it turns out to clearly stolen merchandise)!
Those who frequent this forum may be rational about buying & selling
but I happened upon an online thread dedicated to the television show American Pickers (which features two dealers who travel the hinterlands buying up collectibles then selling them in the city)--- lots of people are under the muddled impression that it's "theft" to buy an item from person A for $50, then sell to person B for $200. (Hey! They cheated person A out of 150 bucks! Call the cops!)
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message968835/pg1
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Theres a very rough guide, in the UK anyway, that goes: if a person asks you how much its worth then if you are in the know you should tell them and give them a fair price ,but, if you turn up and they say just give me £10 for the chair I want rid of it then you give them the tenner even if you know it is Mr Eames own personal prototype chair ( or something of similar high value). The only way buying deceased lots would be immoral is if a dealer knowingly under valued the pieces.
As far as movies go, I would...
As far as movies go, I would like to see it, even though I'm pretty certain at least 99% of all movies made are not very good.
The premise sounds interesting. And someone said Amanda Peet is in it. One of my favorite movie reviews goes like this:
I laughed, I cried. I kissed five bucks goodbye.
That's an old review, obviously.
How hoarders are minted... and maintained
"lots of people are under the muddled impression that it's "theft" to buy an item from person A for $50, then sell to person B for $200. (Hey! They cheated person A out of 150 bucks! Call the cops!"
If someone comes to your REMOTE farm and is willing to dive around and pay to take it off your hands, what's the problem?
You will never get the prices he is resourceful enough to get at his level of the food chain... Then people make money of of HIM.
Most stockpilers are simply unwilling to sell because they want control over it when it's gone.
I don't feel obligated to...
I don't feel obligated to share the value of pieces. I have spent many years of reading and obsessing over design. That has to be worth something. People pay for expertise in many arenas, why not in furniture? If you have a cool vintage store, the typical person shopping there is shopping for a "look." They usually don't know the full design history and every last insane detail which would elevate a piece to greatness. That's where the dealer comes in. Chances are the "look" the buyer wants would exude a special sense of taste and intelligence. The dealer is paid to sift through all the "close but no cigar" mid century crap to find the real gems. Gems that the buyer has the money for, but obviously not the time, energy or interest in learning about. They want to appear to be worldly and knowledgeable without the time and energy cost of finding and/or learning. What's wrong with selling your expertise? I suppose I am smart enough to learn to fix my own car. But I haven't. And if I don't want to spend the time and energy and if I do not have the passion to learn it, then I must pay someone who has. Period. And that's perfectly fair in my eyes. We do it all the time. Anyone who says differently is just jealous of your great finds. I often have people complain, "I never find good deals on cool stuff." Well then, whiny pants, do you know what this "cool stuff" is called? When was it designed? By whom? Who manufactured it? How many hours do you spend a week thrifting and scouring eBay for misnamed items and hours spent preying on clueless Craigslisters? That's what I thought. You can't find a good deal on something you are ignorant about. You have to know what you are getting on the spot. That is a learned skill like anything else.
And, no, I am not a dealer. I just have common sense.
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Well undervalued would be knowing a piece, for instance, was worth £400 retail and offering £10.
There is no acceptable percentage to offer, as a rule of thumb I work on a 100% mark up.
Again this rough rule is not set in stone and was a rough guide when I started a few years ago! I accept now that "new dealers" the ones who have learnt everything from there cool coffee table books, design blogs and tapping the bottomless knowledge of design addicts would have no problem with undevaluing or pretending not to know an items worth to get a bargain.
I on the other hand have studied for years to gain the knowledge I have and while I dont give it for free if I am asked a pieces value I give the price I would be willing to pay based on what I know about it. Could I get more furniture at a cheaper price of course and I still get bits on ebay for a £1 that i sell for much more but I have a business and to date it has been built on my name (the fools), also it helps me to sleep at night.
Well put,Whitespike
I absolutely agree 100%.Knowledge is power.If a seller agrees to an offered price,and there is no gun being held to his head- a buyer/seller agreement is reached and that's that.If anything,shame on the children for not doing their "due diligence".They grew up with the stuff,hated it,and unloaded it,and good bye.No pity here.
Furthermore,how about the shopper who found the huge black pearl on a gold mount in a basket on the counter at the thrift store for $12.00.? It will be auctioned off for about $235,000 dollars at Sotheby's.Shame on everyone who let it slip through!!
Where did I first hear
"Knowledge Is Power"?? In the 1958 movie, "Auntie Mame".
This whole conversation reminds me of finding the 2nd Bob Dylan album at a thrift shop in NYC in 1982 for a buck and sold it for $12,345,67.
Why so much? It was a stereo copy and it contained 4 songs that were removed prior to release and (supposidly) all copies were destroyed. I was lucky enough to have found one and even though I didn't know the whole story back then, I certainly understood that the cover said the first cut was "Blowing In The Wind" and it was not listed on the label, nor played that track, I knew I had something special!
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