Best Picks So Far This Week, Pleasant Surprises Edition

[kali_is_my_copilot]

First, a selection from a lot of sterling bar ware that I purchased on eBay over the weekend for below melt:




Should be able to get $30-40 for the group of spoons, and similar styles of swizzle sticks (but none with the awesome figural work on these) have sold for $30-100 per stick. The swizzle sticks are marked Japan Sterling, and the spoons are Japanese as well (two 925, two 950).


Then today took a lead from a suggestion I heard here and scavenged the silverplate bins at a local antique store I frequent. Paid $8 for just under 100 grams of sterling; the serving spoon is 60g, the baby spoon is 19g and the handle from a dented sterling holloware knife is 20g.




Only got a tiny fraction of the way through the possible misfiled sterling at that antique store today so I'm heading back tomorrow to try my luck, happy hunting y'all.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[vpnavy]

Thanks for sharing...

 

[jerseyben]

Am I going to the wrong stores or what? I have seen numerous posts where people picked sterling out of the silverware bin at an antique store or thrift store. I look every single time I see one of these bins and have never found a thing!

Congrats!

 

[kali_is_my_copilot]

This is only the second time it's happened to me. First was some souvenir spoons at the thrift store a few months ago. This antique store is really, really full of stuff, also huge. The funny thing is it's more like a hobby for the woman who owns/runs it, their prices for anything with any amount of sterling are insane and I never see anyone else shopping there. The baby spoon was marked $4 and very clearly marked Webster Sterling, she obviously didn't want to sell it for that and went out of her way to tell me that "this one is the kind you can melt, not those other two, though". Ok then!

 

[Drmad7]

Funny you should say that! After reading this quote this morning, I was thinking the same thing! Although I scored big before, my Goodwill has been pretty good in avoiding putting sterling silver in the bins. Until today that is. Picked up a Webster Sterling spoon mixed in with some Barton & Reed Stainless forks and knives!

 

[kali_is_my_copilot]

Meh, they knocked me off when I went up today but still sold me the items I found for $22, at 110 grams so far & need to break down some more damaged hollow ware. One serving piece was marked 900 at $8, I found three of them all priced the same. I left two because I wasn't 100% sure about them but it tested ok so I'll try and get the last two tomorrow.

After I'd gone through the rest of the flatware bins one of the employees asked if I wanted them to hold my selections while I shopped (I definitely did not but handed them over anyway, I was waiting for my hubby to pick me up and trying to kill time). This gave the owner time to look them over. She seemed equally impressed and annoyed that I'd found things she'd missed, and it had definitely her because they were all hand-priced in her handwriting. I don't want to damage my business relationship with this place, they also run estate sales in the area and their store is an appreciated institution that I have not made much money from overall, but I'm still going to see if she'll sell me those last two knives to make a jewelry set from.