Tallone
Hero Member
I stopped by the final day of an estate sale yesterday. Once in a while I can pick up a real good deal on something everyone else overlooked. Anyway, there was a LARGE china/curio cabinet filled with ceramic figurines that hadn't sold yet. From a distance, many of them appeared to be large Lladro pieces. I know these are very popular and often sell for hundreds of dollars. I was hoping the sales company was asking too much on Saturday but would now sell them for a very reasonable price. I checked the price tag and, sure enough, they were asking full retail value. Then the sales lady comes over and says, "Pay no attention to the price tag." She then quotes me prices in the $15 - $40 range.
Now I'm getting excited but I know better than to buy fragile stuff like this without very close inspection so I put her off. Materials and craftsmanship appeared to be good quality. Then I looked at the maker's marks on the bottom. All these Lladro style pieces were made by a company called "Palessi". Never heard of them. So I wandered off to another part of the house, broke out my iPhone, and looked them up on eBay. I only found one piece which is listed for $399. There was nothing in the Completed or Sold listings. Google didn't turn up anything on this "Palessi" outfit, either. I went back to look at them again and this time the lady tries to convince me they are "Nao Lladro" pieces. I had not heard about Nao Lladro either so I looked them up. Turns out Nao pieces are almost as popular as Lladro but the Nao pieces I found on eBay were clearly marked "NAO". This Nao story smelled fishy to me so I walked away and didn't buy any.
Has anyone else ever heard of this "Palessi" outfit? Did I blow a great opportunity or did I dodge a bullet?
Now I'm getting excited but I know better than to buy fragile stuff like this without very close inspection so I put her off. Materials and craftsmanship appeared to be good quality. Then I looked at the maker's marks on the bottom. All these Lladro style pieces were made by a company called "Palessi". Never heard of them. So I wandered off to another part of the house, broke out my iPhone, and looked them up on eBay. I only found one piece which is listed for $399. There was nothing in the Completed or Sold listings. Google didn't turn up anything on this "Palessi" outfit, either. I went back to look at them again and this time the lady tries to convince me they are "Nao Lladro" pieces. I had not heard about Nao Lladro either so I looked them up. Turns out Nao pieces are almost as popular as Lladro but the Nao pieces I found on eBay were clearly marked "NAO". This Nao story smelled fishy to me so I walked away and didn't buy any.
Has anyone else ever heard of this "Palessi" outfit? Did I blow a great opportunity or did I dodge a bullet?