I May Have Broken my $1000+ Single Item Hurdle

[MegoSteve]

If I were you, I'd take a trip to Borders or Barnes and Noble and make use of their collectibles and antiques books. Kovels.com has a bunch of reported sales on Japy Freres clocks without pictures, with prices in the range you paid... Kovels' clock books might have pictures so you can identify your piece and its value.

[gaga4toyz]

I don't anything about old clocks, but I'd say you have something special there. Not many people have the stones to take a gamble with $500, but if you don't take some risks you won't get the big pay-out. I don't think you do it just for the money, more for the hunt. You did send me some free stuff afterall.

[Hulk]

Not getting this appraised, even via pictures sent to someone knowledgeable seems ignorant to me, but to each their own. Maybe a true collector will get a bargain out of the deal.

[theantiquetiger]

I have it listed and will contact a few people next week. If it does turn out to be BIG money (but I doubt it will), I will just pull the auction.

[cjefferys]

That's a very cool looking clock, I wouldn't mind having something like that on the mantle. I have to agree with the others, I would do a lot more research on this before blindly throwing it on ebay. The market for something like this may be rather small (relatively speaking), but those people may have deep pockets, and may not regularly go to ebay looking for stuff like this. All it would take is one week where the big spenders for this type of stuff aren't searching on ebay for it, and it ends up going for a lot cheaper than it should have. Do the research.

[theantiquetiger]

I totally understand the play money part of it. I was at an auction not too long ago and was bidding on an African American iron bank that although very derogatory, I knew was collectible. I stopped bidding when it got to $75 because I knew my wife would have killed me but after getting home saw the same bank selling for around $600 on Ebay. I did pick up an authentic German WWII helmet at a Church auction for $50. A military appraiser told me it was worth around $600 or so but I decided to keep it since I like history and have a small collection of militaria.

Are you talking about a large cast iron Aunt Jamima in a red dress with the coin slot between her shoulder blades? If thats it, be careful, this has been reproduced 1000 of times. I see them everywhere. A real one has an odd looking screw head as apposed to the repro that have newer looking screw.

Here is the auction, plus the auctions of the Winchester posters.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZtheantiquetigerQQhtZ-1QQfrppZ50QQfsopZ1QQfsooZ1QQrdZ0?

[Adam West]

No this was a man that had his hand out and the coin goes into his mouth and his eyes roll back in his head.

On the back of the bank cast right in iron was a really derogatory statement.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a reproduction because it had years of dust on it and just had that look. The people were eclectic collectors and there were all kinds of interesting things there.

It was probably better that I didn't win it anyway. I would have just put it up on Ebay....I know some collectors go crazy for that kind of stuff but it was unbelievable to see that type of discrimination on what was probably a child's coin bank.

[Sideshow Spock]

1855 JAPY FRERES BRONZE MANTEL CLOCK CAESAR FRENCH RARE - (eBay item 260160291981 end time Sep-21-07 18:30:00 PDT)

Obviously (so far), you must be disappointed. Has your wife banished you to the couch yet?

[theantiquetiger]

1855 JAPY FRERES BRONZE MANTEL CLOCK CAESAR FRENCH RARE - (eBay item 260160291981 end time Sep-21-07 18:30:00 PDT)

Obviously (so far), you must be disappointed. Has your wife banished you to the couch yet?

I am not worried, first, because this $500 was money I made off the GI Joe/Transformer collection; and second, it has quit a few watches, so I am pretty sure it will get hit. If not, I will relist it.

[toys2cool]

I am not worried, first, because this $500 was money I made off the GI Joe/Transformer collection; and second, it has quit a few watches, so I am pretty sure it will get hit. If not, I will relist it.

well good luck with it man,I hope it does well

[theantiquetiger]

Well, finally got a bid on my clock. So if no more bids, I lose $100 on the clock. This may sound bad, but if you count the other $75 I spent at the estate sale and sold for $250, i still made $75 gross profit from that sale. I did learn alot about clocks, mostly I learned to stick with what you know!!

I am guessing the damage is what hurt it. The damage is not visible from the outside and I could have just not mentioned it and said "sold as is", but I cannot do that.

I also learned that Japy Freses only made the works and they sold their works to many different makers, and with no marks, it would have been very hard to figure out who made it.

1855 JAPY FRERES BRONZE MANTEL CLOCK CAESAR FRENCH RARE - (eBay item 260162908560 end time Sep-28-07 18:35:17 PDT)

[toys2cool]

Well, finally got a bid on my clock. So if no more bids, I lose $100 on the clock. This may sound bad, but if you count the other $75 I spent at the estate sale and sold for $250, i still made $75 gross profit from that sale. I did learn alot about clocks, mostly I learned to stick with what you know!!

1855 JAPY FRERES BRONZE MANTEL CLOCK CAESAR FRENCH RARE - (eBay item 260162908560 end time Sep-28-07 18:35:17 PDT)

That's good,it's about time,did you count your losses with the ebay and probably paypal fee's? Let's just hope it goes a little higher

[theantiquetiger]

That's good,it's about time,did you count your losses with the ebay and probably paypal fee's? Let's just hope it goes a little higher

I don't count ebay and paypal fees because I just like to know how good of an eye I have, not how much net profit I made, that is too much like a business. I look at what I paid for an item compared to what I sold it for and how much I spent at an estate sale compared to what all the items sold for.

If I don't get anymore bids,I am losing $100 on this one item, my first big loss ever, but I am still making money over all from that one sale.

Thats another great tip on estate selling. If you find some items you know you will make alot of money on, and see something you are not sure about, risk it because the money made from the items you know about will cover the item you don't know about.

[Adam West]

You make some good points on buying and selling. It's good to start small and start developing an eye for what people are willing to pay for.

I have done the same thing....purchased an expensive item only to break even or lose a little money....lesson learned. But sometimes the risk can pay off big. You just really have to know what you are doing and diversify your holdings.

I am sitting on some very expensive and highly collectible wine right now that I will post on winecommune.com once the weather cools down a bit. I also purchased some 24 Kt. First Spouse Thomas Jefferson coins that sold out from the mint within 2 hours of going on sale. I sold my first one for $505 (paid $410) so a little bit of profit. The other one is a proof and worth more but the weak hands are selling right now, while the dealers are gobbling them up. I'll either sell it for the price I want or hold it until the weaker hands sell theirs. After all, a coin dealer purchased my coin so obviously they see upside potential on it, it's just there is a supply/demand disparity right now.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

I say good on you for giving it a go!