April Showers Bring ... April Loot!

A couple of weeks ago, our yard sale season started.  Not a lot of sales, but enough to get me psyched.  The last one I went to was three houses down from me: my neighbor and an unknown-to-me friend had pooled a huge amount of kid and household stuff.  I saw a soft-spoken woman there who was a familiar face at jewelry tables everywhere I go, and we exchanged smiles (real ones) as we looked around.  I asked my neighbor if she had any jewelry, and she said "no" but she'd check with her friend - who had just answered the same question for the lady, and had decided to call her daughter to bring a bag of things she'd forgotten over.

That, I think, was the moment that defined the Season.

Why?  Well, the bag came and the friend gave it to the lady to pick through.  I waited patiently on the side.  The friend saw this and suggested it be dumped to give us both access.  I found an earring and realized the lady had the other, so I showed her and smiled that secret smile to show we'd both scored - yes, it was heavy, and though I hadn't seen a mark, I was willing to take a chance.  And when I saw the lady grip hers a bit tighter, I looked a bit closer, and found an illegible smoosh.  Promising, right?  The usual, right?  No.  When the friend started calculating the lady's diggings, I heard her ask "what good is a single earring?"  I waited for the lady to say "I have one just like it," or the honest "it might be gold and I'm willing to take the chance," or even, if she had a mark she could read, "it's gold, but I can't tell how much, so I'll take a chance and offer you" whatever.

Instead, this really nice, pleasantly refined lady told her that I had the other one, and since she'd asked for the jewelry first she should have both.

Welcome to the new paradigm.  With gold closing in on $1600, everyone is hunting for the good stuff.  That doesn't bother me - my superpower, according to the Big Lug, is to find things other people miss - but what does bother me is the way people are going about it.  My daughter got a call within 15 minutes of her yard sale posting on CraigsList, looking for jewelry.  I got to places 30 min early last weekend and found empty boxes and baskets all over the place, with tales of the shark-after-chum-like fights that broke out (yet still found great things, by the way).  One neighbor told me someone was knocking on her door at 4am!  I know I'm losing out at yard sales by not showing up before sunrise or by haunting shops still - or by looking accidentally at a hallmark (and so pay more thanks to Mama Angel).  I don't care.  There are still plenty of bargains out there, mark-spying or not.

Case in point.

Yellow gold, white gold, or sterling-and-gold all.  Malachite, rose quartz, jade, pearls, and diamonds (lots of those), too.  Nearly one troy ounce found this month (counting stones and sterling, not counting the watch, which I won't disconnect from the plated band since I wear it).  Did I pay more for this than I did last year?  Yes - the gold watch was all of $25 at a church sale.  But there's not a single piece I couldn't profit from, and well, if I decided to sell or scrap it.  Most were under $10, many under $2, and the single (disk-shaped) earring was even free (at an antique mall, yet)!  These were mostly not yard sales, though.  I'm not desperate enough to beat the piranhas to the feeding tank.

Then there's this:

Sterling.  Lots of it.  303g of it (along with lapis, black pearls, garnets, malachite, and diamonds).  Funny about that, by the way - people seem to be pricing the necklaces exactly the same as rings or charms (coupla bucks).  Weird, since most of the chains you see weigh a half-ounce and up.  Seriously.

Admittedly, the big pendant is about the same weight.  But those bracelets?  Wow!  (The top one, by the way, has Swedish import marks.  I'm doing the research to find out who made it.  Oh, and it's 835, not 925 ... forgot until just now.  And those fish on the pin?  Norway.  Not a top artist, but not unknown.)

Unknown pieces, to be tested, were all around, too.

Okay, the one thing is beads of hematite, and that gorgeous tribal set is partially magnetic (I'll wear it for belly dancing ... shut up).  Oh, funny story about that pin - it was black when I saw it, and my first thought was that it was G.T. Marsh.  I forgot I had a magnet in my pocket.  The only time when a sticking magnet is a good thing.

And lest you think I am just that good (even though I am), here's a tiny bit of the absolute crap I bought.

There's more, but I put it in a bag to go to a thrift shop (or tossed it ... some things should never see the light of day again).  And purses and good but not rare glass.  And the practical stuff, too.  All that I didn't feel like dragging out to photograph.  Some of these I bought on purpose, by the way, even knowing it was crap - that "malachite" bracelet is plastic, but it was on a card at a yard sale with a necklace ("Malachite Set, $6") that had a silver charm and a 14K white gold chain (in the first picture).  And those two circle pins will show up in some future blogs all about things I find because of my superpower.  Oh, and the one pin is actually amber beads with Russian marks.  Not gold, but really pretty.

I'm in the process of pulling a whole lot of stuff from my Great Purge, my Internet Yard Sale, to scrap instead - almost all silver.  Even though an ounce of silver is about the same as a pennyweight of 14K gold, I have a buttload of it.  And, yes, I will write that blog very soon - I actually cut up one of a pair of weighted candlesticks to find out just how much is really silver.  Very cool pictures.  I will also try to be better about weekly updates, in between writing our second mystery novel and tutoring SAT and ACT students (not to mention still hitting the thrifts, consignments, and junk shops).  It's a full life!

And that lady with the earring?  As the friend pondered her proposal/demand, the friend turned just so ... and I mouthed the word "gold."  She decided to keep them.  Turned out she was a recent widow whose husband's sudden death had not only left her hurting badly for money, but the roomers she had been forced to take in last year had stolen most of the jewelry her mother-in-law had left the family.  These were the remnants of that.  The jewelry lady took the friend's phone number to see if she changes her mind later (instead of leaving hers and waiting for her target to call).  I offered, instead, to educate the friend, without any offers or agendas at all, and even gave her my scrap guy's number.

Okay, the last action might have been because of just a twinge of guilt.  I informed her of the earring's content only mostly out of fairness and justice ... since I really couldn't see a hallmark ...

Hey, even I'm tempted sometimes.