How do you know you haven’t already passed on that special piece? Every time someone finds a treasure, you can be sure that many people have passed on it because they didn’t know what it was or because they were afraid to take a chance. Our goal is not to let either of these excuses stop us from reaching our financial goals in the Antique and Fine Art Busness.

This week, a gentleman called me about a pair of Oriental vases he thought might be a great buy if he could acquire them. His potential customer had e-mailed him about the pair.

I asked him what the customer was asking for them.

“Nothing yet,” he said. “They want to know what they’re worth.”

“Are you going to be paid to do the appraisal,” I asked him?

“I don’t think so.”

“Why don’t you respond to the email saying you’d be interested in the vases, if they’d give you a price. You could also state the vases could possibly be worth $500 up to many thousands depending on their history.”

With his knowledge in this area, it might be well worth the risk of investing $1000 to $1500 in this pair. If he is wrong, the chances are he will still make a profit. But what if he’s right? Then the rewards could be a profit of $20,000 or more. No, he isn’t sure which of these scenarios will play out, but he can’t be hurt very much by either of them. I am hoping he gets that call and the price they ask for the vases is reasonable.

Some of you will remember when I entered an antique shop close to my home and was told they had nothing for me that day. Still, I asked, “Are you sure?”
” I do have a painting here, but it’s sold,” the shop owner told me. This gave me an opening.

“May I see it,” I asked?

He took me to the back of the shop where I laid eyes on a wonderful early painting of two little girls skipping rope.

“What did you get for this wonderful painting,” I asked?

“Twenty-five thousand dollars,” he proudly stated.

I asked if he’d been paid for it, and he told me the painting was on hold and he hadn’t been paid yet. Now the door was wide open for me, so I ask him if he’d call me in a couple of weeks if he hadn’t been paid. Sure enough, two weeks later I got that call. I purchased this painting for $16,000. I didn’t really know what it was worth because I wasn’t familiar with the artist, Frederick Morgan, but I was willing to gamble that its value was at least $16,000.

The advantage that you have over me in these situations is that the 31 Club is there to help determine values. Did I know that this would turn out to be a great find for me? Absolutely not. But, it was. This painting later sold at Christie’s for $115,000. What would the results have been if I had said I wasn’t interested because I didn’t know what its worth was or I didn’t know the artist.

I could tell you many more stories like these, but the important thing to remember is that if the price seems right on a piece your looking at, take the chance. You won’t always make a fortune on every piece, but I’ll bet your decisions will be correct most of the time, so little mistakes are just learning experiences. This is why 31 Club Members just learning the business start with a trading account of only $100. That’s so their mistakes won’t cost them big while they’re learning.

When you buy something, sell it as quickly as possible. This should not take longer than 3-6 months. This way, you will have your money back in circulation to move on to your next purchase, win, lose or draw. Don’t hold on to marginal items trying to get more for them than the market will bear. Turn, Turn and Turn your money over and over until one day you wake up and the world is yours.

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LINK: 31 Club Article July, 2007

For years, I have said that prints held very little interest for me. However, my attitude might be changing for the short run.

Having worked with a lady for several months on selling her Andy Warhol prints, I told her I could no longer present them on our website when I secured a buyer at the posted price, and she decided not to sell them. At the time, the price was $35,000 each for Warhol’s “Howdy Doody” and “The Witch.” I checked prices the other day on these two prints and found that they have almost doubled in price since I listed them. I know you won’t believe this– I hardly did, but the asking price for Warhol’s Mickey Mouse print is now over $100,000. For a print!!!

I might say that this is an exception, but some good fortune has come my way by this increased value of prints. I scanned the completed sales on eBay for a Marc Chagall print I’ve owned for some time, and there on the screen right in front of me was my print. And it had just finished its auction at $12,000. You can bet there will be another one listed soon.

Then, Cecil called me this morning to tell me that a print he had hanging in the booth at the antique mall where he sells many of his items, had just sold for over $1,000 and another one for over $400. These prints, by Buffet, had been there over a year, and Cecil half expected them to be just decorative wall paper to make the booth attractive.

So what is happening in the print market? Has true art become so expensive that most people no longer can afford it? And, what do we do with this trend?

While I still have very little faith that this market in prints can be sustained, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take advantage of this trend while it’s here. Money is money. If people are willing to spend big bucks on prints, let’s scour the countryside for them. Be sure, however, to list each print you buy quickly, so you don’t get stuck with many of them should the market reverse course.

The only warning I would give you is to not buy prints that have a certificate of authenticity with them. Usually these pieces were produced to take advantage of the buyer by unscrupulous sellers. There are exceptions, but let the buyer beware.

To build your client base in the Art business, it will always be best to encourage them to buy the real thing, and the best they can afford. In the Art World, it isn’t how much you own, but rather the quality of each piece in your collection. If you help your clients to assemble an art collection with the best they can afford, always putting their best interest above making money, they will be your customers for life, and you will become the person other people will look to for advise in building their collections.

My 220 page book, 31 Steps to Your Millions in Antiques & Collectibles is FREE with your membership. Join Today!

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Lakota (Sioux) War Shirt (back), about 1875. Photo Courtesy of Minneapolis Institute of Art.

For several years now, I have traveled to South Dakota to a reservation to work with the children of the Lakota Tribe. At one time, this reservation covered 500,000 acres and touched four states. Today it is only about 45,000 acres. Amazingly enough, there aren’t any Indian artifacts on the reservation, so you’d be wasting your time thinking you might find a treasure or two there. Judging by the way we treated our Native American brother, this is not surprising.

So where might we find these treasures? For one, they just might be in that old trunk you find a the next garage or estate sale. You see, these artifacts were brought back by people who traveled West from 1850 until the late 1930s. They were considered trinkets then. Those who brought them back thought they looked nice or perhaps, they might even create a good story back home. They weren’t bringing them back for their monetary value.

This is definitely not true today. There are serious collectors that will pay almost anything for the right pieces of Indian artifacts, and these artifacts are very scarce. You probably won’t find a nice piece of Indian clothing everyday, but when you do, the rewards can be handsome.

My reference and price guide by Lar Hothems is dated 1998, but in today’s market, you can probably add three to four times the amount of money stated. You see, after the year 2000, Western items really took off, and the prices continue to soar. This book illustrates pieces ranging from $5,000 to $75,000, so do the math for the items I’m speaking of to get an idea of what 2008 values might be.

An example of some of these values is a woman’s dress, from around 1880, owned by a member of the Shoshone tribe, made of buckskin with fringe and beautiful beading. The 1998 listing shows a value of $25,000. A war shirt by the Blackfoot tribe shows a value of $50,000. Today these items can bring many times that figure and are highly sought after. Another entry illustrates another war shirt, valued at $75,000. You’d be lucky to buy it today for $250,000.

There are less expensive pieces, such as Medicine Bundles, Martingales and Blanket Straps, but even these might bring $7,500 to $15,000 for the better pieces.

Will you be out there dealing in Indian Artifacts? Maybe not. But, tuck this knowledge into your head so it can come forward in your mind should you encounter something that looks like it could just be an Indian artifact. There’s no telling where they might pop up.

Last year my family and I were invited to a church event in, and as always, I wanted to look around afterwards. When we came upon a sign that said, “Pow Wow tonight,” only Joshua was brave enough to go. So, off the two of us went later that night.

As we approached the dance circle grounds and looked over the hillside, Joshua’s eyes got as big as saucers. Five hundred dancing Native Americans, men, women and children, created swirling colors of motion of the most indescribable beauty my eyes have ever been witness to.

Yet, in being witness to this event, my heart felt bittersweet. You see, I knew all the clothing had been especially made today for these Pow Wows. I couldn’t help but yearn to have been an observer to an event like this way back in time, when these tribes danced this dance with such joy and great pride.

Attending shows is the best way to an get up close look at authentic Native American Artifacts. Arrowheads.com has a very comprehensive list of North American Artifact society shows, dealer shows, educational events and upcoming auctions on their site. Click here to access the list.

Discover how our book can be the tool that helps you build more personal wealth than you might have thought possible. And doing it in the Antiques, Collectibles, and Fine Art Markets rather than the traditional methods. You won’t find these kind of results with your bank or your stock broker!

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If you haven’t yet had a chance to see what we’ve got listed in the 31 Gallery & Marketplace, click on over and take a look. You might even find a real bargain. We’ve got many high quality items priced reasonably. If you have a high quality piece you’d like us to find a buyer for, why not consign your item to us. No high fees when you sell with us. Contact us here.

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