Posted by Went to a yard sale last weekend where one of the big draws for me was a tableful of McCoy pottery. To be honest, I know zip about McCoy pottery other than it’s collectible, a good name and I like it. I picked the piece I thought was the best (a magnolia vase) and asked the price as nothing was marked.
$60! Yikes! (I was hoping $15. $20 tops.)
She told me she was a collector and knowledgeable about McCoy and this vase was worth at least $100. Now, it could have been worth that, but it was pricey for a yard sale and you have to “take it with a grain of salt” when a seller tells you something is worth a lot more than he or she is selling it for.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to talk her price down much and my gut said, “Don’t buy it. Don’t buy it.”
Of course I could have researched it then and there, but the sale was already crowded and I wanted to look at other things. (In fact that’s where I got this great Bernard Buffet Paris 1968 lithograph.)
As soon as I said I didn’t want the vase a woman who had been watching us like a hawk swooped in and said she wanted it.
Oh gosh, did I just blow a big score?
Later at home I HAD to look at the sold stats in WorthPoint. Turns out for the last 8 years, while this vase has sold a handful of times for $100 or more, the majority of sales were under $75, sometimes only $25-40. So spending $60 on the vase…or let’s say $50 if I was able to talk her down a bit…wouldn’t have left me much room for making a profit, if any. So glad I followed my gut on this. I think intuition often gets short shrift in our society, though Albert Einstein believed it to be our most valuable asset!
How about you…when has your intuition helped you out??
Hunting for Vintage 
Good move not buying that vase. I used to collect a little McCoy, but only know a little bit. It reminds me of Fire King’s Jadeite. It was worth big bucks about 15 years ago because Martha Stewart used it one her show. When she went to jail, the bottom fell out and that green glass isn’t worth nearly what it used to be.
I have also run across several McCoy vases and wall pockets that have been remade and it’s hard to tell the repros from the legit older ones. It could have definitely been a fake.
I’m also like you. I never trust the “collector” who is asking a high price at a yard sale!
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Good point! I wouldn’t know the real ones from the repros!! 🙂 – Karen
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