Buying (and Selling) Out of Your Wheelhouse

I’ve been thinking about this topic ever since I bought that Fenton glass bowl a few weeks ago. It was not something I look for or buy (ever) and very much out of my wheelhouse. But I thought it was beautiful and worth a gamble. And while it is still unsold, within the few weeks I’ve had it listed it has been in multiple carts and favorited many times. So at least anecdotally I know there is interest and should sell sooner rather than later.

And that’s the fun part of the biz, taking a gamble on an item we know little about but have a hunch it might be good!

Years ago I watched a YouTube vlogger who was filming at a rural estate sale. She found a small box full of shell carved discs and had an inkling that they might be something good and grabbed them. She didn’t know what they were but for the modest price (around $10 if I remember correctly) she knew she had to buy them. She unknowingly made a great score because they were antique Chinese carved mother of pearl gaming counters/chips (I used to own a couple) which typically sell individually for the price she paid for a whole box. She hit the motherlode!

There is definitely an adrenaline rush in this biz when a hunch works out better than we imagined. So exciting.

That was me when I bought these wodges of vintage trim (some were 23 ft. long) at the flea market for $5. It wasn’t an area I dealt in but I knew they were at least worth more than $1.66 each. In the end I made $200 profit from them which was very satisfying.

But there are downsides too. One is not feeling confident enough about my research and pricing items too low.

I bought this antique mortar and pestle in 2018/2019. From hours of research I knew it was quite old and likely Spanish, but I couldn’t be 100% sure so I priced it at $90, well below similar listings. In 2021 I was contacted by a potential buyer and he negotiated the price to $70. At that point I was happy to see it move along so I agreed. After the sale he revealed that he was a collector of these older mortar and pestles. Ah, the penny dropped. I think he knew $90 was a good price, but was convinced I would take less because I wasn’t sure what I had. And he as right, I did. Still he was a nice buyer and as corny as it sounds I’m glad it went off to a good home. He lives just two hours from me and told me if I was ever in the area I should stop in and see his collection. I thought that was sweet.

Of course sometimes when we buy out of our wheelhouse it’s a bust and we find out the item isn’t worth much or that we overpaid or that it’s a reproduction. Or all of the above!

I was recently watching an episode of Antiques Road Trip and both the experienced dealers bought items they thought were antiques (a Victorian baby buggy and a small 1800s apprentice-made sample dresser) and the auctioneer declared that both pieces were later repros. While they sold at the auction neither reached the price they had originally paid. The guy who bought the baby buggy was a porcelain expert and a buggy was definitely out of his wheelhouse. Even experts make mistakes!

For me there are four takeaways when buying out of my wheelhouse:

• If I can, I look stuff up on the spot before buying. Sometimes that’s not possible due to poor cell phone connection or the results are not helpful. Still I do this more often these days.
• Buy only if the price is low enough. Period.
• Don’t accept that other sellers are knowledgeable about their items. Too many times in my earlier vintage career I believed what other sellers said or wrote about their item and later found out it wasn’t true. “This is really old.” “This is worth a lot more.” “This is original.” My cousin-in-law who had been dealing in vintage/antique things long before I started sold me an .800 silver Italian-made lipstick case stating it was worth twice what I was paying. So I trusted him and did not look it up beforehand. Turns out he was wrong and I should have known this. He was not internet savvy (I don’t think he even owned a computer) and very old school in his research. In the end I barely squeaked out a $6 profit.
• Keep learning! We can never learn it all but obviously the more we know, the better. And to me that’s one of the fun parts of the biz.

Would love to hear about your out-of-the-wheelhouse scores!

Karen