Let’s Play a Game!

…anyone remember how to play Parcheesi…?

19th Century Landscape Parcheesi Gameboard 21″ Wide by 21.25″ High sold By Pook and Pook for $11,115.00

Let me be perfectly clear, someone somewhere in America is going to find an Antique Parcheesi Gameboard worth big bucks sometime this year. I have no doubt about this. Read this post carefully, look at the images of these fantastic Parcheesi Gameboards…

Some call it “The Royal Game of India”

Late 19th Century Polychrome Parcheesi Gameboard (21.25″ Wide by 21.5″ High) Sold By Skinner for $1,067.00

There’s a big Ol Recession going on, unemployment is high, unbearably high in some areas. More and more people are selling stuff. They are looking high and low – in their old barns, and out buildings for things to sell. If you are one of these people please proceed with caution before attempting to sell your items too quickly or too cheaply…very seriously consider hiring a competent estate sales or auction professional.

But Parcheesi is as American as Apple Pie

Antique Painted Parcheesi Gameboard 20″ Wide by 21″ Long Sold By Northeast Auctions for $2,574.00

If you are one of the unemployed – If you are a person with even a modicum of experience or if you have specialized expertise in a specific area of antiques and collecting – then hit the highway, leave no stone unturned. The deals are out there. I know, I see them everyday.

Our Parcheesi is a Version of India’s Cross and Circle Game

Grain Painted Antique Parcheesi Gameboard (19.5″ Square) Sold by Northeast Auctions for $702.00

New to the Buy and Sell Antiques Game? Unsure just what’s the best kind of thing to buy? Got a few bucks burning a hole in your faded jeans? Well hold your horses! This may be a game, and it is a fun one at that, but it also is one that can leave you with a storage locker full of so called collectibles and no one in sight who is ready willing and able to buy them. And you don’t need that. The last thing you need is junk!

So research and research again…did I mention Research…not sure if I did. Please research before ya pluck your hard earned dough on stuff you know too little about.

These Parcheesi Gameboards are American, Antique and Hand Painted

Antique Painted Parcheesi Gameboard (25″ High by 25.25″ Wide) sold by Northeast Auctions for $18,560.00

All games, and the Antique and Collectible game is no different, have winners and losers…browse the antique malls and the legacy antique stores. They are filled with items that have been there for years – same old stuff, posed in the same display – with the same high prices.

As a dealer your one overall goal is to sell, not create a museum.

Be dynamic, find out what is selling, before you get too far into the game by buying the wrong stuff.

Like the best Folk Art, these Parcheesi Gameboards Command High Prices

Antique Painted Parcheesi Gameboard (21.75″ High by 22″ Wide) sold by Northeast Auctions for $18,560.00

So your Grandmother – Father – some ancient Relative has passed, and you think, now’s my chance, I am going to sell their estate all by my lonesome. All the lonesome are is lonely, especially if they make the mistake that so often happens to the ill informed by thinking they know better, they very often lose money.

Get an advocate, someone who knows their antiques and collectibles, someone who can properly help you bring your precious antiques to market.

I Think it is Possible to Find These at Estate Sale or Garage Sales

Antique Painted Parcheesi Gameboard (18.75″ High by 19″ Wide) sold by Northeast Auctions for $19.720.00

Here are three past articles on this website that will help you:

The Case of the American Aesthetic Movement Chairs That Sold for $390,000.00 By the way these were found in a Boiler Room.

The Case of the 000-42 Martin Guitar: A Love Story, and an Auction This woman used excellent judgment, by contacting a world class guitar authority and her diseased husbands cherished Old Martin then sold for more that $50,000.00.

How Colonel William C. Browne’s Pair of 1851 Navy Colts Came Out Of Hiding… These firearms were brought into an appraisal clinic by the prototypical “Little Old Lady” in a brown paper sack – she had no idea of their value – Over $70,000.00.

Cross and Circle Games Like Parcheesi are also Known as Ludo,  Parchís, and Parqués

Antique Painted Parcheesi Gameboard (14″ Square) sold by Garth’s Auctions for $430.00

If you are a picker, a want to be American Picker – you have to know that treasures are out there, that you can have your day in the sun…that you can be in the game, if you are patient and well informed.

Buying and Selling Antiques and Collectibles even without huge or obscene profits is a sure way out of the unemployment doldrums, a way to sing a different and more confident tune…but you will have to work at it. It won’t be easy. But then again what job worth doing is ever always easy?

Appealing and Eye Catching, I Wonder If Parcheesi Boards Formed The Basis For Quilts?

Antique Painted Parcheesi Gameboard (18.125″ High by 18.5″ Wide) sold by Skinner Auctions for $6,463.00

The number one way I have learned what small amount that I have learned is by asking questions. By not being too afraid to look dumb. The second best way I learned, especially in the early days of my career was to pay to play. That’s right, I hired experts.

Here’s My Favorite Antique Parcheesi Gameboard

Antique Painted Parcheesi Gameboard (19″ Square) sold by Northeast Auctions for $11,600.00

Take it easy, don’t move too fast. First develop your passion for one or another area of Antiques or Collectibles. Go to estate sales early on the first day, not at first to buy, but to see what others are buying. These early bird dealers truly have their finger to the pulse of whats hot and whats not.

All The Best To You,

Martin Codina

Other Resources:

Prices For Antiques (Our Discount Code)
RJG Antique Gameboards

We think it’s fantastic, but we would. What’s more important is what you think…let us know, we’re looking for ways to be of better service.

In order to get a copy of this and future Estate Sales Newsletters you need to subscribe here.

Newsletter Issue # 1

Fine Estate Newsletter Our Promise: You’ll never receive more than one   newsletter a week. C Collecter Alert! Gill Airbrush Painting! We just found another. The artist known as Gill is a mystery. All that is really known about Gill is that sometime beginning in the 1930′s he painted paintings in this style, using mostly Hawaiian Themes, and that these paintings were either framed by, or retailed through a San Francisco shop called Parmalee. I have been in the Estate Liquidation business for the last 15 years, and I have only personally purchased three other examples of this artist’s works. Find these and enjoy them as works of art. Find these and sell them for profit. Find these? Call, and maybe I’ll buy one. Our Latest Article! Antique Optician or Optometrist Trade Signs This post features pictures and values of 8 different examples of these graphically interesting signs… More Sometimes We Guest Blog How To Buy At Estate Sales I was minding my own business Just doing my Twitter thing – Hanging out – trying to get noticed…maybe get a ReTweet or something, when along comes Tracy from Crazy Suburban Mom suggesting I write a Retro Tuesday post about How to Buy at Estate Sales…I said yes, before thinking the whole thing through, before remembering I get stage fright when I have to dance for the first time on a new stage. Read the rest here…

Let Friends Know About Us! Forward this to Others! An Article From Our Estate Sales Archive! The Coolest Banjo Book Ever Complete Article Archive Our Free Antique Research Widget A to Z Antiques Research With Over 500 Research Links You’ll Find Us Here!: Follow Us On Twitter Our Ruby Lane Shop Our Face Book How Are We Doing? My name is Martin Codina and I personally monitor everything in this Estate Sales Newsletter. I always welcome feedback. If For Any Reason You Want To Personally And Directly Communicate With Me, I Welcome The Chance To Be Of Service. Here’s My email address: Martin@FineSf.com Or Call Me: 415-235-7238 Sign Up For Our Newsletter Here:

(Sold By Dan Morphy Auctions for $770.00)

I kind of think that most Estate Sales Professional start their day fairly sane – that they have a reasonable expectation that they will be civil and cordial to their customers while conducting their sale – that they will endeavor to try and sell their clients items to their estate sales customers in as easy of a fashion as they possibly can.

…but then something sometimes happens…

(Poster Sold by Swann Galleries for $65,000.00)

The Estate Sales Process Gets Weighted Down By “The Haggle.”

Estate Sales Professionals have to walk a very taunt and thin tight rope. They have to satisfy two kinds of people. Their clients who want the most income for their personal property and their estate sales customers who are looking for the best, or in their minds “A reasonable purchase price.”

This leads to all sorts of Estate Sales Acrobatics…Like Tumblers at a Circus…

Poster Sold By Cowan’s Auctions for $510.00

Part of the fun of going to estate sales is finding or negotiating for bargains. It’s intrinsic to the process. Negotiating the price helps me sell and my customers buy, about 90% of all the personal property contained in a home during a 3 day estate sale. So let’s negotiate. No problem there…

And let’s celebrate the conclusion of our negotiation as a Win for both of us….

(Sold by Cowan’s Auctions for $1,667.00)

Three Negotiating Suggestions

1. Stay Loose
2. Remember there are two sides to the process.
3. The other side is not the enemy.

Also, there are so many estate sales out there, and there is so much “Stuff.” If you don’t successfully conclude a deal at one estate sale you may find it at another just down the road.

If you want to learn more about Antiques and Collectibles Values, then read my post about how to get 10% off Prices 4 Antiques.com

Regards

Martin Codina

It all started with an advertisement that Greg Martin Auctions placed calling for people to bring their vintage and antique firearms to an appraisal clinic. Kind of like an Antiques Roadshow, but only this appraisal clinic was for the valuation of firearms.

Sometimes magic happens at events like these, sometimes the incredible occurs, sometimes people find out they have a true treasure.

I spoke with Greg Martin by phone the other day, and he was genuinely excited to tell me this story. He said, and I will paraphrase here, that he recently conducted an appraisal clinic in New York, and that they had made a wonderful discovery of a cased pair of Civil War era US Navy Colt revolvers.

At this event it seems that an elderly lady, carrying a bag showed up. In the absolutely ordinary bag was a wooden case, and in the case were the pair of matched Colt Model 1851 Navy revolvers.

Things like this don’t happen all the time…not even for Greg Martin…

…here is a picture of these Rare Firearms…

Did I forget to mention how much he estimated they would sell for at auction…

$150,000.00 to $250,000.00

It’s a simple fact that if she had taken these to any dealer, she would receive much less than what ever these revolvers eventually sell for at Greg Martins auction. Maybe even way, way, way less…

Here are some tips about selling your firearms:

1. Find out what the law says about the type of firearm you have.
2. Always seek the consul of someone who is an expert in Antique Firearms like Greg Martin, or someone like me who specializes in getting the highest value for your collectibles as a broker.

This Auction is Happening Today…

I will post the auction results tomorrow…

Martin Codina
Founder Fine Estate Liquidation
and Estate Sales