In my last article, I discussed my interviews with two silver plate dealers at a huge antique show in Atlanta:
Scott Antique Market holds a show one weekend every month in Atlanta. It is located in two very large buildings in Atlanta. In addition to speaking yesterday with the two silver plate dealers described in the above article, I spent some time visiting the booths of roughly ten different dealers who had significant inventories of sterling flatware. Some dealers were selling the traditional way with nice, polished sets displayed in wooded silver chests or with pieces in cases that clearly identified manufacturer, pattern and price. Their pieces were pretty expensive - probably fairly priced, but still expensive.
However, there were other dealers who took the approach of displaying a mass number of pieces in mounds of random pieces or perhaps separated by pattern into Zip-Loc bags. They priced these pieces more or less by weight.
I'll use one dealer as an example. He's the one with pieces separated by pattern and/or type of piece into Zip-Loc bags. They were out on the counter for potential customers to plow through. Since many dealers keep their sterling pieces in locked display cases, this was an interesting display. I feel certain someone in the booth was keeping an eye on things.
The pieces were not dogs! For example, there was an ample supply of patterns like Gorham Chantilly and Reed & Barton Francis I. They were in decent shape although they did need a good polishing. The price was $2.00 per pennyweight (dwt). One Troy ounce equals 20 pennyweight. Because sterling is 92.5% silver content, the equivalent price for the pure silver content of these pieces was $43.24 per Troy ounce. At the time, the world spot market for silver was $39.07 per Troy ounce. That means that this dealer was marking up spot market price (scrap value price) by just 10.6%!
Here's a concrete example. A Gorham Chantilly pierced serving spoon was selling for $80.00. It weighed 40 pennyweight or 62 grams. A similar spoon recently sold on eBay for $71.00. Even though the price was about 10% higher at this dealer over the eBay price, I had the advantage of searching through hundreds of pieces and holding them in my hands. I knew exactly what I was getting.
So, if you are looking to buy sterling flatware for personal use or as a gift, look around for antique dealer shows in your area.
There is bad news in this story for those who might want to sell their sterling flatware to a dealer like this. I'd be willing to bet that if I walked in with a Gorham Chantilly pierced serving spoon in decent shape, this dealer would offer me $40.00 or less.
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