Monday, November 16, 2009

probli--tunity


heres my biggie of the day....we bought something big and beautiful....i have someone coming to see it.....the value is between 500 and 40,000.....i need to pick the right number by noon today.....
if the appraised # is 40,000 i figure the green oak number would be 1/4 of that....

so my job this morning is to get the right info....as fast as possible......i dont want to be greedy or stupid....and my best buyer has already seen its feet,its still on the truck, and is sending her dh....
this job keeps you humble...theres always something you dont know about!!!
the item was bought at auction....the people were world travellers and rich.... back in the 1800s....when this big concert grand piano was born....
pictures later in the day..
..UPDATE... its a kirkman concert grand piano.
its pre 1900...exotic wood, and imho...prettier than lots of the $$40,000 ones we saw on line..but in the same big gaudy style of the day... its 7 ft long.....we didn find the exact piano....it plays but out of tune.... my guess...is restored and at a big piano dealer it would be at least 20,000...if its way more i couldnt find that....there is hardly any in this age under $20,000...that makes the green oak price/ our very wild guess.... about $4000....unless we find out more......our guy didnt come yesterday...so its out on the floor....if we sell it for that and find out later we messed up it would be part of the experience.... i should feel lucky that jon focussed on it and went for it...and that we can handle something that big....we had to call in our other box truck...since we had bought a whole truck load already...lots of cool garden stuff mainly...and some down filled love seats...and a whole lot more...
...and now for something completely different....WE ARE ON TV....who knows if it will work...its just in rochester but take a look... our winter wonderland commercial

3 comments:

Junk Exchange said...

Ann - congrats on the find! and good luck on picking the right number - with your experience there is no doubt it will all turn out for the good -

enjoyed the commercial - don't know your area well at all - but knew a gal in ft. worth who ran an ad on tv one year and had a very good season - and she was just a little shop ..

good luck!

troy

Just a bed of roses said...

Hey your commercial was exciting...made you want to jump in your car and go shopping,very upbeat!
I know being on tv has helped me.

I hope you find out some value soon on your piece, antiques are sooooo tricky sometimes. Not always, just sometimes. Dont mess up Ann!

ann at greenoak said...

i tried to research the piano....and only found general prices...we know the age is pre 1900....and most in that range are over 20,ooo$ steinways quite a bit more....but lots in the 20 to 40,000 range....of course thats restored, tuned etc etc....ours plays so we know the main parts are good.... and thats about it..... our goal is to get to about a fourth of those big prices.... since they were from big piano dealers and have done all the work....
the case is georgous.... prettier than lots in the 20...40,000 range..... so we are deciding between 3 and 4,000....to our guy who might be coming....if that falls thru thenits to the experts and see what they will pay.....money is naturally funny in antiques.... you have to do a lot of guesswork.... its a kirkman grand conceret piano...from england...and one of their ads says piano to the crown..its huge and breakable...