Great deals passed by

[tryppyr]

This weekend my wife and I went to the Puyallup antique expo. We do it at least once a year, and since we're soon going to move out of the area, we wanted a last pass through the show. It features something like 500 dealers selling a variety of stuff. In past shows I have found some knifemaking supplies, such as small pieces of fossil walrus ivory.

Well, this time around I found something that blew my mind. It was a LARGE section of fossil mammoth ivory. I didn't have a tape measure handy, but I would say it was at least 36 inches long and roughly 3 - 4 inches in diameter, weighing in at about 25 pounds. It had the usual array of fissures along the length of it, and they ran deep, so it was not all going to be 100% usable material. But I daresay if properly cut, at least 75% of it would have been usable. It was not a complete tusk, so it couldn't really be mounted and displayed as such. The missing piece, unfortunately, was the pointy bit. The dealer said it had been collected in Alaska in 1955.

The dealer originally asked $1200 for the tusk, which I regarded as a fair price. But the more I thought about it, the less sure I was that I would EVER get that money out of it again. I started thinking about how ivory buyers always seem to want to go to the folks that are KNOWN for their ivory, and not buy from guys like me who happen to dumb into a good deal every once in a while. I started thinking about the fact that interstate commerce laws might stand in the way of me selling it anyway, leaving me with a 25 pound piece of history.

While I was thinking about all this the seller dropped the price to $1000. Now I was torn and tempted. But I knew one thing for sure... if I bought it, my wife would give me grief for dropping so much money when we're trying to stop spending before the move.

So I left it behind. Someone else's bargain... someone else's money making bonanza.

(*Sigh*)

Anyone else walk past any great bargains recently?

 

[Jason Fry]

I one time passed on a Rong Fu mill for $650. I had the cash in my pocket. Told myself on Friday that if it was there Monday, I'd buy it. Of course it wasn't. That was not the mill I wanted, but two years later, I still don't have a mill at all.

 

[Brett Mathews]

If it makes you feel better you did the right thing. You would have never made your money back at that price. I have cut a lot of mammoth and your luck to get 35% out of it for usable scales. Most of that would be the less valued interior ivory.

Again good luck on the move and I hope your wife is feeling a little better about it now.

 

[alaskas finest]

I dont know where you all get your mammoth --i do know there is really only 2 places other than north sea and you wont get anything in alaska for 40 a pound--i look at alot of mammoth and most is like you described and it's usually 80-100 a pound--getting hard to find a-b grade-- but if a deal dont suit ya-- you did well staying away from it--just a alaskan perspective--

 

[tryppyr]

Again good luck on the move and I hope your wife is feeling a little better about it now.

Thanks. I don't know that she's feeling any better about it now, but I think she is more mentally prepared. Lately she has been noticing how things happening here in WA are starting to degrade the lifestyle, and the trend is accelerating, leaving her with the impression that it may not be such a bad time to bug out. Personally, I think there's lot of WA I still would prefer to live in, but I'm not going to have THAT conversation with her until we are ready to retire.

 

[tryppyr]

I dont know where you all get your mammoth --i do know there is really only 2 places other than north sea and you wont get anything in alaska for 40 a pound--i look at alot of mammoth and most is like you described and it's usually 80-100 a pound--getting hard to find a-b grade-- but if a deal dont suit ya-- you did well staying away from it--just a alaskan perspective--

Thanks. That does make me feel better. I knew the price per pound was a deal, but I also figured it would only be a STEAL if I was personally going to use it.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Regrets after passing up on a deal are long remembered.

In the mid 1970's I was helping a good friend close up his lapidary supply business ( retiring). He was pretty wealthy, and I definitely was not. He would give me nearly every neat thing we found in a box or under a pile of dust and junk. Some were pretty valuable, and others were just neat. A few things he sold me at pennies on the dollar.
He sold silver in sheet, wire, round, and about a half dozen other shapes. He has a wall of coils and bins of sheets on the floor in front of it. As I was box it up, I asked if I could buy a few pieces that I would use to make bracelets. He said, "Just give me $3000 and take it all". I knew there was a lot more than $3000 there, and said so. He said, "I probably paid $2/Oz for it, I don't really care how much there is, take it all. Scrap what you don't need to come up with the $3000 and pay me later." I had $3000, but that was a LOT of money to me back then. The thought of buying $3000 in silver seemed crazy. Also, I felt I would be cheating a friend who was being kind to me, so I said, "No thanks. You paid for it, you should get the money from it" We boxed the silver up and there was well over 3000 ounces. At the time that was about $15,000 worth. We shipped it off and he scrapped it all. In five years silver spiked and went to $50 and ounce. If I had taken the silver from my friend, sold 600 ounces ( about $3000) to pay my savings back, and sat on the rest,... I would have made at least $125,000.

I don't regret that I didn't have the silver to sell when it hit $50/Oz nearly as much as I regret that my friend didn't have it either.

 

[Burl Source]

My first year doing handle materials I was at a show getting set up.
There was a big name knife maker who had health problems and had to quit knife making.
He had 50 blocks of ironwood burl that he said I could have for $500.
Money was tight so I sent him over to K&G's table.