WOO HOO!

Every so often Heritage Auctions comes to town. They invite the public to bring in their treasures for a free appraisal. It is kind of like a poor man’s Antiques Roadshow except that their goal is to either purchase expensive items or auction them on consignment. There were over 30 categories including jewelry, fine art, rare books, decorative arts, etc.

Lou has some silver porcelain pieces that his father purchased for his mother in Germany soon after World War II which he planned to take to the appraisal event downtown. I decided to tag along and take my grandmother’s china chocolate set. For those of you who know my family, it was Nannie’s – she did love her antiques, or an-tee-cues, as she called them. It is a beautiful pitcher with peach and yellow roses painted on it. There are four matching small cups and saucers that were apparently used to serve hot chocolate to guests.

After reading the flyer and seeing that “music and entertainment” was also a category, I decided to take along my autographed Jefferson Airplane album.

There are tables around a large room with signs showing the various categories. Upon being checked in you are given a number which is color coded to your category. Lou and I both headed to the decorative arts table with our pieces. The German silver porcelain stumped them a bit but one man had heard of it.  It turned out that it was worth about $400 – 500.  Not bad, but Lou was a little disappointed since he was hoping it might be more valuable. 

My chocolate set was valued at between $150 – 250.  It has great sentimental value to me and I wasn’t planning to sell it anyway so that was fine.  Now, if they had said it was worth $2000, I would have likely had mixed emotions for a minute or two, then said, “Sell it! I’ll get over the sentiment part." J  Nannie would definitely understand.

The music table was across the room where a couple had been showing several items to the expert – a heavy set older man with a pony tail.  When it was finally our turn and I approached the table, the man saw my album and said, “I love the Jefferson Airplane.”



My prized 1960s relic

He examined the record and the cover complimenting me on the excellent condition that I had managed to keep it in. I related my story of taking the bus to Berkeley when I was 16 and stumbling onto the Airplane signing their first album at a local record store. Of course, I had no way to authenticate the autographs but said I would swear on my granddaughter’s life that I saw them all sign it.

The autographs are fading but still visible

Lou had asked if I had a photo of them signing it – which I didn’t. The man asked the same question and related a story of a John Lennon autographed White Album they had for auction. The owner had a clear photo of John signing it and the price ultimately reached $7000. It had never occurred to me to take a picture and I didn’t have a camera (or cell phone) back then anyway. Lou and I had researched it years ago and determined that it was probably worth around $200. 

Then came the moment of truth – drum roll, please.  My old record guy with the pony tail held it up and said, “As is, I’d say it’s worth between $600 – 800.”  My mind is going, “Get the fuck out of here!” but I made my mouth simply say, “Whoa!”  He went on to say that if I got the signatures authenticated (which would cost around $100) it might raise the value to $1200.  Holy shit!  Needless to say, I was a bit giddy.

As of now, I have no plans to try to sell it but it’s kind of cool to own something that valuable. Can you imagine? My $4 investment could be worth over a thousand dollars!

I just may go back tomorrow with some of my old jewelry and see if that is worth anything.  This was fun!