Buying and selling a grandfather clock

Okay, so you get some meatier content when you come to my blog. I can share a few experiences with buying and selling antiques.

The first is our grandfather clock. In August 2006 we bought a grandfather clock made from a kit at an auction for $225. I thought it was a good price. Hopefully, the resale would be about double that amount.

We had opened our first shop in that month on main street in Valdese. We took the clock to the shop and put $450 on the tag. The clock had worked at the auction, but quit when we put in in the shop. We were selling it "as is". It didn't sell.

We quickly realized the shop was a loser - costing more for rent and utilities than we were taking in - a lot more! So we closed the shop and put the clock in our living room.

In June 2007 we bought a house and moved the clock to our living room. It looked beautiful. Stately, elegant, but not over the top! Still, it didn't work and didn't get us any cash back.

In April 2008, we put the clock into our booth at Cornerstone Antiques: http://cornerstoneantiques.blogspot.com/. It started working right away! Loud, beautiful quarter hour strikes. The timing was perfect. A lovely clock.

And it sold for around $300. We had lowered the price feeling it was "shopworn", which it really wasn't. But with the economy the way it's been - and hoping to get some cash out of it - well, it's gone now.

What did I learn? Maybe that $225 was too much to pay for the clock in the beginning. To my credit, that was the first auction I've ever been at for the purpose of buying inventory.

Someone in Morganton, N. C., has a beautiful grandfather clock.