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Replies to Msg. #1254169
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 Msg. #  Subject Posted by    Board    Date   
00495 Re: Tonight's Auctions
   
    By: De_Composed in GRITZ
Sat, 09 Nov 24 7:24 AM
Msg. 00453 of 00704
(This msg. is a reply to 00391 by De_Composed)
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There was another auction tonight, and we won four of the fourteen lots we tried for. That's typical.

Early on, we won the lot shown on the right.

All we had to go on was this ONE photo and the lot description: "5.4 OUNCES STERLING". That's pretty weak. We'll often get ten photos of something like this, and there will usually be a photo of the weighing, revealing whether the 5.4 ounces are Troy ounces or Avoirdupois. A Troy ounce is about 10 percent heavier, so it matters.

Then there's the fact that the jewelry includes stones that obviously aren't sterling. An auction house isn't supposed to weigh such items. An auctioneer with integrity wouldn't. So, did they? I don't know. They didn't say. I was forced to make some assumptions:

I assumed that the 5.4 ounces includes the stones and that the stones don't weigh very much. Then I assumed that the weight given was in Avoirdupois ounces. After all, they didn't say they were 5.4 TROY ounces. So I went with caution.

5.4 ounces = 153.1 grams = 4.92 Toz.
Spot on silver is $31.29 today.
4.92 x 31.29 = $153.95 which would be the value IF the merchandise was pure silver. But it's sterling, so...
$153.95 x 0.925 = $142.40 . That's the value of the silver in the lot.
The auction house charges 16 percent, so I have to take that out of the price to determine the max to bid. $142.40 / 1.16 = $122.76

I like to get things for less than they're worth, so I set a ceiling at $102 and wound up winning the lot for $100. Not bad, but not great either.