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Found a $4 ceramic vase at a garage sale in Tulsa, then saw the exact same one at an antique mall for $65
I grabbed this little green vase at a garage sale in Tulsa for $4 last Saturday, mostly because I liked the crackled glaze, and the seller said it came from her grandma's house. Two days later I walked into an antique mall and saw the identical vase behind glass with a $65 tag, and the dealer told me it was a 1940s piece from a small Ohio pottery. Is it normal for garage sale pricing to be that far off from antique mall pricing, or did I just get lucky?
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kaiharris12d ago
How did the dealer know so much about it though? I used to figure antique mall prices were just what things were worth, like the dealers had done the homework and the garage sale folks were clueless. Then I started hitting estate sales and flea markets every weekend and realized the markups can be wild, sometimes five or ten times what the same item sells for in a driveway. Part of it is booth rent and part of it is just hoping somebody walks in who doesnt know any better. So yeah, a $4 to $65 jump is on the steep end but its not crazy at all. You didnt just get lucky, you got there first, and the crackled glaze was your reward for paying attention.
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