After seeing some very nice local finds, I thought we should have a thread just for locally found stones. So let's see 'em, post 'em up! Here is a near perfect yellow green Escher I got locally quite a while back to start things off:
Good stuff. I never seem to find anything good at the local antique stores here, but the flea markets and garage sales are pretty decent.
Nice stuff guys! I find a good deal on razors here and there, but the only stones I ever see are those 220/600 combo stones you can pick up normally for $10 marked up to around $40 because "it's old, so it's gotta be worth a lot".
(Wife laughed a lot the first time I said that, now she uses it too.)
Yeah, I think the best one I've seen was a Filli. Scales were warped and scratched all to heck, blade so rusted it was actually scaling. But because it was a Filli and they are "rare and hard to find" and this person dealt in them so they knew absolutely, it had a fair price of only $495.......Yep, I laugh out loud at when an old straight has a broken or rusty blade and/or broken scales and can't possibly be restored or have any collector value and the seller puts ridiculous price tags on them. I have tried to school a few of them, but they only find it offensive.
Local garage or rummage type sale or flea market sale, not picky about distance really.
Yep, I laugh out loud at when an old straight has a broken or rusty blade and/or broken scales and can't possibly be restored or have any collector value and the seller puts ridiculous price tags on them. I have tried to school a few of them, but they only find it offensive.
Thanks EricThat's a looker even so!
France, on the other hand, I've had lots of luck over there...
Man oh man! That Y/G Escher is awesome! Congratulations!
Once, when I was very new to straights back in the summer of 2008, I was visiting a large local outdoor flea market. It's a place I'd visited for months and found many, many DE treasures for $5 or less. On this one particular day, there was a man with table after table of small collectibles -- coins, thimbles, pens, whatever. On one table, was a glass case with lots of straight razors. I bought four (4) at around $40 each based on my very limited knowledge of collectible straights. One was a bust (didn't see the blade crack at the time), but the other three were pretty cool. As I was about to pay, the man asked if I wanted a razor hone. I had never researched hones, so I knew NOTHING about them. He turned around to the parked van behind him, and he pulled out a HUGE box of razor hones, all naturals. He sold me a glued vintage coticule for $25 while assuring me that he could get $75 for it back in NY. He turned out to be right. At the time, coticules were the flavor of the month in the shaving world, and they were consistently selling at $65-75 on eBay and in the forum here. Anyway, I never saw the man again. (I remember that he said he lived in TN, and that he only came down here once or twice per year.) I've always regretted not knowing more about razor hones. I'm sure he had SEVERAL Eschers, Hohenzollerns, Dreoschers, La Lunes, and whatever else you'd want in that giant box of stones. =(
Good luck on your treasure hunting! =)
Regards,
Chris
Well let's see 'em already!