| Antidepressant Medications Handle stress, elevate the mood, treat anxiety disorders. | Weight Loss Supplements Natural supplements that burn body fat, suppress appetite and support a healthy diet. | Casino Classic Best Online Casino! Get $500 free on the house! | Shared Movies Over 80 Million Movies and TV-Shows No Charge per movie, No download limit! |
|
Posted at May 17, 2003, 12:47 pm: GREETINGS! My name is John Leckrone and I am your moderator. I am here both to educate as well as to learn about silver. I have extensive experience in this area of collecting and consider it to be my niche. Sterling silver and silverplate flatware and holloware represent the lions share of my antique business although I am well versed in other antiques and collectibles as well including glass, porcelain and jewelry. This forum will mainly deal with American made sterling silver and silverplate flatware and holloware though. How I got started.... From my youngest days (preschool) I was a regular attendee at flea markets and yard sales. My parents both love antiques and had a side business buying and selling them. By the time I was 10 I was considered by many dealers to be "dangerous" as I was a very knowledgeable and a real bidder at auctions. I was given a lot of lattitude by my parents in this area and thus "cut my teeth" on the business by attending countless auctions and flea markets. I worked in my parents variety store and made money to support my shopping and collecting habits. Just prior to becoming a teenager in the early 1980's I attended one of the local flea markets and purchased a large lot of silverplate flatware. I asked my father what he thought of my purchase and he agreed it was a good buy. This was the beginning of an interesting course which led to my indepth education in regards to sterling silver and silverplate flatware and holloware over the next couple of decades. Over the next several years I purchased thousands of pieces wherever I found them. In 1987 at the age of 17 I joined the army and turned 18 my first week in basic training. I continued to buy silver at different flea markets around military posts where I was assigned or when I went home on leave. After Desert Storm I left the army with a pretty young wife and little girl to start my life in the civilian world. I started going to college and became a "boother" at a couple of the local antique malls. After a series of fiasco's to include the loss of a majority of my better inventory by a shop owner who took my stuff with him when he closed his doors I was getting a little frustrated with the antique business. Never the less I struggled on and after a couple of years managed to rebuild my inventory and carry on with the business in other antique malls and shops. In November 1998 I assumed ownership of a local antique mall that was struggling. I did my best to turn it around but lost several dealers before I even took over thus my share of the expenses were going to be much higher than what I had projected them to be when I agreed to buy the business. In desperation I began selling online in early 1999. A local man who was starting a website development company built a full blown ecommerce website for me www.hopkinsvilleantiques.com . At the same time I started selling on ebay. My ebay user id is 925dealer and my ebay store is http://stores.ebay.com/BURIED-TREASURES-STERLING-SILVER As time went on I began acquiring more and more of my inventory online. My online sales were also generating a larger and larger portion of my business revenue. The dealers I had in my antique mall who worked their booths saw their sales skyrocket as I was advertising heavily and opening early and staying late. The problem with my antique mall business was that not enough of the dealers were working their booths and my customers wanted a flea market instead of an antique mall. The dealers who did not work their booths continued to leave and I made the decision to close the doors of my mall (to the dismay of my actively working dealers) to sell online once my lease expired in February of 2000. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. In the fall of 1999 my neighbors house came on the market. I learned it was for sale when I came home late from the mall one night. When my wife told me (the sign had not been put in the yard yet) I ran next door, was told the price and the next morning I called the realtor (who had not even gotten the paperwork done yet). I purchased the house sight unseen (we did not see the inside until a month after I owned it). I moved my family into that house and turned my original home into my business address. I have been working online from home since March of 2000 and have learned so very much over the last several years. I love buying and selling on the internet. I try to make it personal (I am a people person) but it is very hard sometimes since we are all looking at computer screens instead of real people. Update 12 December 2005 When in Clarksville Tennessee be sure to visit the Old Stuff Antique Mall located at 924 G. Providence BLVD. (just off 41A) now owned by me. The telephone number is (931) 648-1336. The hours of operation are Monday - Saturday from 10 A. M. to 6 P.M and Sunday 1-5. Additionally I am often there early and very late. I hope to make this sterling silver, silverplate flatware and holloware forum educational, exciting, interesting and most important personable. I am here for each of you to offer my advice and to give you my opinion which you are free to accept or reject. This forum is not a place to ask about values though as I do not give appraisals. I hope to make new friends as well as nurture older friendships begun online. The internet makes this interaction possible as we can meet people anywhere in the world even though we will probably never meet each other face to face. This forum is about silver but I expect it will also be about business and of course the ups and downs of life. In short we are a family that shares similar interests. Let me end this post by saying THANK YOU to Dave Steiner who has added silver to the AuctionBytes forum. Silver is an extremely important area in the antiques and collectibles business. You cannot go into an antique shop without seeing at least a few pieces of it lying around. Having a wonderful place like AuctionBytes to come to and discuss silver and make new friends is truly an honor and a privilage. Thank you Dave, I really appreciate it. Now, lets talk silver........ Sincerely, John Leckrone John@hopkinsvilleantiques.comhttp://www.hopkinsvilleantiques.com/ http://www.stores.ebay.com/buriedtreasuressterlingsilver?refid=store http://www.tias.com/stores/buriedtreasures/ http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=32 Original of the message was taken from http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/ Other Topics of AuctionBytes:Best way to ship a wheel from a car?F C & Co. EPNS A1 help with who check out the going prices on Blue Fish pieces Looking For Stuffed Toy Stange Happenings When My Auction Gets To The Pulse eBay & ILLEGAL TRADE PRACTICES! eBay search and billing bugs continue and multiply Aution Hawk Forum is gone! Size or Service ? List of VERO members besides about me pages Shill Bidding Seller Not NARU'ed, but Shill Bidders Naru'ed Any suggestions on auction site or marketplaces? Disney's Melody doll eBay has added inaccurate delivery times to our listings! Zippo Lighter worth? Coney Island SteepleChase Set New auction site OTWA will be Closing! YOU ASKED??? Inkwell # 3 Ebay Event UK? 50 % OFF FIXED PRICE LISTINGS EBAY SUFFERING BOYCOTT? Threats from Ebay User Jeff5 ............Why is this allowed what to do with those old buttons NY Times Article on eBay Fraud Sellers Auction Analyzer I posted this in the wrong place first time around... Regulating Ebay eBay Trading Posts Reference Book & Website Recommendations Advice needed selling complete china set- local pick-up only Best Ebay based Book EBAY'S CLEVER FEE INCREASE PLAN Anybody know this guy? Whoa! Have I been busy or what? hi all Catch Of The Day ? http://www.*quack*.com/ Bob Block. Can you contact us regarding refunds and.... Show of Hands ~ BOYCOTT WHAT IS THE BEST DEAL (records) YOU'VE GOTTEN ON EBAY? New Year 2005 StickyAuctions.com : Online Auction Site coin silver, sterling flatware, and sterling holloware wante bID pAY Anyone use YowCow ? eBay FLD - December 26th OT: Julie Andrews trading links |