Featured Tenacity and experience led me to this

Good evening my fellow silver enthusiasts. This is a bit of a special post so I hope you'll indulge me for a few moments while I talk incoherently before sharing a massive find. I'd like to let everyone on here know how much of a pleasure it is to be part of this community; I really don't have anyone directly in my life that share's my passion for silver, and it's been great to find a few folks just as addicted and obsessed with silver as I am on this wonderful forum.

I'd also like everyone to know that my intention isn't to gloat or to make anyone jealous of my finds. I just love to share when I got a crazy deal, how I found it,and I hope that I've managed to inspire a few of you to add my methods for hunting for silver. If I'm being completely honest with all of you, I've actually held back on posting a couple of major finds recently because I feel I'm hogging the forum from others and that isn't my intention at all, I just happen to be ferociously finding great stuff right now.

With those details out of the way, here's how I landed a huge flatware set and I can only hope someone else finds the same good fortune as I have. A few days ago, I'm scanning through 100's of listings and I've trained my eyes to spot "anomalies" of online listings; what I mean by that is listings that on the surface appear to look like the rest of the junk but might be worth a closer look. So what constitutes an anomaly? That's a bit hard for me to describe, because I know it the second I see it, but describing it to others is more challenging. In some instances, it's the color/tone of a certain item in the photographs, and at other times it involves researching the other items being sold by someone to piece together the puzzle/likelihood that a listing could be silver.

In this particular instance, timing was the key component. I found a very promising listing, which had been posted within the last few hours, and I took a big risk based on limited information. Now on the surface this listing wasn't screaming real silver, in fact it looked like all the other plated stuff. The listing was actually titled "Rogers Flatware" (clearly not rogers) which I would sum up as the best title to conceal the gem that was just below the surface.

So I was drawn in by the original photo, in this case the listing only had two photographs for me to work with. I'm wrong often on my assessment of silver color/tone, but the flatware looked promising, the tarnish I observed in the two photos looked consistent with either real silver or a heavy plate (again, hard to describe but I know it when I see it). It wasn't a pattern I immediately recognized, and in the details of the listing, the seller stated that items were marked with sterling.

Here's the key to success online with silver hunting: you have to act quickly, you have to take a few risks, and you have to be willing to make decisions with imperfect information... So the person listing this item claims the items say sterling, but they also say the set is rogers flatware (notoriously plated stuff). So what's the right information? Well, the original photo showed the items in a Rogers Flatware case, so I'm willing to take the risk and believe the seller that the items are marked sterling (at least some items) and they believe the set is made by Rogers because that's what's written inside the flatware case.

Oh by the way, you might be thinking to yourself "why not ask for photos of the markings, why not get more information?" So, I could absolutely do that, but any action that I take that makes the transaction inconvenient to the seller may just convince them to ignore me and to wait for the next message from another potential buyer. The key ingredient is to make the process as easy as possible to the seller.

Now...how to close the deal online. It varies for each sale I make; if it's close by, I immediately offer to come pick up the item soon while doing my best to get any additional information without pestering them too much for details. In this case, the seller actually lived a few states away, so I offered the seller $50 more than their asking price to ship all the flatware without the case to my house. It's certainly a financial risk, but I'm trusting the information provided to me. There's a huge difference between a seller saying "trust me, it's silver" and "the items say sterling on the back." So we settle on a method of payment, and today my package arrived in the mail.

Here's the details:

Sterling items received: 94 items (two not in the pictures, I was excited to get photos and forgot two large serving utensils)
Maker: Weidlich and a few other makers of the large serving utensils
Weight: excluding the 12 weighted knives, 2730 grams sterling silver
Total price paid: $200

I'm betting someone reading this post is thinking "that lucky (you know what)" and while luck is certainly a factor, I live by the old adage that the harder I work, the luckier I seem to get. My only hope is I've shared a bit of knowledge that leads you to a great find too.

 

WOW!

 

I once bought a 104 piece 4 kilos weighable set of German .800 silver flatware at auction because at the time no-one else seemed to have any idea about foreign silver (I had to buy another lot of mostly junk to get the lobster picks from the set as the auctioneers had separated them) and we kept the set, even bought a nice silver cabinet to keep them in, because they did not owe me much money, but that was the only large purchase at way below metal value I have ever found. Usually it is more like spend £1000 to make £50 on the metal.
I can just about imagine your feelings as you unpacked the treasure trove and cofirmed your find.
In your shoes I'd keep them and use them, but you may already have more than you can actually find a use for.

Well done indeed. You gotta speculate to accumulate.

 

Well done, once again, Nate! I like your enterprising search & find philosophy, and I know you must realize just how much you have learned about silver through your tenacious pursuits.

I imagine you already know this, but your flatware service (excluding all the cool "extras") appears to be Weidlich's LENOX pattern, first introduced in 1933.

It's the fancy "extras", tho, that really caught my eye. Lovely, Nate, just lovely!

 

Yah...please don't show us any more silver cuz yer hogging up so many threads that no one is looking at anything else.............

............................ NOT !!!! ..............................

Now that there is what we call and FIND & a HALF !!!!!
Good on ya Boy !!!!!!!
No risk , no reward !!
I'd eat offa that set......but if'n ya melt it.......first take 15 spoons...melt em down and cast yourself a big honkin silver...

...................... MRN8 .........................

throw it on a heavy silver chain, & wear it around yer neck..

cuz Dude.......... U R GANGSTA SILVER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

WHAT A BUY Nate ... WELL DONE !!! ... Joy.

 

If it were just about gloating, you wouldn't be so generous with your tips and knowledge

More inspiring than anything, and impressive of course !

 

I love hearing about fabulous finds, bring 'em on!

 

That's a great story afantiques, and a good quote at the bottom about speculating. Opening the package was nerve racking. I got home from work as fast as I could because the anticipation was hard to handle. Once I opened the package and I realized that everything in the box was sterling silver, I just sat and stared at the pile for a bit. It's modern treasure hunting to me.

I haven't decided what to do with them yet. I have already accumulated a hefty collection since I sold everything off. I'm trying to not let the pile get out of hand again, but I'm in no rush with this set, it's just plain old pretty.

 

Haha, this made me giggle a bunch, thank you komokwa

 

SBSVC! I actually hadn't found the pattern yet, thank you for figuring it out. I only did a basic search last night, but I hadn't stumbled across it yet. The extras in the set are indeed nice. I know the two matching ornate serving utensils are made by silvercraft. There's an oblong serving spoon I have to look up the maker still.

 

An impressive haul, Nate. I prefer the extras rather than the set, but wouldn't complain!

 

Once again, you bring joy to this forum with your breathtaking silver and intriguing stories. Well done and congratulations.

 

I tease about being jealous,but Im absolutely thrilled for you each and every score. That is AMAZING,now Im off to peruse online .

 

Really enjoyed reading this. Love to get in on your thought process. Very generous to share. And thank you for the kind wishes to everyone.

Mostly: Great score! Keep 'em coming as others have said. Enjoy seeing the silver posts.

 

Sometimes those alarm bells just go off in the back of your head and .... ding ding ding! Congratulations! (I usually hear the bells and come up with ... bells.)

 

wowie. I know nothing about silver stuff so I take my hat off to you on your incredible finds and hope you will keep showing your newly found treasures here so we can see them and... I... can, maybe, learn a thing or two.

 

Once again Mr. Nate scores!

Please keep posting, I enjoy the stories and the finds. But most of all you inspire me to dig through piles of plate to check for silver at every sale and thrift store

 

Gorgeous! What an awesome find!

Please don't hold back on posting your finds - it's wonderful to see someone else's good fortune, and it is an education about anything you may find that one/some/all of us aren't familiar with.