Saving a Fortune One Piece at a Time

Have you ever had a case in which a single item in a home was valued at more than the entire house itself?

When a British couple cleaned out an inherited house, they came across an old Chinese vase. They dusted it off and Sotheby’s received a bid of close to $65,000,000 for it.

A rare Ming Dynasty vase that had been used as a doorstop in a Long Island home sold for $1.3 million at Sotheby’s New York.

Another fellow paid $35 for one of those blue and white Chinese bowls, at a yard sale – it later sold for $721,800 at auction by Sotheby’s.

But spotting an antique is not the contents pros’ specialty – restoring value is.

Let’s say that you have a 40-piece estate set of crystal valued at over $1100.

A firefighter accidentally broke a single wine glass.

Collectors know that a complete estate set can be worth more than $1000, but now (because of the seemingly insignificant breakage) it is worth less – considerably less (imagine buying silverware and discovering a fork missing from the set), and it is likely the carrier will have to make up the loss.

Fortunately, the contents specialists have resources from which they can often replace a single glass, plate, cup, fork or knife in the exact same pattern as the one that was lost… not just one that looks similar or has the same colors – but one from the same manufacturer and with the same materials.

And they do it for very reasonable prices. As an example, one site lists a discontinued Lenox estate 40 piece set for $1195 – but we found a single wine glass from that set for $49.95.

Glass broken? Crisis averted.

It is just one more way we save significant sums on virtually every job.

By the way, our team members may not be able to spot a vase worth millions of dollars, but we pack, clean and restore each piece as if it is fragile and of great value. That is why insurance companies, hospitals, military bases, government officials, restaurants, theaters, small businesses and many others seek us out and make sure we are right there with them on the front lines as often as possible.