The Purchase And Preparation Of The Items – Steve’s Part

The Purchase And Preparation Of The Items – Steve’s Part

First Stage – Buying the item(s)

The first part of the process is to actually purchase the silver items.  Steve (my husband) is the buyer and regularly goes to our local auction houses where we source the majority of our items.  This is a long process in itself, as he will always preview the items, which is usually done the day before the actual auction, to have a good look at each item he intends to bid on.  He then attends the auction where he bids on the items he would like to purchase.  The trouble is there are many others who also like the same items, so he has to be very careful not to get carried away, so usually only comes home with a small percentage of the items that he was actually interested in.  He has to bear in mind that we have to sell these items on, and make a small profit, and it is not like someone just buying an item for personal use.

Second Stage – The Cleaning

The next part of the process is that all the items have to be cleaned, as unlike brand new items, silver items can be many years old and very tarnished.  Some items that Steve brings home are almost black and it is amazing to see them once they have gone through the cleaning process, and it is quite a transformation.  Each item I list has to look good in order t sell them.  Again this is the job that Steve does, and is the only cleaning that he ever does, as he has never been very good around the house!o

He starts at the kitchen sink (again an area he is not normally used to) complete with rubber gloves, a bowl, Soda crystal, which can be found in any supermarket and aluminium plate.  The plate shown is one you can buy from a company called qwicksilverand works very well.   Apparently aluminium kitchen foil will do the same thing but he has actually never tried this.

The aluminium plate is placed in to the to the bottom of  the bowl, then sprinkle some soda over the top. Then add some boiling water to start the electrolytic process off, and will start to bubble. Then continue to fill the bowl with hot water and then add just add another sprinkling of soda crystals.  Then place your silver item into the solution making sure the silver is touching the aluminium plate, but if an item has any wood (like a handle or finial) as this will discolour.  Also do not dip any delicate items that have the additions like enamel, mother of pearl or any stones stones, as once the silver heats up it will expand and any of this this will just fall off.   You will see an instant result and once you are happy that most of the tarnish has come off, rinse off with warm soapy water.

If it remains tarnished use a good quality silver polish such as Goddards to polish the item to a good shine.  Now any silver polish will remove a minute amount of silver, so be very careful around the hallmarks as you will reduce the value of your silver if these marks are rubbed away.  Then buff up with a soft cloth and your item should now be gleaming and shiny and looking like new.

Third Stage – the Photographing

Steve does all the photographing, and it is paramount that photographs that are put on eBay are a most important part of trying to sell an item.  If the photograph is not very good, then people usually are not interested in looking any further.  Steve therefore wanted to make sure the photographs are as good as he can possibly obtain and he purchased light box and some lights to achieve this, and he takes many photographs of each item to guarantee that the he has a supply of good quality photographs.

Then everything is handed over to me for the next stage which is the selling process

Read about my part of the process here

The Purchase And Preparation Of The Items – Steve’s Part