Antique Adventures: The $3,900 Doggie Doorknob (Part 2)

This is the latest installment of our new antiques column, which continues a tale started in the Jan. 6 issue

So there I was on the phone, talking with a total stranger about the most important collector quality doorknob known to man – or woman.

And remember, it was a push button, land line phone; no caller ID, no quick images to send, no automatic save the number functions, just a voice from the blue.

Plus, this guy wasn’t just talking one doggie knob, he actually has six, and he wanted to sell them all. And then he tossed in that he also has two “lion” knobs that I knew were about as important as the dogs.

I did some quick headmath, and being that he knew the Parrot knob had sold for $700, the numbers were starting to activate that reoccurring pain in my backside. Fortunately, as noted, it wasn’t a face-to-face conversation, so I could contort myself while trying to make this deal a reality.

I learned a long time ago that when looking at just about any antiques transaction, with a stranger or even a dealer friend, you, the buyer, need to make two things happen.

Lesson #1: the seller has to name their price first, otherwise there is no true commitment to actually concluding a deal. Often, the seller is (understandably) reluctant to commit, so my favorite line is, “What will make you happy?” I follow that with “If its $10,000 that’s OK, I just won’t be the buyer.”

This usually breaks the ice, and the seller comes up with a number, which is when lesson #2 kicks in: you need to be ready to respond. Because from the start, you, the buyer should have your number figured out, based on how much you really want something, and what sort of profit you are projecting.

Then, when the seller gives a price, you are ready with one of three strategies: Reject the number politely, open negotiations, or accept the seller’s value.

In this case, the seller was up front and said he wanted $3,500 for everything…$ 3,000 for the dogs and $500 for the lions. In my head, that wasn’t too much per item, but I was wishing that there were fewer dogs, for a very good reason.

As noted previously, when something in the antiques business sells for strong money, the word spreads fast and shortly thereafter many more examples are found and brought to market. This sends the price dramatically lower, and in this case, I could see myself with several doggie knobs that held diminishing value.

Nonetheless I didn’t try to negotiate because I knew there was good profit in the transaction, as well as good publicity, and also I didn’t want the seller to later think I had treated him poorly. As it turned out, he did come back to me, complaining, he hadn’t asked enough, and I actually did send him some bonus money, for which I never received a thank you.

We closed the deal over the phone and when the doorknobs arrived, we were looking at the cutest pack of pups we’d ever seen. But it was a big investment and so, for the upcoming auction, we decided to offer two dogs in one lot, with an opening bid of $600 for one, and the option for high bidder to buy both, and the back-bidder there for the other, if it was available.

We thought the doggie knobs could realize $1,200$1,500, and that x2 would cover most of the cost for the six, and adding in the 10% buyer’s premium might give us a small profit. Then we’d have four dogs (and the lions) to sell later and we’d be doing OK.

The rest is history, as the high bid was $3600 for one doggie, with the high bidder taking them both. And to this day, the buyer has remained anonymous.

Then the publicity kicked in, with stories all across the trade papers, a write-up in the New York Times, and a spot in The Top 100 Treasures of 1998 as selected by Art & Antiques Magazine.

Just as predicted, doggie doorknobs started coming out of the woodwork. We sat back and waited for the market to settle lower, keeping on with our antiques business.

And then we made some discoveries that put the $3,900 dog knob in the rearview mirror ...

Web & Jill Wilson live in Rutersville & love a good antiques story. Email them at hww@webwilson.com or text or call (401) 339-5522.