Yesterday was our big day to start getting organized for the upcoming yard sale – and it was a big day in all senses of the word. First we got up way too early (6:30) to go check out the final stage of the Tour de France at the Riverview Theater, which was fun but the coffee had grounds in it and somehow wasn’t quite enough to keep us fully awake. (Snarking aside, that theater is awesome – and close enough to our new place I hope to make it there often) Then it was back to the apartment for the task we’d been dreading – cleaning out the storage spaces.
When we moved into the apartment, we were a bit annoyed to discover that the more usable of two storage spaces already contained a healthy mix of boxes, bags, miscellaneous crap, and, of course, mouse poop. I also seem to recall a dead mouse on the floor there the first time we went in the closet. Real nice. Anyway, it had to be done – our stuff had started sinking into the mess, and we needed to pull it all out anyway to sort what could be sold, packed, etc.
It was K who found it. Almost buried under a mound of mouse poop, an inconspicuous carboard box. I was busy in another corner, and vaguely heard something about dishes. And then, "holy shit, this says Oscar de la Renta!" What?? Doesn’t he do clothes, and maybe some furniture? The answer is yes, but (apparently) also china. We had stumbled onto an abandoned treasure of what appeared to be totally unused, still wrapped, 100% authentic Oscar de la Renta china. Model LAF13, to be exact. "Hospitality Platinum".
As we unwrapped a few more pieces and started noticing the price tags, our jaws dropped — surely that’s for all the cups, not for just one, right? Neither of us had ever really priced china… How do you look things like that up, for discontinued patterns? On the internets, obviously. Two sites turned up quickly: tabletopsetc.com, and replacements.com – both listed several pieces in the pattern, and they were comparable to our price tags. Whoa.
Both sites claim to be interested in buying discontinued pieces from people, so I’ve email them both some pictures and a list of what’s there. Hoping to get hooked up with a local dealer, but no answer yet. Half of me thinks we should just keep them, but… I’m really not ready for "nice things" like that. We’ll see what we can get for them, if it’s a good price they’ll probably go. Otherwise we might just have a really nice set of china (although K isn’t crazy about the pattern…)
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