🎙️ Bodnar’s Bids and Banter Podcast - Episode 8: Art Scams, Bees, & Broken Items That Sold Big - Bodnars Bids and Banter

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
We're doing an auction, a live auction, ladies andgentlemen. And even if you're not bidding on

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anything, it's so worth it to watch the amazingpipes of Joe Bodner. Welcome to Bodner's Bids and

(00:24):
Banter. I'm your host, Joe Bodner. And with metoday, my lovely wife, Maureen. Bodner. We do this
every time. I know, but I like to do this, MaureenBodner. And we have the wonderful Dan the Man. I saw
that going. But you can introduce yourself. Hopegood. Some entrance. You are in my cell phone as Dan

(00:45):
the Man, actually. Danny and Dallas. Nice to beback. And Tracy. Tracy. You don't make Tracy say
her last name. I don't even know what it is. What isit? I know I signed the checks. I don't know what
your last name is either. You're Dan the Man andyou're Tracy. Williams. Don't think of it as a bad

(01:06):
thing. I didn't know anybody's name in my wholelife. What are you talking about? He makes me
introduce myself because he doesn't remember myname. What is your last name? I have to think about
this. Wait, what? What was my last name before you?What's my last name? Oh, and behind the mic or
behind the thing, we have Christian. Cordez. Is itCordez? I don't know. Thank you. Christian

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Cordez. It's Cordez. I knew your number. I didn'tknow. It's Costa. It was Costa. Yeah, that was my
second name. Yes. And then it was Schwabek. No, notSchwabek. No, what? Shit. I don't know. I lose. You
have no idea. See, I'm bad with names. Are youready? When was my birthday? Three seconds. Fuck.

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April. April. April 21st. Am I right? April 21st.Thank God. You know how many times I used to get that
wrong? You have no fucking idea. So don't feel sobad. Listen, how many times I looked on Facebook to
see what her birthday was. So I wouldn't forget. Ohmy God. I can't tell you how many times. Holy shit.
April 21st. Happy birthday to you. Now yourbirthday is coming up. I know mine's coming up in a

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day or two. Yes. You know, the podcast will be over.Yes. I am a great March baby. March 8th. 51. Holy
shit. What the fuck? Huh? These are Pisces. I'm aPisces. Yes, I am a Pisces. No, the Pisces energy
has been so strong recently. I just wow. But youhave no idea. Makes sense. It doesn't. You know how

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many people would come to the auction and they'd betalking to me and I'd be like, I don't know this
guy's name. But I know their buyer number. I knowwhat they collect. I know what they purchase. I
know exactly everything about what they have.Even when we go to people's houses, I would go, I
don't know their name, but I know, oh, in the backright there. Yeah. He had a collection of Royal
Dolan figurines that were over there and there wasa great toy over here on the left side and this and

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that. But go in the car with him at any point and he'dbe like, I picked it from there and there and there
and there. That is true. Only once did you forget.We went back to a house. Yeah. And we pulled up for
the house call and I was like, we've been herebefore. You're like, no, we haven't. Yes, we have.
There's a woman. There was a husband. There was ahusband, but I read the paperwork from Janet. It

(03:09):
said he had passed and he had two dogs and we went inand I could tell you exactly what they had before we
walked in the house one time in 30 years. Right. Iwas right. One time. Well, you know what's crazy
when you do this business so long and for 30 years,it's a crazy how many houses I drive by and I go,
yeah, I've been in that house. I've been in thathouse. I cleaned out that house, did that house.

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It's just insane. You know, it really is insanewhen you think of it that way. Even in Franklin
Township, all four of the oldest farms there, I'vecleaned out all four of those and auctioned them
off, you know, and and and that's pretty cool.Yeah. Right. It is pretty cool. Let me think about
it. No. And and and every time it's funny becauseevery time we go down to Cape May and we go over to
Bridge there going into like Ocean City, how we sayOcean City, Maryland, but it's Ocean City, New

(03:58):
Jersey. There was there was a house contents I didright over the bridge that literally you couldn't
get to their house. They didn't have a road to theirhouse. You literally had to get off the parkway.
Oh, I know there was a road, but I couldn't with atruck because you couldn't fit under the bridge.
You had to get on the parkway going down this dirtroad to get back there to get to the house, which is
fucking cool. Actually, what do you think ofimagine living in a house like that? That's on the

(04:20):
water. Like two feet of snow on the ground. Yes. So Ifound our future home though in Cape May. Oh, there
is a beautiful home in Cape May. It's off like rightoff of the bay kind of in the marshland a little bit.
They built it to be an exact smaller replica ofMount Vernon. Yeah. Right on the water. Oh my God. I

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was never seen it. Well, you can't see it whenyou're driving around because it's like back.
Sounds dreamy. Oh, it is. Right. And it wasn't, youknow, I mean, for. Hit the lottery. What's it like
1.2 million? It was, it sounds like I know one pointthat we're just talking about people's levels of
money. I don't have that kind of money. I don't havethat kind of money. I would love it. But for, but

(05:02):
when you think about for the area, 1.2 million toown like and still waterfront. Oh my God. You know,
that's definitely enough. Oh, no, absolutely.Speaking of Cape May, we just got back from Cape
May. Boy, what a trip. What a, you know, you might,some of you might not notice. I know you guys don't
know, but our listeners, we, uh, besides theauction business, we also sell in a couple of
different co-ops, uh, and we're in the antiquecenter down there to Cape May antique center. And,

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uh, every year we go back and basically we flush themerchandise. You know, we take everything out,
put everything back and then put all new stuff in.What a bitch. I mean, I think glass shelves. It was,
uh, you got to wipe them all down. Yes. There'sthree different glass curios, but we took out two
glass curios. We did. New ones in the building. TheYadra one. Yeah. And we bought two ones that are

(05:53):
skinnier so they fit better and it looks reallygood. And you saw those two, those two cabinets I
bought out of the gentlemen's house were about tosell. Uh, you know, you're a caretaker or
something like that. Right. Yeah. So those twoblack ones we took down there and exchanged them
because I thought they were, it does look nice andclean. It looks really nice. Not even that in the
store. I prefer an open cabinet. So I took the frontdoors off the cabinets that they had that way when

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someone comes shopping. I don't know. When you gointo somebody's antique stores and everything's
between lock and key and you can't touch it, I feellike there's always like an eight year old shaky
woman with like a 50 pound ring of keys. You know,and she's like, oh, just wait. Exactly. I prefer an
open cabinet so people could actually like holdit, touch it. I feel like you have a better shot of

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selling it. Okay. You know, in that setting versusbehind the key and don't touch it. You only know,
you can get attached. Yeah, you do. It's like adeal. Actually, I always say touch it, feel it. You
know, you once you have it in your hand, you can seeit and want it and you love it and you got to have it,
you know, you guys, look at you guys, man. You toldme not to. You guys have the bad minds, not me. Touch

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it. Okay. Fine. Well, that pedestal in Jordan airthat's in the corner. What are the benefits? What
are the benefits of having a store is like, youknow, we put stuff down there and there's a few
things that like, we overpriced it if it sells.Fantastic. If not, we'll keep it. Yeah. Where are
my my bronze mirrors, by the way, they're downthere. I just didn't have the guys bringing it up. I

(07:22):
love the pedestal and Jordan air come up today. Oh,those mirrors with the other glass cabochons.
Yeah. So aren't they nice? Oh, they came out of thesame house. That pedestal is like a sparrow or
something on top. Oh, I saw them down there andsaid, if they sell fine. If they don't, they're
coming in my house. Delicious. And I would looklike I'm, I know it's a touchy subject about
polishing, you know, your antiques versus, youknow, enjoying the patina. I think it is unique to

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each individual item, but those like not even likewith a full, yeah, high polish, but just a light,
just a light it up a little bit. They are. Oh, thepedestal and Jordan air and actually those
sconces that came out of the same house we did in anauction about two years ago down in Forkwood River
was in a state and he had really nice antiquesthroughout the house. This and that. I just think

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it was such a beautiful pedestal and Jordan airthat I was like, I want to keep it, but I don't know. I
can't stand flowers in the house. I mean, I have aflower here and a flower there only because the
smell of flowers is driving me nuts. Oh, okay.Okay. I don't know. He hates it, but I do. Thanks to
our oldest. I have flowers in the house. That'strue. I sent him to the store and say, get me outdoor

(08:33):
flowers because the bees, the bees, there's no wayfor the bees to go this time of year. Don't you love
the bees in the back? I know Tracy loves to be. Yeah,Tracy's been screaming for the way time I go out
there. So every right now what's been happening isright now every day it hits above 50 because
there's no flowers and stuff. We have hundreds ofhoney bees coming out from, you know, next door,

(08:57):
the area, right? Well, next door, he has two highs,but then he said the person next to him has six
hives. Six hives. So what is that? It explains it.10,000 bees. It's like my worst fucking
nightmare. It explains it. You're chill. They arechill. Oh, they're not? Yes, they are. You're not
chill. Oh, they're honey bees. I don't know. I justfeel like you're coming with like your energy on a

(09:21):
10. Yeah. And they can sense that. They're sensingyour negative energy, Tracy. I'm afraid of them.
I've never been stuck by bees. I've been stuck bybees. No, I do not. Well, you know what? Maybe you
should work on that. I think they can. They know.They can sense your disloyalty. Honey bees are
actually, you know, so our one auctioneer, Kevin,which is Janet's son-in-law, he was a beekeeper.

(09:46):
Yeah. He had bees all the time. He said he used to beone with the bee. Well, beekeepers like have one of
the longest life expectancies, you know. Becauseyou have to be chill in that situation. Yeah. And
also the vibration of their wings when they'reflying in the hive is at a certain frequency that
has healing effects. Right. Similar to a cat per.Like a cat per. Yeah. I'll take a cat. Well, don't

(10:10):
get me wrong. The wasps, I hate the fucking wasps.I'll kill them all fucking day. Well, that's
because wasps eat shit. Yeah, I can't stand them.They're motherfuckers. The honey bees eat. Trust
me. I got, we have a wasp problem around here too.Trust me. We'll have wasps in the summer. Oh my God.
I stepped on one last year, man. I'll never forget.You did in the house. I was so mad. Yeah, because
lately they've been getting in the house the lasttwo years. Like, one a day. One or two a day coming. I

(10:35):
did. That's why I don't know where they're comingfrom. I should lack the whole. I woke up and I'm a
bear when I wake up. You guys can contest. You cancontest to that. I'm a bear when I woke up. She's
only seen me once when I've woken up when she gothere early and I just woke up. And I literally
walked across this grass to fucking open the doorsand fucking good morning to you. And I walked out,

(10:56):
right? Until I had my cup of coffee. Fuck you all.That's really the deal. So, you know, I had, so I got
my fucking wasp. So I come down, had my morning pee,my morning coffee. I go to sit down and I step on a
fucking wasp and I wasn't even a weekend. Stung itright in the foot. Right in the foot. Boy did that
hurt. I never, I hurt. I mean, I fell down the stairstwo weeks ago. It didn't hurt as bad as that. I mean,

(11:21):
I've still hurt it in my arm. I fell down the stairs,but man, that fucking wasp was up. I kind of just
wish there was an audio of you falling down thestairs. Oh man. I want to hear. What was it? Just the
dude, dude, dude. It was a fourth bumper. Oh,fucking four. I woke me up out of my sleep. Like I
shot up a bed. I was like, what is going on? I feltlike I landed like by my fireplace. And if you're

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looking over there, fireplace is like 15 feet awayfrom the stairs. I fucking landed there and just
went fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Just like that.That's all I did. I said, fuck me. It hurts so bad. I
can't believe I was so stunned. I don't even knowhow to fucking happen. No, that's okay. You're
laughing at your page. I was so mad. It was allbecause I went to get my cell phone because I

(12:06):
snowplowed in the morning and I got done plowing. Iwas still smoking my cigar. So I was like, let me go
get my phone. So I ran upstairs and my right footslipped on the top stairs. And I just went boom,
boom, boom, boom, right on my left side. Boom,boom, boom, boom, right down. I was like, man. And
now this shoulder's bugging me again. So I don'tknow. But yeah, that just happened. Yeah. Yeah, it

(12:30):
can do that. Yeah, it did not feel good. I could tellyou that. But so the original point was I sent Joey
to the store to get flowers for the bees. We havesome neurodivergence. Yeah, I don't say a little
bit. A little bit. So we put flowers outside. I senthim to the store and said, buy me out to flowers. I
don't care what they are, just so I could put themover on the other side to attract the bees that way.

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I'm working outside with Matt. He comes back. He'slike, I got the flowers. Yeah, he brought these to
put outside and attract the bees. Orchids. Oh,dear. They ain't going to last outside. You're not
outside. I was like, orchids are sweet. I love youso much. It might be the same with the amaryllis.
The really not the most proud towards you. Hebrings me two orchids and an amaryllis. And I was
like, I love you very much. What? Try again. Atleast they don't have a scent, you know, the

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failing opposite to the… No, they don't. But atleast they're sculptural and nice. Yes. For you to
look at. I have a whole window so full of orchidsthat won't bloom again. I'm like, great. Let's add
to the collection. We'll talk. We'll talk. I'mgood with orchids. Are you? Because I'm awful. I
actually used to work in an orchid growingcompany. Oh, good. And I learned a lot. You're
awesome. I've had a very past. He has. He's a jack ofall trades. Yes, a renaissance man, if you will. So

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you were growing orchids? Is that what you said? Iwasn't growing orchids. I was more on the
wholesale and resale side of it. No, they were justbigger greenhouses. They were mainly failing
opposite orchids, which are the ones you seepretty much everywhere. And then we bring in
exotics. Remember? But it was pretty cool.Remember we went and looked at a contents of

(14:07):
flowers? Yeah, greenhouse. It was a greenhouse.It was all kinds of… It was in North Jersey, I think.
It was up in North Jersey. I'll never forget this.They wanted us to sell a contents… It was like rare
flowers. It was rare fucking things. Because youcouldn't really take them out of the greenhouse
for extended periods of time. Because theyrequired… We didn't get that job, but we bid it. We

(14:30):
bid the job, we didn't get it. I don't remember ifthey actually auctioned it off with someone else.
I don't remember. But it was like greenhouses ofrare… Succulents and some kinds of flowers. Oh, it
was… I was enjoying… I like succulents. Oh my God.And he's talking about us. What? I mean it. I like
succulents. You ever hear guys going? Do we ownsucculents? I don't know. There's no idea. We do.

(14:57):
We own succulents. That's even better yet. We doown succulents. All right. But yeah, they were
really nice. All right, and? They were exotic. Iwas really hoping we got it. It was cool shit. For
me, it was really cool. Greenhouses are reallycool spaces. I mean, they're all very unique and

(15:18):
they always have like cool little… Nooks andcrannies or like hidden rooms. Right. You know,
when they're all usually fairly old. And I've saidit before, but that was my forte into the auction
world. When I worked for Rutgers and we used to dothe plant auction. Right, right, right. Very
cool. Yeah, I used to go to the different nurseriesand pick them up in the greenhouse. Oh, I loved it. I
could do that all day. That's because you just likeit warm in a greenhouse. Well, that too. It doesn't

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hurt. I can't know. The air is nice in thegreenhouse. But it's flowers. I need air
conditioning now, man. I love flowers. I loveplants. Yes. I'm that person like… You can really
feel the life in the space. Like, you know, everyfuneral that these days in lieu of flowers, no
bitch, bring flowers. Right, right, right. Youknow, bring… I want so many flowers that this man is

(16:01):
like… I will be. I'll die at the funeral. What? Imean, no, I'm just saying with all the… What was
that statement though? Meaning, if you wanted meto fill it all with flowers, I'm going to walk into
the room and feed me Seymour. Yes. Yes. Feed you toSeymour? Oh my God. Yes! No! I'm so confused right

(16:27):
now. Audrey too. Audrey too. The attempt at thereference, I'll give it to you. Oh, why? Have I got
it wrong? Seymour was the god. The holy night. Theplant. It was like the nerdy one. Audrey was the
plant. Audrey too. Okay, I know. Audrey too.Audrey too is the plant. Yeah. Feed me Seymour. The
plant is talking to Seymour. Feed me Seymour. Ohman, I got that totally wrong. Now I get it. Now I

(16:52):
know the way. It was a cricket stare. We should putcrickets into that line. Crick, crick, crick. I
don't know what that is. Feed me Seymour. It's likesuddenly Seymour. Is that the name of the song
tonight? Suddenly Seymour? Yes, suddenlySeymour. I see it in the slide. Right, right. It's
totally Seymour. But it don't matter. You all gotwhat I was talking about. You have to get through my

(17:13):
own language. It's just the Bodner's banter. Wetook the long way around. Yeah, that was the
Bodner's banter. We usually do. Congratulationsall folks. We do. But always fun sites to be
holding. Anyway. Well, on the plant side, I don'tknow. But I didn't mean it like, you know me, I can't
stand flowers. The lilies. Every time I buy youlilies, because I know you love lilies. You love

(17:37):
the lilies. I love them only scented flowers. Butevery time I get a whiff of it, it kills me. It's just
like, oh my God. I told you a million times, youdon't have money lilies. Right, there's so many
other plants. Get me anything other than thosefreaking things that they color at shop right. Do
you know what I'm talking about? The roses or theother flowers that they put in the color dye.
Sunflowers, carnations, all of those. Purpleroses. Those ones almost look like little mini

(18:00):
lilies, but they're always in bright colors.Yeah, but like anything other than that, I'm good.
Right. How do you feel about a carnation? I like acarnation. I like a carnation too, not in a mixed
bouquet though. Okay. In like a large bouquet ofjust carnations. That's a lot cheaper. Or a single
red carnation in the local. Yes. Right. Yeah,classic. That's a cheap date then. That's

(18:23):
cheaper. I can bring you five dozen carnations.Damn, Demi. No, let me know. I don't mean to like
that. No, we spoke. I would be happy withcarnations. I would also be happy with a bouquet
from a florist. Whether it be, it doesn't have to besomething large. It could be, you know, a posi. It
could be a nose gay. It could be a sailor. You guysare way over the top here. I have no idea what the

(18:47):
fuck you're talking about. You know what I'msaying? Just a little something something. A nose
gay. Yeah, you want to go big? Bring me somepeonies. Nothing crazy. Just like, shawty,
shawty, peonies. This is a, flowers are sexualhere. What's going on, flowers? I mean, even like a
good selection of like wild flowers or something.I like, I like them all. I was going to say in the
back, and you have like such a good space. I know,right? That you can do like the non-dig style

(19:07):
garden where you just lay out the cardboard andthen you like soil on top and just do like one or two
nice rows of wild flowers. Yeah. Just sprinkle theseeds and let them go. I tried that one edge one year
right before we got married. I tried it becausethere's just poison ivy there that just, and I keep
trying to kill it off, kill it off. And it just, it'sa thick. This shit keeps coming back. Yeah. And it

(19:31):
only one type of the flower like, like almost like ablack eyed Susan is the only one that that popped up
out of all that. I was like, well, that was a giant. Idon't get poison ivy. Do you get poison ivy? I have
gotten it, but like only as an adult. Look at it. Doyou get poison ivy? I have never gotten it at all,
but my brother is highly allergic. Yeah. I don'tget it. I look at it the wrong way. So we had all this

(19:55):
poison ivy over there, right? So I tell Jeffrey andthe guy who worked for me, Tom at the time. Not the
Tom who's working now, but my old Superman Tom.Hey, I say, I don't know. He didn't know his last
name either. Yeah. I don't know. No, I don't. He'sSuperman Tom. There you go. So at any rate, he
pulled out. It was stored in the winter. I said,pull out all the leaves over to poison ivy over

(20:18):
there. You know, you're not going to get it. No, youwon't get poison ivy. It's all dead. You know, it's
winter. Storm it. Like quasi-modo. He got so, hewas so fucked up. He was sweating. And his wiping is
wet. He got over. His eyes were swollen. I feltterrible. Oh my God. He came, he like, he swung up.
He was so mad. Oh my God. He was so swollen. Heprobably soaked literally in the bathtub full of

(20:41):
like, Kalama wisdom. He looked like quasi-modo. Ifelt so bad. That's terrible. And it wasn't even,
and that was like, to me, it was dead. It was winter.I didn't think it would be like that. And he came
into work like the next, you know, like on Monday,because this was on a Friday, he came in on Monday.
He's like, I don't know what happened to me. And I'mlike, he was like, well, I was pulling the dead
poison ivy and it was like, where is it dead? And hewas like, over here. I gave him wrong information.

(21:03):
No, it just goes dormant. Like it's still alive.And it's not even the lead. He still gets, it's just
like the liquid inside of it. The sap. The juice.The juice. The juice. The mean, itchy juice. It is
mean. Did you see some of it? I mean, there was someserious poison ivy out of these woods over here. I
mean, there's, there's something going up thatone tree is so thick and hairy. The little thicket

(21:26):
right there. It is. I peep it. I don't, yeah. I don'tmess with that anymore. It's like, I tried to kill
it off. Honey suckle berries and poison ivy. Itried to kill it off. It doesn't work. And I gave up.
It's a tough plan. But there's companies that dothat. So I'm thinking of calling them in. I don't
know, man. Poison ivy. I don't like it. I don'tthink anybody does. No. But yeah, no, that was, so
going back to Cape May and switching out the storeand bringing things in and throwing things back.

(21:50):
That was a long week. It was a long three days ornothing but a hustle. But I guess that's what the
business is. It's a hustle. It is a hustle. Youknow, you got a hustle out there. Everybody thinks
it's like, oh, you know, people apply to work withus and they're like, I have specialties in it. Like
you don't know the grind that you're asking to getyourself into. I mean, it thinks, you know, it's

(22:11):
something completely opposite. It was a grind.Even you guys setting up the pop sale today. That
was a grind, right? Oh, man. It's just, you know, athousand pops. Something like that. You know, but
it was just the thing that bothered me today wasthat it was not organized when it was put in the
trailer. It was put all out of chair. Jeff. Thankyou, Jeff. Gollum. Gollum. But no, that's what it

(22:37):
was. It's like if you had thought forward, right?Like forward to like when you have to take them out,
right? It would have gone faster. However, thatdidn't happen. Right, right, right. You know, you
have to take that extra step to organize it insideor in the trailer. And then the acrylic cases just
kept falling apart. Yeah. Portraits. I wastalking. Like she just fell down the stairs. Just

(23:03):
full, full handful. Yeah. And then one would popoff like the bottom would pop off or the top and then
forget it. It would just. The whole thingcollapses. It's like. I'll go back to the video.
Take a watch. And I'm just watching. Oh my God. I'mtalking to Danny and Erica. I'm just watching
Tracy and every matter and matter. Yeah. Why? Andevery has every time she passed, her face got

(23:28):
angrier. And angry. Are you okay? Well, she won.Oh, this is what happened. You wanted to be a
superstar today. Sure. But I did. You already tookAlan's job this past week. Now you're taking Jeff
and Tommy's job this week. So man, that's that. Shewas super started. But he got. I got my gun on you.
Oh, I just going for you. Everybody. Everybody.You coming for me. It's funny. Like when you try to

(23:53):
do something like that and it just goes wrong. Youknow. It went wrong for a little bit and then I ate
and then it was fine. So you must have loved it when Icame in and said, oh, by the way, and I don't want it
like that. I had her move fan off of it. And shedidn't have it on the floor underneath on the left
side. I'm like, how's it going to fit? You have to doit there. So what's your report in the cases. She

(24:15):
had to move from there. So I know that feelingbecause I've done that to Ukraine center. I'm glad
I wasn't there. I basically walked in and said, Idon't like it this way. You got to do that. And then
she went to lunch. So now even get a bigger conceptfor the situation. It was fine. We figured it out
and we still have room for the historical. Right.It was, I mean, from a side view, it was kind of

(24:41):
hilarious. Not even kind of like it was hilariouseach time because silence. We're all doing our own
thing working, you know, and out of nowhere, allyou hear is Brutal. Ah, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Shit.
They just look over you like. Just go back totyping. Don't do it. But I felt your pain when I was

(25:06):
back there because I sorted them and I was trying tomove and every time I'm trying to move them, the
same thing kept happening. Yeah. Right. Thenumbers were upside down. Yeah. They were not in
order. Everything was just, it was like he wasthrowing them in there. Yeah. Like just throwing
them. It was tough. I mean, I agree. I wish it wouldgo in a little bit easier, but sometimes it isn't. I

(25:26):
mean, even like, you know, our upcoming sale.There's square boxes. Yeah, there's square
boxes. There's square boxes. What's the point ofselling the hard mixing of all the lot numbers?
What's the point of that? I can't defend that, Iguess, because they are square little boxes. But,
so I mean. They line up flat. If you look at ourupcoming sale next week, we have the art sale
coming up and I was going to say that's a bitchbecause you talk about setting up what you just

(25:50):
didn't try to organize it. But when we try to set upart in the building, God, man, it's brutal, man.
It's not. I mean, even putting in the trailer, I cantell you, you want to talk, you see, you want that
sale is real screwed up. I mean, they, Jeffrey andTom, unfortunately, didn't really listen to me. I
said, started one corner, stack it up and go aroundthis trailer and they put some here, some here,

(26:12):
some there, some there. Then they didn't build itaround. Then I had to move it to another trailer. So
I don't even want to pull that sale apart. When yougo, when we pull that sale in, bring it in next week
to just to put it in a showroom, I am going to makethem do it. It's going to be mind boggling. Plus
it's hard to display. When you're, there's only somuch space available and then you do it on a stack.
We have, we have literally, I think 175 pieces ofart, I think in the sale. So and figured that's,

(26:39):
that's a lot to display in like a 2000 square footfacility. It just is. It's going to be tough. But
I'll tell you, the sale looks great. The, the, the,the actual auction. I mean, what's nice about it,
we have several different collections next week.Collection, the first part of the sale is part two
of what we sold. I guess our art sale was back inJanuary or anyway, we, it's of December, I think it

(27:02):
was. But it's one guy he bought off of the. It's noteven QVC. It's like late night auction network.
It's called, I think it was called the auctionnetwork. It's actually the name of the TV shows. I
don't have you ever watched these, the auctionnetwork. Not on auction, but QVC. You know, it's

(27:22):
well QVC. I love watching QVC. Man, I gemstone. Oh,JTV. Yeah. We just put the gemstone on the tray and
it just spins right in the. I love why do you think Ihave what's it look like in the back with the things
spinning everything. I got it from QVC. Was it NewYear's Eve? New Year's Eve. We watched one of
these, right? It was called the auction network.I'd never seen it before. And I think they were

(27:45):
selling jewelry, right? It was jewelry, gems,loose, loose stones. Yeah, loose diamonds.
Spicemen. Oh yeah. Loose diamonds, but labcreated diamonds. And nobody's selling value.
These were lab created. Yeah, lab created. And labcreated. What do you know what I'm saying? Lab
created. And so we go right and he's like, this is agreat deal. Twenty thousand dollars. Come on,

(28:10):
everybody get in there. Twenty thousand. Get themby twenty. He's like, he's not an auctioneer.
Sorry, he's not. I mean, that exciting twentythousand dollars, ladies and gentlemen. All you
got to get in before we drop the value. But we justlooked up on the site. This is what it's selling for
reach. But then they would play this God awfulmusic. It was like, don't like zoom music. Right.
And he was like, I'm going to do it, ladies andgentlemen. I'm going to lower the price. Yeah,

(28:33):
yeah, yeah, lower. But he kept doing it and I'mlooking at it. And a five thousand. Like what is
happening here? That is down to a thousand. Thenit's down to like five hundred. This is the final
time. Five hundred. And now we sold one, two,three, four. And it's pinging. It's such
bullshit. It's the weirdest thing I've everwitnessed in my life. It sounds like JTV on a
thousand. Yeah, no, it's like it was crazy, right?But and I've honestly, if you're out there and you

(28:57):
and you and you're and you're watching this, youknow, don't buy from them. No, don't buy from them.
Coins on QVC. Coins on QVC are overrated.Overpriced. Artwork and jewelry. Crazy. All
three are crazy, in my opinion. And these are thethings you have to watch out for. So the collection
we're selling for and selling the first half of thecollection, he bought from this on TV, not online,

(29:21):
but a TV generated auction where he's if you lookedat the prices. I know you probably saw some of the
prices. Receipts and stuff. Yeah, there wasreceipts in the bag. So he so he bought like a
Picasso, but it's not a real Picasso. It's alithograph Picasso, right? It's the lithograph
signed by Picasso. He spent like eight grand. Somuch. All right. The next one, five grand, seven

(29:44):
grand, 12,000, eight grand. Yeah, I rememberthose. And and and he and he has to receipts to prove
what he paid for, you know. But the reality is, isthat stuff is probably going to bring 10 percent,
15 percent. I mean, even the first sale that we soldit, if he paid 10 grand, it brought like eight to

(30:04):
1200. That was what kind of world was falling.There were still some cool pieces of granted. Yes.
A lot of it was kind of mid. Yes. But I mean, but stillbeautiful. It was such a wide array of things.
Paper clipping, you know what I mean? Like, yeah,lithes, pieces of lithographs. And I really found
the the like the really antique pieces. Yes. Superneat. Like the really old like woodblock prints or

(30:24):
the that was, oh, man, are like little fragments ofand everything come from the COA. It was really
cool. And it's all beautiful. I mean, the thingsworth selling is absolutely beautiful. But I'm
just saying, don't get ripped off by these thesecompanies because you got to watch it. They're on
TV. You're more than likely going to get kind of youhave to do your homework, basically is what I
should say if they're on TV. Don't trust them. But Ishouldn't say that because that's not

(30:47):
necessarily. You've been on TV. That's not athing. I better shut the fuck up. But but
seriously, setup sales, I don't know if you'veever attended a setup sale or seen a setup. So we
used to get that's what we call it in the industry, asetup sale. There's a lot of times there's a
company that would go county to county to set up atthe Hilton in Somerset or set up in a ballroom at

(31:13):
they had one down the street here at Pierre's wherewe get a lunch where they bring in 200 pieces of art.
They bring in 100 pieces of rugs. They'll bring inRolexes and diamonds and things like that. And
what they do is they it all has reserves, meaningthey don't sell it for less than a certain price.
The reserves are generally full blown retail.They're all and half the time, you know, you're

(31:36):
looking at these paintings and you think they'regreat, but they're really just lithographs that
are signed by the artists and they made hundreds ofthem and thousands of them. And sometimes they're
just a print and they're not even as good as alithograph or a serograph. And and and what they do
is could I went to a couple, you know, and I posed aslike just a buyer, you know, especially two years
ago, they had one here at Pierre's. I came in and I'mlooking around. How I wish you would have had like

(31:57):
the hidden camera glasses. All right. It wouldhave been great. So I'm posing walking around, you
know, kind of. I wanted to scope out the situationagain, get the fuck out of my town. But I didn't, you
know, right away I go in and he's like, Oh, what areyou interested in? I said, I don't know. I'm just
looking. Oh, you you should really get your bidsin, sir, because, you know, we just had a bunch of
New York City dealers come in and they left bigbids. They left five thousand. Right. You know,

(32:21):
you should you should probably leave six if you'reinterested if you want to get in. I was such
bullshit. And I'm going to myself. I serve as a partof me that wanted to say, fuck you, man. I know what
you're doing. But I did it. I just wanted to dig me.Exactly. But that's how these companies are. And
it takes advantage of the warehouse of one ofthose. Yes. One of them did go bankrupt. Well, they

(32:42):
didn't go bankrupt. They got sued. They did getsued multiple times. Yes. They because Joe's the
president of the Auctioneers Association. Yes.And they tried to become members multiple times
and we turned them down. So we said, you're not areal auction house and you're not running a
legitimate business. Like the theme of theAuctioneers Association is ethics. Yes. You

(33:03):
know, we police each other so that what's going outto the public is ethical. Yes. And you're not
ethical and we want to lift them in. And thenfinally a landlord called us and he was like, we had
this business in here. And I was like, what was thename? And he said the name and I was like, look who it
is. Yeah, it was a business and they weren't payingtheir rent anymore. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And we sold off
a lot of their shit sold off a lot of their fractionof what they were looking for. But their game is

(33:27):
they would bring in, you know, if they sold threeitems or five items at full, you know, if it
basically if something that would bring three tofive hundred realistically in a fair market value
at our auction in a competitive market, they werebidding it up or not letting itself for less than
3,000 or 4,000. You know what I'm saying? And ifthey got three, four pieces off and you made three

(33:49):
grand profit on each piece, you had a good day whenyou think about it. I mean, three, six, nine, you
make 10 grand selling three items. Well, what thehell? Yeah. You know, that's how that's how these
guys look at it. You know, but it's real crookedbecause then you go. That's hustle is crazy. It is.
And David. They talk about shills in the audience,you know, and things like that. They did have
shills in the audience. What's a shill? What's ashill? Oh, so a shill would be like... A plant?

(34:14):
Yeah, exactly. They would hide their ownemployees in the building, like bidding and
pretending to bid and bid against you. And thenthey would go, the best is that one other time they
had, I went to one of these sales and they didn'teven have a shill, but the auctioneer took bids and
then there was no one else bidding and no one boughtit. And he goes, oh, congratulations to the guy in

(34:37):
the back. And everyone's clapping to say, itdidn't even sell. There wasn't even anyone back
there. But if you could put on a show like that, Imean, if you're savvy and you know what you're
doing, it's a show, you know? It's a show. But yougot to watch it because you don't want to get caught
up in that and then you're caught with all thesepaintings that you spent this guy that we're
selling for. I mean, if you added up all hisinvoices. I remember I had, when I went down to talk

(35:03):
to the kids because it's a state situation,they're like, well, we have receipts. My father
spent 135,000 on art and the guy never even took itout of the box. It was all still bubble wrapped and
everything. It was all bubble wrapped. And Ididn't even want to touch it. I told him, I said, I
think maybe you're going to get 10% on the dollar ifthat, you know? And I didn't even really look at it.

(35:25):
A lot of it looked like Hokie Pinoki to me because itwas like, it wasn't even like sign dallys and
signed. They weren't even signed. It wasreprints, you know? But then he gave it to us blind
because there again, it was like 150 pieces. I onlylooked at like 10 pieces when I was at the estate.
And then they didn't call us back for like twoyears. I think it was like good two years. And then
they called this back and said, you know, we'regoing to give it to you. It's going to come up. And

(35:48):
when we went through it, I was actually reallyhappy. I mean, this first sale brought, I don't
know, 15,000, 18,000 for what was there. And Ithink he's going to do another. There were some
really cool pieces. Yeah, there are nice pieces.Within the whole scope of the collection. Right.
So he's going to get 20% back on what he paid, butstill, my God, what a hit. Yikes. I mean, at the end
of the day, if you're in that situation,something's better than nothing. Well, that's

(36:09):
true. And I mean, like I said, he probably got thethrill of buying it online. He probably called
these companies up. They probably treated themlike gold because that's how they work. You know,
all these companies operate that way. Off-linelike limited releases. Exactly. No, it's so
heartbreaking though, sometimes to see. Like Iremember one time we went on a house call, like I was

(36:30):
in a nursing home and he said, Oh, I have coins tosell. And, you know, so I go and look and they were
all QVC, all that kind of stuff. And they were justcoin sets, just regular old quarter sets, this
set. And the guy's thinking like, Oh, I'm going tohelp pay my nurse, you know, to stay in this nursing
home with this. And I had to tell him, you're noteven going to get $100 for what you have. Yeah. And

(36:54):
it's heartbreaking to have to be the one to saythat. And, you know, if it's posed to you that it's
an investment, I don't know. I shouldn't say thateither because I say that all the time at the
auction. This is a great investment. But I'msaying, if you look at QVC, and I love this guy, he
sells silver dollars. We sell the same silverdollar scrap for like 30 bucks. You know, they have

(37:15):
$30 worth of silver in them. But they're sellingthem for like $4.5, $500 a coin. Like it's very
rare. And it's like, yeah, sometimes certaincoins, like if you're looking at Morgan dollars,
you have a carstensity. Yeah, you're dependingupon grade and how it looks. You're looking at $300
to $1,000 depending upon the year. You know,there's certain things criteria, but majority

(37:39):
they're selling like a 1921 piece dollar andthey're like, you know, Oh, mint condition, blah,
blah, even in mint condition, it's barely worthover script. Right. Right. Because there's so
many of them. And it's you've just feel big becausethese people get taken advantage of. But it's hard
to say too, because you know what? It is worth whatsomeone's willing to pay for it at the end of the

(38:01):
day. You know, if you want to be a savvy buyer and youcome to a reputable auction, such as ours, and
you're bidding on the stuff, and it's fair marketvalue with no reserves, you might get caught up.
And it's worth a lot more than what I'm saying. And Ithink this is the benefit of auction. This is what
people don't understand when you, you know, theylet the resellers buy from auction and then they
buy it from the resellers who have markups becausethey have rent and overhaul all of this stuff. And

(38:25):
true, an auction, a true auction on reserveauction will dictate what the market price is.
Correct. Absolutely. You know, and, and you know,you're, it's transparent most of the time as long
as you're going to a reputable place and it, andyou're going to pay a fair price for it. Yes. And,
but you got to watch it. You got to, I mean, you golike, even Park West, I love them. I mean, we sell a

(38:47):
lot of Park West items and I'm sure if you're notfamiliar with Park West, they're kind of like in
the market of doing a lot of the higher end Dolly's,Picasso's, Mark Chigal, Peter Max, Peter Max,
things like that. Yeah. We've sold a lot of thosecollections. Yes. It's past two years actually.
But there again, you know, they pay 10 grand for it.We're going to get you 1500 to 3000. I mean, that's

(39:13):
kind of, you're going to take a hit, you know,especially from the 80s. It's not an investment.
That's for sure. No. But if you're buying it from usat 1500, it's an investment. But that is my point
because it's true. I get to think of it. That is thepoint because you're going to pay fair market
value. Well, that is true. You're going to pay fairmarket value. You're not paying an inflated
price. Art is one of those things where youspeculate. It is speculation. Is it going to

(39:36):
increase in value? Is it not? You know, but at leastyou are paying a fair price. It is speculation,
right? You don't even know. You never know. And Ithink like through a reputable house, you know,
when you're looking at that catalog, you know,it's going to tell you exactly what you're looking
at. It's not going to be like, there's not going tobe fluff. Right. You know what I mean. It's not an

(39:57):
art sale you're talking about. Especially that'swhat I'm saying. Like any reputable house,
especially this house is, you know, that's whatyou're going to see. You are getting what you're
looking at. And it's hard. You know, I mean, youknow, I'm sure a lot of you out there, if you, if you
trying to research your stuff and you're trying toresearch art, very difficult. Even for myself, it
becomes very difficult because you have to, yougo, I go to a lot of past auctions, you go into the

(40:21):
live auctioneers, you go into invaluable, whichyou have to pay a subscription on value. So don't go
to valuable, but live auctions will give it to you.Or you start scrolling through all these
different catalogs and you're going to get pricesthat are 200 to 20,000. And you got to decipher like
what really sold, what didn't sell. Didn't have areserve. Did you see it posted like six times over

(40:44):
the last five years? And you'll see that sometimesit's been posted. The same exact case because they
have reserves on it. They don't disclose theirreserves. So it doesn't really sell. So they can
run it to whatever they want to make it look like itsold on their side. But you're not going to get that
price. They're trying to influence the market.And there's been scams like that. I know, I know, I

(41:05):
can tell you, I'm not going to say their names here,but I know where a dealer took like a collection of
say 200 pieces from this one person's collection.Then they put it in auction and they run the price to
10,000, 12,000, 10,000 and do it over differentauctions. And over the course of five years now it

(41:28):
looks like he's bringing 10, 15, 20. And now you'vecreated a market and do do do do. Totally illegal.
Don't do that. But that's one way. That's one way ofmanipulating the market and creating a market.
You're creating your own market to manipulate.Exactly. Yeah, that's true too. Exactly because
now you have all these pieces and you're going tosell them at a price that they're really not a fair

(41:51):
market value. Right, right, right. And some of itis worth it. And some of it who the hell knows? I
mean, you know, I, God, I could, I could say I couldseek a five stories. I'm not about to say right now.
But my God, I can think of how that can manipulatethe market. You know, it's crazy. It is. It is
crazy. But it is a speculation. It really is aspeculation. You know, there's plenty of times

(42:12):
even at, even at, you know, I go back, I remember wesold the pair and we all make mistakes even at my own
auction. And this is where you can really find ahidden treasure. But there was a, we did a, we did a
contents of a house and plain field and there wassuch great stuff and there was a pair of still life
paintings, right? And they were, I dismissed themto be honest. I thought they were prints. I didn't,

(42:36):
I didn't even promote them. I did. And I, and Idismissed them. They were prints that you would
feel it. It was like on an older board and you wouldswear it was like a 1960s print of a still life. So
anyway, we put them up for auction and I startedthem at $10. So anyway, when he bring 5,000, the
first one, the next one brings 6,000. And the guywho bought it, he, if he was bidding, he knew art

(43:02):
very well. He buys them in a corner. As soon as hebought the first one, I went, oh, shit. That's when
I said to him, I screwed up here. I said, this thingmust be really good. And he buys the second one. So
anyway, he buys it, eight months goes down to Pikeor whatever. Then I hear that he resold it at
Christie's and he got like 125,000 for the pair,right? Or something like that. And I was like,

(43:22):
damn, you know, and he was scared to talk to me, youknow? And he finally comes in and I, and I go, yes,
Chris, I heard that you made 125,000. I said, to behonest with you, I'm happy that you did. You know?
And I said, that's the part of an auction. I said, Idismiss it. So what I found out is that they took
this canvas and they remounted it, not on a normal,so normally when they re-re-re-reline paintings

(43:47):
like that, they'll put it on another canvas, oryou'll see it that way and restructure it. That had
nothing. They re-lined it like on, like a 60scardboard. It was weird. I don't know why they did
it that way, but it was, so it made it look like it wasa print. So when you look at it, it looks like new.
Canvas mounted on like a mid-sense cardboard.Right. Instead of re-lining it on another canvas,
they re-lined it on a board. And that's what threwme, and I never realized, I thought it was just a

(44:11):
print. It's wild. Yeah. And it turned out to be thisrare artist's 100. So anyway, he was so nervous to
talk to me. And I said, listen, I think it was,listen, I want everyone to have these kind of
stories that they used to come to the sale and theyscored something and made a fortune, because it's
not the first time that somebody's done that.That's the whole point of going to auctions
sometimes gambling on these things. And he, andreally, it was like one of the best things that

(44:33):
could happen, really, because what happened isthat word got out. And now all artwork that came
through the auction for the next two years broughta ton of money. Everybody was speculating that,
this is good. This must be good. This must be realgood. I want to know. I want to know. It's good for
everyone. And anytime Chris, that has killed him,because every time Chris came to the sale and would
bid on something, everybody would start biddingagainst him, speculating if it was good. It's

(44:57):
another 125,000. Which by the way is so super rare.It is super rare. It genuinely is, as somebody who,
as a poor millennial, but also a collector, it is sorare. Don't got me wrong, there's always a diamond
in the rough. But, and those stories do exist, butpeople don't realize that the time in between each

(45:20):
of those fines is usually quite long. Yeah, no.You'll find one thing that will be like, great, oh,
this is awesome. And then you won't get somethingthat good if you do ever get something that good
again. That's if you ever go to a price. That's ifyou ever go to a price. I don't disagree. I don't
disagree. I don't disagree. Before you hit thatnext time, but this is a perfect time to say to
everyone, if they have a story. Yeah, no. Or buyingsomething at auction. Oh, that's great. No, no.

(45:42):
Send it in. I love being here. Send it in. No, if youhave a story out there, my listeners out there,
comment to us or email us and let us know. Yeah,Borders, Bids, and Bantor podcast at gmail.com.
Yes, we want to hear those stories. Absolutely.And you know what? We'll be right back. Hey,

(46:24):
welcome back to Bodner's Bids and Bantor. We'reall back here talking about art. Hey, no, but there
is great art in this upcoming sale. So besides theart that has all the COAs, then we get into some old
master paintings that are in the sale. I thinkthose are really nice. And then we on the back half,
we're back to Brooklyn. Yeah, remember Brooklyn.You can't forget it. Never forget it. Yeah. How

(46:48):
could you see it into my memory? So Brooklyn,besides all the great antiques and stuff that we
took from there, she had at least 800 pieces of art.Oh, we got it easily. I think 800 pieces of art.
Stacks and stacks. Hiding in the closet. Justfilled with art. Yes, so that's on the back half.
Plus, we actually, I forgot, we also put bronzesand marble statues and decorative items on the

(47:13):
back end of that sale too. Yum yum yum yum yum yumyum. Yeah, no, which is actually that stuff is
actually really cool. But even her art's prettycool. But her art is really serial graph prints for
the most part, but they're beautiful. They allhave that nice Victorian look and nude women and
leopards. They're all the Victorian revivalmid-century, 50s, 60s, 70s, very ornate, but in

(47:37):
that old style. They make you want to go back and eatgrapes while you're laying there in your
underwear. Okay. Yeah, no, that's really muchgood. Okay, drink your pistachio. Yes, that's
what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. What areyou? I would like to surround myself with that type
of stuff. With grapes. With grapes andhalf-naked... And nude women. What's going on
over here? I'm going to catch 22 on that. I see that.I see that. You see, sir, but what's the big... You

(48:01):
have to stay here. They get to leave. Yes, yes. I didnot want to be in that room with nude women. No, I was
thinking more of nude cats and dogs and animals. Sowhat? That doesn't do anything better. It
doesn't? Okay, I have nothing else to say aboutthat. But there's great paintings such as that in

(48:21):
this upcoming sale as well. And then we get into thebronzes and stuff. And speaking of her stuff,
February 13th was the last second auction that wehad. You missed the first one and the second one.
But there was one of the greatest things that cameout of there. Out of her front windows. You
remember her front windows, right? Yes, yes,which piece? So in the front window, she had two

(48:44):
women's heads on either side. I know. And it hadlike a liar. It had like a white... It was like a
portrait vase, basically. It was like this. Yes,it was like a large urn. Yes, yes. Easy, sir. We're
back into the seriousness of the podcast. But atany rate, it was one of the pieces in her window.

(49:07):
I... There was no markings on it whatsoever. Now Ithink back, I estimate at one to 300 because the
first sale was kind of rough in certain aspects. SoI kind of tempered down my estimates for sale too.
And I estimate at one to 300 and it brought 2800. Ithink it was 2800. And so now I look back at it. I
think it was probably Sevz. Can I put in thedescription, most likely German? So it was either

(49:29):
probably Sevz or Meissen, one or the other. Butyeah, it brought 2800. It was impeccably
decorated. It was one of her pieces that took off.She has some stunning pieces. Yes, she really
does. She did. She did. She was a nice smattering onboth ends of the spectrum and in the middle. You
know? Yeah. And I think that went overseas, right?That came in a wire transfer. I think it went to
Canada or something or overseas in England orsomething. I don't remember. In my mind, I just see

(49:53):
it in some great country house. Right. Or like abeautiful city town house. But that did really
well. Her sterling did really good. You know, thesterling silver we sold in that sale, which this is
a shame, but it brought over melt. But not much overmelt because people are speculating with the way
the economy is right now. She has a nice piece ofthat Russian enamel layer. Oh, yes. Yes. That was

(50:15):
in sale number one. And that actually did good. Oneguy, one of the eggs, right? Yeah. The eggs. One guy
bought most of them and he was an old customer ofours. He actually, that guy was so years ago, we had
a absolutely beautiful, stunning wall cabinet.I'll never forget. I went to this guy's house and it
was hanging on the wall. I said, oh, what's up withthat? And he was like, oh, well, that's going to

(50:37):
another auction company. It was going up torights, I think, up in Chicago. And I was like, oh,
that's really nice. And he's like, yeah, no, it'sgoing to bring 150,000. I said, oh, it must be
really nice. You know, I was like, OK, whatever. Isaid, well, if it doesn't work out, give us a call
this now. So apparently, I think he didn't send itup there. Did it go into the auction? Didn't meet
reserve or I don't think it. I can't remember. Ithink it didn't meet the reserve or they started

(51:02):
jerking them around because originally supposedto be one commission versus a different
commission. But anyway, it was a Paul Evanssculpted, mid-century modern piece of
furniture. And it hung on the wall and it wassculpted in these beautiful different colors and
everything else. It was absolutely gorgeous. Andwe ended up selling it for 89,000. Are we talking

(51:26):
about the Paul Evans? Yeah, the Paul Evans piece.Yes, I don't even know how I got to Paul Evans, but I
just checked it as a cash. I don't know how you didthat. I don't know. But the Paul Evans piece here,
it brought 89,000 dollars. Oh, because the guy whobought that piece bought all the enamel eggs. Yes.
That's how I got on that. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ihaven't seen him since he bought that because we

(51:47):
were talking about it. He was like a brutalistsculpture, fried cabinet, but it was like a
floating. And this thing was so heavy. Like youreally have to have a team. But like, I can't
imagine mounting that to the wall. Like you have tohave some serious studs for that thing. And he was
going to send it to Dubai. That's where it wasgoing. He was going to send him. Him and five people

(52:11):
got into it. We're buying it together. And then heasked them what ended up happening to it. They
didn't go to Dubai. He ended up flipping it tosomebody else and they made 10 grand or something
like that. But there was like five guys that were,they were all working together to not working
together to keep it priced up, but workingtogether to buy it and resell. Because there
again, that's another piece where if youresearched it and that's kind of fits in with the

(52:34):
art because it wasn't just a piece of furniture. Itwas a work of art is what it was. He was. Because Paul
Evans, all his, all his furniture is sculptedpieces of furniture. And you went online, some
pieces very similar. So in 125, 150, 175, 200,000,it was in that price range. So I thought we did

(52:55):
really good with the 89,000. And it sold. It's, seeyou later. Got the money. Trying to give me a hard
attack. Took about three months to get the money,but we got the money. Right. It did. It took a while.
It took a while to get that money. They, they werenot prepared to pay. They were not prepared to pay
for it. He wanted to pay 10 grand and take the slateand I was like sweetheart, we ain't giving you
nothing. You're not taking like a splinter off ofthis thing until it's paid for. Exactly. Exactly.

(53:22):
But yeah. So that's, you know, and, but while I wasgoing with that, it's the sterling did really
good, but it's a shame because sterling these daysis really being melted. I mean, that's what it
comes down to. I mean, it's bringing scrap, butthere used to be such a, people would embrace it and
it was like a sculpture and beautiful. And when youlooked at flatware and tableware and bowls and now

(53:43):
people buy it and they melt it. I think it's, I thinkit's one of those things that, that's also
variable though. I mean, you know, as, as I thinkthat's also reflective of the economy, you know, I
think, you know, it was time to get, you know, morelean that of course is going to, you know, up
melting. But I think, you know, like with anythingin, in, you know, the auction or collectible

(54:05):
world, in the end, it is going to make, you know,those good pieces more scarce. And that is going to
once again drive the market. So I think that's, youknow, an interesting thing to think about. You
know, it may melt, may be big now, but then, youknow, who knows, we'll have somebody buying a ton
of sterling, holding onto it, not sending it to Melfor some reason. And then, I agree. It could be a

(54:26):
Tiffany piece. There could be, you know,excellent English pieces. You know what's crazy
though? I, so I agree with that to an extent, but Iremember 10 years ago, uh, there was a jeweler here
in East Brunswick. I dealt with a lot and he was, Iconvinced him to hold back all his Tiffany and all
that stuff and give it to us to sell. And he, and itwas bringing six times melt, 10 times melt because

(54:49):
it was Tiffany and George Jensen and stuff. ButLee, we had to feel it's not, it's not, it's, it's,
they don't even care anymore. It's not that theydon't care. It's that the electric bill is a
thousand dollars a month. Oh yeah. This is true. Itcosts $75 a piece. Yeah. You know what I mean? I
think you have, you have a lot of that going on rightnow and people are hanging on to their money

(55:10):
because they don't know what's about to happen.Yeah. Getting political, it's just, you know,
it's the times we're in and that will shift again,but I, I agree with Danny. You know, those pieces
that get melted down are now going to be worth 10times more. It's like you said a few, I want to say
like 10 years ago when people started paintingeverything. Yeah, that's true. Painting
everything. It just said at some point, mahoganyfurniture is going to be worth a fortune. Well,

(55:33):
we're coming back around to that. It's originalmahogany from the forties. We're coming back
around to that now because now people are takingthis painted furniture and painted things and
everything and even homes and restoring them backto original. Right. So yeah, everything, there's
a season for everything. Yeah. I guess there's aseason for everything. I don't know the sterling
markets, but the sterling did okay in that sale. Itwasn't bad and it was an up and down. It was an up and

(55:59):
down. So the best part about that sale, well, I talkabout highs and lows. All right. So we had jewelry
in that auction and, and, and I got off, I got off anecklace for Ruby's Ruby and diamond necklace.
Yeah. And we had it, we had it, we had it all for17,000 and, and, and, and the guy didn't pay his

(56:19):
bill. He didn't pay. Unbelievable. He did pay.Yeah. Is that the truth? He did pay with a credit
card and I said, no, no. Yeah. But we don't takecredit cards for that. I don't take credit cards.
It's wire transfer only. So I refunded him themoney, contacted him because he said, oh, I paid
with a credit card. What do we do now? I said, uh,you're going to wire me the money and I never heard
back from him, which just tells me, thank God,because I avoided that scam. Do we still have it?

(56:45):
Yeah. Yeah. We still have it. I want to see it. Yeah.Yeah. It was, it was, what a bummer man. It was, it
was one of those bummers because it was like, it waslike, it was the icing on the cake. Yeah. No. So all
the jewelry that day, because it was the day beforeValentine's Day did really, really good. You
know, it had, we had another necklace, bring 10grand, another couple of things, bringing two,

(57:06):
four, 6,000, but we got the $17,000 one man and itdefunct. I was so mad. That one necklace, I think it
was like with sapphires. So kind of like that's allthat's scattered. Oh, that one. Beaming over. Oh,
we were all like, I want to try it on. Oh, it'sbeautiful. It's my turn to try it on. Oh, Jess, I was
like, I'm going to get one outside and that'sunlike. That was one of those that, can I just

(57:28):
borrow it for a little bit? So I know you just gotdone with your classes over at GIA. Yes. And so did
you get to handle things like that when you were inthe classes? No, just because. See, we actually
sold all the stuff he handles. No, I'm sorry. So wedid get to handle diamonds. We got to handle

(57:51):
colored diamonds. We also got to handle fancy cutdiamonds. But we're working the majority of what
you were really working with in the DiamondProgram is round, brilliant cuts. Okay. And then,
it was a humbling experience to say the least.Right, right, right. I realized that early on
because you're really going into the anatomy ofdiamonds, their form, their creation, the full

(58:16):
science behind them, the full science behind theentire mining industry. Just every possible, for
lack of a better term, facet of the diamondindustry. And it was very interesting. What was
the largest size diamond you held while you were inclass? I mean, we could work with up to like two

(58:36):
carats. You didn't get no 10 carat fucker? No,well, keep in mind a 10 carat diamond, especially
if it's, whether it's like a mid-grade or lowergrade, it's still going to be a valuable diamond.
Oh, yeah, I know. These are teaching stones, sothey're going to get scratched, they're going to
get dirty, they may get lost. So if that's the case.They might end up in auction. Yeah, well, that's

(58:58):
the thing. If you do end up, when you're workingwith the stones, with your tweezers, it's very
easy and common to pop a stone because they'll justslip right out. And given the conical shape of most
round brilliance, once they land, just on like aphysics level, they love to bounce around. Right,

(59:19):
right, right. You can pop a stone and it can be on thecomplete other side of the room. So you got to play
with two carat stones. Yeah, I got to play with a lotof diamonds. It was very cool. Did you get to play
with other ones too, like Alexandreites andAmethyst and things like that? That would have
been for the Colored Stones program. Yeah, that'sokay. So that would be a separate one. There are a
total of 120 fine-colored gemstones that youwould learn. And of course, imagine each stone has

(59:46):
its own inclusions, its own formation, its owncrystal structure, its own reasons for being that
color. I do not have a brain space. So imaginethere's 120 of those, so you're learning every bit
of information about all of those 120 stones. Andthen the final for that class is you have to
perfectly grade 20-colored stones, as well as a, Ithink, like a one or two hundred question multiple

(01:00:13):
choice test as well. Ah, grief. My goodness.Unfortunately, I did try my hardest at GIA, but
unfortunately, I did end up getting dismissed.But I'm not letting it get me down. You know, I made
it four weeks in the program. I didn't say, butthere's nothing wrong with that. I'm proud of you
100%. Yeah, thank you. And to give just like theaudience an idea, GIA, since they really created

(01:00:37):
the industry of grading colored stones anddiamonds, or at least at the industry standard in
the past, it's really, you know, the top tier ofgemological education. So of course, with that
comes a very fast pace, extremely high academicattendance and behavioral, you know,

(01:01:01):
expectations. Right. It's like the Navy SEALs.Yes. Which it is. Is it like... It's not like, of
course, like it's not like, oh, you know, only foryou to be proud. But like in the terms of, you'll
have a large class and you will, that's notuncommon for you to lose a decent amount. There's
small classes, you know, let's say for the diamondcourse, we had about 20 people in the first two

(01:01:22):
days, two people dropped. Right. You know, andthen, you know, through other means, you know,
people end up getting dismissed. It's very easy toget dismissed from GIA. Long story short, as you
well know, I am pretty severe ADHD. Don't havemedical insurance. I'm not medicated. So raw
dogging it. But, you know, and I had it been toschool and I would say 15 to 20 years. So that was a

(01:01:48):
big transition. I haven't been to school in 30years. You know, waking up at 5 a.m., you know,
getting on the train, getting there. Not for me.But I've never been a good test taker. I'm very
bright, you know, I'm very knowledgeable. But,you know, all of my knowledge, I think, came
quickly, made me realize that all my knowledge isin mounted jewelry. So it really wasn't helpful in
this course at all. Right. But unfortunately, Ididn't do too well on my first two tests. So that's a

(01:02:13):
large part of my grade. So I ended up getting put onacademic probation, which is a two-week time
frame. And part of the stipulation of academicprobation is that you need to raise your grade to
above a 75, which I was able to do. I was able to raisemy grade to about an 85, somewhere right around
there. So I'm proud of myself that I was able to getthat, you know, that educational. Right. But it

(01:02:34):
doesn't matter. Just a hands-on of being a part ofthat and saying that I went in there and did that.
You learn so much just in those four weeks, eventhough you might not have that certification at
this moment, it's a stepping ground to the nextday. It's definitely something I want to do again.
And it gives you more knowledge on what you'redoing right now. I mean, I know for myself, when I
took classes at NYU and you would do rugs 101, and Ihad furniture 101 where you went to the Met and you

(01:02:59):
played with the antiques in the, well, youcouldn't touch it. I wish you could touch it. But I
always got to touch the dive. And I could even touchthe period furniture where you can really feel it
and have a good understanding of what a New YorkCity piece is to a Philadelphia piece is and the
different ways that it's put together andeverything else. Because there is a lot. You need
to have that task. Yeah, you need to have that.That's where the learning really is. And that's

(01:03:22):
where you can really learn a lot at working at anauction or going. And you're just attending
auctions. And, you know, a lot of my research thesedays really is just going online and looking
through completed auctions and what otherpeople's auctions are and really having a clear
understanding of where things are selling. Andreally, that's where I get most of my knowledge
from versus going to a school or anything likethat. It's working in the real world of the

(01:03:45):
auctions. That's where the real knowledge is.Yeah. And you know what? I think that's how I fell
into the auction industry. Right. My knowledgestarted as a personal passion on certain areas.
And then it kind of evolved and evolved. And it gotto a point of where I became knowledgeable enough
that I was able to get hired for that knowledge.Right. So that's what I really, you know, hold on
to. And it's like, you know, I may have, you know,not have passed this round. And it came down to

(01:04:08):
technicals. I just didn't have an impossibly highstone count for diamonds that you need to
evaluate. Right. It really came down to that. So itcould have been a lot of stones. I told I told it was
close to 10, 10 to 8. I told I told them to give you 10so you would fail and come back to me. But it was
cool. I'm so grateful for the experience. I'm sograteful for the experience. Yeah. No, that's not
saying you shouldn't you shouldn't be ashamed ofany of that. I think it's a fantastic thing and I

(01:04:31):
can't wait to step you up to the next one. So it mademe definitely more confident. I'm currently
cataloging a new jewelry auction. Yes, you are.Absolutely. For the future. I don't know when. But
you know, if you, yeah, please feel free to checkout that catalog. Yes. Yep. And you will see,
you'll see some of my work. No, no, I think that'sgreat. I'm glad that you came back and you didn't

(01:04:51):
get. Happy to be back. Thank you for taking me. I'mglad you didn't move to New York City and stay up
there and, you know. Who could afford it? Oh yeah.Isn't that the truth? So are beyond the gavel
segment today. I just wanted to talk aboutsomething that I bought many, many, many years
ago. This is back at the Ukrainian center. Iactually went to a person's house and I never
forget I went around and I was looking at differentthings they had and I bought this little totem

(01:05:16):
pole. It was like this. It was in a pile of stuff orwhatever. I paid like 20 bucks for it. I didn't
know. I looked at it. I thought, oh, it's nice orwhatever. But it was about this big. It was a totem
pole was made out of some kind of stone. It wasprobably Eskimo of some sort or so. I think Alaskan
or something of that nature. So anyway, I thoughtit was like a tourist thing. I put it in the auction.

(01:05:38):
I had it towards the end of the auction or what haveyou. And I'll never forget during preview,
somebody took it and they put it down and it broke.And it broke like a piece off, right? A piece about
broken off. And I was like, man, what? Happened allthe time. It did happen all the time back at the
building. People used to break stuff all the time.So anyway, long story short, we're an hour 13. Hour

(01:05:58):
13 and we're selling and it comes up and it starts at$10. And now it's at $200. Now it's at $500. Now it's
at $1000. Now it's at $1500. Now it's at $2200. Andit brings like $2,600. And I was like, what the fuck
was that? Yeah. And it was broken. I couldn'tbelieve it. It was broken. And so the guy buys it and

(01:06:18):
I asked him and he goes, no, he's had one oncebefore. It was like an 1800s totem pole from Eskimo
from the Alaskan stuff. So it was like my big score.Yeah, it was like, well, big, big score. And I'm
thinking, what the hell would it have brought if itwasn't broken? You know what I'm saying? My God.
But that was my beyond the gavel. And I'll neverforget, I dismissed the thing. And that was one of

(01:06:40):
the beautiful things about an auction. You neverknow what it's going to sell for. I think that's
like the central theme of this little segment.Yeah. I mean, it's like you never know what you're
going to find. You never know what's out there. Younever know what's going to, what you're going to
find. That's why you got a state tune happyhunting. Yeah, exactly. So if you have a story like
that, you have an auction find, something you madea ton of money on, maybe something you lost a ton of

(01:07:01):
money on. I'll tell you that story next episode.However, make sure you reach out to us and let us
know about it at Bodner's Bids and Banter podcastat gmail.com. Yes. There you have it ladies and
gentlemen. All right. An hour is up. Can youbelieve it? Wow. Exactly. Unbelievable. A lot of
great information out there ladies andgentlemen. Make sure you check out our upcoming

(01:07:24):
auction next week at Bodner's Auction.com.Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and all the
different platforms where we have our podcast on.All the things. All those things. Great things
joining us. Once again, I'm Joe Bodner. Maureen.Danny. Tracy. All right. Have a great and
wonderful day. Take care guys. Bye. Thanks forwatching Bodner's Bids and Banter. Remember

(01:07:47):
we're here every other week with new episodes, newstories and wonderful, wonderful times. Make
sure you check us out. Bodner's Auction.com,YouTube, Facebook, all the different platforms
where you watch this podcast or listen to thispodcast now. Now once again, thanks and have a
wonderful day.

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🎙️ Bodnar’s Bids and Banter Podcast - Episode 8: Art Scams, Bees, & Broken Items That Sold Big

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}🎙️ Bodnar’s Bids and Banter Podcast - Episode 8: Art Scams, Bees, & Broken Items That Sold Big