03/12/2009: The Bristol Press

Area residents take advantage of appraisal service for extra cash.

Thursday, March 12, 2009 10:46 PM EDT
By DIANE CHURCH
Staff writer

BRISTOL — Jack David of Southington wanted to sell his old Lionel train set, but he wanted more than the $40 that Justin Kurkus offered him.

“I guess I’ll give it to my grandkids,” he said as he placed the tracks, black metal engine, water tower, tunnel and other accessories back into the box.

Kurkus explained that if the engine was model number 224W it would be worth a lot more. David’s was merely a 224.

Jack David’s wife Pat David was pleased with the amount she was given for her cache of jewelry.

“It was just crappy jewelry that I couldn’t wear anyway, like one earring,” she said.

Kurkus works for the Great Treasure Hunt, a group of men who travel the nation with their computers, scales and gold testing kits, looking for people who want to sell items that can then be resold. And in this economy, with jobs disappearing and homes being foreclosed on, many people are desperate for some cold, hard cash. The treasure hunters promise a fair price, usually close to the current retail value.

This week the treasure hunters are in a banquet room at Clarion Hotel. Four young men sat at a long table, talking to customers and searching online for fair prices. When someone decides to sell, a receipt is printed out and they take it to another table, where another young man makes the payment. A security guard is stationed in the room.

The concept is similar to a pawn shop, but without the two- to four-week window where you can buy your items back. There were also no electronics or inexpensive items like DVDs. But, like pawn shops, they must report all items of value they acquire to the police, in case anything was stolen.

“I’ve been doing this for a couple of years,” said Kevin Bachelor, who was managing the event. “We travel all over the United States, setting up in a city for a few days at a time.”

The Great Treasure Hunt accepts a variety of items, including gold coins, along with antique and estate jewelry. However, a few customers were dismayed to find these treasured items were not worth as much as they had hoped. Bachelor, however, defended his appraisals.

“We use an online database to look up prices,” he said. “We can substantiate any offer we make. It helps the customer to know they are not being ripped off.”

Richard Koszyce of Farmington had a picture of himself as a baby on a rocking horse-like toy called a Lionel Dog. He didn’t know much about it, but the treasure hunters looked it up online and were able to tell him the toy was made between 1946 and 1949 in Paris, Maine. Only 400 were made. It’s worth $250. The treasure hunters also accept select comic books and baseball cards from before 1970, sports memorabilia, vintage musical instruments, some toys from before 1965 and autographs of famous people. Bachelor said he paid out $14,000 Wednesday. Half of that was for a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth.

Some items aren’t accepted. One woman brought in a baby’s brush and a red rattle shaped like an old telephone, but Bachelor said they weren’t worth enough. A stack of coins she brought would fetch $300, less than she expected, so she didn’t sell them.

Many of the transactions that were carried out involved gold or sterling silver. If the item is just being bought for the value of its metal, it’s weighed and then tested for purity. Gold’s value has been rising steadily for several years, even as the economy declined. On March 12, Marketwatch.com reported the price at $920 per ounce. It rose to over $1,000 an ounce in February, then fell to about $900 an ounce Tuesday, but is now climbing back up. In addition, holdings in the largest gold exchange traded fund rose to a record level of 1,040 tons this week. Gold’s value is growing in inverse proportion to the nation’s economic health, promising good prices to sellers and rising returns for buyers. The metal “should benefit further in the coming sessions by renewed investment demand as the economic and financial sector outlook deteriorates further,” said James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com.

Bachelor demonstrated the gold test. The item is rubbed on a black block until a few gold lines appear. Then a couple of drops of acid is applied, If it doesn’t dissolve the lines, a stronger acid is used. The higher the karat, the stronger the acid needed to dissolve the gold. This works for scrap gold, like broken jewelry and old unwanted high school rings. However, it must be at least 10 Karats or .925 sterling silver. Costume jewelry is not accepted.