Northwood Grape & Cable Aqua Opal Hatpin Holder
Description
We unfolded the mystery of this hatpin holder on Showcase's Facebook page first instead of here on Showcase as we normally do. At the time I didn't have the hatpin holder in hand yet. It was on its way to me but it was fun to tell the story in bits and pieces and it started a good conversation with lots of feedback. Here's the story.
Here is a good question. Who happened to see this listing on eBay a while ago this last summer? It's a Northwood Grape & Cable Aqua Opal Hatpin Holder. Very, very, rare. There aren't many reported. This item was actually posted twice around July 12, 2015. It was just after my 4th of July fireworks rush of business. Pete Bingham sent me the auction and said to take a look see. He explained to me the first time it was listed it had a starting price of $99.99. Then, it was relisted at an increased "Buy It Now" price that was now an astounding $30K. Yikes! That was 300 times its original starting price! We agreed with each other that someone had obviously eductated her about the value or she'd probably seen it listed on ddoty.com.
So the first listing with the starting bid of $99.99 explained that "the listing was ended by the seller because there was an error in the listing". The note at the bottom read, "Dear eBayers: According to messages received, this item is best described as Aqua/Opal. Please take this as part of the description. Sorry for the mistake. Ddoty website was consulted to confirm. Thank you."
She explained she had incorrectly listed it as a NORTHWOOD CARNIVAL GLASS HATPIN HOLDER 7" AQUA/MARIGOLD. SIGNED. She then changed it from Aqua/Marigold to Aqua/Opal. What's in a word? Plenty! (All you new collectors start learning your colors!) It's been so long since any of these have been sold at auction that there was only the one listing mentioned on Doty's website. Yes, it was the one that sold at the Poucher event in September of 2014.
The photos with the gray background are the eBay photos. Was it really covered with that beautiful magenta glow on top? Did the opal really go down three quarters of the way? Was it really iridized in pastels right down to its toes? Was it really in perfect condition too?
I didn't feel all hope was lost though. Now she was fishing! and with some great bait I might add!. Even though there wasn't a "best offer" feature available, I sent her a message asking if she would consider less. I gave her my offer but at that time, she did not want to accept it because of several reasons. First of all, she was overwhelmed by what was transpiring. She said many people had made her offers. I didn't doubt it and I could guess who on one hand. Mine had been the highest so far and she was impressed with Carnival Glass Showcase saying she'd like it to go to a good home to get the attention it deserved. Most of all, she was concerned about the way eBay and PayPal gave no protection to the sellers. After all, she didn't know me and my credentials of Showcase alone were good but a buyer on eBay today can cry about anything and eBay will always side with them and then PayPal will return their money on a dime....no pun intended. She's right. She could be out of both her hatpin holder and the money. It just wasn't worth the risk.
The only solution was for me to ask someone who lived there to check it out for me. This woman lived in Southern California so I knew it was time to summon my good friend Gary Lickver a.k.a. "The Road Warrior". He said I was fortunate because the seller lived only 40 minutes from his home in San Marcos. At this time he was still traveling between conventions but he stressed he'd be glad to do it for me when he got home at the end of September if I could wait that long. How great was that? Huh? He's a good friend to consider taking this project on for me. I proposed it to the seller and she thought it was a great plan. Right then, she had all she could take from the stress of having 300 items on eBay to contend with that she had just posted. She promised she wouldn't sell the hatpin holder without getting back in touch with me first so we agreed to take a break and catch up with each other at the end of the summer. She ended the auction and we went on with our lives.
So, just like that, all traces of it vanished into thin air. POOF! GONE! People must have wondered, "Where did it go? What just happened here!?" Before I knew it my phone was ringing off the hook with calls from the big dawgs. "Christina, did you buy that hatpin holder?" and I said "Who me? I thought you bought it!" and the calls went around and around for two more days. LOL! I'm not a good liar. I'm not because I can't contain my enthusiasm so eventually I told every one of my friends about the agreement the seller and I had. For almost three months later, people had been asking me constantly if I got the hatpin holder yet. "No, not yet. I haven't heard from the lady." I'd say every time. I was getting pretty discouraged.
So, around the middle of September I got a call from an auctioneer friend who told me he got a call from a woman who wanted to know what her Grape & Cable Aqua Opal hatpin holder was worth. He said he offered the possibility of selling it for her at auction. He told her he'd call her back with an estimated selling price. But first, he knew enough to call me because he had called another one of his customers first who he thought could give him a temperature on the hatpin's projected value. That gentleman said "Absolutely not! That's Christina's deal. You need to call her!" and told him the story of the past two month's events between the seller and myself. So he called me and we had a good chat. He's one auctioneer who makes it policy to not compete with his customers. I commend him for his compassion in this situation. He said he'd give her an appraisal and a commission rate and let her make up her mind. When he did she replied with a "Thanks, but no thanks." and said she'd put it back up on eBay again. I think at this point my offer still looked pretty good to her. Now, this should tell you what a teeny tiny world Carnival Glass is. It's a grapevine with deep veins for sure.
This was my cue to get in touch with her after the long summer. When I asked if she still had it she said, "Oh yes! I told you I'd save it for you! " (can you all see my eyes rolling now?) I told her my friend would be available to meet with her the following week and she agreed. After many emails and planning, Gary met up with her and he called me right away and said it was the prettiest aqua opal hatpin holder he'd ever seen. He didn't hesitate for one moment to buy it from her. I don't think he let it go from the moment she handed it to him for inspection. That night, he joked and said he put it in his china cabinet overnight and pretended it was his. He even took pictures of it to show me right away. Those are the pictures of it in his hand. He was so excited it was contageous from coast to coast. This guy is so great, he thanked me for the opportunity to do this deed for him. Can you imagine that? I think it was so pretty it put a spell on him! I imploded with relief... Ahhh! ...after a long summer of worrying and wondering.
I have to say I have never worked so hard to buy a piece of glass in my life. They say effort is relevant to reward. Thank you to everyone who helped me in this great adventure. It took a village! It was sure worth the wait. Turns out the seller bought it in an estate sale in San Diego. I couldn't figure out why the communications of our emails were so strange. Her answers to my questions didn't jive half the time. I thought she had dementia. Come to find out, Gary tells me she was from Mexico and didn't speak hardly any English. She must have had an interpreter or a translation program in her computer.
Gary put the hatpin holder in the mail the next day on Saturday sending it two day priority, registered mail, insured. Instead of coming on Monday, it came the following Saturday. It was eight days in all. I had so much stress waiting for it. "As long as it didn't get lost" I kept telling myself. The tracking went dead as to its whereabouts for five of those days. When it finally arrived I got the first good night's sleep I'd had in days!
A good story came with this little darling, although not much provenance I'm afraid. So, on FaceBook, I asked if anyone knew who owned other aqua opal hatpin holders like this one. Don C. has the Poucher example, Gary H. of Missouri has one. Mike Carwile says his friend Quindy R. from Virginia has one too. Jan Seeck recalls, "We sold one privately to a hatpin holder collector about 10 years ago". I said a big reason these hatpin holder are scarce is not only their color but it's also largely due to the cross-collectible draw of hatpins and hatpin holders in general. The Carnival glass world is only a part of it. So that is at least five known including mine. I'm sure there are more. Please drop me a line if you have one too.
Thank you all on Carnival Glass Showcase FaceBook for the camaraderie (and the 1600 Likes as of Oct. 15, 2015) and all of you here today that don't go to FaceBook as well. I've got you all covered! I'm not going to let you miss a thing!
You know, you don't have to be a member of FaceBook to look at my page. Just click on the blue & white F symbol at the bottom left of this page and it will take you right there in a slit second so you can look around. You won't be able to comment but you can read everything. Try it! You'll have some good fun.
Yours, Christina
The Christina Katsikas Collection
