Steve Duke Presents Tradio
Every Friday at 9:00 a.m., Westchester Gold & Diamond’s owner, Steve Duke, hosts a radio show ‘Tradio’ on 1580AM. Topics are as varied as the items in his store. Listen every Friday and watch this site for Tradio recordings. Enjoy the recorded shows below.
Gold Marks and Diamonds
Steve Duke Presents Tradio Gems: Gold Marks and Diamonds
(Excerpts from Tradio)
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Steve Duke:
Many times it might say 585 which would be your 14 karat gold mark. Along with that it could be another inspection mark on the other side of the bale. Or it could say Italy. That is where the stuff would have been manufactured.
It is really not uncommon at all for the European stuff that comes into the country to be marked on the bale as opposed to the cross.
Caller:
So I don’t have to worry about buying it then?
Steve:
I think you would be okay.
Caller:
I appreciate your knowledge. That is why I wanted to ask your opinion.
Steve:
And if you didn’t like theirs, you might stop by and see us. I probably have a hundred different ones in stock.
Caller:
That sounds good.
Steve:
Thanks for the call. It is about 9:30 or so. We normally talk about all kinds of stuff. We talk about gold and silver and diamonds and investing in some of those commodities. We talk about squirreling some of that stuff away. We talk about prospect and how to find what goodies out there are worth a lot of money.
Today we are going to talk about diamonds and some of the things that are done to diamonds. When we talk about things done to diamonds, diamond is the hardest substance known to man. We buy diamonds from manufacturers. We buy diamonds from the public. We take diamonds in on trade. (more…)
What does COA mean? How to Authenicate Collectibles
Steve Duke Presents Tradio Gems: What does COA mean? How to Authenicate Collectibles
(Excerpts from Tradio)
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Subject:
I want to know what COA means.
Steve Duke:
You don’t know either, ha?
Subject:
Is that something Charlie Sheen is doing?
CeCe:
And we had to bring him up.
Steve:
Okay. Well, COA stands for Certificate of Authenticity.
CeCe:
Ah.
Steve:
Now, what exactly is a COA and why would you need it. Well, lots of times out there in the collectable market there are things that you’re certainly not an expert on and you’re going to rely on somebody who theoretically is an expert to tell you whether it’s authentic or not and we’ve talked about this before. In the collectable world, if something has value then it’s worth money and people are willing to spend their money for it, but there is going to be somebody out there who says “You know what? I don’t have the authentic one, but I bet I could make this thing look pretty darn good and somebody is going to buy it.”
So if there’s a way to hornswoggle you out of your money, somebody is out there thinking of a way to do it. I guess it’s easier to do it that way than get a job or really work for something, but in the collectable market there are lots of ways to lose your money and I’ve told you one thing that’s really, really important if you’re going to spend money on collectables. Number one, the most important thing about collectables is this. If you enjoy it and when you look at it at the end of the day and it makes you smile then by all means collect that collectable. Collect that particular type of item. I don’t care whether it’s matchbooks. I don’t care whether it’s violins. I don’t care whether it’s teddy bears. I don’t care if it’s shards of soap. If it makes you smile when you look at it…
CeCe:
Seriously?
Steve:
There are people, believe or not, that collect shards of soap.
CeCe:
Really…
Steve:
Yes.
CeCe:
Why?
Steve:
Thank God I am not one of those. I don’t have that type of collection going on anymore. (more…)
What’s it Worth?
Steve Duke Presents Tradio Gems: What’s it Worth?
(Excerpts from Tradio)
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Steve Duke:
We talk about all kinds of stuff and at Westchester Gold & Diamonds we buy a little bit of everything. We buy jewelry, we buy antiques, we buy collectables and the one phrase that comes to my mind when people come walking in that door is what’s it worth? I mean that’s just a universal question. What’s it worth? That’s why I’m here.
After they’ve said that to me, I have to look at their item and I have to say to them a couple of different things. We have to sort of qualify that. We do have a pawn shop as well as a jewelry store at Westchester Gold and I have to say to them, number one, is it something that you wanted to sell or is it something you wanted to pawn or to borrow money on. They’ll give me an answer on that or they’ll say I just want to get it appraised.
Well, now I say to them I have to qualify them again. Now, you want an appraisal on it. Do you want a written appraisal, a verbal appraisal? Do you want to know what we would pay for that item? Is this for a bankruptcy appraisal or is for an estate appraisal or is for an insurance appraisal? Now they’re getting flustered. They’re going I just want to know what it’s worth!
Kenny:
Why are there so many different types of appraisals?
Steve:
Well, because it goes along with the question what’s it worth, you know? Most people when they say to me “What’s this worth?” in their mind they’re interested in selling that particular item. Now, I have to arrive at a value for that particular item, so now your mind kicks into another gear and it says okay, let’s look at this particular item that the people have. Is it an antique? Is it a piece of jewelry? Is it something that’s gold? Is it’s something that’s silver? Is it something made of platinum? Is it a precious metal? Is it a non-precious metal? And is there a market for it?
We talk about all kinds of collectables and right now with the way the market is it’s very difficult for me to sit there and say to people this is something that we can use because the markets change so dramatically. I always love it when people come to me and they’ll say “Well, before you give me a price, I’ve looked this up and I know what it’s worth.” I say to them well…
Kenny:
What are you here for?
Steve:
Where did you look it up? “Well, I looked it up in a book and I know what it’s worth.” I’ll say well, then why did you bring it here? “Well, we want to see what you think it’s worth.” Oh, okay.
Kenny:
The test.
Steve:
Okay, so it’s a little cat and mouse game. So what’s it worth? A lot of times I’ll say to them well, how old was that book that you looked it up in? “Well, you know, I didn’t get a brand new book. I’ve got one from 2005. Or I’ve got one from 1998.” You go oh, okay. What is the item that you have? “Well, I’ve got a cookie jar.” And I go okay, a cookie jar. Let’s look at it. They’ve looked it up in their book. (more…)
Timepieces and Watches
Steve Duke Presents Tradio Gems: Timepieces and Watches
(Excerpted from Tradio)
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Steve Duke:
When we were buying wristwatches back around in the ‘50s and ‘60s, different Swiss companies came out with 18 carat gold wristwatches. They were actually a fairly large size for that particular time. At that time most of the wristwatches were a smaller size for most of the men. They had some different shapes and things like that, but in general most of those watches were not real large American-made watches.
The Swiss came out with a larger watch and usually it was some sort of a chronograph, which I’ll get into in a minute with you, so they could keep the cost of the watch down but still market it as an 18 carat gold watch. The gold cases were made very, very thin. Actually, a term that’s used by a lot of people in the trade who deal in watches, when we pick that watch up a lot of times we’ll sort of squeeze a case without looking at it to see whether it’s marked gold or not. You’d actually have to pop the back of the watch off and the gold mark was on the inside of that case. By squeezing a case if it has a little bit of give to it, that tells us basically that it’s made out of gold.
CeCe:
Does it chirp?
Steve:
Well, these cases actually will bend and they will sort of…
CeCe:
Like a little chirp.
Steve:
Almost like a chirp.
CeCe:
Interesting.
Steve:
This is why we use the term a ‘cricket case’. You used to be able to get those little clickers and these were almost the same thing. Now, if you squeeze it too much it doesn’t give you that cricket it just crushes.
CeCe:
Yeah, you don’t want to do that.
Steve:
So you have to be a little bit more gentle with it, but when we talk about the very thin 18 carat gold Swiss watches made usually from the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s, they were very, very thin and this is what we refer to as a cricket case.
CeCe:
That is really interesting.
Steve:
Okay, I’m out of here. No, I’m only kidding. (more…)
Pearls
Steve Duke Presents Tradio Gems: Pearls
(Excerpts from Tradio)
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Steve Duke:
Okay, are you ready? If I said the word ‘keshi’ — would you eat it, would you bank it or would you wear it?
CeCe:
Hum… I have no idea. I’m just going to guess and say bank it.
Steve:
Okay then. I just made that word up, so I have no idea. No, I’m only kidding.
CeCe:
Then my answer can’t be wrong. Yeah!
Steve:
No. Keshi actually refers to the shape of a pearl. A keshi is an irregular-shaped saltwater pearl; sometimes they are called baroque. Keshi we sort of refer to when we talk about Tahitian pearls. There are Tahitian black pearls, as they’re often called, and right now pearls are very, very hot in the fashion world. You look at a lot of the magazines and the stars are wearing them and the average person is wearing them. What’s nice about pearls, it’s not a real flashy piece of jewelry but you can really dress them up or dress them down. I mean you can wear them with jeans and a T-shirt or whatever.
CeCe:
Weren’t pearls always a staple in a women’s… Always in the ‘50s and ‘60s women always had strings of pearls.
Steve:
Yeah, they always said that should be a wedding present. That should be like the normal present that a groom should give his bride to be was a strand of pearls.
CeCe:
His new bride, yeah.
Steve:
People don’t realize it, but we sort of take pearls for granted nowadays. You can buy a strand of pearls for $20. You could buy a strand of pearls for $20,000. There are lots of different things that cause those, affect them, and the factors that affect them are, you know, are they natural pearls or are they cultured pearls or are they freshwater pearls or are they Tahitian pearls or are they South Sea pearls. (more…)
What you need to know about buying and selling Gold and other precious items
Steve Duke Presents Tradio Gems: What you need to know about buying and selling Gold and other precious items
(Excerpts from Tradio)
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Steve Duke:
With gold and silver prices the highest they have ever been, they are just ridiculous. If you have any kind of scrap gold or silver stuff lying around, believe me, this is the time to bring it into Westchester Gold and Diamonds. We will turn it into cash and you will walk out with a lot more money than you ever thought you had lying around.
Conversely, I was at the shop at about 9 o’clock last night and going through stuff that we buy. I looked around at all the gold and silver items that we have and we buy, and realized that it is really a shame what is going on right now.
On every corner there is somebody advertising to buy gold and silver. These are people who have no background at all other than the fact that they say, “I’m going to buy some acid. I’m going to buy a scale. I’m going to buy a magnet so I can test things and know if they are gold or silver. I’m going to buy this stuff and ship it out as quick as I get it and cash in on this whole thing that is going on right now.” (more…)
Gold Coin Collectibles
Steve Duke Presents Tradio Gems: Gold Coin Collectibles
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Steve Duke:
If you heard me, C. C., my question I asked her was, “Baldwin and Company, Kellogg and Company, August Humbert, and Moffat and Company. What do all these have in common?”
These were some of the first territorial minters around. When I say ‘minters’ they were privately owned mints that produced gold coins and gold mintage back in California around 1849.
During the Gold Rush, there really weren’t a whole lot of coinage available for the people at that time. A lot of times, we had people that come into the Westchester Gold and Diamonds and they buy gold bullion and they buy silver bullion.
In the back of a lot of people’s minds is that our dollar is getting weaker and weaker, and maybe at some point in time we will have to buy our goods with physical silver and gold. Well, the first time this really happened was back in 1849 in a big way in the United States. This is during the California Gold Rush.
People came out here and started mining, and they needed goods and provisions. What could they possibly use? There really wasn’t a lot of paper currency available at that time because there were no real banks in the area where they were mining for gold, so they needed a medium of exchange.
They used their gold. At first they used a lot of gold dust, the very fine gold flake that they would mine. They would go to the different stores and each shop owner would have a scale. They would say what the exchange rate was for the gold today.
They would put it on the scale and weigh it. Actually, they used to weigh it with a penny. They would use a penny as the counterbalance on their scale. This is how the term pennyweight came into use. This was a unit of measurement. There were twenty pennyweights in an ounce.
The problem was that not everybody’s scale was accurate. Not everybody’s gold was fine, so they would turn around and discount a lot of the gold flake that they would get in. There was really no real unit of measurement that was standard or very uniform. (more…)