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.
Dolls and other Cool Collectibles
Steve Duke Presents Tradio Gems: Dolls and other Cool Collectibles
(Excerpts from Tradio)
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Steve Duke:
Well, with the Internet you say I’d like a French fashion doll. You get on there, you pull it up and here are 20 of them that are for sale and you can pick and choose which one you would like for your collection. So the Internet has changed the collectible market dramatically, for the simple reason they’re much more accessible.
Like I told the other gentleman earlier, at one point in time the open-mouth dolls would bring much more money than the closed-mouth dolls. Now we find that most of the people filled in their collection with the harder-to-find dolls, which were the open-mouth and now they prefer to buy the closed-mouth dolls.
A lot of them have what we call sleepy eyes. When you laid them on their back they had a weight at the back of the eye socket and it would make the eyeball close and the lid would close. So we find that the doll market right now is depressed and, again, I have people bring these in constantly, the old dolls and things.
Believe it or not, they used to make dolls out of wax. They don’t fair real well down here in Florida. I had a woman call me. They were rather expensive because they were difficult to make. All the features were really delicate, but again, you laid them down and it got warm, now they had a flat head on them or their nose was no longer there or you played with them rough and they got scuffed up. So there are wax dolls out there and, again, they’re rare, for the simple reason that they were perishable.
A lot of people will say to me “I have these old dishes” or “I’ve got an old Bible.” I had an old Bible come in the other day or an old dictionary. They’re always amazed that these things don’t have a lot of value. “This is from 1873.”
Kenny:
Yeah, well.
Steve:
Well, the first Bible was done by Gutenberg on a movable press in the 1500s.
Kenny:
And some of those are still around.
Steve:
Not so much the full piece, but there are actually pages out there and they come up for auction. I have a page out of one of the Gutenberg Bibles. (more…)
Gift Ideas for Christmas and any time of the year
Steve Duke Presents Tradio Gems: Gift Ideas for Christmas and any time of the year
(Excerpts from Tradio)
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Steve Duke:
I was in one of the establishments the other night and one of the guys came up to me and he said “Steve, I listen to you on Tradio. You come up with all kinds of information and I’ve been learning about diamonds.” He started to talk about colored stones and things. He said “It’s cool, because I really don’t know anything about this stuff. I’m like a jewelry virgin, but I have a new girlfriend and she loves jewelry. Can you help out and tell me what I should be buying her?”
I said look. You could find out what month she was born in. This is like an old standby for jewelers and it’s an old standby for guys. You know, find out what month she was born in and each month has a certain gemstone designated for it. Now, does that really mean you have to buy that gemstone? No, but if they’re jewelry people then they probably know what their birthstone is. So if you do happen to know what their birth month is, come in, say “Look. I’ve got to do this Christmas thing. I’m new to this shopping thing. Can somebody help me?”
We’re going to say well, what are you looking for? He’ll go “I don’t know, but Steve said look. She was born in this particular month and maybe I could get a gemstone that represents that particular month.” We have a chart. We’ll go down the chart. We can look at it for you and tell you what color the gemstone is.
Unless she was born in April, which we designate as a diamond month, most of the other gemstones aren’t real expensive. We have garnet. We have peridot. We have opal. We have topaz. We have ruby. We have sapphire. We have pearl, which is another one for July. Sometimes we have alternate stones if you don’t happen to like one. As jewelers we got together and said you know pearls aren’t that popular. Maybe we can put Alexandrite in there and use that for the same month.
It’s a big marketing ploy. I have to tell you the truth. It really is, but you know what? It helps you every year. What you do is you come in one year and you buy a necklace that happens to have her gemstone in it. Then you have a birthday coming up. You’d buy her a ring with a gemstone in it, the same kind of gemstone. You have an anniversary because you’ve been doing good. You get her the earrings with the gemstone in it. You have something else that comes up. She has a baby. You get her the bracelet with the gemstone. I mean you can add on to this thing and it’s never ending. As long as we’re in business we’ll come up with an idea for you. (more…)
How to pick out Birthstones and colored Gemstones
Steve Duke Presents Tradio Gems: How to pick out Birthstones and colored Gemstones
(Excerpts from Tradio)
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Steve Duke:
Well, we’ve talked about diamonds for you for Christmas. We’ve talked about gold jewelry for Christmas. Another thing you’re going to see out there are gemstones.
Now, some of you people out there are addicted to some of these gemstone television stations. You’re up at 2:00 o’clock in the morning and you’ve just walked in the door. I can’t imagine where you’ve been. You’ve got a little buzz going on and here’s a guy saying “You know, this is a rare stone and it’s limited. They’ll never be mining these again because in Africa the rains are coming. The mines have collapsed.” That’s all baloney, okay? There’s as much tanzanite out there as you need. There are all kinds of rubies. There are all kinds of emeralds. There’s plenty of blue topaz and citrine and things like that.
We won’t go into where they all come from and we’re not going to go into the quality control too much with you, but the jewelers years and years ago got pretty clever and came up with what they call birthstones or gemstones to represent each particular month of the year. A lot of guys and a lot of women have gotten conned in this deal. “Well, I have to buy this particular birthstone” because that’s the month they were born in. No you don’t.
Believe it or not, some people who were born in different months really don’t like the color gemstone that they were born with and there’s no set rule that you have to buy them that particular gemstone. I have guys who come in and they’ll say “You know, I was born in July and my birthstone is a ruby. I hate ruby, man. I wish I was born in September because that’s sapphire. I like blue. I don’t like red.” So if you’re going to buy a birthstone ring for a person or a birthstone piece of jewelry, find out for sure if they really like that color.
A lot of times people will come in and they’ll say “I don’t know what the heck to get her.” My girls will say “Well, what month was she born in?” They’ll tell her and they’ll say “Oh. Well, you know that month is this particular birthstone.” It’s great, especially for guys, because most of us don’t have a clue half the time what to get. So, yeah, if you get something, you give it to her and you say to her, along with the presentation, “You know, hon, the reason I got you this is because it’s your birthstone.” (more…)
Christmas (Any Day of the Year Gift Giving) Primer/Diamonds
Steve Duke Presents Tradio Gems: Christmas (Any Day of the Year Gift Giving) Primer/Diamonds
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Steve Duke:
I’m going to help you a little bit more on your Christmas primer. You had, like, a question on your face.
Ken Lovejoy:
No.
Steve:
You didn’t?
Ken:
No.
Steve:
Well then, do something with that face. Okay. All righty. We’ve talked about gold. We’ve talked about gemstones. We’ve talked about diamonds. All these things that you’re going to encounter. Now another thing that is a little more technical this week – and maybe some of the women will enjoy it, some of the guys might like it – but it’s just some of the things that I want to talk to you about because these are going to be things that when you’re shopping for jewelry, you may have some of your salespeople mention to you and they take for granted that you understand what they’re saying.
A lot of times, people look at them and – it’s just human nature, we’re not going to say, “Wait a minute. What do you mean there?” Because most of us don’t want to look like we don’t know what we’re talking about. That’s just human nature.
Each piece of jewelry, if it has any kind of gemstone in it, whether it’s a sapphire, ruby or a diamond, it’s going to be set in that piece of jewelry. A lot of the styles that you’ll see refer to the way that they’re actually set.
The first thing I want to talk about are what we call prongs. Now if you’ve got just a plain diamond ring, a solitaire diamond ring, you’ll notice that you might have four little finger-like things holding it in place, or maybe six little finger-like things. These are what we call prongs. And lots of times, you may look down and your diamond is gone. “Oh my God, what happened to it?” It just fell out. We constantly hear that over at Westchester Gold and Diamond. People come in and, “I had a diamond here and it’s just gone and it just fell out. I don’t understand. For twenty years it was there and now it’s not.” (more…)
The ‘Gift Giving Primer’
Steve Duke Presents Tradio Gems: The ‘Gift Giving Primer’
(Excerpts from Tradio)
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Steve Duke:
Normally, what I do is, we do what we call the “Christmas Primer.” And I’m going to give you a little bit of education, so when you go out there shopping this year, it’s not going to be quite as scary. And you’re going to hear about a lot of different products and things. So, what I’m going to do, what we’re going to talk about today is probably the most expensive item on a lot of those wish lists out there for Christmas.
And we’re going to talk about diamonds. And we’re going to give you a quick lesson in diamonds. And we’re going to start with just some basic things. A diamond originally was a piece of organic material. It could have been an animal, it could have been a plant, it could have been something that was alive at some point in time. And it probably died eight to fifteen million years ago. Because that’s about the newest diamonds you’re going to find.
I always laugh when people go, “Are these new diamonds?” I say, “Well, no, this one’s only about eight million years old. I’ve got some older ones in the back that are fifteen million years old.” But what happens, this organic material was around eight to fifteen million years ago. It died. It started to decompose. And through volcanic eruptions and various things, it was buried under millions and millions of pounds of earth. And we have what we call “plates” that move back and forth in the earth’s mantle.
Somehow this organic material got stuck between these plates, the plates move at an extremely small, low speed, but they create millions and millions of pounds of pressure and heat. And what happens is, organic material crystallizes. Then through volcanic eruptions, it’s made its way through the bowels of the earth, up to the surface and it was mined. And it’s become a crystal which we call “diamond.”
Now these diamonds are mined in various places. They’re mined out of water, what we call alluvial deposits. They’re found in kimberlite which is the pipeline that comes up after a volcano erupts and then sort of decomposes and goes back into the ground. And they’re found in the icy areas. They’re found all over the world.
But they’re mined. And this little diamond miner, he goes out there and finds this diamond. He turns around and he sells it to a wholesaler, and he sells it to him by weight. We actually weigh the diamonds. And this wholesaler in turn, he takes those diamonds and he looks at them, and he does what we call, he “polishes a window” in those things.
What it means is, most diamonds are octohedral crystals. They’re eight-sided crystals. And when we put a little window in there, we can actually look inside, because they have a frosted outside, the exposure, or what we call the “skin” of the diamond. (more…)
How to inspect the quality and colors of Gold
Steve Duke Presents Tradio Gems: How to inspect the quality and colors of Gold
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Steve Duke:
Okay. All righty, well, this year you’re going to see the market has changed quite a bit in the jewelry fashion world, and you’ll notice that gold is in the $1,600 price range right now, it’s come down a little bit. But that still means that gold jewelry is going to be a little expensive. So, how can you get around the fact that it cost you so much?
Well number one, gold jewelry, most of the gold jewelry, not designer pieces, it’s just sort of, standard type of chains and bracelets and things. Suppliers buy them by weight. They’re thrown on a scale and for the most part it’s sold in bulk, and a store may say, “Okay, I want to buy 300 bracelets.” Their supplier will put those on a scale, figure out the gold price, figure out the fabrication price which is what it cost them to produce that particular piece of scale of jewelry. If it comes in from any other country other than America, there’s going to be a tariff on it, an import tariff, and all these get figured into the price of it. Then the person you’re buying it from is going to put in their profit margin.
Now if you’re in a large shopping mall, then their profit margin has got to be much higher because they’re paying a lot of rent. If it’s a smaller store, then their profit margin can be a lot smaller.
So it stands to reason, rather than going to the some of the big fancy-schmancy jewelry stores, you’re going to pay a lot more money for your stuff. You have to, because they need to be able to charge more to pay their bills. It’s just simple economics.
So if you want a deal, then you probably, if you went to a smaller store, I would think you would probably get a better buy on your jewelry.
Now, is Westchester Gold and Diamonds a smaller store? We are. We’ve got the largest inventory of any store in Charlotte or DeSoto County, that I can promise you. Will we give you deals? Heck yeah. We’ve got so much merchandise, I’ve got to give you a deal. We want you in the door, we want you checking our prices, and we want you to be real surprised by how much money you can actually save.
We’ve probably got… I’m not going to say probably, I know we’ve got the largest selection of gold chains, gold charms, gold jewelry in the area. Second to none. (more…)
Folk Art and Reproductions
Steve Duke Presents Tradio Gems: Folk Art and Reproductions
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Steve Duke:
I had some people come in and show me a picture of a folk art piece. Folk art would be stuff that was done back in the early 1900′s by no one particularly special. Sometimes there were people who specialized in this, but they would put wood pieces together and carve them and paint them and things like that. You know, not a large manufacturing company. And people do collect this. The fact that it’s crude and it’s not real great looking, as far as the quality on it, it’s become quite collectible. Especially the painted pieces that still retain the color of the paint on them adds a lot of value to the piece.
So I had a gentleman show me a rocking chair. But it was more of a kid’s rocker. And it was formed in the shape of a locomotive. And you sat on it. It was placed on rockers and a kid would rock on this thing. And the picture was really cool.
And I said to him, “You know, I’ve had stuff – folk art – before, but I’m not familiar with this. I have a friend of mine – he’s from out of town who specializes in that, out of Pennsylvania. And we’ll be more than happy to give you a call when he’s in town and let you bring that over.”
He also had a picture of a small bronze done by a local artist, kind of unusual. And I said, “When you bring your train over, why don’t you bring your bronze over. I know you keep it in the bank. I’d like to take a look at that also.”
My buddy came in town and I gave him a call and the gentleman brought his items over. The one thing that goes through my mind all day long, because this is what we do all day long – is people come in and say, “What is this worth?” It was interesting for me to watch someone else go through the same type of thought process that I wind up having to go through every day.
As we looked at this train for the first time, instead of just a picture, I picked up on certain things. And I watched Will go through this and pick up on certain things. And it was very, very interesting. The first thing we did, we turned the train upside down and looked on the inside. We kind of looked at the construction, the way it was made.
And what we also looked at was the type of wood that was used to manufacture this thing. Most of your folk art pieces were made out of pine or walnut, some maple – some kind of soft, deciduous wood. Because it was easier to carve. It was easy to work with. And it was extremely plentiful in the early 1900′s. To be able to pick up this wood from the mills and build pieces with it was fairly inexpensive.
That was sort of the whole gist of the primitive type of thing: It was fairly inexpensive to produce for the gentlemen who were carvers. It was easier to work with the soft woods. This whole thing kept the cost of an item like this down. Because it’s what we sort of call a whimsical type of item. It wasn’t anything that people really needed, but it was cool, so they bought it. (more…)
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
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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… (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… (more…)