Rising value of diamonds raises interest in estate jewelers
Date: Sunday, July 13, 2008
Author: ROBERT JANJIGIAN
Daily News Fashion Editor
Like other watering holes of the wealthy, Palm Beach is rightly perceived as a place filled with acquisitive residents who make an island location a must for the most famous names in high-end retail jewelry from around the world.
Estate jewelers and the major auction houses, too, have found the island to be a great source of supply and for their collector-buyers over many decades.
Recently, however, with the price of gold and diamonds soaring, island jewelers and firms who buy jewelry for cash are seeing more customers coming in to trade in unwanted pieces. One established Worth Avenue jeweler also has stepped up his efforts to acquire diamond and other precious-stone jewelry.
Gold prices, according to statistics posted at the Web site goldprice.org, have risen from $675 an ounce in July 2007 to more than $960 an ounce by Friday.
Suggested asking prices for diamonds were raised 25 percent alone just months ago by the Rapaport Report, the diamond industry's price-reference bible.
Pricescope.com, another Web site devoted to diamond pricing, has tracked a 40 percent to 80 percent increase in the price of high-quality diamonds over the past 20 years.
Retail jewelry sales have been on a consistent upswing over the past decade, said Helena Krodel, spokeswoman for the Jewelry Information Center, a nonprofit trade association based in New York City that is concerned with educating consumers about jewelry and watches.
Jewelry sales over the past 10 years are expected to jump from $43.9 billion to just under $70 billion, she said. The average annual increase in retail jewelry and watch sales is at least a billion dollars a year, with the only downturn coming in 2000 and 2001, with a 2002 return to growth.
Diamond jewelry and loose diamonds represent 50 percent of the retail sales as reported in a 2007 Jewelers of America Cost of Doing Business Survey on the distribution of sales that Krodel provided. The same survey noted that estate and antique jewelry sales account for only 2 percent of the total retail sales in the United States.
Upward trend
Adele and Edward Kahn, who have been buying and selling estate pieces out of their Peruvian Avenue salon for the past 37 years, have seen about 20 percent to 30 percent more sellers come through their doors over the past 12 months.
"When the economy is troubled, as it has been recently, there is always an increase in the number of people who come in to sell," said Adele Kahn, recalling that in the early 1990s there was a downturn in the economy and an upturn in the jewelry-buying aspect of her business.
"Now, I think they see that they have these old pieces sitting around, and either they don't want them or are looking for cash, maybe to buy something else, maybe even a piece of jewelry."
For Kahn, jewelry has turned out to be a "safe" currency that retains its value.
"Look at the price of gold, of diamonds, even silver," she said.
Kahn's observation: "Whenever the Middle East gets rich, the price of diamonds goes up."
"But there are always customers for big diamonds," she added.
The Kahns, who also operate a House of Kahn Estate Jewelers in Chicago, run by their daughter Tobina, have bought numerous pieces from Palm Beach estates and from royal families and Hollywood sources.
"We buy here. We buy in Chicago," said Adele Kahn. During the summer months, most pieces are shipped to Chicago for resale, she said.
The Kahns also maintain a network of dealers and collectors around the world to whom they sell some of the jewelry they purchase from customers.
"We are always looking for diamonds, but are also attracted to Art Deco, Victorian and Edwardian things, unusual pieces especially," said Adele Kahn. "If it talks to me, I'll definitely buy it."
"We never take on consignments," said Edward Kahn. "We always buy. That's how we've established a following here and in the business."
House of Kahn does not purchase "ordinary" gold chains, costume, mass-market or commercially produced jewelry or pieces featuring synthetic stones.
"We used to have an auction house in West Palm Beach, but since we got out of that business, we no longer take on china, glass, furniture, rugs or home furnishings," said Adele Kahn. "I also hate cameos."
The offers made are based on what Edward Kahn refers to as the demand for a particular type of jewelry or stone. They consult the Rapaport Report as a guideline, but say they follow no general rule in coming up with an amount to offer a seller. "We try to buy pieces at a price that allows us to make 15 to 20 percent when we resell it," said Adele Kahn.
"It's always better if a seller has an idea of what the value of the piece is, what they want to get out of it," she said. "That saves a lot of aggravation and disappointment."
Adele Kahn suggests shopping around, though her strategy is to offer a higher price if it's something she likes or knows she would have a potential buyer for.
"Big diamonds — 10 carats and over — colored diamonds and Deco are hot right now," she said.
Price point
New York City-headquartered Circa, which opened a satellite buying office at the Palm Beach Towers in April 2006, is strictly focused on buying jewelry and has also seen an increase in traffic over the past six months.
"I'd say there have been about 25 percent more clients coming in since January," said Tracy Sherman, director of Circa's local operation.
Though Circa was closed for the week of July 4, the agenda of daily half-hour appointments has been full through June, with the past week especially busy.
"It's really been nonstop," she said, recalling that her firm was hesitant at first to operate on the island year-round. "Our stream of customers through the off-season has been steady since we opened."
Though unable to identify clients by name because of the promise of confidentiality to Circa customers, Sherman has seen sellers with island addresses.
Sherman credits the increase in the number of people coming in to the higher awareness of price hikes for precious metals and diamonds among the public.
"I think many people are looking at their jewelry collections and noticing things they haven't worn that might be of value," she said. "I don't think it's about need as much as it's about clearing out things that aren't necessary to them."
Lately, however, Sherman has noticed an increase in repeat customers and clients coming in on referrals.
We give them a price on the spot and write a check if they find the figure acceptable," she said.
"We don't sit with any of the pieces we buy and thus can be more aggressive with our offers," said Sherman. Circa's mission, she said, "is to make offers that clients would be hard-pressed to get anywhere else."
"Our profit margins are comparatively lower," said Sherman, explaining how the company is able to offer what she sees as better prices. "We own things on the short term and make the short-term profit."
Circa ships pieces to its Manhattan headquarters, where they are dispersed to collectors, dealers and international buyers.
The island office, one of four Circa satellites around the country (others are in Chicago, Washington and San Francisco) takes in a large number of signed jewelry pieces from such makers as David Webb, Verdura, Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany & Co., Cartier and Rolex, which Sherman views as what would be expected from the Palm Beach market.
"I also buy a lot of diamonds," said Sherman, who points out that she is not solely interested in high-end pieces. "I'm happy to look at anything — sweet 16 necklaces, what have you."
But Circa will not deal with costume pieces. "If it's real, I make an offer," she said.
Sherman said she always assumes that clients are "shopping around" their pieces, looking for the best price. "Sellers are pretty savvy customers here," she said. "Thus, our more aggressive offers, and I'd say, our increase in business."
Icing up
Kaufmann de Suisse has been a Worth Avenue presence for 15 years, with a second Avenue store that opened last season. During that time, jeweler Christopher Kaufmann has allowed clients to sell him jewelry or stones, but in the past few months, in light of the rising prices and what he sees as a more limited supply of diamonds in the marketplace, he has amplified his efforts to purchase jewelry from clients and nonclients alike.
"It was always a service we offered," he said. "Now, we want to make it a little better known and open it up to a wider audience.
"I am looking primarily for top-quality diamonds," said Kaufmann. "But I'll consider anything — rubies, emeralds, sapphires — but no fakes."
"Diamond prices are the highest they've ever been," he said. "A person selling me one can usually receive more than what they originally paid for it."
Kaufmann, a certified gemologist, gives an appraisal of a piece or stone he's interested in purchasing.
"As a buyer myself, I am aware of what the rates are for pieces of a certain quality. If it's not up to our quality standard, we won't buy it,"
Kaufmann's intention is to acquire diamonds, all of which were crystallized 50 million years ago, "so there is no such thing as a 'new' or 'old' stone," he said. He uses them for new signature creations.
But Kaufman says he is not becoming an estate jeweler. "I'm just interested in acquiring stones."
Eight Palm Beach retailers packing up for good; others cite best sales ever
Date: Sunday, May 04, 2008
Author: ROBERT JANJIGIAN
Daily News Fashion Editor
With the "season" coming to a close, there have been some noticeable closings on the island's retail front. Closed or soon to pack up and vamoose are: Rebecca Romero, Okra, Devonshire, Sub Chrono, N.P. Trent, Hollywould, Grand Armée and Brighton Pavilion. There's always change in the retail mix of Palm Beach's shopping districts, so these departures are not so surprising - or indicative of any specific ailment of the island's economic picture. In fact, when I spoke to some store owners and managers over the past few weeks, they have reported that this season, with all the talk of recession, has produced their best sales figures ever.
Mother of pearls - Adele Kahn, who has owned and operated the House of Kahn estate jewelry store, 231 Peruvian Ave., with her husband, Edward, for more than four decades, doesn't plan on going anywhere. She is expanding her reach, in fact, by bringing in hundreds of pearl necklaces this week, which she contends are an affordable and appropriate gift for Mother's Day, just a week away.
Though the focus of her business is still on the buying and selling of gemstone jewelry, Kahn noticed the higher-quality, lower-priced pearls being produced by the Chinese. Always a fan of the classic pearl necklace, Kahn couldn't resist the freshwater cultured pearl necklaces.
"Our top-priced pearl necklace with the Chinese pearls is $750," she said. Pearls featured range in size from 5.5 to 9 millimeters and are strung into necklaces of varying lengths, from 18 to 72 inches. Several colors are available as well. Kahn doesn't feel like she's competing with her established estate jewelry business with these pearl pieces, however.
"Due to the color shifts of pearls over time and with wear, we've never dealt with secondhand cultured pearl jewelry," she said. "Oriental (natural) pearls are the exception," Kahn said.
"And necklaces of Orientals are much pricier than any cultured pearl necklace, going for $25,000 to $100,000 depending on the size and number of the pearls."
Kahn, of course, will be happy to sell one of several Oriental pearl pieces she has acquired, if the Chinese freshwater variety doesn't float your boat and you're feeling that you need to open your wallet a little wider for dear old Mom.
Rocking sensation - Fragrance house Bond No. 9 has teamed up with Swarovski to create new packaging for its Bryant Park, Bleecker Street and Nuits de Noho scents. The limited-edition 50ml flaçons, released in time for Mother's Day, are encrusted with throusands of Swarovski crystals in several color schemes. Each is $650 and available at Saks Fifth Avenue, 172 Worth Ave.
Pulitzer prize - Everybody in these parts associates the Pulitzer name with fashion, thanks to resident style icon Lilly Pulitzer and her powerful and identifiable printed apparel. So, it comes as no surprise that Kourtney Pulitzer, who married into the family several years ago, is giving the fashion business a try, but on the retail end of things. Pulitzer recently opened an eponymous boutique at 205 N. Federal Highway in Lake Worth.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, she's hosting an open house featuring on-trend clothes and accessories from the likes of Julie Brown, Karlie, Nanette Lepore, Autumn Cashmere and Lubella, as well as premium denim from Rag & Bone, J Brand, Red Engine and Kut. For information, call 233-9919.
OK, so on my way back from Starbucks this morning I really dated myself by telling a young mother that her daughter looked like a “Breck Girl.” She smiled politely but clearly had no idea what I was talking about.
I have to stop doing things like that. What’s next — cracking Jack Benny jokes?
The Palm Beach demographic is definitely getting younger, with one sign all the Next Gen members active in the professional arena. Like estate and tax attorney Cater Randolph, son of the town’s legal eagle Skip Randolph and wife Leslie.
Or Nick Coniglio, son of restaurateurs Frank and Gail, at the helm of the wildly popular Cucina Dell’Arte. And attorney Lisa Small, who’s a partner with father Michael in Small & Small.
While in Chicago I stopped in at House of Kahn Estate Jewelers on East Walton Street to catch up with one of PB’s farther-flung Next Gen success stories — Tobina Kahn, daughter of founders Edward and Adele. Her folks launched the business in the early 1950s and run the Palm Beach branch, though Edward travels to Chicago to visit his daughter, the vice president.
The salon was just opening when my friend Robin and I popped in, and within minutes the place was bustling: young couples looking at glittering engagement rings; a man picking up a bracelet; fresh-faced employees offering champagne and bottled water.
Tobina dropped what she was doing and gave us a tour of her almost 12,000 square feet of space and, more importantly, of the dazzling jewelry cases filled with gems like this flower-shaped brooch with just shy of 74 carats of invisibly set rubies — oh, and .95 carats of diamonds.
“Everything big comes from Palm Beach,” she said, but also proudly pointed out that prices generally range between “$100 and $100,000.”
Our visit was timely — gold had just closed at 972.70 the day before — and Tobina explained that the fluctuating price of this precious metal is an estate jeweler’s advantage. While sellers receive the current gold price for their jewelry, the jeweler doesn’t raise estate-piece selling prices when gold skyrockets.
Running a business takes “a whole lot of dedication and real commitment,” she said. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, she is at work 7 days a week.
We get ready to leave and notice a vintage photo of her parents on a table. Tobina is a ringer for her mother. And come to think of it, she could have been a Breck Girl, too.
P.S. Following is a Breck Girl ad, courtesy of www.americanartarchives.com. This one is way, way older than me. Really.
The cuff has been a favorite bracelet style for thousands of years. Its current vogue would give famous cuff fans, such as Cleopatra, Coco Chanel, the Duchess of Windsor and Diana Vreeland, plenty of shapes and styles to choose from in a wide range of materials, from leather and precious and even nonprecious metals to wood. The larger scale transforms a mere bangle into wrist-wrapping, statementmaking cuff.
This spring, jewelry designers are nudging shoppers to think pink -- pink gold, that is.
After seeing consumers gravitate more toward colorful jewelry in recent years, retailers from Fortunoff to Tiffany and designers such as Dominique Cohen are launching more pieces made with pink gold, which is also known as rose gold and is a mix of gold and copper. Saks Fifth Avenue is carrying earrings and necklaces by Ms. Cohen featuring ice-blue or mint-green topaz stones set in rose gold. Tiffany, which had a few pieces in rose gold in its "Mesh" collection before discontinuing the color, is reintroducing the pink metal in the line next month.
At Fortunoff, where the selection of rose-gold pieces is double what it was last spring, shoppers are buying engagement and wedding rings made of the pink metal, says Ruth Fortunoff, executive vice president of jewelry merchandizing. The trend is a reaction, in part, to the popularity of gold and silver handbags and accessories in fashion this spring, she says. "If you're carrying a metallic gold bag, you're not going to want to wear a lot of shiny yellow jewelry -- it's too much," she says. "It's more subtle if you wear rose gold, which mixes well with silver as well."
Rose gold has more copper in it than yellow or white gold, but the price tag is often the same. That's because the percentage of pure gold in yellow, white and rose gold is the same. Duvall O'Steen, spokeswoman for the World Gold Council, an industry organization, says the price of gold -- no matter the color -- is largely driven by the amount of pure gold in it.
Eighteen-karat yellow and rose gold, for example, both contain 75% pure gold and 25% other metals. In rose gold, however, copper is the predominant other metal, giving it a pink tinge. There is no discernible difference in durability between these different types of gold.
The pink metal has long been used in jewelry. It became chic in the 1920s when Cartier unveiled its "Trinity" ring featuring three intertwined bands of white, yellow and rose gold and the French writer Jean Cocteau wore it, Ms. Duvall says. The metal surged in popularity in the 1940s when platinum was in short supply. Tobina Kahn, vice president of House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, says rose gold jewelry holds its value as well as yellow or white gold jewelry.
High-end watchmakers are also experimenting with the metal. Responding to what it says has been a gradual increase in sales of rose-gold watches for both men and women, Patek Philippe began increasing its rose-gold offerings in 2000. It now makes 25% of its new styles available in rose-gold versions. The trend is expected to gain momentum through the fall -- at the Baselworld watch and jewelry show in Switzerland earlier this month several jewelers showed rose gold pieces that will be available at retail in six months.
The rose-gold trend dovetails with another fad -- mixing different-colored metals in stackable bangles or layered necklaces. Jewelry designer Tina Tang, who sells online and in her two Manhattan stores, says she first started dabbling in rose gold a year ago and now makes 33 charms in rose gold and introduced six necklaces in the metal.
Ms. Tang believes people like the color because its warm tone is more universally complementary. "White or yellow gold can look bad on some skin tones," she says. "But rose gold often looks good on pale or dark skin."
Chris Chiarella thought buying his wife a colorful necklace or bracelet for her birthday recently would be a cinch. But he had an anxiety attack when the jeweler laid out piece after piece studded with brightly colored stones he had never heard of -- all priced over $2,000.
"I felt like I do when I go to the mechanic -- that I don't know enough and I'm in over my head," says the portfolio manager from Carlsbad, Calif., who wound up choosing a plain woven gold necklace.
For years, top dollar in the jewelry world went to the four precious stones: diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires. Now jewelers are charging -- and getting -- surprisingly high prices for the gem world's also-rans: semiprecious stones that were once considered low-budget alternatives. Some are even pushing pieces featuring rocks with Geology 101 names such as sodalite that until recently were viewed as too soft or not glittery enough to bother with. Never mind that experts say many of these stones aren't likely to hold their value as well as precious stones.
The elevation of semiprecious stones will be on display for Valentine's Day shoppers this year. At Harry Winston, 10% to 15% of jewelry with colored stones contains the semiprecious variety, up from less than 2% two years ago. Links of London, with four stores in the U.S., estimates 40% of its line has semiprecious stones, up from 10% five years ago. Vera Wang has put baby pink morganites in $1,650 earrings and $4,000 rings. Tiffany has a $248,000 necklace whose main draw is a large electric-blue Paraiba tourmaline pendant.
The irony is that, because fashion is tilting toward brightly colored stones right now, these one-time B-list gems are getting more buzz than diamonds in some circles. But what's really driving the move to semiprecious stones is rising costs for other materials. Prices of rough diamonds have risen as much as 40% over the past two years, due to a change in the way DeBeers distributes them, with large diamonds seeing the biggest increases, says Martin Rapaport, who publishes a report that people in the industry use to set prices. A slightly better than average one-carat diamond now goes for $9,440, he says. And the price of gold has surged to more than $500 an ounce, rising 18% last year alone; it's now near a 25-year high. By using garnets and colored quartz instead of rubies and diamonds in her gold jewelry, designer Tina Tang says she has been able to keep prices stable.
As demand for semiprecious stones has risen, so have prices. In the three years since Ben Affleck gave Jennifer Lopez a pink diamond engagement ring, designers have snapped up so many sparkly pink morganites (a less-pricey alternative) that the wholesale price for a good quality stone has tripled to $150 a carat, according to Joseph Menzie, president of the International Colored Gemstone Association, who estimates that consumers pay two or three times that much. The wholesale price of a five-carat apatite, a sometimes murky green stone, has risen 50% in the past five years to $210, he says. (Apatite got its name from the Greek word "to deceive" because the stone can look like more-expensive gems like peridot.)
Designers, meanwhile, continue to reach for ever-more obscure stones in an effort to stand out. Prasiolite, for instance, isn't exactly known as a girl's best friend. But Terri Eagle, chief executive of jeweler John Hardy, says the company chose the grass-green stone mined in Brazil for a line of $995 rings it is about to roll out because green is supposed to be a popular color this year and "we didn't want to do something that was your common green gemstone." Designer David Yurman plans a line of cuff links and pendants featuring black stones with red streaks that the company calls dinosaur bones and describes as the mineralized remains of prehistoric animals. It introduced the stone last year in $475 to $1,875 men's rings.
The result is that it's harder for consumers to tell which stones should command top dollar and which shouldn't. "I always thought anything that wasn't a diamond, ruby or emerald was the same as cubic zirconia -- costume jewelry," says Cheryl Russo, an attorney from Hanover, Mass., who recently eyed a $150 pair of citrine earrings but didn't buy them.
Some jewelers acknowledge that stores can charge a premium for colored jewelry because consumers tend to pick these pieces based more on style than value. "The profit margins are much more elastic," says Jim Haag, managing director for high-end jeweler Jacob & Co., who suggests seeking the advice of a trusted jeweler.
Color intensity is the best way to gauge quality of these stones, experts say. The more saturated the color in both clear and milky stones, the more valuable they are. Clear stones that don't have white streaks in them also are more valuable. Peter Schneirla, vice chairman at Harry Winston, adds that colored stones should be purchased in person, rather than online, because colors vary widely. "There's no standard by which to compare and express color and quality with colored stones like there is with diamonds," he says.
Shoppers should ask whether a stone has been treated with heat to intensify the color -- and often boost the price. Tanzanite, for example, is naturally greenish brown but takes on its purplish tinge only after heating, Mr. Schneirla says. When high-end jewelers such as Tiffany, Cartier and Harry Winston provide certificates stating the value of colored stones, they note whether they have been heated because many people view treated stones as less pure.
One way to compare the dizzying array of stones popping up in jewelry today is to check how they rate on the industry-standard Mohs Scale of Hardness, which can indicate whether they might chip over time. Diamonds score a perfect 10. Many semiprecious stones are rated between 6 and 8.
Semiprecious stones aren't likely to hold their value as well as precious ones. "I see a lot of people who have bought semiprecious stones and they're very, very disappointed because when they want to resell, they're only going to get 50% or less of what they paid," says Tobina Kahn, vice president of House of Kahn Estate Jewelers in Palm Beach, Fla. "If you like semiprecious and think it's a pretty stone, great. Just don't buy it as an investment."
Hoarders Drive Up Gold Price, Despite Slump In Jewelry Sales
Date: October 8, 2002
Author: Peter A. Mckay
When people stop buying jewelry, that often spells trouble for the gold market, which depends on rings, necklaces and other baubles for about 80% of industry demand.
So how is it that amid a slump in jewelry sales, gold prices are surging?
The answer fulfills one of the wildest dreams of longtime gold bugs. Even though a recession in the U.S. has tarnished sales of luxury goods such as jewelry, hoarding by wary investors, who see gold as the ultimate safe harbor, has more than offset the slump in sales. The result is that gold prices are jumping, flirting last month with a 2 1/2-year high of more than $330 a troy ounce. Monday, the run up took a pause, with Comex gold futures down 20 cents at $321.90 in afternoon trading in New York, as most stock indexes fell.
Nevertheless, the stock market's fall swoon has boosted gold most days lately, as has strong investment demand for the metal. According to the World Gold Council, a mining-industry trade group, global gold demand was almost unchanged in the second quarter, comprising $7.33 billion of metal. Jewelry demand, though, was down about 1.7%, to $5.84 billion, while investment demand rose 3.6%, to $570 million for the period.
The latest rally represents a reversal of a long-term trend, with a surprising number of investors apparently opting to squirrel gold away in bank accounts instead of wearing it on their bodies.
"Anecdotally, I think the investment that's going on may be even greater than the numbers reflect," said Joe Foster, manager of Van Eck International Investor Gold Fund. "We're seeing interest from commodity traders and hedge funds that have been taking positions in both gold bullion and mining-company shares."
Mr. Foster said his fund, with about $175 million in assets, increased its holdings of derivatives pegged to gold bullion in the first quarter of this year, to 10% from about 6%. The rest is invested in the stocks of mining firms, a common way for investors to track the gold price financially without having to physically store the metal.
Gold, of course, has long been considered a hedge at times of political or economic crisis. Its recent rally over $300 started after last year's September terrorist attacks, and the recent stock-market swoon has boosted the metal's price.
But it is also true that as often as gold has shown promise in turbulent times, the metal also has disappointed. Throughout the dot-com collapse, for instance, gold prices stayed sluggish, as investors turned to U.S. dollars, government bonds or other financial havens.
So, the recent shift toward investment, as opposed to retail, buying as a determinant of gold prices vindicates the view of gold enthusiasts who long have seen the metal's primary appeal as a financial asset.
"There's quite a nice feeling of upside potential in the market right now," says Kelvin Williams, marketing director for AngloGold, the Johannesburg, South Africa, mining concern. Mr. Williams said he is convinced jewelry and investment demand soon will get back in sync. He says jewelers in recent years have gotten used to 'buying on the dips.' This strategy has worked because, invariably, gold always has tumbled shortly after a run up.
But if the rally persists, jewelers may have to start capitulating to higher prices and buying anyway.
Jewelers in part have been able to offset the lower sales with high prices, although several companies' most recent results, which came out in August, contained cautionary notes about the jewelry market.
At Zale, fiscal fourth-quarter profit leapt 24%, to $3.65 million, or 11 cents a share. However, comparable-store sales, or sales in stores open at least a year, only rose 2%. Before the jeweler lowered its earnings expectations in July, Zale had expected a 5% increase in same-store sales.
Whitehall Jewelers reported second-quarter net income of $571 million, or 3.9 cents a share, contrasted with a loss of $643 million a year earlier. The chain attributed the return to profitability to cost-cutting, but said its same-store sales slipped 0.6%.
Even smaller outlets have noticed the jewelry slowdown. Gemologist Tobina Kahn said there has been a stream of people recently in Chicago and Palm Beach, Fla., selling gold pieces to her family's estate-jewelry business, the House of Kahn.
Such anecdotal selling helps explain why there is little demand in the broader gold market for metal to make new jewelry, because the few consumers who still want to buy pieces have a robust supply of existing jewelry from which to choose. "People who need cash are looking at the pieces they have lying around, stuff they probably never wear, that they can sell," Ms. Kahn said. "Gold is probably the only thing they've got like that. I mean, they can't sell their stock for cash. It's worthless."
To This Jeweler's Clients, Market Rout Is Opportunity
Date: April 17, 2000
Author:
New York - One of the telling trends throughout the stock run-up of recent years is the jewelry that many rich folks have sold to raise money to invest.
On Friday, the trend took a twist.
In Chicago, estate jeweler Tobina Kahn, who has seen a stream of sellers in her office, unloading their diamond necklaces and gold broaches for cash to invest in stocks, said that there were 10 stock related customers on Friday, up from the raising money to deal with market losses; other were eager to buy stocks at cheaper prices.
"We've got exactly half who are stock brokers coming in selling their gold Rolex watches or Cartiet money clips for cash," she said Friday. "Then we've got these rich housewives selling their heirlooms because they want to buy stocks when they're cheap."
Throughout the bull market, Ms. Kahn hasn't discouraged the latter group's premise, since their pieces won't appreciate much in investment value over time anyway. She remains baffled, though, that their bullish view of one more buying opportunity in stocks could exist side by side with the professionals' panic Friday.
"It's fascinating," she said. "I mean, who's right?"
Date: September 28, 1999
Author: Peter A. Mckay and Michael M. Phillips
It has been a long time since the phrase "good as gold" has had a ring of truth. But Monday came close.
The metal's value skyrocketed $14 an ounce to $281.80, hitting a five-month high on news that 15 European central banks won't unload extra gold onto the market for the next five years.
Analysts said the unexpected move virtually erased the biggest specter that has been scaring investors away from gold for more than a year -- a seemingly endless string of rumors or announcements that government gold sales could flood the market.
But now, after hitting several new 20-year lows over the summer, gold has made a sharp turnaround. In the past two weeks including yesterday, the metal has risen by $24.90, or almost 10%. Gold still is below the $300 level it traded at almost a year ago, but analysts and traders said Monday that the metal's price could now hit that level by year end as investors move away from their bearish futures bets.
"This is a serious change in sentiment; we haven't had anything like this in a long time," said metals analyst Matthew Ford, of the fund U.S. Global Investors Inc., San Antonio, Texas. "This has the hallmark of being a ... sustainable run, because you've effectively discounted much of what the negative speculation was."
The announcement by government banks came at a time when gold prices had become particularly politicized, analysts and traders said.
Leading the charge in support of higher prices was the World Gold Council trade group, which rallied African officials to oppose official sales, sponsored aggressive advertising campaigns and commissioned polls showing citizens' support for their governments' holding more of the metal.
Monday, council officials said the European banks' announcement could fundamentally change their strategy in the coming months.
"In light of what's occurred in the last nine months, we've been put a little on the defensive," said Michael Barlerin, the World Gold Council's chief executive for Western markets. "I don't sense that some of the programs that we've been running will need to have the same tone now. For example ... I don't think it's going to be necessary to continue the significant adversarial role we've had to the Bank of England decisions."
In the announcement late Sunday, the European Central Bank and 14 individual nations said they wouldn't sell or lease any more of their own gold holdings, beyond previously scheduled transactions such as the Bank of England's plan to gradually sell 400 tons of the metal.
Monday's price rally on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange built upon a rally that began last week when the second installment of the Bank of England's auction showed increasingly bullish producer sentiment toward the metal.
However, such government gold sales have generally been almost poisonous to gold's value. Even after Monday's rally, the metal still hasn't returned to its price level before the May announcement of the British sale. But analysts said the weekend's European announcement was unprecedented both as an affirmation of official bullishness toward gold and as a sign of consensus among a usually fractious group of national banks.
"Gold will remain an important element of global monetary reserves," the central banks said in an announcement presented by European Central Bank President Wim Duisenberg. "The current situation is characterized by uncertainty and that uncertainty by itself led to a lot of volatility and a downward trend in the gold price."
The European announcement came at a time when bank officials were gathered in Washington for the International Monetary Fund's annual meeting. The IMF itself confirmed over the weekend that it had nixed plans to sell 10 million ounces of its own 103 million ounce gold reserve on the open market to raise money to provide debt relief for poor countries.
Instead, faced with industry and congressional opposition, the U.S. Treasury and the IMF engineered a complex new plan in which the IMF will boost the book value of 14 million ounces of gold, then use those resources to help developing countries cut their debts to the IMF.
Analysts said the series of announcements generally reflected the realization by governments and producers that gold had bottomed out, perhaps artificially in an overzealous response to speculation about official sales.
Amid the general euphoria Monday, however, some analysts were cautious to warn that the latest reversal, spurred largely by a wave of new producer and fund buying, will eventually have to rely on more substantial economic developments to sustain itself.
In particular, the yen will have to remain strong against the dollar because Japan is such a large consumer of gold, said George Gero, first vice president at Prudential Securities in New York.
"As far as I'm concerned, the jury's still out on this rally," he said. "This sort of event focuses attention on gold a lot more than a short-term disaster, war or assassination. Gold is, after all, an economic haven. But its value is ultimately more tied to economic events than political ones."
The rise in gold prices buoyed several gold-mining stocks Monday, most notably Newmont Mining Corp., which rose $4.875 to $27.8125, and Anglogold Ltd., which rose $5.4375 to $34.375 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
But despite Monday's price spike, Newmont, based in Denver, for now plans to hold onto a bearish options hedge it recently opened on 2.35 million ounces of gold through 2009, said Chief Financial Officer Bruce D. Hansen.
"Right now we're definitely trying to stand back for the market and digest what this means in the short term," he said. "It's still a tough market to do anything from a producer standpoint."
Analysts Monday expected most mining companies to remain similarly cautious and said they were unlikely to launch new mines, as the latest gains may evaporate by the time the five-year to seven-year start-up time for new mining projects has passed.
One effect the price boost may have, however, is higher jewelry prices, said estate jeweler Tobina Kahn, whose family-owned firm received 10 calls at its offices in Chicago and Palm Beach, Fla., Monday from customers wanting to sell gold jewelry.
Usually, Ms. Kahn says she warns consumers that there's less correlation than they might expect between gold commodity prices and the value of finished gold items. Monday was a different story, though.
"The average gold investment is going to be worth perhaps three times more," she said, referring to the kind of family heirlooms her firm usually buys. "This affects the price of anybody who has any type of gold jewelry that has any significant weight of gold to it. We're talking about the kinds of everyday items that people have sitting in a collection somewhere."
In addition to the European Central Bank, the following individual countries agreed not to sell or lease additional gold over the next five years: Austria, Belgium, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Latest Plunge In Gold Futures
Scares Buyers, Stumps Analysts
Date: July 16, 1999
Author: Peter A. Mckay
A concerned customer called Chicago jeweler Tobina Kahn last week to sell a Tiffany necklace inherited from her late mother and made from six ounces of gold, plus two carats of diamonds. Her worry: Had the 50-year-old heirloom's worth diminished literally overnight?
Ms. Kahn said no -- that just doesn't happen to vintage designer jewelry. But Ms. Kahn received several such calls last week after the Bank of England's auction of 25 tons of gold slashed the metal's price on world commodity markets.
Flash to San Antonio: Portfolio manager Gil Atzmon is scratching his head. He has followed precious metals for 15 years, and can't understand the concern over the auction either, considering that 25 tons isn't much compared with the total volume of gold traded daily.
"What's been going on with gold leading up to, and since, the auction just goes against the fundamental principles of what makes markets," says Mr. Atzmon, chief investment strategist for U.S. Global Investors Inc. "But maybe the problem with me is that I've just been at this for too long. I might understand things better if I had no experience to influence the way I see things."
An Image Problem
Put mildly, gold has an image problem right now. But it is not just because of the notoriously bearish outlook for the metal's asset value. Rather, investors and consumers alike are struggling to make sense of the economics surrounding gold, which some say have deviated from the trend lines the metal has conventionally followed.
World gold demand is increasing; but its commodity value continues to plummet. Shoppers expect bargains on products made from gold, or they flock to sell the pieces they already own. Yet there hasn't been any change in those objects' worth.
Gold futures have hit several new 20-year lows in recent weeks, and the August contract closed at $254.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday.
World Demand
1998 data
Ounces
(millions)
%
share
Jewelry
95.4
81.2%
Net private investment*
13.8
11.7
Electronics
4.3
3.7
Dental/medical
2.4
2.0
Other/industrial
1.6
1.4
TOTAL
117.5
-
*Includes bullion bars and coins
The metal, which traded above $600 early in the 1980s, is way past those heady days and has been declining for several years now. But the latest $34 slide began just after the Bank of England announced on May 7 its plans to eventually sell 415 tons of gold, beginning with the recent auction as its first installment.
Nuggets of Good News
Low inflation, gold's declining role as a monetary standard, and central-bank sales such as the British auction have generally been blamed for the falling value. However, nuggets of good news are to be found in the landslide of gold selling.
Asian gold demand, which fell sharply during that continent's financial crisis, has begun to improve over the past month or so, analysts say. American jewelry-manufacturers' demand, which had increased 13% last year, is measuring strong gains again, as is consumer buying of gold coins. In the first half of the year, the U.S. Mint sold almost 39 tons of gold American Eagle bullion coins -- one of the more convenient ways for small investors to own gold -- more than twice the total for the year-earlier half.
Because of those demand trends, plus the fact that the British announcement had all of June to finish pummeling gold prices, market watchers' expectations going into last week's auction were split. Ultimately, the sale was interpreted as a bearish development as much because of what it symbolized as its fundamental effect on the gold market, said analyst Philip Klapwijk of Gold Fields Mineral Services Ltd., a London metals-research firm.
"I think it's the signaling effect that's most important here, as much as anything," Mr. Klapwijk said. "The 25 tons certainly isn't a huge amount, but the fact that someone's decided to go from having 17% of their reserves to 7% is significant. This isn't a Mickey Mouse bank, after all. It's the Bank of England."
Cuts Not Seen for Jewelry Buyers
But retailing analysts say those falling commodity prices have not yet resulted in similar cuts for jewelry buyers, and most likely won't for at least three months. Frequently, they say, manufacturers simply substitute higher-quality gold -- for example 18 karats instead of 14 karats -- when commodity prices fall, thereby justifying similar prices for their jewelry.
Ms. Kahn says the effect of gold's commodity price is even more negligible on the type of designer items that her small estate-jewelry company, the House of Kahn, purchases. Nevertheless, she says she gets three to four calls from concerned sellers on any day there's significant bearish gold-commodity news, such as that of the British auction.
One of her recent customers, retired accountant Claire Fischer, said many older Americans view jewelry as an investment asset, a philosophy Ms. Khan discourages, since jewelry pieces don't appreciate much in value over time. Craftsmanship and collectible value mostly determines the worth of such jewelry.
"People my age lived through a time when money wasn't worth anything and banks were no good. For them gold -- even their jewelry -- was always something they could sell for value if they needed to," said Ms. Fischer, 75 years old, who says she has tripled the money gained from her jewelry sales on the stock market.
Gold Viewed as Important Asset
"This is a different time now, though. Money is better than gold," she continued. "The times have changed. Unfortunately, some people haven't."
Indeed, a recent poll taken by the mining-industry trade group World Gold Council showed that citizens in most industrialized countries still view gold as a valuable asset, even if their governments are busy selling it off. In the survey, 67% of British respondents and 76% of Americans said gold reserves are important to national economic strength.
Similar percentages in both countries said gold reserves are important to maintaining a strong currency.
Gold Council research has also shown public sentiment about gold to be largely uninformed, however. A 1997 poll by the organization, for example, showed that only about 7% of Americans can correctly quote the price of gold on any given day.
Hold That Gold?
Buyer-Seller Activity is Rising With Price
Date: May 7, 2006
Author: Stephanie Murphy
All that glitters is not gold. But there may be a gleam in the eyes of anyone looking at 25-year-high prices for the precious metal, which flirted with $684 an ounce at the close of business Friday.
Buying and selling abounds, based on dealers' reports of increased gold activity in Palm Beach and elsewhere.
"Gold and oil go together and are continuing to go up," said Tobina Kahn, who heads the Chicago store of Palm Beach-based House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, 231 Peruvian Ave. "The price jumped $10 from [Thursday]."
In Kahn's Chicago store near Bloomingdale's, "people are coming in every hour to sell gold jewels because they realize the price is so high, they'll get more than anytime in the last five years."
According to Ryan Denby of Austin Rare Coins in Austin, Texas, a member of the Gold Information Network, the price of gold has increased almost $95 in the past 30 days, and $253 in the last year, a jump of 59 percent.
Denby's precious metals brokerage has "never been busier," he said. "It's absolutely insane. Mainly, people are buying. Not that many are selling here - not investors," because they are convinced prices will go up more.
In Palm Beach, Adele Kahn is selling gold jewels, gold compacts, gold purses, chains and brooches "for a good deal, because we've been collecting it for years."
Tobina Kahn predicted gold will go to $1,000 an ounce, "maybe within six months. It could be $800 in two months."
Gold prices have escalated so quickly that people are taking advantage, said Ray Duclos, the owner of Rechant Precious Metals, in business in West Palm Beach for 29 years. Sellers can double their money on gold purchased in 1999, when the price was less than $300 an ounce, he said.
"The last two or three weeks are the busiest since 1980-81, when it was up to $850 and we had people lined up at the door," Duclos said.
Business is up all over the country, said Chris Del Gatto, chief executive officer of CIRCA, a jewelry-buying firm based in New York with an office in the Palm Beach Towers.
"People are reading about gold prices, so there's more awareness," Del Gatto said. "If they have items they are thinking of selling, now is the time. Gold was undervalued for a while, now it's getting to where it should have been."
He predicted "there is some room for the price to go a little higher, but not much."
Anticipating gold prices is like reading the stock market, said Evangelos Kanaris, co-founder of The Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Center at 333 S. County Road.
"It's a gamble if you're not experienced. I cannot encourage you to sell, and then the price goes much higher," Kanaris said.
It also depends on how much gold a person owns, Kanaris said, explaining, "If you have a lot, you can expect a 40 percent profit. So with large amounts, 50 kilos, yes, sell, because you can double your money."
Uncertainty in other sectors such as oil affects people's perceptions about gold, Kahn said.
"Precious metal is an old-fashioned asset, it's solid," which appeals to many investors, she said. In addition, an emerging middle class in both China and India creates new demand for jewelry, pushing prices up.
Denby of Austin Rare Coins said consumers buy gold as a hedge against their increasing disillusionment with the capital markets.
"There are a lot of inflation fears now," he said. "Everything is more expensive. . . . It's the value of the dollar going down and less purchasing power."
Still, even the wealthy "want a good deal," Tobina Kahn said. "So people are taking advantage. Wealthy people pay attention to the stock market. They don't need to sell their jewelry, so they buy."
For several months, Palm Beach jeweler Adele Kahn has been sowing the seeds for a different kind of spring garden.
Kahn, 70, owner of the Peruvian Avenue estate jewelry business House of Kahn with her husband, Edward, since 1971, has acquired or commissioned more than 60 18-karat-gold and platinum flower brooches featuring diamonds, rubies and other precious and semiprecious gems.
There are dual reasons behind Kahn's quest for floral-themed pins, which cost anywhere from $4,500 for a newly commissioned small 18-karat-gold rosebud brooch with three carats of pave diamonds to $60,000 for an Art Deco-era rose brooch with approximately 35 carats of diamonds.
"I have always admired flower pins, from the time I started in the jewelry business," said Kahn, who began her career 48 years ago in Toronto, where she worked for her family's fashion business.
"I'm just passionate about flowers, even though I have been indoors for most of my life as a retailer," she said. "I have a great appreciation for nature and the outdoors."
Kahn also took notice of the current wave of floral motifs in women's fashions and the re-emergence of the somewhat old-fashioned brooch as the accessory of the moment.
"Many customers have been making requests for flower pins, which are very feminine and traditional," she said, adding that floral-themed jewelry first came into vogue during the Victorian era, when jeweled representations of flowers were worn in lieu of corsages.
"I see a lot of younger women collecting flower jewelry," Kahn said, remarking that she has observed a renewed taste for traditional jewelry in Palm Beach, where "women are very astute about jewels," and at the House of Kahn branch operated by daughter Tobina in Chicago.
"In the 1980s, flower pins were hard to come by," Kahn said. "It was the era of tennis bracelets and more modern styles."
But in recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest, she said.
"We haven't cornered the market, as there are so many flower-themed jewelry pieces now available, but we have put together an impressive array and some particularly beautiful and unusual designs," she said.
Some of the estate pieces in Kahn's collection are signed with the names of famous jewelers from the United States and Europe.
Others are made to Kahn's specifications by jewelry factories she works with in Asia, where she said "Workmanship is being taught at a level that's up to par with American and European makers, at a good price."
Although Kahn sells most of the flower jewelry she amasses, she has bought several brooches for herself. "I have about 15 flower pins in my personal collection," she said.
Peruvian Avenue didn't exactly sparkle 30 years ago, a time when most of the island's jewelers had strongholds on the more famous Worth Avenue. That didn't stop Adele and Edward Kahn from buying a modest stucco building at 231 Peruvian Ave. for the House of Kahn, the oldest family-owned jewelry establishment in town.
Now their daughter, gemologist Tobina Kahn, runs the company, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in January. Reflecting recently on the couple's prime retail gem - they also bought the building next door and have retail and professional tenants - Adele Kahn says the stories behind the stones have been as interesting as the diamonds, rubies and sapphires that crossed their threshold and departed again, sometimes on famous flesh.
As relayed to Kahn, an Arab sheik who gambled recklessly in Monte Carlo lost $3 million in a short evening. The sultan had given three of his wives elaborate diamond bracelets with a detachable starburst that could be worn separately as a brooch - each bangle worth a million bucks.
"He had to pull the bracelets off his wives' arms to pay the debt, because no one would buy the wives," joked Kahn, who later acquired one of the bracelets through a dealer.
Two dinner rings that had belonged to former Palm Beacher Jackie Levitz, each about 20 carats of yellow and white emerald-cut diamonds, entered the store's inventory several months ago - but indicated nothing behind the dramatic disappearance of the widow of furniture magnate Ralph Levitz, who was reported missing in 1995, about a month after moving from the island to Vicksburg, Miss.
The House of Kahn's most recent coup of intriguing estate jewelry dates to 1868, when Queen Isabel II of Spain handed down her jewels to her son, King Alfonso XII. He presented them to his daughter, Princess Maria Teresa Infanta de Espana, who married Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria. Their daughter, Princess Maria Baviera Bordon, married Prince Iraki-de Bagration of Georgia.
The youngest descendants of Queen Isabel II decided to sell some pieces, but not in Spain. Through a dealer in Europe, the Kahns acquired a $50,000 bracelet and a $22,000 ring, both featuring old-mine-cut Burmese rubies and cushion-cut diamonds set in gold.
A more contemporary piece stirs plenty of interest: a $300,000 copy of the Heart of the Ocean pendant that Asprey & Garrard made for Titanic singer Celine Dion, featuring 22.52 carats of diamonds and a 16-carat Kashmir sapphire.
Also Hollywood-inspired is an 18-karat gold manicure set that belonged to silver-screen siren Gloria Swanson.
House of Kahn has sold and auctioned gems from many notable estates, including those of actors Raymond Burr and Myrna Loy, broadcasting heiress Gloria Storer, and Corrine Warren, a regular at Mar-a-Lago when her friend, Marjorie Meriweather Post, hosted square dances.
This time last year, a California collector commissioned the sale of a ring featuring a 37-carat, cushion-cut yellow diamond set in platinum with several smaller diamonds - a $250,000 bauble that Kahn called "the largest diamond we've seen in Palm Beach for several years." Naturally, she was mum on the name of the buyer.
Highlights of this season have included a Bulgari 50-carat, heart-shaped, carved emerald necklace, about $175,000, and a strand of 13- to 17-millimeter South Sea pearls, tagged at $28,000.
Adele Kahn enjoys designing jewelry, and her husband assists with sales at the main salon on Peruvian Avenue and their West Palm Beach salesroom, 625 S. Olive Ave.
Tobina Kahn does the buying through her office in Chicago, where she has been interviewed by CNN and The Wall Street Journal on jewels and investments. She returns to Palm Beach every other week.
"We're really known for our signed pieces from the most coveted eras - Edwardian, Art Deco, Modern and Georgian," Tobina Kahn said.
At their champagne anniversary party for clients and dealers, the shop was brilliantly ablaze with jewels by renowned makers such as Tiffany & Co., Boucheron and Van Cleef & Arpels, featuring designs from each jeweler's most distinctive period.
"Even the wealthy want value, and many people buy diamonds as an investment, to keep in a safety deposit box, not to flaunt them," Adele Kahn said. "Most of our business is confidential. People want discretion, so if someone here needs to sell their jewels, we take it out of town. In 30 years, we've done business on a handshake and our word; millions of dollars on a handshake."
Gem dealer Donald Kaufman of Charles Kaufman Enterprises in Miami echoed her sentiments as he prepared to leave the salon after a meeting:
"A handshake is all you need with the right people," said Kaufman, who has known the Kahns since boyhood and attended their wedding in Toronto more than 45 years ago. His father, Charles, began trading gems with Edward Kahn in Europe in the 1950s. Charles Kaufman had opened shop in the 1940s on 47th Street in New York, and his father, Abraham, began the family jewelry business in 1900 in the Bowery.
"Eddie was born in Europe and seemed to have an eye for rare and historic pieces," Kaufman said. "He had knowledge and a gift for knowing style and antiquities - not just diamonds, but Alexandrites, rubies, tiaras and icons. A lot of what he bought had belonged to earls and dukes and duchesses."
The Kahns and their daughter are unusually intuitive about the goods they buy, Kaufman said.
"House of Kahn is House of Kahn . . . I've been in Palm Beach 20 years, and they've been here longer than that . . . like an institution," said designer Nelson Hernandez of Nelson Fine Jewels. He recently opened a new salon on the third floor of the Gucci Courtyard building at 256 Worth Ave.
Owning their own building for so long has paid off, Adele Kahn said, "because we don't have the same overhead that some of the other merchants do.
"Peruvian was a desert when we bought here, but I fell in love with this building," Adele Kahn said. "I would never sell this property; I'm much more sentimental than I was over our house."
The Kahns sold their three-story oceanfront home at 224 S. Ocean Blvd. in spring 2000 for $3.75 million to Down By The Sea principal Gary Ross. The house is across Seaspray Avenue from the lot where Ross has moved sections of his 1928 Mizner mansion, L'Encantada.
The Kahns bought the Dutch Colonial house in 1978, but it already had a colorful past - originally built in 1924 for cough-drop heir William Luden, who traveled to Palm Beach for the winter by private railroad car from Pennsylvania. Tom McGinty, who once owned the Stardust and Desert Inn hotels in Las Vegas, and the Hotel Nacionale in Havana, owned the 10,000-square-foot home during the 1950s.
Charmed Life:
Classic Bracelet Holds Promise of More Valentine's Days, And Charms, To Come
Date: January 31, 2006
Author: Paige Wiser
Gentlemen, as you begin shopping for Valentine's Day gifts, we beg you to consider: The charm bracelet. The demand for them goes in and out of fashion, but you can be confident you're buying a classic. Charms have been traced at least as far back as ancient Egypt, when their owners would be buried wearing them as a sort of I.D. tag. They were believed to help the gods guide the deceased to their appropriate station in the afterlife.
Today, charm bracelets are personal, fun and one-of-a-kind. You can buy charms at a mall kiosk and Louis Vuitton (although the latter will run you thousands of dollars, before you buy any charms).
Is there any gift to give at Valentine's Day that holds more promise? As souvenir charms are added, that bracelet may one day hold a champagne bottle charm, an Eiffel Tower charm, a baby bottle charm ... and even more memories of the relationship of a lifetime.
Oh, don't worry, guys, they make the kind that aren't fraught with meaning, too. With our guide, we're confident you'll find the trinket that's right for your loved one.
One of the first things customers notice when they enter House of Kahn Estate Jewelers at 60 E. Walton is a photo of the late pope.
Under the picture, in scriptural typeface, is written:
"His holiness John Paul II paternally imparts a special Apostolic Blessing to Edward and Adele Kahn as a pledge of continued divine protection."
Many customers assume the Kahns are Catholics. In fact, they're Jewish. Edward Kahn is a Holocaust survivor who founded the business after arriving penniless in the United States after World War II.
The Vatican conferred the blessing after the Kahns donated a valuable 16th century Russian icon to the church. The icon depicts the Virgin and Child, and is encrusted with diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and pearls.
The Kahns "have a special bond to the pope," said the couple's daughter, Tobina, who now runs the Chicago store. "He really reached out to the Jewish people."
John Paul visited Israel and normalized relations between that nation and the Vatican. He expressed remorse for Christian persecution of Jews, and said anti-Semitism was fostered by erroneous interpretations of the New Testament.
Gave icon to poor church
"This pope was very good to the Jews," Edward Kahn said.
The Kahns bought the icon from a London dealer in 1963. But it was so beautiful they couldn't resell it.
The Kahns later moved to Palm Beach, Fla., where they opened a second store. There, they became friends with the Rev. John Mericantante, pastor of an impoverished parish near Pahokee, Fla.
In 2000, the Kahns decided to donate the icon to Mericantante, who displays it prominently in St. Mary's Catholic Church. In gratitude, Mericantante and his bishop appealed to the Vatican to give the Kahns an apostolic blessing.
Mericantante said the Vatican typically confers such blessings to mark special occasions.
Although the pope has died, his blessing "will hang on our wall forever," Tobina Kahn said. "This is so dear to our hearts."
Tobina Kahn, who runs House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, says her family has a "special bond" with John Paul II.
Guy's Guide to Valentine's Day Shopping:
Whether You're A Deep-Pockets Guy Or Budget Guy, You Have Options
Date: February 7, 2005
Author: Lucio Guerrero
There should really only be two ways to do Valentine's Day -- the right way and the great way. We'll start with the great way. This is the one, unfortunately, for the guys with the deep pockets. The guy who says -- and means it -- "Money is no object."
For that guy, there's plenty of options. From the $100,000 luxury night at the Swissotel to the $200,000 one-of-a-kind emerald necklace.
And then there's the other Valentine's Day, the one for the rest of us.
Don't fret. Just because your wallet may not be full of Benjamins doesn't mean that Cupid won't come calling.
Chicago is a perfect place to do Valentine's Day on a budget -- read: cheap, but not cheap looking.
Here are some suggestions for both of our guys:
JEWELRY
High end: This is what Valentine's Day is all about -- the jewelry. If you want to make it count, go for originality. With that, our choice would be a rare emerald heart-shaped necklace with diamonds. This unique piece has 19 carats of emeralds accompanied by 18 carats of white diamonds, and is on sale for $200,000. It's from an estate jewelry store, so chances are your valentine's gift will be one-of-a-kind. House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, 60 E. Walton (312-943-9937).
Two months ago, Paul Linke tried to auction off a 12-inch replica doll of Ronald Reagan. He had few takers.
The same doll is back on Internet auction site eBay, and the response has been much different.
"There is definitely more interest this time," said Linke, 34, of Addison. "It's too bad that it takes a tragedy like a death to get people interested."
Since the death of former President Reagan on Saturday, the collectible market dealing with Reagan memorabilia has soared. The demand is so high that the Reagan Library can't keep up with orders for gifts bearing Reagan's signature or likeness. According to the library's Web site, there's no guarantee about when merchandise will be shipped out.
On eBay, the national barometer of popularity, there are 162 pages dedicated to Reagan memorabilia.
Among the more interesting listings from the Chicago area:
*A record album of President Reagan reading stories from the Old Testament. According to the listing, the record was recorded in 1954 as a children's record, but was not released until 1984. Starting bid, $10.
*A notecard with Reagan's signature underneath the famous phrase, "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." It's dated June 12, 1987, West Berlin, Germany. Starting bid, $500.
*A Topps baseball card of Reagan throwing out the first pitch at Wrigley Field. According to the listing, the card includes a piece of wood from a Wrigley Field seat. Starting bid, $29.
But while most of the items on eBay are novelties, there are a few Chicago collectors who are offering up high-end Reagan memorabilia.
At the House of Kahn, on East Walton in Chicago, there's a sterling silver cigarette case that was owned by former California Sen. George Murphy. The case includes the engraved signatures of more than a dozen Hollywood celebrities, including Bob Hope and Gary Cooper, but it's the Reagan scrawl that is expected to make it valuable. Asking price, more than $20,000.
The store is also selling handwritten letters from Reagan to Murphy.
Experts in the presidential collector's market said Reagan has always been a popular figure, but they expect him to really take off in the coming days.
"I was coming home from a play when I heard the news, and by the time I got home, I already had orders for Reagan stuff," said Drew Julian, who runs one of the Web's largest political collectible sites, www.djpolitical.com. "He had been idolized by so many people. He was like [John F.] Kennedy for the Democrats."
Platinum has become hugely popular in recent years for wedding rings and other high-end jewelry, but skyrocketing prices are chasing some consumers away.
The price of platinum is up 35 percent in just a year, 70 percent over the last two years. It hit a 24-year high earlier this month when the price peaked to $900 an ounce.
Analysts believe this price can go even higher -- reaching $980 by the end of July or $1,000 by the end of the year.
"It's just crazy," said Mike Kelly, of Diamonds Chicago, a jeweler in Chicago's famed Wabash Jewelers Mall and Jewelry Center. "The price is so high that people are looking at ways to make rings more affordable."
A large demand in platinum -- especially in the Asian market -- is being blamed as one of the culprits for the sharp increase. The large demand for diesel cars, which use platinum in their pollution control devices, is also driving the price.
The fear of inflation, rising fuel prices and the war in Iraq have also helped bring the price up.
Kelly said he sometimes tells customers who may be on a budget to consider white gold instead of platinum as a way to keep costs down.
White gold, which costs about half as much as platinum, has been used since the 1920s as a substitute for the pricey metal.
The only drawback to white gold is that it can sometime turn yellow over time. But rhodium plating can restore the platinum look on a white gold ring for about $50.
"I tell people a lot of times that there is more bang for the buck for white gold and it looks the same," Kelly said. "Even with the plating, it will cost less in the long run."
But there are still those folks who want to have platinum -- even in these high-price times.
Many people are turning to estate jewelers to get their platinum fix because the prices are cheaper since the jewelry doesn't need to get made at today's prices.
"There's just a difference in having platinum," said Monique Djerf, of Chicago, who recently bought two antique platinum rings with her husband as fifth anniversary gifts. "We had white gold engagement rings but wanted something different -- and platinum is beautiful."
And it's still a showpiece, according to some jewelers.
"Platinum is the Rolls-Royce of metals for jewelry," said Tobina Kahn, of the House of Kahn, an estate jewelry store on East Walton where 90 percent of the jewelry is made of platinum.
Platinum has become more precious as demand and other factors boost its value.
Jewel-Studded Bracelet Of Spanish Queen On Sale Here
Date: October 22, 2003
Author: Lucio Guerrero
You don't have to be of noble blood to own royal jewels.
One Chicago jewelry store is selling off a royal conversation piece: a ruby and diamond bracelet owned by Queen Isabella II of Spain.
"It's extremely rare to come across royal jewels for sale," said Tobina Kahn, vice president of House of Kahn, which is selling the piece. "They are usually passed down from generation to generation, so it's the heirs after the fourth or fifth generation -- they need the money."
"The money they get for it can help increase their lifestyle or maybe pay for a castle they are upkeeping."
The piece for sale is truly made for royalty. Stunningly crafted, the bracelet is set in 18-karat, rose colored gold. The center stone is a European-cut diamond of cushion shape weighing about 3.25 carats. Surrounding the center stone are 56 Burmese rubies, some of the rarest rubies available.
It was made in the early 1800s and the bracelet's stone weight is about 15 carats. The asking price: $55,000. The piece was acquired by Kahn's firm from heirs. One of the stipulations in the sale is that it cannot be advertised for sale in Spain.
Kahn said occasionally, when they buy royal jewels, they have to reset the stones into different pieces to make it more functional for today's society. After all, who walks around with a tiara on these days?
But some pieces do stay intact. For example, the House of Kahn acquired a tiara that belonged to the Earl of Hardwick, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II of England, and it was sold to a collector.
She said many of the royal jewels that are on the market come from heirs who don't need it or have it stored in a vault. Kahn expects that the Queen Isabella II piece will sell quickly once word gets out.
Considering how obsessed some people are over anything belonging to royalty, she may be right. Jewelry and clothing belonging to the late Princess Diana sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And, Kahn says, royal jewelry can never really be duplicated.
"Sure you can go out and try to make a similar bracelet, with the same rubies," Kahn said. "But it's never going to be the real thing; there's only one of those."
The Queen Isabella II diamond and Burmese ruby bracelet can be seen at the House of Kahn, 60 E. Walton, in Chicago. For more information, call (312) 943-9937.
Tobina Kahn of Chicago's House of Kahn holds the ruby and diamond bracelet that belonged to Spain's Queen Isabella II, who reigned in the 1800s.
There will be a Chicago auction of more than 400 lots of estate jewelry this weekend--truly a sale of royal proportions. Diamonds, emeralds, pearls and sapphires--fashioned into fabulous jewelry for actress Catherine Oxenberg (above), named for her ancestor Catherine the Great of Russia--will be included in the sale at the House of Kahn, 60 E. Walton. (Oxenberg's 26-plus carat diamond necklace and sapphire earrings, pictured, are valued at $30,000-$35,000 and $6,000-7,000, respectively). There also will be a large assortment of jewels owned by members of Palm Beach society--forced to liquidate due to the recent stock market woes. "This is truly one of the most spectacular collections of jewelry ever sold at auction in Chicago," says Tobina Kahn, vice president and auctioneer for the House of Kahn. "We also have a unique and rare green emerald ring owned by Terry Moore, star of the 1942 classic 'Meet Joe Young,' and the legal widow of Howard Hughes." A preview is noon to 5 p.m. today. The auction begins at 1:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For details, call (312) 943-9937.
At the turn of the 20th century in Great Britain, many women showed secret support for the suffrage movement and the fight for women's rights by incorporating the suffragette colors--green, white and violet--into their clothing and accessories.
They wore necklaces of green enamel, white enamel and violet amethysts to communicate their support.
One such necklace, owned by Emmeline Pankhurst, founder of the National Women's Social and Political Union, is on display at a special exhibit, "Homage a la Femme," on Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. at the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, at 60 E. Walton.
Pankhurst was no secret supporter. She founded the NWSPU out of frustration with Britain's failure to grant women the right to vote. The NWSPU was responsible for such militant actions as window-breaking, hunger strikes and violent protests in support of their cause.
The suffragette necklace, priced at $30,000, is just one of the pieces of jewelry that will be on display. The special exhibit, created in conjunction with the Chicago-based Galeria Gaudi, examines the role of the female figure within art and jewelry in the 20th century.
All the jewelry and art is for sale and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Y-Me National Breast Cancer Organization--Chicago Affiliate.
The "Suffragette Necklace" is on display Thursday. Tobina Kahn, owner of Kahn Estate Jewelers, wears the necklace.
Trading In Treasures:
Heirs Selling Estate Jewels To Buy Stocks
Date: June 8, 2000
Author(s): Maura Webber
Within a month of inheriting a gold necklace and bracelet along with a string of pearls and a diamond ring from her grandmother, Monique Djerf of Streeterville sold the pieces to an estate jewelry buyer for $6,000. The 35-year-old, an executive assistant to a Chicago neurosurgeon, plans to invest the money in health care and technology stocks rather than letting the jewels languish in a safe-deposit box.
Djerf is one of a new generation of people liquidating their heirloom jewelry to cash in on the stock market, Chicago area jewelry buyers say.
"If you're not going to wear them, I believe in selling to make the future more secure," Djerf said. "It just makes more sense financially."
Tobina Kahn, vice president of the House of Kahn estate jewelery buyers on Michigan Avenue, has seen dozens of clients like Djerf since the Dow Jones industrial average barreled past 10,000 points in March 1999. Though some jewelers say the pace of such sales has slowed recently with the volatility in technology stock prices, Kahn said the penchant to invest rather than adorn is still strong.
"We're seeing people with very good jobs, doctors and lawyers who are looking and deciding they don't really need three diamond necklaces sitting in a vault," Kahn said.
In the past most of the people Kahn saw came to her offices after a death or divorce. Now visits to Kahn often grow out of a clearer sense of financial planning, she said.
It may not be such a bad time to sell high quality jewelry. Gold prices have jumped lately, topping $294 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday, the highest price since March 8. Gold closed at $286.70 Wednesday. Although it's well below its January 1996 peak of $420, it's up 9 percent from a year ago.
More important, the value of a piece of jewelry is based not just in the metal or gems it contains, but also on its craftsmanship, its relative rarity, and who owned it, Kahn said.
The robust economy has put more disposable income into the pockets of a certain sector of buyers eager to buy heirloom quality jewelry, said Ron Geweniger, owner of Old World Jewelers in Oak Brook.
"They're selling into a fairly strong market. There are more people that have money," Geweniger said.
A number of clients have told Geweniger that they were selling jewelry because they saw buying opportunities in the stock market. In one case, a Naperville man in his 40s decided to sell two watches from his private collection to add to his holdings in biotech stocks, Geweniger said.
"This particular person owns a number of watches and thought he could raise some money and not miss them," Geweniger said. The man made about $28,000 by selling a Patek Philippe watch and a Cartier timepiece, Geweniger said.
Fidelity Loan Bank in Chicago also was seeing people selling jewelry who said they were interested in buying stock, though President Stephen Greenfield said the recent volatility in the stock market appears to have dampened some of the would-be investors' enthusiasm.
Still others caution against selling jewelry to fund stock investments because they say rings and necklaces play a different role in a person's life.
"Most jewelry is an emotional and personal issue," said Rick Bannerot of the World Gold Council in New York. "I see jewelry more as a function of success rather than a way of getting into the market."
Kahn doesn't advocate selling cherished heirlooms. She does suggest people would be wise to consider that money invested in a cache of dusty jewelry in the attic might be put to better use in the stock market. Kahn said she sells the items mostly to European collectors.
Gold and pure metals and stones are part of jewelry's value. In addition, a person curious about the worth of their jewelry should look for unusual stamped numerals or letters on pieces. The identification can help determine whether the item was made during a particular period sought after by collectors or in a country known for its craftsmanship, Kahn said.
Gold can be worth more than its weight when contained in such pieces as those made by Cartier from the 1920s to the 1950s, bold designs by American designer David Webb and articles made by Van Cleef & Arpels jewelrymakers.
But the process of finding the good items is not always easy.
On a recent Friday, Highland Park resident Phyllis Lipman sat with Kahn for more than an hour sifting through jewelry boxes containing everything from old stamps to colorful costume jewelry and a watch given to Lipman's mother for her eighth-grade graduation nearly eight decades ago.
Kahn piled a large mound of jewelry to the side that had little value. In the smaller grouping of jewelry left on a swathe of black velvet was a gold watch and two diamond rings.
Kahn plans to remove the stones from their settings to accurately determine their worth, and let Lipman know what she could pay her for them.
Lipman expects the proceeds will be much easier to divide among her three young grandchildren than rings and watches. She hopes the money can be invested to use later for their education.
"I just don't want something to happen to me and then my kids will have to deal with it," she said.
The transaction over, Lipman wasn't disappointed with the results. She looked at the pile of costume bracelets and earrings in anticipation of some priceless fun with her two young granddaughters. "Now I can let them play with it and I don't have to worry."
Maura Webber is a Chicago-based business writer.
Jewelry Business Sparkles As Sellers Unload Heirlooms
Date: April 14, 1997
Author: DAVID ROEDER
It's the eve of April 15 and business has been brisk the last few weeks for accountants, tax preparers and maybe your local jeweler.
From the Gold Coast to the North Shore and points inland, people are cleaning out dresser drawers and safe deposit boxes of family heirlooms. Specialists in antique and estate jewelry said more people have been selling the items in recent years, sometimes to pay off the IRS but for many other reasons as well. "Lately, I've had all the business I can handle," said Tobina Kahn, vice president of House of Kahn estate jewelers, with offices at 919 N. Michigan.
She said revenues have grown at least 30 percent over the last three years as more people bring in everything from single pieces to collections. "People have realized their old jewelry can be a liquid asset," Kahn said.
"I've been in this business for 40 years and I'd say, yes, it's been picking up lately," said Charles Horberg, owner of a shop in the jewelers' complex at 5 S. Wabash.
Sellers have a catalog of motivations, dealers said. Some have to pay taxes, while others need to eliminate credit card debt. Recent losses in the stock market have forced some sales.
In other cases, an heir is peddling an unwanted treasure. "They don't want it, they don't care for it, they won't wear it, it's not their style," said Richard Matson, a veteran jeweler in Geneva. He said he branched into the estate and antique markets a dozen years ago, and they now account for almost two-thirds of his business, with much of the growth coming in the last five years.
Other jewelers describe their resale business as increasing steadily since the late 1980s. While no statistics are kept, a decade of growth also was cited by a spokeswoman for the Jewelers of America trade group based in New York.
The quest for cash hasn't extended to other possessions, such as art, experts said. Barbara Schnitzer, owner of Fine Arts Appraisers in Chicago, commented that jewelry is a far more liquid asset.
Many dealers will pay a customer almost instantly, whereas Schnitzer said a painting's owner can wait as long as four months for the proceeds. She said more art sales are occurring, but only because owners are getting out of a market that was depressed in the early 1990s.
Often, jewelry sellers are simply deciding that precious gems and metals can't outshine a college fund for the kids.
Kahn, involved in a business her father started in the 1930s, said many customers in her well-to-do clientele express fear over the next generation's economic prospects. "People wonder about the education of their children and their grandchildren, so they'd rather give them a trust fund than a diamond ring," she said.
"The standards of living are not necessarily slipping, but lifestyles are changing. People want to know they'll have enough money to retire," Kahn said.
The strategy looks particularly good now, when certain types of jewelry command a high price. "The Americans are selling and the Europeans are buying," said Kahn, who deals heavily with foreign buyers and has almost no retail trade. Europeans are "obsessed with any kind of American-made item."
Norm Milin, owner of the Leni M Inc. jewelry store on Wabash, also said the international market has grown. "The fine antique jewelry is understood more by the Europeans than by the Americans. Americans are looking for style more than quality," he said.
But even that level of taste has produced a strong domestic market, depending on the piece. Jewelers said anything in a 1920s or 1930s Art Deco-style is big, as are platinum items.
"Pocket watches are big. I have to scramble to find them and it used to be I couldn't get rid of them," said John Kozicki, owner of Glenview Coin & Collectibles Inc.
Interest in the market also has caused more jewelry to be sold through auctions, but experts said that route works best mostly for rare pieces or those in a celebrity's collection.
"Lately, I've had all the business I can handle," says Tobina Kahn of House of Kahn estate jewelers in Chicago.
It's time to dig out Grandma's bling from the safety deposit box and polish that tarnished silver coffee service packed away in the basement.
With the prices of gold and platinum at 26-year highs, and silver prices at an almost 25-year high, there's a new kind of gold rush under way, according to Chicago-area jewelry brokers.
In the past month, and in particular this week as the price of gold charged past $700 an ounce, owners of everything from pocket watches to silverware are bombarding jewelry brokers and pawn shops, trying to decide whether sentiment or cold hard cash has a greater value. More often than not, cash wins.
At Hinsdale Fine Jewelry Co. in Oak Brook, owner Bert Wait has bought as much jewelry from customers in the past six weeks as he bought during all of 2005. He expects to double his business this year.
"The last three days, it's been fast and furious and there's really a fever," Wait said. "I always tell them I'm buying their jewelry. I'm not buying their memories. They still have those."
A week ago, when gold hit $650 an ounce, area resident Dorothy Sharlin visited her safety deposit box, pulled out jewelry she hadn't seen in years and sold it. Next week, she'll make another trip downtown, leaving just a set of pearls in the vault.
"I said this is a good time to unload all the old jewelry I had because my kids don't want it," Sharlin said. "I'm not wearing it. What am I going to do with it? I said $650 wasn't anything to sneeze at."
Generally, consumers are likely to receive 40 percent more than if they had sold the same item a year ago.
But don't expect to make a killing on every piece you own, jewelry brokers say. There's a difference in quality between 14- karat, 18-karat, 22-karat and 24-karat pure gold. Owners of heavy pocket watches may find that most of the weight is from the timepiece itself, not the gold. And some pieces that may look like gold are actually gold vermeil, which is another metal with a gold overlay.
That isn't stopping people from trying. "Anything yellow, people are bringing in," said Tobina Kahn, vice president of House of Kahn Estate Jewelry in Chicago.
"The average person is bringing me in between five and 10 items." The amount of gold in a piece, its age and the uniqueness of the design will help determine the price. If you just bought a gold necklace five years ago from a high-end jewelry store, it makes more sense to keep it because you won't come close to recouping the cost, given the markup at jewelry stores, brokers advise.
It's not just jewelry that people want appraised. More people will use plastic flatware at their backyard parties this summer rather than silverware, joked Ralph Santiago, owner of A- 1 Antique Jewelers in Chicago. He has seen a few customers come in with wood boxes filled with silver place settings and leave with empty boxes and a check. A 100-piece set of sterling silver flatware that was worth $400 to $800 a year ago is now worth $1,000 to $2,000.
"Some people are amazed that they're getting the high values they're getting," he said. "It just seems like people have a price in mind and it's much easier to meet that price right now."
What happens to that gold and silver varies, depending on the company that buys it and the uniqueness of the merchandise. Some pieces are resold to estate jewelry dealers or private collectors here and in Europe; other goods are sent to a metal refiner and melted down.
In the current market, "you tend to lean more toward scrapping," said Fran Bishop, president of the National Pawnbrokers Association in Roanoke, Texas. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and scrapping is a little more pretty right now."
One Chicago-area precious metal refiner is currently recycling $1.5 million to $1.8 million of fine gold a week, a 60 percent spike from its normal volume. "The volumes are like we haven't seen since the 1979-1980 boom and we expect this could go on for another year or two," said the refiner, who asked not to have his name, company or location identified because of fears that he or his business would be burglarized.
The flip side of gold's run-up is its effect on consumers looking to buy jewelry, particularly with wedding season approaching. Unlike the direct link between crude oil prices and the price at the pump, increasing raw material costs in the jewelry business generally don't affect the price of merchandise already in store display cases.
"If consumers are going to feel a direct effect, it wouldn't be for a few months, when [retailers] restock their shelves," said Amanda Gizzi, a spokeswoman for Jewelers of America, a non-profit trade association in New York City.
Sterling Jewelers, the Akron, Ohio-based parent of Kay Jewelers and Jared the Galleria of Jewelry, says it's been able to weather the gold commodity cost increases so far. Now it's monitoring the situation. "We will have to consider some further adjustments to our retail prices of gold jewelry to take into account the current commodity cost of gold," spokesman David Bouffard said in a statement.
But that's not the case if you are in the market for custom- designed jewelry pieces.
Three months ago, Evanston jewelry designer Peggy Robinson boosted the price of her pieces, most of which are made of 14-karat gold, by 20 percent to cover her increased costs. It's no longer enough. "It's a mess, isn't it?" she said. "I'm eating it. If it keeps going up, I'll be due for another correction."
Tales Of 2 Trends:
Right-Hand Rings And Button Earrings
Date: January 23, 2005
Author:
After DeBeers started the right-hand diamond ring marketing campaign about a year ago, sales jumped 21 percent in the first quarter of 2004, the Diamond Information Center reported.
The rings' designers departed from solitaire or three-stone anniversary ring styles (representing past, present, future).
Instead, these right-hand rings tend to orient "north and south" on the finger or embed tiny diamonds in mesh or lacelike framework, Shop Etc. editor Charla Krupp said. Art deco styles are particularly popular now.
"When a woman buys a ring for herself she doesn't want it to look like an engagement ring," Krupp said. "The campaign really fed independent women who have their own style, are working, who want gorgeous things and don't want to wait for a ring."
First, there were chandelier earrings. Then linear or so-called "stiletto" earrings.
Because accessories move in cycles too, both danglers will cede some trend territory to button-style earrings this spring.
The evolution makes sense in the post-brooch era.
"They're like brooches for your ears," Krupp said.
Estate jewelers, who buy and resell previously worn jewels, are a good source for button earrings if you want to invest in real jewelry. Check vintage stores for costume versions. For how to make them look modern, check out Jennifer Lopez's spread in January Vogue.
Hoarders cleaned out their closets this week, hoping their Ronald Reagan-related items would catch the attention of memorabilia hounds.
Many wasted no time in trying to cash out their collections.
A funeral card from when Reagan's body lay in state at the U.S. Capitol was posted Friday on eBay. The asking price: $25.
More than 9,000 items, ranging from dolls and photos to a nearly $16,000 mahogany casket similar to the one Reagan will be buried in, have been posted on the online auction site since Sunday.
"It's all about what's on society's mind," said Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman. "You can really track what is on the mindset of societies' attention span [by what gets posted on eBay]."
And these days that means anything related to the 40th leader of the United States.
Although Reagan's popularity and legacy will live on, time is of the essence in the auction world.
House of Kahn Estate Jewelers in Chicago had to scrap its typical bidding format in favor of a public sale. The auction house is selling more than 20 letters Reagan wrote to former California Sen. George Murphy. House of Kahn is handling Murphy's estate, which included handwritten and typed letters from Reagan.
Prices start at $3,000, and one buyer expressed interest in 15 letters, said Tobina Kahn, vice president of House of Kahn.
Determining the future value of presidential memorabilia can be tricky, experts said, since public perception plays a heavy role.
As the nation's first president, George Washington leads the pack in fetching high prices. A Charles Willson Peale portrait of Washington sold for nearly $6.2 million at a May auction at Christie's. Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson are other early leaders who command top dollar. John F. Kennedy is the only contemporary draw.
No one seems to clamor over anything associated with Rutherford B. Hayes or Calvin Coolidge.
"Is Reagan going to be judged a great president?" said Wes Cowan, president of Cowan's Auctions Inc. in Cincinnati, which deals in Americana and historical items. "The jury is still out. It's just too soon to tell."
Availability also is a factor. Items from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 12 years in office aren't as hard to find as pieces from Kennedy's two-year term. Content also plays a role.
And handwritten letters from California Gov. Ronald Reagan won't hold their value as much as ones from President Reagan. An actual signature, not an auto pen, also helps boost prices.
"It's always important to remember, when you're collecting things related to a president, that the things associated with them before or after they were president are not as valuable as when they were president," Cowan said.
When Chicago music producer MAURICE JOSHUA saw jeweler TOBINA KAHN showing her wares on "Fox Thing in the Morning" earlier this month, he tracked her down and put a necklace on hold for his special someone. When Joshua didn't pick the necklace up, Kahn called him on his cell phone. "He said, `I'm at the Grammys right now,'" Kahn told us. &q
