My day usually starts with a cup of tea, turning on the computer, and looking at about 5,000 Chinese antiques (and so-called antiques) being auctioned daily from many different countries. My eyes are well-trained, so I can skip through most of them quickly. But every now and then, something catches my attention. When an item needs a closer look or deeper investigation, I bookmark it. After going through all the items each day, I circle back to those bookmarked ones and scrutinize them further. Most get disregarded, but every now and then, I find a sleeper—something good that I can hopefully buy well and sell on through irvgraham.com.
With the sheer volume of items I look at, every so often, I’ll come across a real treasure worth a lot. But there’s usually someone else who knows what they’re looking at, or sometimes just a novice gambler getting carried away, and they outbid me. I’ve made the mistake too many times of finding something, feeling confident no one else has noticed it, and leaving a low bid—only to get outbid later. Then I kick myself for not bidding higher. Mainland China has thousands of buyers scouring the internet day and night, hunting for those hidden rarities too.
Like I said, it’s a numbers game. A trained eye and the willingness to spend money mean rare finds will come your way eventually. The key is persistence, a big monitor, plenty of tea bags, and the guts to spend when you need to. You’ve also got to be willing to take losses and live with your mistakes.
