The Perils of Collecting Part IV

So I've been on a Fiesta kick lately. After much agonizing, I finally came to the conclusion that it's really only the pre-1970's vintage pieces, shapes & colors that I'm really interested in. I donated the set of plum dishes I had bought from GW back to another thrift (this time they went to Habitat for Humanity ReStore - an organization I feel very positive about).

Not too long after, I started connecting the dots between some of the other Homer Laughlin patterns and pieces that were being produced simultaneously to Fiesta in matching colors - such as Carnival (a giveaway in Mother's Oats), Harlequin, and Riviera.

I lucked into two different Carnival cups in one store. Then a few days later, I found a 3rd in one of my very favorite local antique stores. My husband and I had gotten into a conversation with the owner about a Harlequin set that she had just put out. I mentioned that I had actually come in specifically to buy a Carnival cup she had in another booth. Since it was one of her own items and not one of her dealers, she just gave it to me for free. How cool is that?! She said she liked to surprise her customers from time to time with a free item just as a way of saying thank you for being a good customer. Totally classy, huh?

So that's the good stuff. On the other hand, I had a particularly annoying Fiesta-related experience at a totally different antique store. I spied a dark (or forest) green vintage Fiesta teapot. I picked it up, no price label. When I asked the owner about it, she gave me a big spiel about how it was "Medium Green, the most coveted Fiesta color ever." She was asking 210 dollars for it. (21o, I suppose, so that she could let you 'bargain her down' to 200 or something).

First off, lady.You are a dealer. Shame on you!

This was a definite case of 'a little information being a bad thing'. She knew enough to know that medium green is a coveted color, but not enough to know that the coffee pots were never produced in medium green, in which case, she would also have to NOT KNOW her vintage Fiesta colors well enough to know the dark forest green when she saw it. -OR-

She's a disingenuous, dirty liar, knowingly attempting to perpetrate a total fraud on a customer.

Either way, I'm not interested in paying 210 dollars to a fool.

Oh, who am I kidding? I don't have 210 dollars to spend on vintage Fiesta, no matter how rare, coveted OR just plain snazzy it may be. But still, it's the principle of the thing, you know.

So anyway, Perils of Collecting! ALWAYS know as much (or more) about what you are looking for than the people who are trying to sell it to you! That's all I've got to say about it, except to say:

Wishing you Happy (and annoyance-free) Collecting!