My sister and her husband and brother-in-law have a thriving business (or hobby at any rate) supplementing their income by hitting the garage and estate sales on the weekends and selling the stuff on ebay. This weekend she gave me a big $2.00 bag of junk flatware she picked up to supplement our kitchen/break room at work (my co-workers are flatware hoarders) and made a wisecrack about how flatware is so worthless the sellers should pay her to take it away.
So while I was washing it and putting it away this morning, I noticed that three pieces appear to be real silverware. I’ve tried to look up the patterns on the web (yeah, yeah, it’s a slow morning), but I couldn’t find them. Does anyone know anything about silverware? Can you tell me if these are worth at least the $2.00 my sister spent so I can rub her nose in it–I mean, let her know she got her money’s worth?
Fork - Wm. A. Rogers A1 Plus Oneida Ltd.
Fork - 1881® Rogers® Oneida Ltd.
Spoon - Oneida Community New Era
There are whole catalogs devoted to antique silverware patterns as well as folks who specialize in replacing specific lost items from sets (just takes one junkie in the family to wreck all the tea spoons). You can find the catalogs advertised in the back of Smithsonian and The New Yorker magazines. Just go to your library and grab a fistful for a quarter.
Thanks for the suggestion. I have had a little better luck on the web since I first posted (I went to ebay which I probably should have done in the first place), and none of this appears to be terribly valuable after all. At least no one on ebay seems to be willing to pay more than a buck (or even less) per piece.
Oh well, I’m still going to keep it at my desk (I’m a silverware hoarder, too), and polish it up and feel special when I use it to eat my reheated Hamburger Helper.