3. This Week's Stories   
   Every week we post stories and comments from our readers.  Send your story to   
   phil@Bignews.biz and I'll publish it in an upcoming newsletter.  Did you know   
   that you don't have to have a facebook account to use the links to see the   
   various photos that we mention below?  Just copy and paste the link into your   
   browser.  However, if you do have a facebook account please "Like" us!   
      
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   Editor's note -- We have been told that some of your emails have not been   
   getting through to me over the past few weeks.  If you have not heard back   
   from us after sending an email, please resend your email to phil@bignews.biz.   
      
   Also, check out our facebook page for some interesting updates. Here's the   
   link: https://www.facebook.com/TIASAntiques If you have photos of items you   
   would like to share you can post them there as well.   
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   For next week's issue: Going along with the theme of last week's topic (see   
   below), how do you react if you are selling items that you mark as original,   
   and someone tells you that they are reproductions?  Do you get mad?  Do you   
   research it?  Do you change the listing?  Send an email with your response to   
   Phil@BigNews.biz Your feedback helps us to keep the newsletter interesting :)   
      
   And thanks to those of you who have been responding! We really enjoy the   
   feedback!   
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   Last week we asked:   
   What do you do if you are browsing in an antique shop, or even online, and you   
   come across someone who is selling counterfeit, or reproduction, items, but   
   they have them identified as originals, and are asking prices that correlate   
   to an original item?  Has this ever happened to you?  How did you handle it?    
   If it hasn't happened to you, how would you handle it?  Here is a response   
   that we received:   
      
   "Good morning, Phil!  I'm writing in response to your request for stories   
   about spotting mis-labeled items in antique malls etc.  During a visit to a   
   favorite local antique shop, I found a large corbel in the form of a mythical   
   Green Man figure.  It was a striking piece that looked as if it had been   
   carved from oak.  The tag said something like: "Antique carved wood corbel"   
   and the price was $75.  I'm an eBay dealer, so I checked the piece for a   
   maker's mark or date.  I found a date of 1975, and the piece was not carved   
   wood, it was plaster!  The shop owner knew me as a long-time customer.  She   
   was horrified when I showed her the mis-labeled piece; it had recently been   
   brought in on consignment, so she had not personally inspected it.  She was so   
   relieved when she saw I was not going to make a big fuss about it, that she   
   was glad to negotiate a lower and more appropriate price. So this was a   
   win-win situation: I got a piece I really liked for a fair price, and the shop   
   owner got a timely reminder about consignment items. Thanks!  Peggy   
   L.Ypsilanti, Michigan"   
      
   If you have a story to share with our readers, please email it to   
   phil@Bignews.biz and we will include it in an upcoming issue.   
      
   In another newsletter we asked about curbside finds, and what you did with   
   them.  In response to that we received the following note, it wasn't exactly a   
   curbside find, but it goes along with the theme and is nice to know how nice   
   our readers are!   
      
   "Hi Phil. That's woman's story of returning the chairs to the neighbors family   
   reminded me of something.  We moved onto our cul-de-sac in 1984 and were so   
   lucky to have our wonderful next door neighbors Doris and Ben.  They were   
   retired and were like grandparents to my two girls and like a favorite   
   relative to us!  I spent a lot of time over their chatting and having coffee.    
   Ben told me not to go buy things at Home Depot until I checked with him.  He   
   usually had the nail, screw or bolt I needed and with his tools and machines I   
   always had a next door handyman.  One day Doris asked me if I would like to   
   have the two Hull vases that used to belong to her mother. She knew I loved   
   antiques and old things.  I said I thought that one of her three grown   
   children would probably want them.  She replied that none of them where   
   interested in that old stuff and since she knew I loved them, she wanted to   
   give them to me.  So I took them and enjoyed looking at them every day.  Over   
   ten years down the road, both Ben then Doris passed.  They only had three   
   grandchildren, who lived in Oregon and whom I had meet when they were little.    
   Their parents divorced and I lost contact.  However, I came across one   
   granddaughter, through a post on Google, and send her an message asking her,   
   now that she was grown, if she wanted these vases from her grandmother.  She   
   remembered me and was so happy that I contacted her.  I sent the two vases,   
   the Hull Wildflower and the larger Magnolia one, both from the '30's, to her.    
   One she would keep and display and the other she would give to her younger   
   sister.  They were both so thrilled and were very surprised that I would find   
   them just to give them back something that I felt they should have.  They   
   actually did not have much from their grandparents and now they at least had   
   something that had been in the family as a keepsake.  I was glad to be able to   
   do that for them.  Randee in CA."   
      
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   If you have an opinion, or a story, in reference to any of the above topics,   
   we'd love to hear from you!  Please send it to: Phil@BigNews.biz and maybe we   
   will run it in an upcoming newsletter.   
      
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