BUYER: Gai Wan Cup

While wandering through the Cat Street Market in Sheung wan, Hong Kong, you spotted the item for which you have spent years searching! Years ago your grandparents gave you an antique tea set that, in its complete setting, today may be valued as high as $10,000-$12,000 USD. Unfortunately, your set was not complete. You have the Yixing teapot, the cups, the tea tray, and scoops, but NO Gai Wan Cup. 

You have had this (incomplete) setting appraised by a professional, and though the appraiser was excited and impressed with your tea set, he suggested that the most value was in the full set and that individual items and incomplete sets were perhaps 20-25% less valuable. He suggested that you might be able to sell your items through an antique consignment shop for $4,000-5,000, and through an auction house for perhaps $6,000 (though they tend to be less interested in showcasing incomplete sets). With the Gai Wan Cup, you might be looking at around $8,000 to $8,500 at auction.  

You looked at the Gai Wan Cup very carefully, and are absolutely certain that this is YOUR missing piece! It clearly has a Jingdezhen porcelain stem, which matches the style, the location, and the setting of the piece (from the late Min Dynasty). You are 100% certain that this is the piece you need.

You’ve searched for this cup on the internet and in specialty magazines. Sadly, the Gai Wan Cup seems to be the hardest piece to find. You’ve seen estimates listing the Gai Wan Cup alone for $400 to $1,200. But until now it has been impossible to find the item for sale on its own. Buying the item as part of a larger set made no sense to you since you already have the rest of the set.

You realize that you must seize this opportunity. In addition to the large money ($$) value, the cup would add to your set, there is also a high level of emotion involved. Based upon the estimate, you could pay up to $2,500 for the piece and still show a profit. You realize that it may be many years (if ever) before you would happen upon this individual piece again. You have $3,000 in your bank account, and if necessary you could get it all out this afternoon.

You know that prices at antique markets in Hong Kong are generally negotiable. But how much difference will there be between the seller’s initial price and the “true” price!?