Makeup

David, I just did a makeup today at the Rotary Club of Nunawading which held an Antiques Appraisal Day from 10 am til 4.30 pm

They charged visitors $5 per expert to get valuations on items they carried in, and had 100 visitors who paid at the door for tickets to see one of us. The tickets were usual raffle books but different colours for each expert.Mine were blue so visitors had to give me their blue numbered ticket and I would value their material. The numbered tickets meant no one could jump the queue.It was a bit like the Antiques Road Show and they made about $400 profit for their first attempt. There were 4 valuers including me ,who were experts in their areas which were, jewellery, clocks and watches, stamps coins and medals etc, and an auctioneer of general antiques including furniture,dolls,art etc. I bought a few things and saw a couple of rarer items. The most fascinating was a handwritten newspaper called the MELBOURNE GAZETTE which was published by John Pacoe Faulkner in 1838. IT WAS MELBOURNE'S FIRST NEWSPAPER and each one was HANDWRITTEN to the 50 subscibers who paid 6d each for it-  quite expensive for the time. It was suppressed after only 9 issues by Captain Lonsdale because it did not have approval from the Governor. I was amazed to see such an early and rare piece of our heritage but it was in a terribly fragile state.

All the valuers donated their time but have the opportunity to get business from it so we were all happy. Maybe our club might like to do something like this, perhaps in conjunction with a display from the Greensborough or Nillumbik Historical Society. It is not as lucrative as Bunnings, but it was a lot more interesting, and if we offered food and hot drinks we would potentially take $700++. I am certain that ALL OF OUR MEMBERS would have items they wanted to get appraised and or sell, and so would many of their friends. I gave them some free plugs on my radio show on 3AW and the club gave each of their members 50 fliers to maildrop near their homes and businesses. They also got free coverage in the local papers.They paid $50 for the hall and bought us rolls and a drink, so their costs were low. They also sold club raffle tickets etc which were not counted in the result.