Post #409524 by tikibars on Tue, Sep 23, 2008 10:01 AM

Rob, I am interested in the prices on this stuff.

There is that dealer in Indiana, who I visited about five years ago. He goes over to PNG every year or so, fills a shipping container (roughly the size of a train car) with artifacts, and then wholesales the loot out of a plastic shed in his yard.

I have bought a half dozen items from the guy at prices that I thought were a major bargain, but I also know that a lot of the stores that sell 'priceless tribal antiquities' get their stuff from our pal in Indiana.

There is a shop in San Francisco that tried to sell me a yipwan for $5000, and I got an almost identical one in Indiana for like $200. I know of places in Florida, Manhattan, and elsewhere that all get more or less the same stock of PNG treasures, and I think that many (or perhaps even most) of them come to them via Indiana.

There is nothing wrong with this, I am not critical of the process at all (more or less everything you buy in most stores comes from some sort of wholesaler who gets it from the manufacturer - nothing different here), I am just wondering if our newly discovered Ohio treasure trove is priced similarly to the San Francisco, Manhattan, and Florida shops, who mark their things up by as much as 2000% or more.

I do not think our Indiana pal deals directly to the public anymore (awwww!), so finding the best prices on this stuff is important to collectors of authentic PNG artifacts (old, new, or otherwise).

Here's me in Indiana!