CASH IN HAND FOR OLD HEIRLOOMS

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The British RoadshowEU is scouring Europe for old gold and special watches. Expert appraisers are looking at everything put under their noses. Yesterday the high gold price drove dozens of Friesians to Hurdegaryp – albeit with some hesitancy.

By Nynke Smedeman

HURDEGARYP. Things began well at the Van der Valk hotel in Hurdegaryp. Morne Botes of RoadshowEU paid € 500 for an old, broken Omega diving watch, something he’ll make a collector happy with. At least, if he gets a few more, as Botes buys them mainly for the parts, which have often not been made for decades. “From these watches we make one and that goes to a collector”.

 Actually, the expensive Omega isn’t that attractive. Botes, the Director of the two-year-old British family firm, tips it out of a plastic bag and straps it on his wrist. “It doesn’t feel very nice, it’s much too

big”. But, being a collectors’ item, it is rare. So it's worth money.

Modern jewellery goes straight into the melting pot, but RoadshowEU sells on sought-after watches from the 1970s and Victorian jewellery. To prevent fraud, all the sellers have to prove their identity.

Botes, a Brit of South-African origin, travels round Europe with his family. They have now been in the Netherlands for four months. Every week they set up shop in a different hotel, place an advertisement and wait. Yesterday was Hurdegaryp’s turn and today the appraisers are at the Van der Valk hotel in Drachten.

“I thought I'd come and take a look,” says a woman from Stiens rather timidly. For thirty years she has kept an engagement ring from a long-lost love. And the gold bracelet her husband once found when he was a child; the owner is not likely to come forward now.

She shuffles rapidly past one of the four English appraisers, her bag clamped under her arm. “I checked the price on the Internet first”. The appraiser glances at it. 14-carat gold, only good enough for melting down. One gram of 14ct goes for about € 8 at the moment.

Botes takes out a plastic bag containing crisp banknotes and, flip-flap-flip-flap, peels off € 115. The woman shows her driving licence and leaves happy. That was ok. “I can buy something new with that”.

Musty jewellery cases, boxes, people bring them all in. These are the kind of people we're looking for, says Botes, “Everyone has old jewellery they don’t use any more. A watch that’s far too expensive to repair, for instance”.

That's familiar to a man from Leeuwarden. “This watch is a family heirloom from my father-in-law”. He doesn’t want to give his name “because people will think, 'he’s even selling his family heirlooms'”. But yes, the watch was broken, “It was only right twice a day”. But the gold can be melted down. He leaves the room with € 355 in his pocket for a handful of rings and two watches.

The most expensive object that RoadshowEU has bought up to now was an old Rolex watch worth € 15,000. A stroke of luck, but more often what Botes sees is junk. Fakes from the Far East. Young guys just trying it on, often. “I can pick them out straight away”.

According to Botes, the historically high gold price is already on its way down. Last month the trend reversed. The Krugerrand, a gold coin often used as a benchmark, fetched € 590 last month. Last year it fetched € 285 and now € 560.

The Botes family comes from South Africa and, as far as possible, tries to converse in Dutch. “We won't be able to sell that,” explains appraiser Carmen Bäumler to a Friesian couple. They want to sell a Pontiac watch and don’t understand why they can’t. “But it’s a lovely watch, isn’t it?” Alas, modern doesn’t sell.