Kerkrade, NL

Expert eye for gold at Erenstein Castle

Article from Dagblad de Limburger, Netherlands 2008.

People having their jewellery valued in Kerkrade are hoping to make a lot of money.
Shani Petzer, director of the London-based company RoadshowEU, greets the people with a charming smile as they come in. A friendly handshake is intended to put people more at ease. One person fetches a small gold-coloured chain out of his pocket, while someone else has brought almost a full case of jewellery. "We are mainly interested in Omega watches because they were very popular in the seventies", according to Petzer. "Their value has gone up tremendously. But of course we are also interested in gold jewellery and antiques."
There’s that salesperson’s smile again: she quickly shakes the hand of the next client."It’s a bit like a new version of the TV programme Kunst en Kitsch", says co-director Morne Botes who has come up in the meantime. "Lots of people come to us and ask what their old jewellery and antiques are worth. Sometimes this is a considerable amount and they then decide to sell them to us. They can then use this money, for example, to buy something new for their grandchildren." A German woman, who wants to remain anonymous, has taken a large bag of jewellery to a room in the castle. "I inherited all this from my mother. Because we aren’t interested in these things ourselves, we’ve come here to find out exactly what they’re worth." She looks at diamond expert Christopher expectantly who is studying a gold-coloured ring through a magnifying glass. It appears that it’s worth almost 1000 euros. However, it does not result in a sale, as according to the expert the ring 'isn’t antique enough yet'. "Then I’ll just keep it a while", mumbles the woman slightly disappointed. But she still doesn’t give up hope.A few necklaces can be worth a lot of money.Unfortunately, this ‘inspection’ did not have the desired result either. She sighs and leaves the room and Nan from Schinveld shuffles rather nervously across the car park. She wants to get rid of her bit of old jewellery and preferably as quickly as possible. "Repairing this sort of jewellery is more expensive than buying new things." She is not frightened of being cheated, she says. "I’ve already had my jewellery valued by a German diamond expert, so I’m here just for a comparison. If I like the price they offer me, I’ll sell straight away. Most of it’s broken anyway."

According to Morne Botes no visitor need fear that jewellery will be bought for less than its value. "We could cheat people, but as soon as they leave here our valuations would be treated as suspect where ever we go. We believe in being honest. A few days ago we had a woman here who had found an old Rolex belonging to her husband. She thought the watch was a fake so she brought it to show us. But the Rolex was worth 7500 euros! The woman was over the moon when she left."

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