Saga readers have been cashing in on unrecognised treasures in their attics, basements, cupboards and gardens and making hundreds, even thousands, of pounds. The deals follow adverts in Saga Magazine by London auction house Christies asking for photographs of unusual or valuable items that readers want to sell. Christie’s director Mark Wilkinson says the most surprising things have turned up and made money. "Apart from the usual jewellery, furniture and paintings, more unusual finds include a cup final programme from 1922, a Lady Penelope doll, and a pie crust funnel – yes, they are collected. We’ve also had a book signed by Churchill which fetched £1200 and an Australian cricket tour menu sold for £300."
One lucky reader was Sandra Clark of North London. When her mother Enid died four years ago she inherited a box of odds and ends and she sent pictures of some of them to Christie’s. One item caught their eye.
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"It is a beautiful, plain silver cigarette case. But it has a secret catch that opens up and reveals an enamel picture of two naked ladies one on a swing and one standing. A local dealer had offered me £100 and when I took it Christies they said it was German around a hundred years old and could fetch more than £1000. I thought that was worth selling." In June the case was bought for £1920 including the buyer’s premium. "My only regret is that I know nothing of its history. I wish I had asked my mother before she died." But Sandra knows how to put the money she got to good use. "I have three grand-daughters aged 7, 5 and 4 and I have invested it equally between them to give them some savings so I was very pleased with the result. I’ll keep the photographs of it for them too." |
| Sandra’s price is not the record. Another reader, too shy to talk to us, was surprised when two Majolica garden stools fetched £8400 including premium at a sale in July. |  |
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And there are more treasures to come including Beatles’ signatures, a
Moorcroft pot and a lamp base by Clarice Cliff, an artist featured in this
column in April this year. Two 95-year-old Steiff bears fetched £1200 in July. You never know what is valuable unless you ask. Mark Wilkinson is keen to see more unrecognised treasures "We will always value things if people call in or even send us a photograph. Not everything is valuable. We turn lots away. But we are open every weekday for valuations and every day for viewing."
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Buyers pay 20% on the hammer price and sellers will normally be charged commission of between 10% and 15% of the hammer price and may also have to pay for photographs used in the catalogue. www.christies.com
Hole in the wall cash
Just occasionally someone finds real wealth hidden in their home. Last May a
builder living in the small town of Bazas in southwest France was cutting into
the wall of his ancient home to make a new window when a shower of gold and
silver coins fell out. Altogether there were 1010 pieces in gold, silver and
‘billon’ (a mixture of silver and copper). Dating from 1360 to 1485 and from
several parts of Europe, the collection fetched 350,000 euro when it is sold in
November. No wonder it is called le Trésor de Bazas!
Rise and rise of council tax
Two years ago (November 2003) Saga Magazine first revealed the rise
and rise of council tax – increasing at a rate that outstripped both the state
pension and the overall rise in prices. New figures show that this trend
continues. The biggest rise has been in Wales where the average tax has risen by
186% from £276 when it began in 1993/94 to £790 this year. In Scotland the tax
has more than doubled from £461 to £925. And in England it has shot up even more
from £456 to £1009.
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The new analysis of the figures by Halifax bank shows that how much tax you pay is a postcode lottery. The average ranges from £1549 in the London Borough of Richmond down to £571 in Wandsworth. Outside London, Newport, Pembrokeshire, Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent in Wales and Scotland’s Western Isles all have an average tax per dwelling of under £700. While people in Tandridge, Surrey Heath, South Bucks, Elmbridge and Chiltern, all in the south east of England pay more than double that, over £1400 a year.
Council tax has risen far more than prices – by either official measure – and far more than the state pension. That has risen from £56.10 a week in 1993/94 to £82.05 this year, an increase of 46%. Prices have risen by either 36% on the old RPI which includes housing or 22% using the Government’s preferred CPI which excludes housing.
Next year’s figures will be announced in the Spring. The latest predictions are that the tax will rise in England by at least 7%, nearly three times the inflation rate, and by up to 10% in some areas. Last year Gordon Brown announced an extra £1 billion to keep the rise down. But that was just before the Election and no-one is betting he will do the same again.
Live longer, work longer
The Government head Actuary has at last admitted there may be no end to the
lengthening of human life. Every time these number crunchers look at how long
we’re going to live they admit they have been wrong in the past and increase the
age at which they expect us to die. But now they have stopped assuming the
process will come to an end. In other words there is no biological upper limit
to our life span. The latest figures from the life insurance industry suggest
that someone aged 60 today has thirty years of life left. The Government Actuary
hopes the new approach will help the folk who pay our pensions make sure they
have enough money.
The longer we live the further our retirement savings have to stretch. Already more than a million people are working past pension age. One of Britain’s biggest life assurance companies Prudential reckons that number will more than double to 2.5 million over the next few years. But older people wanting to work still face a struggle. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that nearly one in four personnel officers and managers admitted discriminating against potential employees on grounds of age. Another recent survey found that more than a fifth of employers were perceived by their staff as having a culture that did not support older workers, one in six complained about lack of part-time opportunities and one in eight said there were simply no openings for older people. Next October new laws begin which mean it will be illegal to discriminate against people on grounds of age, although companies will still be able to fix a retirement age of at least 65. This research suggests employers have a lot to do in the next few months.
Insurance DOC’d
Norwich Union, Britain’s biggest car insurer, is taking away valuable cover
for drivers with comprehensive insurance which allows them to drive anyone
else’s car and still be insured. The extra insurance cover is called Driving
Other Cars or DOC and is valuable if you have to jump behind the wheel when a
relative or friend is ill or unfit to drive or when your own car breaks down and
you just have to get somewhere. The change follows a recommendation in a
Government report which said that insurance which allowed people to drive any
vehicle would have to be ended. Insurance experts claim that DOC allows people
to insure one cheap car but drive another owned by someone else that might not
even be insured at all. However, many insurers are resisting this change. Saga
Insurance says that it has no immediate plans to get rid of DOC as the over-50s
are much less like to be driving uninsured.
December 2005