Love Jewelry Shopping? Watch For This Egg-Cellent Investment Opportunity, And Scramble If You Find It!
Do you love jewelry? Do you not consider yourself a collector, but still spend plenty of time browsing jewelry shops and occasionally splurging on pieces that really strike your eye? If so, why not try and make yourself a millionaire by learning to watch for pieces from the lost Imperial treasure collection.
What Are These Imperial Treasures?
Between the years of 1885 and 1917, the Emperor of Russia and his son commissioned the top Russian jeweler of the time to create the most marvelous gifts for their mothers and wives. The bestowals came in the form of eggs, each intricately decorated with a bounty of fine gems and precious metals, and each carrying some sort of surprise inside.
The surprises ranged from strutting golden peacocks, to emerald pendants, pearls, clocks, and framed photos. While most of the 50 eggs that were created sit on locked shelves in museums and private collection galleries, there are still 7 eggs and 11 surprises that remain unaccounted for.
Where Should You Look For The Missing Eggs?
When Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized Russia in 1917, they raided the royal palaces, at which time some of the eggs were thought to be stolen by the members of the Bolshevik party. The remaining eggs were locked away in storage and forgotten about until Stalin came into rule and did some armory spring-cleaning in an effort to trade some military-seized clutter for foreign funds.
From there, some of the eggs made it to America, where yet more were lost before their true value was realized and efforts were made by private collectors to acquire what was left of this rich piece of Russian history and keep it safe from further plunder.
The most recently re-discovered lost egg was found at a bric-a-brac store in 2014 by a scrap dealer in Midwest America. The scrap dealer paid $14,000 for the egg, expecting that he could make around $500 by plucking out the gems and selling them individually and melting the precious metals down. After doing some research, though, he discovered that keeping the piece in tact would be far more profitable -- he sold the egg in its entirety to a private collector for roughly $35 million.
There's no telling where the remaining missing eggs might turn up, but antique jewelry shops are certainly a safe place to scout for them. If one of these treasures falls into the hands of somebody who is uninformed of its past, a jewelry shop is going to be the first place they stop to have the value of the gems and metals assessed. And if the jewelry shop they consult hasn't done their own research, they might mark up the price of the egg to make a profit, but that price likely won't come close to what you can net for the egg's historical value.
What Should You Do If You Find One?
If you happen across one of the mysterious, lost eggs at a jewelry shop, it's time to scramble. You've got to pull all the strings you can in an effort to obtain the find, and you have to do so without letting on to the true value of the piece. Unless the jewelry shop has the egg marked at several million dollars, you're going to make a profit when it comes time to resell it.
If you don't have the funds readily available, ask the jewelry shop if they offer collateral loans. A private loan from a bank would likely take more time to process, during which you could lose your big chance to score the Imperial egg. Furthermore, you often have to disclose what you want the money for when applying for a private loan; your secret would get out, and there's a chance somebody would try to beat you to the purchase.
With a collateral loan, you could work directly with the jewelry store. They won't question why you want the loan so badly; they'll just have you sign an agreement stating that you promise to hand over whatever assets you've used as collateral should you not pay for your lovely jeweled egg in a timely manner. For more information on loans, contact a business such as Sol's Jewelry & Loan.
If you frequent jewelry shops, you could miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime if you aren't watching for the lost Imperial eggs. These fine gemstone and precious metal pieces of art are super rare, immensely valuable, and possibly hiding on the shelf of a jewelry store near you.
