Posted 5 years ago
Parrotbeak
(39 items)
One of my favorite collections: silver plain semi-bypass bangles. Though to be fair, one of them is gold plate; it was supposed to be all silver, but I hadn't seen this model in gold plate before and at that time having just bought the square one I decided another different one would fit in well. My aim is to collect as many as I can fit around my wrists and wear them all at once. I have eleven by now; almost enough. Some are 925, some are 835. Half have a maker's mark, which in most cases is F*G.
The first one I bought was at the average reseller price of 10 euros. That's way more than I'm normally willing to spend, but the bangle had been in that thrift store for ages, all of the more decorative pieces of the lot it came in with having been sold months ago. I sort of felt pity for it. Plus, that particular thrift store had been the source of several of my best pieces (and would be the source of more) and its profits go to an organization that does good work, so I made an exception for the bangle. I got the impression the staff was happy it sold.
Since then, maybe because I've since kept an eye out, I've regularly come across these bangles. They're almost always silver and almost always go for 50 cents or 1 euro because of how plain they are (I've had sellers that weren't even trying to hide their surprise someone wanted such a bangle). I've only seen four that weren't silver; one my gold-plate one, one I've been wondering if it was silver after all, and two that on top of being unmarked had the wrong color and way too long tongues. You'd have to damage the bangles to get them on or off. Aside from the 10 euros bangle, I've paid 3.50 euros for one once, also above my budget, but it was a new thrift store in my town that already had gotten me some good stuff - establishing myself as a good customer was worth the extra. And the last I paid more for was one of my two thicker bangles (the one with more tarnish): 2.00 euros. On average, I'll have spent less than 2 euros a piece.