Poparm's Used Jewelry Emporium

For those of you who have never been privy (heh, heh, you know what I said) to Hick's business space, here's a view of the place where he spends Saturday and Sunday mornings peddling his wares.

Hick's Storage Unit Store is on the right, about 10 doors down. Not quite to the Port-A- Potties. The whole place is fenced around the perimeter, and this is where Hick is just driving through the gate, having punched in his code on a keypad.

You may recall that Hick found several rings in the 18 storage units whose contents he bought a while back. They're across town. That being about a mile away from this location, in the middle of town, by the baseball fields where Genius and The Pony were reluctant boys of summer.

These were the first two found rings. A lady who works at Hick's doctor's office offered him $30 for the pink/diamond alternating ring. He said he was getting it appraised, and he'd get back to her about it. She hasn't been working the last two weeks when Hick was at the doctor's office.

This is the ring Hick could never manage a clear picture of. And that's BEFORE he had the Poparm incident.

Hick likes this man's ring, and has said that he always wanted one like it (?). The other is on a thin 14K gold band, and Hick thinks it's a ruby. His story changes every now and then, about the gold.

The good thing about being Hick is that you know Jacks of all trades. Some, even masters of them! A couple of his auction buddies are used to dealing in jewelry. One had a "diamond tester" as Hick called it. Let the record show that both guys thought Hick's large man's ring was probably worth around $500-600. Not saying that he could actually get that much out of it, but that's what they thought it was worth.

Last Friday, Hick took the rings, in a little blue velvety drawstring bag in his pocket, to the auction. They gathered around while waiting for it to start, and tested Hick's rings. He said the large man's ring showed that it was a real gemstone, and that the tester almost went off the charts with the rectangular ruby. In fact, the other three rings had real gemstones, too, according to the tester. Which doesn't mean they're precious stones. Only that they're not glass, I think.

Monday, after his Poparm MRI was aborted, Hick took off to the city to have his rings looked at. He chose an establishment that was recommended to him by his dental hygienist, whose office was going out of business that day. Hick was their last patient. Not that it means anything. Only that Hick has some very unique dealings with folks. He was also part of a crime investigation many years ago, because he paid the dentist's office manager in cash for his teeth-cleaning, and she turned out to be an embezzler!

Anyhoo...this gold/jewelry-buying place seemed reputable. It had a website with 4.5 stars (out of 5), and a Facebook page with positive comments. When Hick called me after meeting with them, I could tell he was disappointed.

"They offered me $45 for the whole bunch. He said that big man's ring was junk. Not worth anything. I said, 'Even though it says 18 karat gold?' and he said, 'It's 18K GP. Gold Plated.' So I looked at it, and I DID miss the GP part. I told him I thought I'd just keep it. And he said that pink and diamond one the gal wanted for $30...he'd give me $1.93! The only one of those five worth anything was the ruby, which he didn't even test, and offered me $41 for it for the gold. So I just kept them all. I can sell them at my Storage Unit Store and get more than that out of them."

Yes. I'm sure he can.

Here's the thing. You know those people are in business to make money. They wouldn't be doing it if they were just forking out money to do people a favor and take their old rings. Surely they're legit, or there would be complaints about them all over the internet. But...they see ol' Poparm walk in there with his scraggly beard, and take a bag of rings out of his jeans pocket, and they probably think, "Here's a guy who doesn't have any idea what these rings are worth." I'm not saying they were taking advantage of him. I'm saying MAYBE those rings are worth a little more than $45. People buy costume jewelry all the time, you know.

I suggested that Hick take them somewhere else, along with my wedding ring (with a KNOWN diamond), and one of my other rings, which has a cubic zirconium. See what they say about the whole lot of them then. DON'T actually sell mine! Just see if they tell him the right stuff about what's real and what's not. Just as a test, you know.

Hick might do that, or he might sell the rings at his Storage Unit Store. I'm just curious to see how another gold/jewelry-buying business might rate them.

It's not a big deal. Hick's real fortune seems to be in Tupperware. A story I may or may not get around to.