> the William Tell overture, perhaps??

Heheh... I wish I could say I was like Einstein and listened a lot to Mozart while I was working (Einstein was apparently a big fan of Mozart's compositions) -- it would make me seem more cultured.... Or any kind of classical music, like Rossini's William Tell Overture (one of my favorite pieces, by the way).... :)

But, actually, I happen to really like working to rock'n'roll.... :) (Except when I'm writing....)

> I like that idea, Dien; strange thing, tho -
> when I really enjoy the music, I find myself
> listening to it and sometimes all work stops
> completely!!

Yes, this is a danger! :)

> Have you made any inroads into the jewelry
> market?

Margaret, I don't think the "opportunity" I thought I might have spotted was a real opportunity at all, unfortunately....

One discrepancy I noticed was how "expensive" jewelry was selling for well below (like about 25%) of its "appraised" value. For example, you can notice this a lot at online auctions -- they will often give the "appraised" value, and the value it finally sells for is often around 25% or less of the appraised value....

Then I realized that this was also the same in various second-hand stores....

My original thought was that maybe I could buy these, and resell them through proper auction-houses which specialize in auctioning high-priced jewelry to try to get something closer to the "appraised" value. Well, this might still be an opportunity, I didn't investigate it further....

It made me think twice that it seemed so common that the "retail" value of jewelry through certain channels was consistently about 25% of the "appraised" value. I guess I thought there might be a reason for it.... What do you think, Margaret? Do you know much about this?

So I've been focusing on other things lately, but I've found I really enjoy the whole process of buying and selling, though I still haven't done it with jewelry yet.... :)

- Dien