Sweet EBAY.. oh how I love thee....

back in the early 90's when I was a Store Manager for Pottery Barn, they carried a product called Hotel Silver Flatware. Basically it was vintage flatware that was recycled by PB, re-silvered and sold by the piece, I believe around $5 per piece and the result was an eclectic mix of mix and match flatware, very shabby chic.. I loved the flatware but at the time I really wasn't shabby or chic so I passed on the opportunity to purchase it and yes passed on the 40% discount. Later when I realized I really was a bit shabby chic I went looking for this flatware only to discover that PB had discontinued it. PB now carries a similar item called Madison Flatware, selling for $95 per 5 piece place setting, but the catch is, while each piece of the 5 place setting is a different pattern, all of the place settings are the same 5 patterns. Well that and the $95 price tag. So I went searching.. and found exactly what I was looking for on EBAY. I found an auction lot of 150 pieces of vintage silver flatware, I won this auction for $75.02 + shipping so I got 150 pieces of flatware for less that 1 place setting of Madison. My box arrived today and I could not be happier... in this box of mis matched silver flatware was enough pieces to put together over 15 place settings (with a few serving pieces and left overs too) with each place setting being entirely unique and different from the others. I can't wait to dip this stuff in some silver polish and put it to use...