** Please note, I do not buy or sell china. I sold my own china to Replacements. Read below!
Do you know how many times we’ve used our china in 10 years of marriage?
00.00000 times.
My china.
It can’t go into the dishwasher. I suppose we could have used it when we were childless and had time to hand-wash the stuff. But in our first four years of marriage, we moved a lot. So we never pulled it out of the box.
Then we had two children, 19 months apart. (Oopsies.) And we definitely did not have time to hand-wash anything, let alone host a fancy dinner party with our china. (Now, that our kids are a little older, we have people over, but it’s always VERY casual.)
A client recently told me she hated her china and wanted to get rid of it, but was unsure about doing so. I told her, “Your china is not your marriage. If you get rid of it, you are not getting rid of your marriage. It’s just china.”
I said this. I heard it coming out of my mouth. But it did not register with me until recently.
Heal thyself, right? So I called Replacements, Ltd., near Greensboro, NC. It’s a warehouse with 400,000 patterns of china, silver, crystal and collectibles for sale. They also buy china. You have to check if they are taking your pattern. Luckily, they were accepting mine, which is Noritake Aegean Sky. I made an appointment, boxed up my dishes and drove there. (You can also ship it.)
Boxed and ready to go!
Oh, hello, Replacements.
The seller consultants were lovely, and they quickly got to work assessing my china.
Here’s my china waiting for acceptance into Replacements.
While I waited, they let me walk around and take some photos of their perfectly organized china. Be still my OCD heart.
All lined up by color.
Sorted crystal. So beautiful.
I also checked out their showroom, which had beautiful silver and china. But only these two items caught my eye. Hello Barack and Michelle!
Yes, I wanted Michelle and Barack. I loved these figurines.
Alas, I only went home with my BIG check. They bought everything, except two bowls because they had them in stock.
I made $434.
That’s not bad for dishes that were just collecting dust.
So, if you don’t use your china, or your tastes have changed, why are keeping it?