Antiques Roadshow Appraisal Goes High, Jade Goes For Much Less

If you watched PBS' Antiques Roadshow last night, you saw one of the biggest appraisals in the show's history. But her attempt to sell them in the "real world" came in far below expectations.

The story: a woman from North Carolina brings in jade objects that her father brought home from China after World War II. The woman wasn't sure how much they were worth, but the appraiser gives her the "wait for it" high mark of between $710,000 to $1.07 million.

Nervous laughter and stunned silence. But it turns out that her imperial bowl and other items weren't as exciting to prospective bidders as they were to the appraiser, selling for a relatively unimpressive $494,615 when the nice lady brought them to Skinner's in October.

Yikes.

The sale’s top lot, a Qianlong period bowl with Imperial marks, sold to a phone bidder for $303,000. It was estimated on the Roadshow and for the Skinner catalog at $400,000/600,000.

Still the consignor and her brother did well, bringing in other items they found after the appraisal and putting them up for auction - netting around $850,000 when all was said and done.