Well , luxetveritas , the story goes like this :
The person who was selling the estate was doing it solo & didn'y know the values of the antiques . People who showed up at the sale had only been interested in mostly 'new' stuff (except me) . He was asking pretty much give-away prices for everything ... we talked for awhile & I convinced him to show me everything antique he'd listed for sale .... I suggested/recommended prices for EVERYTHING .
I contacted friends & customers & sent them his way , resulting in quite a few thousand dollars more in his pocket that he'd even hoped for .
I also 'sold' a number of items for him , while at the sale , for 5x-50x what he'd priced them at .
I had began negotiating for the teapot on the first day of the sale , and the seller kept his word about holding it for me , until we were through negotiating for it .
I would visit him @ the sale about every other day (sale went on for 5 days) and continued bantering/assisting him (bought several things too) .
On the last day , I finally asked him what the lowest price that he'd be willing to take (and be 'comfortable') for the tea pot .
He stated a price & I told him that I was not comfortable with it and then offered 20% more . He laughed , we shook hands & that was that .
Let's just say that I bought this at 'below wholesale' , and did so due to 'other considerations' .