I’d gotten to that Red-Star table by positioning myself early and ugly in that regard. As a Master Gemologist Appraiser—one of 41 in the U.S.—I understood the physics and optics of gemstones as well as any in the South Hampton Roads Area, and what constituted value in a gemstone. I’d apprehended early what true...
Author Archives: david
An Offer No REasonable Man Could Refuse
It was an ordinary business lunch at an ordinary restaurant in the Town Center in Virginia Beach, mid-August 2006. For me, it was the closest a man gets to walking on air while eating a BBQ pork sandwich and onion rings at a Red-Star Tavern.
Wachovia, in the form of a loan officer named Tom Mitchell,...
A Titanic Appraisal
I had a pretty interesting appraisal on an old stainless steel pocket watch, circa dates 1910 from the movement serial number. It looked like a workman’s watch. The story made it all the more intriguing. It was given to a young baby who was separated from his mother, on a lifeboat from the Titanic. The...
How I Became a Toxic Asset and Survived!
My story was a harbinger of the destruction of the American capital system as it’s been known since the Reform Acts of 1933. Local and trade magazines have profiled my overnight descent from pillar of the community to toxic asset when the banking crisis imploded last year.
I owned a fast-grown chain of high-end jewelry shops...
Healing in many forms
Triumph over Adversity was the name of the Virginia Business Magazine article in which I was named “Virginia Success Story” in 2006. Just two years later we were forced to shut down all seven stores when Wachovia retroactively called our notes in default. We were current in April when they called them, and we began...
Getting Caught by the Virus- not H1N1!
I got a Face Book message this morning from a friend from church which was quickly followed by a friend from Oklahoma. Both referenced a photo/movie clip of me and I got curious about something out there in cyber space being posted of me. Maybe I’m paranoid but I wanted to track it down. Well,...