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Total Newbie in Baku Azerbaijan. HELP!!
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brainrokker Offline
#1 Posted : Monday, July 29, 2013 10:31:41 AM(UTC)
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Ok, so a bit of background on me : I am a floor guy. I know a bit about carpet manufacture and what makes for a quality carpet. I mostly work in commercial flooring, but have some contacts in the residential design and art community in my home city. I am NOT, however, a rug guy. I really know nothing of these carpets other than, to my less than expert eye, they seem quite well constructed and beautiful.

Right now, I am in Baku, AZ (as the title of the post states :) and I am considering picking up a few rugs to sell in a gallery at home. I have made a contact here and I think he is offering me rugs at a price that, while not quite wholesale, is much lower than retail. I am coming here, because it seems that the members of this forum are much more educated on this than I am, and I would love to get some input.

These carpets are a selection of Shirvan, Kazak, Kuba, Nagorno-Karabakh and Sumakh. They are mostly in the 1x2 meter size range, with the exception of the first (Shirvan) carpet which is roughly 2x3 and the one Sumakh runner which is 80x300. These carpets are all Soviet era. I am looking at a total investment of around $6000 including shipping and customs duties.

Am I completely stupid. If so, PLEASE save me 6large.

Thanks for your help!

tl;dr Help me, I'm stupid. Are these carpets worth anything?

https://drive.google.com...zbG1PUlE&usp=sharing
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Little-Persia Offline
#2 Posted : Friday, August 2, 2013 5:51:37 AM(UTC)
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The only images are of the Shirwan, which is modern Afghan production. Nice enough rug and quality but how many rugs are there? $6000 is a lot to be spending on rugs if you're not shure however you'd probably be expecting to pay between $700-$1000 for a 6m2 Sherwan at source these days so maybe it's not bad.
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brainrokker on 8/2/2013(UTC)
brainrokker Offline
#3 Posted : Friday, August 2, 2013 7:20:21 AM(UTC)
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Yeah, I pulled the plug on purchasing more than one rug. I actually did purchase this carpet from a shop here in Baku, but I was assured that it was local production (Carpet sellers lie, right?)

How can you be certain of the origin? I'm not doubting you, just curious.
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Little-Persia Offline
#4 Posted : Friday, August 2, 2013 7:29:08 AM(UTC)
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brainrokker wrote:
Yeah, I pulled the plug on purchasing more than one rug. I actually did purchase this carpet from a shop here in Baku, but I was assured that it was local production (Carpet sellers lie, right?)

How can you be certain of the origin? I'm not doubting you, just curious.


We import them from Afghanistan/Pakistan and buy them from London; basically a new implementation of a 'Sherwan' is the top quality of the Kazak rugs using different wool and finer knotting. I can't say for sure where it was knotted as it could be made anywhere but I'm not familiar with many rugs still being produced in the Caucasus'. These rugs are commercially produced in their droves due to their popularity, this doesn't make it bad it's just the popularity of the Kazak/Sherwan, Khal Mohammadi and Chobi/Ziegler rugs in Afghanistan mean they are produced in great numbers.

How much did you pay for it?
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brainrokker on 8/2/2013(UTC)
brainrokker Offline
#5 Posted : Friday, August 2, 2013 7:41:47 AM(UTC)
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Yeah, I really do think that it is a high quality carpet. I also think that it was hand knotted. The salesman here assured me that it came from Kuba, but I suppose that unless I was there when it was being made, there is no way to know for sure?

I paid $765 including shipping to US (that was expensive - $23 per kilo) and certificate from the Azerbaijani carpet museum which is mandatory for shipping. I would have just brought it back with me, but I'm traveling for another six months. Carpet measures 179x121. I am pretty happy with the purchase.
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Little-Persia Offline
#6 Posted : Friday, August 2, 2013 8:35:24 AM(UTC)
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brainrokker wrote:
Yeah, I really do think that it is a high quality carpet. I also think that it was hand knotted. The salesman here assured me that it came from Kuba, but I suppose that unless I was there when it was being made, there is no way to know for sure?

I paid $765 including shipping to US (that was expensive - $23 per kilo) and certificate from the Azerbaijani carpet museum which is mandatory for shipping. I would have just brought it back with me, but I'm traveling for another six months. Carpet measures 179x121. I am pretty happy with the purchase.


Thought you said it was 2x3?

That shipping is very high per kg but for a small shipment it's probably not a killer (probably around 8kg?) So say around about $175 for shipping (hopefully you don't get charged duty and tax!) that's $590 for the rug.

As a one off private buy you've probably done not bad compared to retail back home but he'll have made good money too.
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brainrokker on 8/9/2013(UTC)
brainrokker Offline
#7 Posted : Friday, August 9, 2013 1:46:00 PM(UTC)
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Cool, thanks for your replies!
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