Hi again,

1) While in doghouse on my laptop (lol), I may have found a rug I like and which is also far below what in assumed I would have to give:

Link

2) I emailed re condition, seeing some knotheads in one of their images and re other issues. They responsed this was confined and then changed condition in the listing to "almost excellent" from Very Good.

3) Guy named Matt emailed me to call hi, if interested, we "could discuss price."

4) I just spoke to him. He said, I asked him to look at the whole underside...after checking and calling me back: no dry rot, no repairs, some abrash in center, some color run, he said, cause they wash these rugs (Wut? Color run from washing???), ends intact, around 85% pile remaining. He further said when I asked how many of these atypical versus the usual terrible red and blue Mashads they get in? He replied, "Around two in each container."

I asked what he would accept for it, cause I will never learn how to make an offer, it's tacky... He said $600.

I then told him briefly, was intuitively moved-- about the rugs I had grown up with, omitting the ghastly details of the one I kept & later hadda sell.., and he....wish I spoke Farci but his English is amazing----SAID: “Well, what you grew up with...those would go for around 5K, maybe 8K (as if I don know now)….a fine antique Sarouk (he said in refreshing candor which I so appreciated), most of the rugs on ebay are commercial and not in that class and compared to the rugs you grew up with, THIS is--- and this is verbatim,--"NOTHING."

I cherish those who keep it real.

I said I would call him Monday AM. .But after conversation, I guess it’s garbage.

Know I am not at all interested in getting a rug as an INVESTMENT. I simply want a rug I can really like, whose essence speaks to me on my level, and which doesn’t ERODE my happiness..

Jesus, don start getting all literate and erudite on me, Pro!!! Robert Frost had NO PERSIAN RUGS, ok? All his rugs were DOMESTIC.. I was a Lit major so I know this, OK? lol

Seriously.....this refreshingly candid Matt guy down there in NC.....when, on phone, he said, compared to the rugs I shared couple of basics about.....he said literally, "......this (this Mashad), is NOTHING."

On a scale of 1-10......can you hone in on "nothing"?

I mean, Krow SAID....he buys all manner of persians on eBay.....new, older, etc., is rarely disappointed, usually delighted---HUNDREDS OF RUGS.. THAT stuck with me, ESP when I came upon this Mashad. But doesn't everything?
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Edit: I cannot live in fear of off ostensible off topic; it is wh my Editors adore and what I do, all of life in its truth is free associative. So must now throw in.....Frost was clincically depressed a lot. Forget is wife and children. A genus, no doubt.....but his infamous "walls" and what makes for good neighbors must be seen in light of his unique personna and documented issues, personal angst.

I never experience anyone I encouuter as an adversary. This now inlcudes Matt in North Carolina. I think given all this, we ought move on to Tennyson, OK? He was not a loner and so, perhaps, had Persian rugs and no walls. heh.

I get yr point. but when the walls are not indigenous.....it is very, very hard to play the rug game. Or any manifestation of it in any arena.

But, if i get more feedback about this speciic Mashad from they who KNOW STUFf here, I will try to learn to do more than ask what would you accept for this rug?

I just never heard of color run resulting form a washing! I had mine washed....NOTHING RAN, ok? Everything just brightened and sprang to more life and perkiness.

Even if the newer dyes are Less Than.....aren't they at least indellible? What are they using of late in Iran... RIT???? I MEAN it.

I know from of late what my rug was really worth. Many lessons, sometimes the most pecious & profound... are painful, that is part of life. Next, Matt said on the phone, he would guess this Mashad had 85% of its original pile. I forgot to include that. If so, that would be good enough for me.

Next, the obvious impediment to my falling in love with a rug is my clear, accurate, retroactive vision of my former rug. Also part of this Journey. This also includes my working to come to peace with, I may not be able to afford ANY rug of the caliber of mine....of ANY GENRE. Surely not for 2K or under.

Next, re replacement value, the data U shared very interesting, also logical, but in the case of the Mitch Sarouk whIch I assume generated those references.....also moot. I saw the rug. And, after I posted a few pics, you yourself confirmed BALLPARK re what it would bring at a local auction.....and in this, local to Manhattan or the environs. You were right. It is wut it is.

I also see his Craigslist posting is still up and still at $2,500. So I guess this might qualify in what u shared re people someitmes take months and years.

Tho this level of denial.....more "not in this millennium" versus years.

Next, I do not fele I am inherently precluded form maybe someday, seeing something decent, no reserve on ebay and getting it at OK price. I raised the Krow phenomenon cause of his level of being delighted after hundreds of purchases. that was antithetical to what Matt said on the phone which I posted. but it is also true, that Krow SAID....NONE of the rugs he got---mainly to sell to his client base, I beleve, make a normal profit while also reaining honest as he said---were on the level of what one ,ight find at a Christie's auction.

Final question; how common is it for a hand knotted rug made in Iran even in the last 30 years to have color run because of washing????

A "signature" on a rug is not the same thing as a signature on a painting in that, certainly as far as I am aware, there is not a body of artists that one follows and knows like you would a Picaso so it';s not like people know these names and they would mean anything to anyone purchasing the rug. With the exception perhaps of Haji Jalili, but you are not going to see one of those on eBay. Aside from that, the signatures can and do mean many different things and a personal signature is not to be confused certainly with any other writing on a carpet originating in a Muslim country.

Wow....I maybe am not cut out for this stuff. I am maybe leeetle too trusting for this stuff altogether. I should find his first email in response to my questions. It din say nuting about not on ebay! I will find that and pastE it.
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Found one, but there was one before I need to hunt for:
Hi,
Thank you for your reply.
At your convenience please call me so we can talk about this rug.
Regards,
Matt
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Thank God, found the first one. this was in response to my initial questins about condition....I culd probably even find that one too, my initial one, but nobody said anything about not on ebay ( I don feel so good now):
:
Dear ariesjill,

Hi,
This rug is almosr in Excellent condition and has a very few low pile and that it is not much at all.The photos that we listed was from the knots ot the rug and were not worn areas at all.
If you wish to purchase this rug please call me at 704-248-4991 so we can talk about the price.
Regards,
Matt
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Thank God I am organized!!!!! Below is my first mail to them re the Mashad:
Dear queensrug,

Hi,

Can you pls tell me what percentage of the rug bears seriously low areas, if the wft is visible in any, and if the knotheads I see in one image are confined that that area?

Thanks much,
Jill

Ok as I recall....and I am pretty meticulous, in a response to a man who had gotten a rug with a signature.....he even posted an image of this, you enlightened him saying they usually meant little.

I learned from this. I also followed up as I always do on my own. Learned some signatures may indicate a circa, etc. I then learned that the signature n the Mashad in question simply referred to its design worked bakc to the famous and classic huge one in the V & A museum. I thought I wrote that here, no?

I never meant to imply that a signature on a rug was akin to a signature on the base of say a bradly and Hubbared lamp......or that which is etched around the collar of say a fine Quezal shade. NoR did I think you were either. I read yr post in hat thead wiht the same acuity I read everyting. Plus, I felt I learned!

And all of the above was in response to that this endor made a point of saing tis rug is signed and depicting that. I pray all 9of this is clear now.

I feel leeetle under assault right now, and that I ought find some bunker I might crawl into. Perhaps there might be a rug in there. (even under siege, I can find the funny. but NOT ALWAYS.)

Re the failure of communication, given I am sure yr tenure here far precedes mine, rugs are you passion AND YOUR BUSINESS.....and given I am only hunting for a single little rug, but then, OK, became emersed......You should stay.

Before I leave, I would like to locate one or two of the posts I was trying to honor you by alluding to.
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11th hour edit: the post in which I learned somethng about signatures....then, as always followed up and googled, not only addressed an individual signature which you observed and said, the onwer of the rug uploaded upsidedown.....wihtin his title he asked if signatures on rugs are important?

I came away with all of the above and remembered, even on some computer parts, the inspector of that mass prdouced initials! No doubt a policy of the (now always overseas) plant.

the signature is not from the ardebil rug, but rather the design is a rendition of the ardebil carpet