I am preparing a home for an estate sale and I'm finding lots of items that are vintage and/or collectibles. I'm having trouble finding values for these items. They range from angels, to suitcases, to cameras, to keys. I can't find anything like them on typical internet sites. How can I find their value without spending a fortune for appraisals?
By Sharon Lamoreaux from Neosho, MO
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Have you tried looking on ebay for similiar items? I get ideas on pricing from there.
Agree with the poster who mentioned Kovels as a good research source; the problem with Ruby Lane is that you're getting generally higher retail markup figures. In other words, you'll find a lot of items with bloated pricing. If you research through eBay, keep in mind that generally, things will sell on eBay for only about 33% of what they'd go for in a brick-and-mortar store.
Also resellers, eBayers and antique dealers usually flock to these estate sales looking for a deal; you don't want to overprice--but you certainly don't want to under price, either.
Google, Google, Google. It may be a pain if time is at a premium for you, but researching as much as you can in as many places online as you can will work in your favor.
Example: you have a doodad that your neighbor says looks very valuable; you search it and see it selling in various places for $50, $100, $45, $80. Average it out and price it just a couple of dollars over to take "haggling" into consideration.
The average price for the imaginary item above is $68.75. I'd price it for $80 and take $70 for it if someone wants to haggle. Hope this helps a little.
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