 | Jerry McAlpin
is President and owner of Annie's Antique Mall located at 1600 E. 61st Street North (61st street & Hydraulic) in Park City, Kansas. Annie's is the area's oldest mall, and is known by antique dealers and collectors nationwide for it's consistent high quality and selection. A dealer and avid collector, Jerry has been involved in antiques for 30 years. He can be reached by phone at Annie's Antique Mall (316)-744-1999. |
Antiques & Collectibles
2002-11-01 14:20:00
True value of antiques
Jerry McAlpin
QUESITON: How does one determine the true value of an antique?
ANSWER: Ask this question 10 times and you'll get 10 different answers. Most antique dealers or collectors can help you out on common items, but for rare or unusual items it gets tough. The easiest way to find out if you really have something of value is a reference book. These can be available at the library or purchased at any large bookstore. The only problem here is you have to know where to look. If you don't have any idea what it is you really have, this won't help much. There are professional appraisers for antiques, but they charge a fee depending on how many items you have and how much research you want done. In my experience they usually are on the high side as far as value-keep in mind they are considering timely replacement value, for the courts or insurance purposes. Remember, if you're selling to a dealer, they are buying to resell at a profit, so don't expect to get retail prices. If you are fortunate enough to have something that one of the big auction houses such as Sotheby's or Christie's is selling, you can obtain a "prices realized" list for any particular auction. These auction houses will sometimes give an appraisal of an item if you intend to sell it through them. You will have to provide pictures and a detailed description of the item, and they usually won't handle anything they feel is worth less than 2-3 thousand dollars. Local auctions tend to be driven more by the crowd, location, advertising and "auction fever," a phenomenon that occurs when people turn it into a contest rather than an auction. I've been to many auctions and seen things sell for two or three times what they are priced at my store! In my opinion the best indicator of the value of an antique is on one of the Internet auction sites. These are not driven by geography or a mob, and usually whatever you might have is either there or has been on recently. Once and awhile something slips through, but in general it's a pretty good indicator of the retail value of your item.
