Worst Sites For Researching the Values of Your Antiques
Information and choice can be good things … unless you have too much. Then, knowledge can become a curse. This is especially true in the world of antiques. When you’re trying to figure out the value of your family antiques, art, and jewelry, the internet is full of valuable information — and even more full of facts that are irrelevant and misleading. Is the value of your Chinese vase the $50.00 you see on one site, or the $500.00 you see on another? Understanding what sites to avoid is the key to getting the right answer, and it is why the information in this article is so critical.
Retail Sites
The very first place most people check when starting their antique research is, of course, Google or a similar search engine. Google’s results then list specific sites that have prices associated with items that are either identical or similar to the antiques in question.
Most of the time, the top-ranked sites on such a Google search are retailers: the sites of companies that sell antiques, jewelry, or art to the general public.
The prices appearing on retail sites can be very high. This is because they include the price that the retailer itself paid for the antique, plus markup and costs associated with selling the item. The retail sites will not show you what the antique actually sold for — or if it sold at all. In other words, comparing the price a retailer paid for the antique vs. the pricing for the general public is like comparing wholesale and in-store pricing of the same item. Confusing the two price points can lead to a false idea of what you will actually receive when selling your family heirlooms.
Two Examples
The retail site that I hear about the most is 1stDibs, an e-marketplace specializing in antiques, jewelry and other luxury goods. This site has an amazing number of items for sale and describes the antiques in it with great specificity. In addition, 1stdibs.com vets its marketplace vendors very well. They include many top-shelf galleries and retail stores with high operating costs and reputations that allow them to charge the public a hefty amount for anything they sell.
1stdibs.com is known for catering to decorators and designers. They also may offer discounts to loyal customers. In addition, they take a commission off the selling price. Finally, many items sit unsold on 1stdibs.com for years before the company decides to lower the price, or gets lucky and sells the item. In other words, the prices on 1stdibs.com are often, compared to what an antique specialist may offer you, inflated.
The second site that people often see when researching is Etsy. This site used to be known for hand-crafted original items. The platform did so well with people selling unique craftwork that they started offering vintage and antique items, too. This is why it will rank highly when you begin your own antique research.
On Etsy, the retailers include everyone from mom-and-pop type stores to high-end art dealers. The site operates something like eBay, only without the auction. Retailers can list antiques for any price they want — without consideration of the items’ actual value. In addition, many retailers on Etsy have their own stores with regular clients who pay extra because they trust them as a reliable resource. These sellers will put antiques up for sale at high numbers, and, if they don’t sell, gradually lower them. Prices listed by these merchants almost always include both the price paid to the person who originally sold the antique to the retailer and a markup. Therefore, as with 1stdibs.com, the prices you will see will not likely reflect what you can actually command when placing your antiques on the resale market.
These are just two of the many retail sites that you may encounter when researching the value of your antiques. Many other sites will also show up. It is important to remember that, in most cases, any site looking to sell an item is not where you should look to find out what yours is worth.
How Much Can the Difference Be?
If you’re asking how big the difference between retail price and what you can expect to receive from an antique specialist can be, the answer is simple: a lot. This is because the value of any item can significantly fluctuate, even in a short period of time, and the antique specialist can never actually guarantee that an item will actually sell after he’s purchased it from you. Thus, the resale value of any antique is often substantially lower than what a retailer may attempt (often unsuccessfully) to sell it for.
As an example, I once went to the apartment of a client whose collectibles included Lalique glass and some sterling flatware. She had researched the value of these items using retail sites similar to the ones listed above, and placed post-it notes on them, showing the average retail prices. The large Lalique vase had an average retail price of $3,000.00. However, its actual resale value was $700.00. The flatware’s retail price was, on average, around $6,000.00. Its value on the pre-retail resale market was, in contrast, $2,000.00.
One Big Exception
One exception to everything we’ve discussed so far is eBay. On eBay, you will see items being offered for sale and their asking price — but, if the item sold, you can also see its sold price. For this reason, when used properly, eBay is a great resource for researching the value of your items.
Important note: despite being a stronger research tool than other retail sites, researching antique value on eBay can still be confusing for a host of reasons unrelated to those discussed above. Please see the article Proper Ways to Research Using eBay for more information on how to properly check sold items.
