Antique Appraisal vs. Purchase Offer
True Story: Purchase Offer NOT Appraisal
Is 10% Fair?
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True Story:
Purchase Offer NOT Appraisal
Most of us don't like to hear the same thing over and over again. Yet, I discovered while teaching art history at Yale,
SUNY, and Penn State that repetition aids learning. The repetition allows the information to remain in your mind, like it or not. That said, let me recount what I say repeatedly about antiques: "You have the Stuff!" You have valuable items right in your home and most of you don't believe they you have anything of value.
For example, I'll share one of the many stories I hear when
conducting my "What's it Worth?"
events or yard sale visits.
During one of my yard sale visits, I met Sally (name changed to protect identity) who asked me to appraise an old toy.
Sally held a 15 inches tall, mint condition, mechanical toy robot named Mr. Mercury sporting a plastic remote control battery pack.
Sally told me how an antique dealer had been hounding her to sell it, "The first day, he sat in my house with my own father, for an hour, trying to give me $100 for it saying that was a fair price." Sally continued, "Returning the next day, the dealer offered me $450. But, I wouldn't sell." Sally was very wise to keep her robot. I researched and appraised it, based on actual sales records, between $4,500 and $8,000.
Is 10% Fair?
The antique dealer's $450 second offer was about 10% of the actual sales price. If she had sold, Sally would have lost 90% of the toy's actual value or $4,050. The "fair" dealer would have made a 90% profit. The 10% offer was no surprise to me since folks from
all over come to my appraisal events recounting the same story where people offered next to nothing for an antique and they said, "you can't get that much for it" or "that's a fair price".
You should think twice when you hear that "you can't get that much for it" because after comparing, I found sellers who did get that much for it! I researched current market values for similar 1950s remote control toy robots. The actual sales records for related models reflected prices much higher than a mere $450 as in March of 2000, a Sonic toy robot sold for $11,500 and in June 2003, a Machine Man toy robot sold for $14,000.
The Lesson: You may think that an antique dealer is giving you a fair price, but how do you know what is fair when you don't know the actual value of the item in the first place? Get the value first, then decide if you want to sell or not. Remember, "You have the Stuff!" and when it comes to selling antiques, 10% of the true value is anything but fair.
Dr. Lori
Director
Masterpiece Technologies Inc.
