Where to find values of antiques

Other times the person who owns the piece shown in a book dictates the price quoted. Values also vary from coast to coast and from rural to urban areas, so where values are obtained also makes a vast difference. Antiques dealers usually have overhead to consider and they may have to hang on to an item for years until they find the right buyer willing to pay top dollar. The upside is that you can turn your wares into cash more rapidly selling to a dealer. To get the most for an antique or collectible, selling directly to the secondary market consumer in an offline venue is usually the most lucrative method.

There are exceptions, however. Remember that researching the best way to sell your items will be one last step in determining their ultimate value. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. This can be as simple as a famous former owner the market for entertainment memorabilia amply demonstrates the added value of celebrity or an association with a famous country house, institution or historical event.

But provenance can be more subtle: the comfort in the knowledge that an object was once owned by a well-known collector or authority on a particular subject or a history that provides an insurance policy against recent fakes.

Most simply, objects that are fresh to the market from a private rather than a trade source are typically more desirable than those that have been 'seen'. In the case of antiquities, which are subject to cultural heritage laws, a failure to provide a provenance can be problematic.

There is always security in knowing when and where an object was dug up or entered into the stream of commerce. In short, the more you know about the background and history of a piece, the more attractive it becomes. Knowing the name of who or where a work of art was made is always beneficial.

This can be as simple as the name of a town on a clock face that enhances its appeal to local residents or the mark to a piece of porcelain denoting it as the product of a particular factory. In some fields, such as furniture, ceramics or metalwork, many items are destined to remain anonymous, so a signature, maker's name or mark will help distinguish it from the norm.

Typically, the market responds positively to new research that helps group previously anonymous objects: the price increases that occasioned the excavations at some of the smaller English 18th century porcelain factories are a case in point. Names are particularly important in the decorative arts market where the work of a specific designer or factory is collectable.

The terminology used by auctioneers and dealers is often specific: the phrase 'attributed to Christopher Dresser' is typically a much less confident declaration than the description 'by Christopher Dresser'. Tastes for art and antiques change just as they do in everything else.

If you have a specific piece that you're looking to find some pricing information on, you can check with other websites that provide realized sales listings or professional appraisals. Find the market value of your old books by checking several places online.

The Smithsonian Libraries do not offer price guides, but they do have an excellent resource for helping you to identify your books, which goes hand in hand with assigning a value. Collectiblend has hundreds of antique, vintage, and classic cameras in its database. Many have images along with the excellent descriptions and prices.

The cameras are listed by the manufacturer but many of the prices are in Euros, so you'll need a calculator in some cases. Find out what your beautifully colored carnival glass is going for by checking these websites:. There are no one-stop free pricing guides for this large area of collecting, but you can limit your search in several ways. Happy Heidi is a site that specializes in vintage Fiestaware.

The prices listed are for items in mint condition, without cracks, chips, or other flaws. There are images as well as prices listed for the pieces in various colors.

Royal Albert Patterns is a go-to for those who love English china by this company. Check out the patterns, then link to past sales at other auction sites. It's a bit of a backdoor to realized prices, but the trip is worth it. Costume jewelry is big business, with hundreds of dealers and appraisers.

While there are many websites that feature glittery, glamorous jewelry from the past, many of them charge for price lists or refer you to pricing guides for purchase. Still, you can locate prices through eBay look under the "Sold" listings , or check out auction lists for realized prices. The following will also help:. There are several websites that offer doll values both realized and retail prices , along with lots of information about the history of dolls:.

Doll Reference is a comprehensive website that you can use to learn more about the type of doll you own. This is a huge area of collecting and there are many sites which list furniture prices so your best bet is to search for specific styles, materials oak or maple, for example and date of manufacture. Use the general databases listed above, but a few others to try include:.

If you collect lady head vases , then Just Collectibles is helpful. It has an excellent price guide, as well as parts to restore your radio to working condition. Radios are organized by name, and the webmaster says that these prices are based on his knowledge and opinion, but it's a good place to start your search.

While it's not a pricing page, Phil's Old Radios has excellent information about establishing values for your items. Early rock and roll records and associated memorabilia have dedicated fans who collect favorite groups. Prices range from a few dollars to hundreds of thousands and prices can change overnight , but here are some places to get you started:.

Roycroft Copper has listings of many Roycroft items in the Arts and Crafts styles from lamps to bowls. Each listing contains images, descriptions and how much the item sold for at auction. The site also has a number of helpful resources for the collector such as How to Spot Fakes and Markings. If you own an old violin or other stringed instruments, you can discover the value with this stringed instrument price guide online. It is very user-friendly with categories and an alphabetical list of makers.

You will need to know a little about your instrument before using this guide. Those included are the violin , viola, bows, cello, and double bass. Named after President Teddy Roosevelt, the teddy bear is still a favorite among children and collectors.

Some of the most valuable bears were manufactured by Steiff, and you can find values for their bears and other stuffed toys at Steiff Values. Listings include size, year made, material and high and low values.

While free price guides for vintage clothing are unavailable, you can search shops that carry the clothes you seek to get an estimate of what they are priced or valued. Online pricing is a quickly changing area of the internet, with some sites completely free, others offering some free information, while still others require a membership fee.

But by spending some time online, you can take advantage of the free collecting guides and respected retailers to help you identify and value your antiques and collectibles. All Types of Antiques A good guide will explain how it calculated the values, and it will be as recent as possible check to see when the website was last updated. Kovels Kovels has maintained up-to-date antiques pricing guides since Additional Websites for Pricing Information While not price guides, an online free valuation is useful.

Search at Antiques Roadshow.