How much can I expect when selling my antiques?

Here is is the seventh part of my guide to selling your antiques and collectables : How much can I expect to get?

The value of a piece is not fixed but there are a few guidelines to help you find out what it is worth  but as I often hear antiques dealers say : ” it is worth whatever you can sell it for”.  As an individual you are far less likely to gain the full market value of a piece unless you have something really special or you get very lucky.

Here is a rough rule of thumb as to what an antique dealer will pay:

 Lets say that your precious antique vase has an approximate value of £90 to £110 , that is the value an antique dealer is likely to be able to obtain for it on the open market.   How much would you expect the dealer to pay you for this vase. £60,£70 or £80?  Here’s how many will work out what they will pay. But do bear in mind not all antiques dealers work like this and the percentages for higher value items can be quite different.

I am going to try and buy that vase for £50 or £60 but may pay a bit more if I really like it and think it will look good in my antiques shop. Do you think thats too little?

I pay £60 with an aim of selling for £100. This gives £4o from which I am going to have to pay about £12 in various fees and costs: eBay fees, shop rent , antique fair fees, Credit card or paypal fees and more. I am now left with £28 this is of course subject to tax of perhaps £8 or £9 leaving a bit over £20.

 

So is £20 a fair profit considering all the work involved?

A note on “Book Value”.

Do you buy antique price guides that give a book value on items? Here is a word of warning, dealers like myself can often only get half what an item is valued at in a book. So if the item guide price is £60 to £80 the guide price is £70 and a dealer may well be only able to sell for half of that. So next time you are offered £20 for you item valued at £60 to £80 in a book you now know why.