Selling Antiques Guide – Should I really sell or is it worth keeping ?

Sell or keep these antiques?

Today’s installment on Selling your Antiques and Collectibles is the final part of my guide to selling your antiques. This examines if you should sell now or if it is worth keeping for the future. Reasons to hang on to or sell your antiques ( other than you love them) could include:

1. - financial investment
2. - Sentimental reasons
3. - Space considerations

1. Financial Investment – will my piece be worth more in the future or if I sell it now?

As the saying goes ” The value of your investment can go down as well as up” and this is certainly the case with antiques and collector items. Over the past few years there has been a fall in value in most older items. I believe this has largely been caused by the popularity of eBay. Wen an items sells for a high price it is rapidly followed by several others appearing on the site. Each subsequent one then sells at a slightly lower price than the first and the market is saturated. It is now relatively easy for a collector to obtain the piece he wants and this has forced prices down.

Will prices fall any lower? This is a difficult judgment call at the moment. With the credit crunch people are wanting to sell of their collections to make ends meet and there is less money around to buy.  BUT, the value of the pound has fallen sharply on the international markets. Our antiques and collectibles are now much much cheaper for overseas buyers. I personally have seen a large increase in sales into Europe and the USA. I have also noticed more Japanese buyers in the sale rooms. Many of the trade dealers I have spoken to also have this experience and so it seems the credit crunch effect is being balanced out largely by the exchange rates

2. Is my antique worth leaving to my children?

Do they actually like your antique or vintage pieces? Ask them now? If you do not actually need the funds immediately I would consider passing them on to the next generation but only if they love the items and would cherish them.

3. Is it a piece of furniture and in the way?

Larger antiques may well take up to much room to hang on to and are therefore sold just for the space – the financial and sentimental reasons are not the main consideration.

So did I sell or keep the cherubs in the picture? I sold them and they have gone to their new home. Why? Well cherubs have quite a good collectors market currently – I actually bought them with the full intention of selling them on but I would have sold them anyway as they had some damage they were unlikely to appreciate greatly in the future.