Every collector is faced with the same question — “What’s it worth?” Whether it’s to sell a part of the collection, or to know what’s a reasonable price to pay for a new addition to the collection, collectors need to have some idea of what each part of a collection is worth. For some, it’s a matter of pride: the more zeroes, the more they’re satisfied with their collection. For others, it’s just a matter of figuring out how much insurance to buy. No collector, however, has the luxury of a ‘money is no object’ attitude. The value of a collection is important, no matter what.

Figuring out a collectible’s worth isn’t always that easy. I remember, in my youth, looking up a comic’s price in the Overstreet book — GI Joe #1 — and spending the bike ride to the comic shop figuring out what I can spend that $50 on. I knew my comic was mint (I had bought two for that very reason), and it was printed on the rarer paper. The comic shop operator didn’t dispute that fact, however, but his offer of $20 fell a little flat to me. I learned that day that appraisals, price guides, and market value are quite a bit different.

First of all, the market value is the price a reasonable customer would pay for the item. Demand and rarity are a significant part of this price, because the combination of the two establish the retail price. A rare item without demand won’t be any more expensive than a high-demand item that’s easy to find. The simplest way to determine this is to compare identical or similar item’s sale on the open market. eBay is an excellent resource for this, but it can be spotty depending on whether the right buyers happen to be online when the auctions are running. Traditional auctions can be a good source of prices, provided the right items appear. Comparing prices in your local antique shops can provide a good idea of reasonable prices, but an overpriced item might be more likely to sit unsold on the a dealer’s shelf than the reasonable priced ones. Price guides tend to approximate the retail price, but tend to range a little higher. Some people consider price guides unreliable, because they’ve seen items sell for far different prices than those cited in the guide, but each guide is based on research and compilation of a variety of sources, doing a lot of the ‘footwork’ for collectors.

The insurance price usually tends to run high, but not always; an insurance appraisal is an estimate of the cost of replacement, based on the item’s condition at the time of the appraisal. As such, an insurance appraisal is a realistic guess at, if the item were stolen, lost, or destroyed, how much it would cost to replace it, without the benefit of comparison shopping or getting a ‘good deal.’ It is essential to find a reputable and credentialed appraiser when looking for an insurance value. Although they are an estimate, insurance appraisals usually come with official documentation to certify or verify the appraised value, in the event of loss. However, collectors generally cannot expect to receive the insured price of an item at a sale.

The lowest price to expect is the equivalent of a ‘wholesale’ price, like what I was offered at a comic book shop. Antique dealers can act as an appraiser, but if they are being offered an item to purchase themselves, they will base their offer on how much profit they can reasonably expect based on a retail price. Often, this will be quite low — a third or half of retail price — but high enough to make the seller feel they’re not being ‘taken’. Quite often, this is similar to a rummage sale price, or a starting bid on eBay or at an auction. It is also what a collector can expect to receive if they ever find themselves urgent to sell any part of their collection.

The internet, of course, gives an amazing resource for collectors to find and compare prices of every item imaginable. While some online guides might not be very clear on how they arrive at their valuation, the speed of browsing can give a collector a number of prices to give a ballpark idea of value. eBay and Froogle are both sites devoted to collecting various items and their prices, and both have dedicated searching capabilities. Technically-skilled collectors can even use modern wireless technologies and cellphone web browsing to compare online prices with items found in antique shops, without having to stop home!

For official or more detailed pricing, an appraiser is needed, and that person will generally have to see the item or collection for themselves. Local auction houses often know exactly who locally is able to appraise a particular type of collectible, if not the auctioneer themselves. Furniture restorers and owners of antique shops are also likely to know the right person to appraise items. While I hate to sound like the internet has all the answers — it often does — and extremely specialized appraisers, such as posters or ephemera, might be found wither from their webpage or a message board devoted to their particular specialty.

Finding the right price for a collectible might not be easy, but collectors stand to learn more from pricing an item than just some dollar value. In the process of figuring out the value, a collector will learn why the item has the value, giving them an advantage when shopping in the future. Many appraisers started as collectors, eventually becoming an expert and offering their services to others. What could be more fun to a collector than learning more about the items they love? Discounting pricing with a “I’m not selling” or “gosh, that’s a lot of work” is to pass up valuable time spent with your collection. Take some time, look at everything through an appraiser’s eyes, and expand your expertise about your collection.

Did you hear about the painting that was dropped off at a Goodwill store in Portland and wound up fetching $165,002 on the organization’s auction website? It turns out it was an original work by watercolorist Frank Weston Benson. The Goodwill organization provides job training and other services designed to put people to work, so the money will surely go to a good cause. There’s some question, however, whether the anonymous donor who left the painting in the store’s collection bin knew what he or she was giving away. The same thing happened a few years ago in one of the Chicago burbs.

So Grandma’s scaling down to a smaller place and asks you to help get rid of some of her stuff. You wonder if that oil painting that hung in her upstairs hall for 50 years is worth anything, but how do you find out?

A good place to start is the internet. Try to find out more about the artist who created the painting, if the artist’s signature is legible. Simply typing “Frank Benson artist” into his or her favorite search engine would have told the painting’s owner that it was a good idea to find out more about the painting.

The obvious choice is to contact a professional appraiser, however the appraiser will likely charge a fee even if the piece if worthless. If you’re willing to hold onto this painting for a while, you could call around to local art museums and galleries to find out if any host an appraisal day where people can bring their art in to have a professional take a look at it for free or for a small fee. Another alternative is to take the painting to an auction house that frequently deals with fine art and ask their opinion of the piece and how much they believe it would bring at auction.

And if you discover the painting isn’t going to net any cash for Grandma, go ahead and take it to the Goodwill where someone might pull it from a bin, dust it off and enjoy it for another fifty years.

More info:

Here’s a site that will provide free online appraisals when provided with a photo and description of the piece, but only responds to “interesting” works of art

René Lalique talented French designer whose career spanned the last years of the 19^th century and early years of the 20^th. Not only was he a jeweler of great talent and creativity, but his glasswork is legendary among collectors.

René Lalique was born in 1860 in the town of Ay, France. In his teens he was apprenticed to a Parisian jeweler and later moved to England to study at London’s Sydenham Art College. Upon returning to France Lalique designed jewelry for several different jewelers until opening his own shop in 1885.

René Lalique’s jewelry is said to define the style of the Art Nouveau era, which was popular from around 1895 to 1910. Art Nouveau jewelry tended to use lower-cost gems, and enamel was a common material used in the designs. Decorative elements were taken from nature – leaves, butterflies, flowers and such – and there’s an Asian flavor to many of the pieces. The female form was also a popular subject in the Art Nouveau style. Lalique was noted for his unique work with materials like enamel, pearl, ivory and horn. He won great acclaim with his designs, creating jewelry for the actress Sarah Bernhardt and causing a splash at jewelry exhibitions all over the world.

In 1908 Lalique chose to abandon jewelry making and focus his artistic talents on glasswork. He began creating unique perfume bottles, first for the French firm Coty. He soon was designing bottles for numerous top perfume companies, including Guerlain and Worth. All told, Lalique designed over 250 perfume bottles.

Lalique was also known for his graceful vases and embraced the Art Deco style in his glasswork. In the 1920s René Lalique began designing elegant hood ornaments for automobiles. The glass ornaments were designed to be lit by a bulb and were featured on Bentleys, Bugattis and more.

Although he died in 1945, the company that René Lalique founded is still in operation today. Today his designs are highly sought and while some of his work fetches prices of tens of thousands of dollars, other pieces are available to collectors of more modest means.