As you know I like to share all the lighting sales we make. We were hired to do a clean-out job for an abandoned house and I totally took the time to strip this off the ceiling. Well worth the effort!
Tis the season! Remember true vintage Halloween stuff sells pretty well!
We actually found this in someone's trash as the next of kin was cleaning out the family estate. Would you throw away $600?!
I generally don't post furniture sales here as most pieces simply aren't exceptional. This set retailed around $12,000 in 1994 and ONLY because of the name brand AND condition was I able to get such a wonderful second hand price and it took MONTHS of waiting to get it. MOST old brown furniture simply doesn't hold value.
These shades were not attached to any lamps but I probably would have split them just the same as shipping shades with the lamps is a nightmare. Once again - Mid century stuff AND vintage lighting - these sold very fast on eBay
Yet another light we sold - we should change our name to Curiosity lighting or something...
Just sharing another vintage light we sold
Having some basic knowledge as to what things are collectible coupled with Internet research can yield some great results. Knowing that old chess sets can be desirable, plus recognizing this heavily stylized pattern, and comping it based on the name brand told us that it was valuable. So instead of throwing it up for an eBay auction, we sat and waited for the right buyer to come along who recognized the value and paid a fair price.
The market for 'old stuff' is not what it used to be and some pieces just aren't in demand. I knew this big hundred year old basket would have been desirable ten plus years ago but without a name brand I was taking a chance on it.
We really do find and try to rescue the most obscure things when we downsize a home. I am not above stripping vintage lights or fixtures if I think someone will want them and it keeps them out of the dump.
Old signage of almost any type or anything that has to do with transportation is usually a good seller. These were local pieces but the buyer was in NV - so we shipped them From Here to there :)
Not only was it about 100 years old - but where can you buy a US mailbox?! Collectors want to buy things that can't be found just anywhere and we love bringing them to the market.
It is such a pleasure to handle premium collections of things we just don't find on a typical house call. When it comes to selling off a collection of any given type of item, in order to get that 'top dollar' price, you have to sell one item to one buyer at a time and that's where we come in and do just that. I could not find a single comp value on this piece but I knew it was special and would go to a good home for a great price.
In order to get items sold quickly, we have to be willing to ship them to the buyers. With big heavy items, that cost cuts in to what a potential shopper is willing to pay. I wrote on the box 'Yes, it actually is a boat anchor'
Even in less than perfect condition, there are always buyers for vintage toys!
When it comes to jewelry, the name brand is a big resale factor as people collect pieces based on vintage designers. This piece was only about $3 worth of silver but it might as well have been gold!
This piece was made circa 1883! It would have been worth more had it been complete but we love saving old toys and there are always buyers for them
Contemporary sports memorabilia has really gone down in value in the past decade and only pieces that are truly vintage or have some kind of authentication will have a market.
We've talked before about how fickle the market is on Chinese antiques and now that China is such a wealthy country, their citizens are trying to reclaim 'lost treasures' pawned off by their ancestors. One piece could be worth nothing while another similar piece might be worth a fortune but without some kind of documentation from an authority on the subject, pieces like this could be anyone's guess on value.
Vintage advertising and toys of almost any type bring good money. We had to wait a couple months for the right buyer to come along to pay our price - but we got it
Old suitcases are a dime a dozen and only pieces that have exceptional style or patterns are going to be worth anything. This set wasn't all that great but it was very clean - enough to justify the respectable sale price of 150
Just sharing another retro light that sold
We've mentioned that Native American related items are still somewhat in demand, but even that category has declined in value over the past ten years. There are so many newer made pieces on the market that it can be hard to tell the difference from true artifacts and only things with some type of documentation or provenance will bring big prices these days.
Jewelry is the most heavily marked up luxury item in existence. Name brands aside, the resale value is often tied closely to the scrap price of the metal. Only extraordinary pieces like this will bring more but when you consider the cost of eBay fees, we only got about $50 more than the gold would have melted down for. We of course hate to see nice things destroyed and finding something a good home always makes it worth the effort.
Just sharing another cool vintage lamp that sold for a great price. Sometimes when we know we have something good, it's worth sitting and waiting to try to get as much as we can. Unfortunately we only have enough space to sit on so many things so sometimes this strategy isn't possible.