I really enjoy the show for the “real people” aspect, and the surprise at finding valuable stuff.
However…
I really dislike the showoffs. They come in with some piece of furniture from Grandpa who used to be Ambassador to France, or a Vase given to them by Picasso personally, and they know perfectly well what it’s worth. They just want to get on TV and show off to their bridge club that they have something special. I really wish the show would not feature these folks.
Exactly.
“Do you have any idea what it’s worth?” “Well, we had it appraised about five years ago and it was $40,000, but we’ve done a lot of research and . . .”
Get those people off and make room for the people who really need help identifying their heirlooms.
In the American version at least they quote insurance value to people who clearly are not going to sell the item. It is almost always greater than auction or retail value.
I went to it when it came to San Jose, but we didn’t get tickets in time to send in pictures of our furniture. My desk is just like one that has appeared several times - they love it because it has a secret compartment. They pick up and return big pieces of furniture for you, if they are interested in the pictures.
My Congolese art wasn’t worth much (but we paid even less for it when we bought it 50 years ago) but when someone’s Alaskan art turned out to be very valuable, they gave her an escort to her car.
My parents were antique dealers for over 30 years specializing in a wide variety of things from glass to silver to furniture to dolls, pocket knives, furniture and Japanese woodblock prints - and that’s just a start. I have pretty deep expertise on first edition books and guitars.
Bottom line is that yeah, the experts on the show do a pretty good job framing the “replacement value” - i.e., if you want to buy another of the same items from a reputable seller*. In the areas I have experience with they get in the range - and for stuff like old guitars, I hang out on boards where dozens of big-time dealers and collectors pick apart the AR segments and comment on the appraisal comments and value - few real clunkers happen.
*this becomes key when a person goes to sell their newly-high-value iteam - if they want to sell to a dealer, they are likely to get a wholesale offer - e.g., 50% of retail or so…it can be a bit of a wake-up call when they think they will get the retail value quoted on the show…that’s not how it works. Maybe if they have a top item that they can sell at auction…
Does anybody watch the Discovery Channel “Auction Kings”? An advantage of it over Pawn Stars is that P.S. just shows the appraisal and purchase of the item by the shop, but Auction Kings shows what they sell for (though I wish they’d do more explication about the item’s history and value).
That said, prices are all over the map. A Faberge piece expected to bring $4000 might bring $10,000 and an antique ornate desk expected to bring $3,000 might bring $1,000. So I look upon Antiques Roadshow prices as two things-
1- Insurance appraisal (and some of it would catch fire once the policy is signed)
2- General ballpark “ideal world” estimate
The other side of that is when they bring in something and they’ve had a ridiculously low quote given to them, either through dealer ignorance, greed or simply changing fashions. I saw one where a multi-thousand pound item had almost been sold for 100 quid to an unscrupulous dealer.
It can go the other way too, where something has fallen from fashion and the 10 year old valuation is now grossly overblown.
Traincrash valuations are fun and Dickinson’s Real Deal (UK) is a laugh because the owners have the option of taking a dealer quote or going straight to auction, with sometimes wildy differing results to the dealer offer (both above and below the dealer estimate). They’re held to account to where the dealer knows something is worth much more than the owner expects and I’ve seen several episodes where the dealer had “bought” the item then split the profit from the auction.
Then over the credits, they have the result of the dealer’s buys “James paid two humdred pounds for the silver vase and after several months has yet to find a buyer. Susie passed on the china dog for six pounds fifty, making a profit of five pounds.”
Good fun, shows that there’s an element of luck to geting the right buyers in the shop or at the auction - even when the value of the item is established.
Wow. I’m more often stunned, though, by how often they have a great-looking and really old chair or table or something (I particularly remember an early 1800s dining chair) and it’s worth less than half the cheap crap you can buy at Raymour and Flannagan. Instinctively I want to feel that something that old and well-made deserves to have value.