For my high school Junior prom I bought an antique dress from the late thrities/early fourties. I spent eighty dollars on it (far less than a new dress would cost) and it is beautiful. It’s kind of gold in color and is really heavy satin (I think). The store I bought it from claims that it is from Paris and was worn on runways. I dont know it I believe that. Anyway, I busted the zipper a bit and the hem is just a bit dirty…but I had a great time. I’d love to know the history of the dress and perhaps it’s value.
Not sure I understand the question. But that won’t stop me from rambling in the general area.
From what I’ve seen at estate auctions around here (small town Iowa, people live a long time and take care of their stuff), there’s no way to tell what you should keep and what to toss out.
I’ve seen high quality near-new furniture (good brands) and appliances, with lots of life left in them, sell for next to nothing. Maybe a tenth of their market value.
In the same sale, a table lamp with a faded shade will go for a few hundred dollars cuz it was an Aladdin and somebody noticed.
I don’t buy anything for resale value. If I can’t use it, no matter how good a deal it is, I won’t buy it. But I don’t know where the line is drawn – it’s up to the individual, I guess.
I have a friend who paid $400 for a small pottery bowl cuz it completed her set. She doesn’t use them, she collects them. These five bowls are worth $2,000 in “the market.” God forbid one should get chipped or cracked.
So they have no “living value”. You could get a set of bowls for $20 at K-Mart if all you’re interested in is function.
(This is nowhere near what you meant, is it?)
Ha! Your guess is a good as mine.
At one estate auction a few summers ago, an old farm implement catalog sold for more than a two-year-old frost-free refrigerator, with an icemaker!
As for living value and resale value, that’s a crap shoot. Just put up a storage shed and save everything.
And don’t get rid of your glass doorknobs!
veb – it’s a big crap shoot. Just put up a storage building and save everything.
At an auction a couple of summers ago, an old farm implement catalog sold for more than an almost new refrigerator (with icemaker).
Do you ever go to estate auctions? They’re fun. Not the distressed farm sale auctions – but the ones where somebody died and didn’t leave any heirs.
The saddest part of those is the boxes of photo albums, postcards and letters. There’s a whole life, just gone.
I’ve finally done it – was sure nothing was going through and here’s all my rambling crap –
Hey – I was just editing down my thoughts.
Yeah, that’s the ticket. Editing.
Sheesh. Slinking away now.
On a similar thought…I’m under the impression that something only has cash value when you actually sell it. When the appraiser tells someone their hideous vase is “worth” $5,000, they usually say they’ll keep it and hand it down to their kids, etc. It’s not “worth” anything sitting on the coffee table, but it IS worth something when the actual money changes hands. (I know this doesn’t cover the item being insured against theft or breakage, but in that case, some tragedy still has to befall before the actual cash appears.)
I was pretty impressed with the follow-up they had on one episode where one of the Keno brothers estimated a table’s value at around $250,000 and they showed it being auctioned at Sotheby’s (I believe) for somewere in the neighborhood of $450,000. Maybe they could have a whole series based on the Roadshow participants who decide to let their stuff get auctioned off?
“I don’t know…I don’t know.” – St. DooDah
Apologies for the unintentional tangent (hijack?) that I didn’t explain clearly the first time.
Dr. Jackson’t account of his refinished fliptop desk sparked my digression. My gg-mother’s pie safe (The Family Joke) tripped the few remaining synapses, as well as the set of Jewel Tea china from my childhood. To me it’s the stuff my mom served tuna casserole in and I slurped milk with my cereal.
Collectors have slathered enough to make me feel stupid. Granted, we aren’t talking Jacobean and Hepplewhite originals, but when does something stop being comfy “stuff” and become sniffy investment crap? (Can’t tell my bias there, can you?
Old Worlders have probably dealt with this ad nauseum and croggled at our coming to grips with age. In turn I croggle at regarding comfy everyday as potential investment fodder.
Oh, bullpucky. I’m still not saying it well. PC nonsense aside, is no one else offended by the basic wrongness of Barbie dolls and Batman lunchboxes that children weren’t allowed to touch? “Unopenend=ideal”.
Basically, I value fine craftsmanship etc. but get testy/annoyed at the mental censorship involved: bowls I slurped oatmeal from as a toddler, comfy wood cabinets that belonged to my mother’s gramma but using them makes me a vandal??
That sure cleared it up, what??
Veb
Well, no, but you taught me a new word today. “Croggle.” I like it.