Anyone here know the least bit about vintage collectible stuff?

In My Humble Opinion
1

… or can point me towards some website or social media group or some such resource?

I have 2 lovely vintage fans (they work an’ everything!) and haven’t a clue how much to ask for them.

A dollar seems low, but a hundred seems greedy (or more likely, my offer would simply be ignored) but hey I am in no position to walk away from a hundred bucks if that was actually reasonable.

I’ve had a hard time finding something reliable as a guide, and as these are really the only items of (hopefully) some value that I’m willing to sell at the moment, it’s not worth finding a true estate appraiser.

So, how else can one find out?

And, uh, if some Doper here is really into fans from decades of yore, and could help a gal out … there’s a pic here:

Google Photos

Brown color base = “LeJohn” brand (center plate says “Huntington W. VA.”)

Black color base = “Robbins & Meyers” brand
(center plate says “Memphis Tenn”)

2

Fans have been collected for a long time here is one fan page: http://www.fancollectors.org/

Robbins & Meyers is one of the most common fans but there are rarer variations.

Dennis

3

Yes, those are very collectable. Get them evaluated before you take any offer. I think they’re worth big bucks.

4

eBay will let you search completed auctions to get some ideas about what price you might expect to get.

Le John looks to be around $50-ish for example.

5
  1. Those are very cool fans.
  2. You may want to host the pictures of them on a different site - we can see your name on that (maybe that’s not a big deal).
6

Pretty much the only useful guide to the value of collectible items will be recent sales of comparable items.

7

Heh, back in the day we didn’t care about kids sticking their fingers in fans.

8

In general, check ebay completed auctions to get an idea of what ANYTHING is worth. Forget price guides - ebay is the finger on the pulse of collectible value.

One like the R&M went for $30 recently.

9

An important lesson

10

Why do they call themselves “collectors” and not “fan fans”?? :smack:

For some reason when I opened the thread I was thinking it was about those oriental paper fans that geishas dance with. I like the old school electric fans better.

11

Many men would like to buy “Fan E”.

12

Well, I found a subreddit for this kind of thing (at reddit.com/r/whatsthisworth) and a lone reply from someone who apparently does the flea market thing said he “wouldn’t take less than $50-$100 each” so with that & eBay as a baseline … I posted them at a hundred bucks each or $150 for the pair.

Way over of course, but 1) gives room to haggle/bargain and 2) there’s a sucker born every minute. Mostly the first one, but hey, what the hell.

Craig’s list, five miles, the marketplace inside ol’ Zuckerberg’s empire, and next door.

Anyways, thanks for the replies. Maybe I’ll remember to report back how it goes.

13

Seconded. From a quick run around there and a few other places I would say $30-$50 on the R&M and about the same for the LeJohn. The LJs don’t pop on the market as often from what I see but they don’t have a particular following. Fans can be a regional thing. If you are some place like Arizona there are more people interested but more available; better prices can be had around New England sometimes.