How to find out about china (the kind you eat off of)

In My Humble Opinion
1

I recently inherited a box of crap. Amongst this was a ton of dishes. I would have to wash them all by hand as we don’t have a dishwasher, and I was about to just toss the whole lot out.

My boyfriend, however, cautioned me. The lady that gave them to me, he said, is known for having priceless relics in her house without realizing it. She gave him an old coin once out of appreciation for something he was doing for her, and he got nearly a hundred bucks for it.

I was skeptical, mostly because there were only about half of the dishes that weren’t plastic. Still, I soaked them in warm water with mild dishwashing soap.

My skepticism was washed away, however, when I rubbed some of the dirt and grime away from the plates and found that they were, in actuality, beautiful. I’m nervous about keeping them around even if they’re worthless, because both the boyfriend and myself are total klutzes, but I’d like to find out whether this stuff is worth money, because, frankly, I could use it. How would one go about that? With stamps and coins we’ve always been able to go to the stamp and coin collectors shop. We don’t have anything like that for porcelain china (which is what this is) around here. Are there any online sites? Does anyone know about this kind of thing?

These plates (there are dinner plates and tea saucers…not sure what else, that’s all I’ve cleaned so far) really are pretty, and I’m not really the kind of person to call dishware pretty. So at the very least they might fetch a price at a flea market or something. But if they’re worth more, I’d like to know.

Any ideas? Has anyone ever done this before? Are there any china afficianados around these parts?

~Tasha

2

Is there any sort of mark on the back? If you can find a mark, it’ll be asy to find information on the web. Just type in what it looks like into a search engine and it should lead you to the manufacturer’s name. Once you have that, it should be easy.

What type of pattern does it have? Look carefully at it-- how detailed is it? Does it look carefully done, or just printed by transfer? Are any of the pieces an unusual shape?

Even if you discover that the pieces you have as a set don’t amount to a lot of money, you could sell it piece by piece on E-Bay to other klutzes who are looking to replace broken pieces.

3

[QUOTE=tashabot]
I recently inherited a box of crap. Amongst this was a ton of dishes. I would have to wash them all by hand as we don’t have a dishwasher, and I was about to just toss the whole lot out.

My boyfriend, however, cautioned me. The lady that gave them to me, he said, is known for having priceless relics in her house without realizing it. She gave him an old coin once out of appreciation for something he was doing for her, and he got nearly a hundred bucks for it.

I was skeptical, mostly because there were only about half of the dishes that weren’t plastic. Still, I soaked them in warm water with mild dishwashing soap.

My skepticism was washed away, however, when I rubbed some of the dirt and grime away from the plates and found that they were, in actuality, beautiful. I’m nervous about keeping them around even if they’re worthless, because both the boyfriend and myself are total klutzes, but I’d like to find out whether this stuff is worth money, because, frankly, I could use it. How would one go about that? With stamps and coins we’ve always been able to go to the stamp and coin collectors shop. We don’t have anything like that for porcelain china (which is what this is) around here. Are there any online sites? Does anyone know about this kind of thing?

These plates (there are dinner plates and tea saucers…not sure what else, that’s all I’ve cleaned so far) really are pretty, and I’m not really the kind of person to call dishware pretty. So at the very least they might fetch a price at a flea market or something. But if they’re worth more, I’d like to know.

Any ideas? Has anyone ever done this before? Are there any china afficianados around these parts?

~Tasha
[/QUOTE]

Take a digital picture of the front & back of the dinner plate (if available - if not, any other plate will do). Go to replacements.com - there’s an address you can email the pictures to & they will do a free search.

It helps if you can date the piece a bit - “This was around when I was a kid from 1965 - 1975” or “I remember this on my great-grandmother’s table - she was born in 1911” or something like that.

I was able to identify the patter of my mother’s wedding china & crystal this way.

VCNJ~

4

Thanks, guys. I found out that just the dinner plate set is worth over a hundred. O.o I’m not sure where all the rest of the stuff is, because the woman gave me several boxes of “stuff,” but if I’m lucky, this china will make someone very happy, and also let me pay off my electricity bill (and a new years subscription to the SMDB).

~Tasha

5

[QUOTE=tashabot]
Thanks, guys. I found out that just the dinner plate set is worth over a hundred. O.o I’m not sure where all the rest of the stuff is, because the woman gave me several boxes of “stuff,” but if I’m lucky, this china will make someone very happy, and also let me pay off my electricity bill (and a new years subscription to the SMDB).

~Tasha
[/QUOTE]

tashabot , what is the maker of your china? You might have better results selling them on Ebay if you have a digital camera instead of at Replacements-

6

[QUOTE=Beaucarnea]
tashabot , what is the maker of your china? You might have better results selling them on Ebay if you have a digital camera instead of at Replacements-
[/QUOTE]

I might. I just hate selling on eBay; it’s one of my jobs, and frankly, I don’t feel up to managing TWO stores. And my boss won’t let me use his account, sooo… rolls eyes

But yeah, I have a lot of friends who are loaded and love fancy stuff, anything that makes them look cultured, so they’ll probably buy the china off me. (I love preying on the rich snortgiggle )

~Tasha