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Glass Mall => Glass Market Place => Topic started by: gemstars on October 23, 2010, 07:19:12 PM

Title: Help required with valuation of a couple of paperweights
Post by: gemstars on October 23, 2010, 07:19:12 PM
Hi everyone, this is my first post.

I've been given a couple of paperweights to sell for charity and I was hoping you might be able to help me find out what sort of price I can expect to get for them.

They're both in, what is as far as I can tell, their original box and have a certificate.

The first is a Caithness Glass paperweight, called Sunflare, designed by Colin Terris and is edition number 601 of 3000.

The second is by Perthshire Paperweights LTD. The certificate says "This weight is one of a limited issue containing a series of complex millifiori canes which enclose a cruciform design. This edition will consist of 350 pieces only with the 1978 date. Certificate no 112"

I'd be grateful for any advice you can give me about the value of these paperweights.
Title: Re: Help required with valuation of a couple of paperweights
Post by: Wuff on October 23, 2010, 10:26:05 PM
For Caithness there is the "Charlton Catalogue" by Colin Terris, published in 2004, giving original prices and a guesstimate of the value in 2004.
Of Sunflare actually only 1387 were made (not the planned 3000) - sold in 1978 for £ 27 and estimated in 2004 at £ 55; these estimates have to be considered to be a bit optimistic, however, in the days of ebay. A rule of thumb for limited modern (abstract) designs could be 50%., i.e. close to the original price.

Perthshire is more tricky - no similar compilation. From your description I would assume it to be either PP33, PP34 or PP35: an image would be helpful! Unfortunately I don't have the 1978 catalogue/prices - but PP35 was still available in 1980 and was sold for £ 54. Perthshire weights usually do relatively better than Caithness nowadays. PP33...35 have usually fetched between £ 150 and £ 250, exceptions slightly over £ 300 on ebay during the last couple of years.

TALKING OF PERTHSHIRE CATALOGUES: Does anyone out there own Perthshire catalogues (with or without price lists) pre 1980? If you do, I would appreciate to hear from you for Scotland's Glass.
Title: Re: Help required with valuation of a couple of paperweights
Post by: gemstars on October 24, 2010, 10:08:50 AM
Hi,

Thanks for replying so quickly, I've uploaded a photo of the Perthshire Paperweight.

http://yourimagehost.com/is.php?i=44334&img=Perthshire_Pape.jpg

If this affects the estimate you'd given could you please let me know? Also, can anyone now tell me which model this paperweight is? Is model the right word?
Title: Re: Help required with valuation of a couple of paperweights
Post by: Wuff on October 24, 2010, 10:53:46 AM
It's a PP34 design (I'd rather use 'design' instead of 'model').
The price will not be much affected as all 3 weights I had mentioned were the same size and similar complexity - just reduces the number of auctions in my notes to 3 - resulting in a price between £150 and £ 240.

To come back to your Caithness weight - there is also an online price guide (http://caithnesspaperweights.yuku.com/topic/993/t/Sunflare.html) with two entries for Sunflare - selling on ebay for £ 40 and £ 14 respectively - on average £ 27 - see my guesstimate  ;D. The 'problem' with ebay being that you always need two potential buyers being really interested in the weight you are selling to get a good price.
Title: Re: Help required with valuation of a couple of paperweights
Post by: gemstars on October 24, 2010, 07:31:48 PM
Thanks so much  :hiclp:

I've now listed them both on ebay now, hope I've got all the details right!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280579855197&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280579807885&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
Title: Re: Help required with valuation of a couple of paperweights
Post by: pamela on October 26, 2010, 08:33:57 AM
Disappointing  :cry:
Not a single word mentioning GMB as source of your information?!? A lot of helpful people here sharing their knowledge... :wsh:
Title: Re: Help required with valuation of a couple of paperweights
Post by: Lustrousstone on October 26, 2010, 10:20:07 AM
And no mention that you are selling them for charity, or so you said.  :o :o

There is an option to create charity listings on ebay.
Title: Re: Help required with valuation of a couple of paperweights
Post by: chopin-liszt on October 26, 2010, 11:03:00 AM
Hi Wuff!  :hi:

Next time I go to Crieff I'll go to Cornelian Crafts and ask if there are any catalogues for Perthshire glass. The lady who runs it - and also makes some really lovely fused glass things - is the widow of the last owner of Perthshire. I'm sure her name is Alison Drysdale, but I can't find her card right now to check.  :-[

It might be a wee while before I'm taken again - I was there on Saturday.

Gemstars, I think you've upset us a bit. We don't do valuations - they're fairly arbitrary, and we're intrerested in the glass here, not prices.
The only reason you were assisted in this way was because you said you were selling it for charity.
The lack of polite acknowledgement of the help you had from folk here - and also of the charity you say you are helping in your listing, is rather rude. And a bit suspicious.
Title: Re: Help required with valuation of a couple of paperweights
Post by: obscurities on October 27, 2010, 01:45:20 AM

The only reason you were assisted in this way was because you said you were selling it for charity.
The lack of polite acknowledgement of the help you had from folk here - and also of the charity you say you are helping in your listing, is rather rude. And a bit suspicious.

Rather rude, is being polite..... and.....

Personally I do not think it is a bit suspicious, as it appears to me after looking at the listings, that the charity line was just that... a line....

and I would just add, as an after thought "Help required with valuation of a couple of paperweights"  Would probably read much better as "Help requested with valuation of a couple of paperweights", as nothing on here is really required..... with the exception of the help of very knowledgeable people to get answers to questions....

Craig

Title: Re: Help required with valuation of a couple of paperweights
Post by: gemstars on October 27, 2010, 08:52:23 AM
Hi Guys,

I am sorry, I didn't realise you would have wanted me to mention this website, if anyone had of said they wanted a plug I would have been happy to assuming it's not against ebays rules.

As far the charity thing, I'm very dissapointed you have assumed the worst of me.

The items I'm selling are for charity. As well as doing a full time job I volunteer in a charity shop about 10 to 12 hours a week. These items were a donation to the shop, so was Fred the flour man I listed a few months ago if you can still see that.

The reason the charity is not mentioned is because the charity does have an official ebay site and each shop is supposed to send anything that's worth going on ebay to a central place to be processed. However, the things we send tend to 'get damaged' or 'go missing' an awful lot, so much so that we have our doubts as to whether this is the truth, and my shop manager is so tired of it that we've decided I'll sell the stuff and put the money through as an anonymous donation. At least that way we're sure the charity is getting the best out of the donations.

I'm not sure if there's anything I can do to convince you, all I have is my word.

Wuff - saying as you're the one that provided the required/requested (delete as appropriate  :thup:) help, I'd like to convince you if I can, is there anything I can do to alleviate your concerns?
Title: Re: Help required with valuation of a couple of paperweights
Post by: chopin-liszt on October 27, 2010, 11:33:56 AM
As someone who has also done a good stint in Oxfam shops, I do know what you mean about expensive stuff "disappearing" into a void when sent elsewhere.
I also ended up taking the dear things to sell elsewhere - at the time our shop had a £5 upper limit on anything.
The area manager was supposed to deal with good stuff but she was lazy and more than happy for me to sell stuff to local dealers I knew who were decent folk and gave good prices.
I researched the things for independant valuations, I kept records of everything, valuations and money paid, signed it all out of the shop, with counter signatures from another volunteer, etc. etc.

The rest of the staff were quite happy with this, mostly because the actual cash was credited to OUR shop, rather than elsewere.

Then the area manager left, a new one appointed. The shop was also appointed a new manager and the woman who did the bric-a-brac before me, a crony of the new manager, came back.
She didn't like working with me, thought she should be in charge of it all again.
(She was a dealer herself, in a local flea market.)

She accused me of cheating the shop and giving stuff cheaply to other dealers.
It all turned very nasty indeed.
I left, and went to work in another Oxfam shop elsewhere.


As for mentioning the GMB, it's only right to reference your source of information properly.
It also means if your buyer has any quibbbles about the information, they can come here and discuss it.

We're in the "business" of getting glass properly identified and it's makers credited for their work.

Apologies if we upset you, but there are a lot of sharks out there and we don't know you!

I think you should be very careful of doing good in an unofficial way like this, but I do understand why you're doing it.

What charity is it?
Title: Re: Help required with valuation of a couple of paperweights
Post by: gemstars on October 27, 2010, 12:56:41 PM
Hi,

Glad you can relate to my story, given your previous experience of charity shop work. I can relate to yours, we have one or two individuals who are very protective over their 'departments'. People tend to think that charity shops are full of honest, hard working people who want nothing in return, unfortunately that is not always the case.

Fortunately for me, the manager at our store is fantastic- it's her who decides what is worth going on ebay, I'm afraid I'm not very knowledgable on antiques and collectables, my department is jewellery and doing the window mostly. She's always the first one and and the last one out and does double the work of anyone else which is why I'm sure you'll understand why I do not want to risk getting her into trouble by naming the charity.

I see your point about keeping records, I'll think about this for the future. And I'll remeber to give credit to my sources of information.  :)
Title: Re: Help required with valuation of a couple of paperweights
Post by: chopin-liszt on October 27, 2010, 02:54:01 PM
Given we don't know where on the planet you are, I don't really understand why you won't name the charity, but that's up to you. Could you not at least tell us what sort of thing it supports?

I have a tendency myself to blurt out the truth because I'm never ashamed of it, but it does get me into trouble.

Despite my having the records, and the (large) amount of cash I raised all properly documented, and all the staff supporting me before the new shop manager and area manager and the dealer woman came back, sadly, nobody would stick their neck out to support me afterwards. They were too scared of the bullying dealer woman.

I could not track down the original area manager to get her to say she'd given me the go-ahead to do this. I believe now it was likely to be because she was in the wrong to do it in the first place and she simply refused to respond to my request for support for fear of incrimminating herself.

The bottom line being that you really should stick to the rules. They're there for a GOOD reason.

Loads of other folk could also be breaking the rules in a similar way and the cash siphoned off.

After what happened to me, I will never, ever do anything like that again.  It was a whole load of extra work on top of my volunteer time and I simply got a load of stress and grief for it in the end.
Title: Re: Help required with valuation of a couple of paperweights
Post by: Anne on October 28, 2010, 06:14:23 PM
And no mention that you are selling them for charity, or so you said.  :o :o

There is an option to create charity listings on ebay.

Just to clarify as the charity sale option is a bit confusing at times.  I have recently sold several items for a local charity here in the village where I live, and could not use the charity listing option on eBay as it's not one of those charities on their "list." So all I could do was to state the details in the listing, which I did. It also means I pay full eBay fees for those sales, which come out of my pocket as an extra donation to the said charity. So selling for charity on eBay isn't quite as clear cut as eBay make it sound at times. Perhaps we should split off the discussion about the ethics, pitfalls, and other observations on selling for charities out of this MP topic and pop it over into Cafe.