Glass Message Board
Glass Mall => Glass Market Place => Topic started by: Redmoon on July 07, 2015, 04:22:44 PM
-
I am in the UK and have inherited a collection of paperweights mainly from the 1970s, they were valued in 2003 at over £7000 for insurance purposes. I know that is not a value necessarily for resale, but any advice on whether to sell them to a dealer in bulk, or to list them individually for sale on ebay, would be welcomed. I know that dealers only ever want to offer the bottom line (and I understand why!) ... but there again it is a lot of time consuming work to list each one (there over 50) and take photos etc.
Names include Ysart (H cane, PY sticker, PY cane), Strathearn, Wedgwood, Whitefriars, Dartington, Perthshire, Modern Baccarat, Webb Corbett. The highest price one was quoted for insurance valuation was £550 back in 2003.
Any advice on how to sell this collection? I have no knowledge of paperweights myself.
-
It does sound as if you have at least a few that would be worth your time and effort to list individually.
There are some sites which might be helpful, for example to check that your PY canes are correct - there are fakes around, they have a different, lower value, but are still collectable.
This would be helpful for any Caithness weights
http://www.scotlandsglass.co.uk/cms/index.php
and this for checking out Ysart glass
http://ysartglass.com/
paperweight are not really my area, I'm afraid, but there are plenty of others here who I am sure will be able to offer better advice.
Welcome to the board. :)
I do empathise with your problem. We have only recently remembered we have a massive collection of vinyl, some of which might be quite valuable, but we are clueless about it. The idea of having to go over each and every single one to check condition etc. and to find out if it's one only worth bending into a bowl or worth £100 is mind-numbing. They stay in the cupboards.
-
Many thanks! I shall check out those links.
Re the vinyl, the magazine Record Collector is very useful for current value lists but like you say, you really do need to examine each one with a fine toothcomb and make sure they play ok too, I imagine!
-
My old Cream, King Crimson and Uriah Heep scare the cats too much to play them! Even my Two-Tone and Stiff stuff disturbs them terribly. ::)
They're fine with loud, clashing, atonal contemporary classical music though, which is odd.
Thanks, I wouldn't have even known there was somewhere to check values. :)
There are images of the fake PY canes on the Ysart site. In one of them, one of the letters is dropped a bit and the colour isn't correct. I can never remember which is real and which isn't.
To check the Caithness weights, click on the link to images at the top of the page of Scotland's glass, then on Caithness.
We do have a forum here called "The market place", where you can put links to your sales, or, if you wanted, simply offer them for sale there and come to an agreement with somebody over price.
We don't normally discuss values much - they are very subjective, but good paperweights do tend to find their own price in a widely advertised auction.
Another suggestion for you might be to do a search on the paperweights forum (link below) to see if there is the info you need is already written out and illustrated with images in our records.
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/board,8.0.html
Apart from that, I'm afraid you may have to get the camera out
-
Cheers!
I also wondered if anyone knew the difference between valuation prices and selling prices.... the collection is valued at over £7K for insurance purposes, the valuer was a paperweight dealer but at the time my father did not want to sell them.
-
Hi Redmoon, welcome.
As your request is currently about advice on how to sell the collection, I will move the thread to the Paperweight forum where it will probably get a wider audience than in the Market Place forum. I will also change the thread title to include "paperweight" and "UK".
-
Having done my moderator bit by updating the title and moving the thread, I will take that hat off and put on my Paperweight Collector hat.
As Sue has said, there are some places to look for general confirmation on Caithness and Paul Ysart weights.
The GMB has a number of members who are also paperweight dealers, and perhaps some of them may contact you directly or may post a reply here with their own advice or questions.
Regarding the 2003 insurance valuation, that sounds as though the 50+ collection has mainly good condition "collector" items ranging from, say, £100 to the £550 upper figure. As you are aware, that valuation will have been higher than the then current "resale valuation" which is what a dealer would be considering.
Selling a whole collection through a dealer would provide less than the current market valuation (as agreed by the dealer). In general, some dealers would look to pay up to around 60 to 66% of their estimated market value. But as you have said, that needs to be balanced against the work needed to sell them individually yourself, either through eBay or similar, or perhaps through a local auction house (where fees can be quite high these days).
But what about that £7,000 insurance valuation of 2003 - would it be higher or lower now? In many cases, Caithness weights do not make the sort of money they did some years ago. On the other hand Paul Ysart weights have tended to at least hold their value with many showing a reasonable increase, and some, in the past few years, changing hands at unexpectedly high amounts.
Lets see what others have to say.
-
Since you are in the UK and I am in the US, I can offer my suggestions without a dealer bias.
When I buy collections, as I often do, I suggest the seller take some group pictures with about 20 paperweights per picture. Put each paperweight on a piece of note paper (a 2"x2" sticky works well) and write a number on each. Make sure the numbers are visible in the picture. This will make it easier for the buyer to ask questions about specific weights. For most paperweights, the first pass will be all that is required, but some paperweights will require more pictures.
I advise you to sell the collection intact unless you want to spend a lot of time on this. Most collectors and dealers will be happy to pick the best items only. That leaves you with a lot of work to sell the remainder.
And, I think, it is optimistic to expect 60% of retail unless the collection is absolutely smashing.
-
Hi.
I offer a free ID and valuation service (see my website). It also sets out there the (big) difference between insurance valuation and what you might expect to get if you sell a collection (see the 'Valuations' tab).
Alan
-
Hi Redmoon,
If you were tempted to list your paperweights on Ebay after all, I would suggest that you wait until after the summer holidays as the market tends to be quieter during this period. You are likely to get better prices in the Autumn and in the period coming up to Christmas. Also, as Sue said do not forget to bring the Ebay sales to our attention on the market place.
And whatever you decide good luck with it.
SophieB
-
Hi Redmoon,
I know that the dealers will advise you to sell the group as one lot, and that may well be the EASIEST way to dispose of the whole group. However it is not always the best. After all, they are dealers and to make a profit, they will sell them on at a fair mark-up to collectors.
Selling individually on eBay etc, can sometimes get good prices for individual items, particularly known and collected examples e.g. Paul Ysart. It can also take a lot of work.
The third way, as someone has already mentioned, is to try and group them into manageable numbers (say 20), group them as much as possible by maker, and then post pictures of them here. Invite interested parties to contact you. Many collectors will pay good prices for individual examples that they want/need for their collections and in order to secure these will buy a group of similar items.
There is nothing to lose. If unsure about a fair price for any particular example, you can always ask here and someone will advise you ( with a little caution and without guarantee). After using this site, you can always fall back on eBay or dealers to clear the rest.
As an example, I collect Whitefriars. Another member may well be an Ysart collector. By showing the specialist collectors what is available, you may be able to get a better return for a group of weights within the total collection that you have.
Valuations for insurance can be at least double what they would bring at auction. The valuers have to allow for replacing the item and include sellers and buyers commissions plus transport costs.
All the best,
-
Huge thanks to you all for being so helpful and informative. They are all packed up carefully at the moment so I cannot photograph them just yet. They have been stored since being removed from my dad's house where they had been kept in a display cabinet since they were bought in the 1970s, he kept a list of all the paperweights and where he got them and the price he paid. I remember that he kept telling me one was signed by Ysart, but I will need to try and find that one, as I haven't studied it. I wasn't even aware that a glass paperweight could be signed! There are a number of H canes and Y canes I think but I will certainly come back on here when I am ready to sell them. Initially I wanted to do some research and find out about them, they are truly beautiful but we don't have the room to display them as they deserve, in our house.
Thanks again - Alan, I will probably send you a photo when I have unpacked them. Thanks for that.
-
Regarding weights personally signed by Paul Ysart, a scratched script signature was occasionally added to items for family, friends or such as for collectors who personally met him. There are not a large number of such weights and they command a higher price when they come up for sale. (I am lucky enough to have five PY items with a script signature in my collection!)
When you said "... a number of H canes and Y canes ..." I guess you meant "PY" rather than "Y". However, it would be worth checking carefully as an individual "Y" cane was used by Paul's father, Salvador (who died in 1955). Weights with a Salvador signature cane are also very collectable and can achieve a good price, even when they may not be of the best overall quality!
-
Hi Redmoon,
I know that the dealers will advise you to sell the group as one lot, and that may well be the EASIEST way to dispose of the whole group. However it is not always the best. After all, they are dealers and to make a profit, they will sell them on at a fair mark-up to collectors.
Selling individually on eBay etc, can sometimes get good prices for individual items, particularly known and collected examples e.g. Paul Ysart. It can also take a lot of work.
The third way, as someone has already mentioned, is to try and group them into manageable numbers (say 20), group them as much as possible by maker, and then post pictures of them here. Invite interested parties to contact you. Many collectors will pay good prices for individual examples that they want/need for their collections and in order to secure these will buy a group of similar items.
There is nothing to lose. If unsure about a fair price for any particular example, you can always ask here and someone will advise you ( with a little caution and without guarantee). After using this site, you can always fall back on eBay or dealers to clear the rest.
As an example, I collect Whitefriars. Another member may well be an Ysart collector. By showing the specialist collectors what is available, you may be able to get a better return for a group of weights within the total collection that you have.
Valuations for insurance can be at least double what they would bring at auction. The valuers have to allow for replacing the item and include sellers and buyers commissions plus transport costs.
All the best,
Many thanks Tony - that's very helpful.
-
Regarding weights personally signed by Paul Ysart, a scratched script signature was occasionally added to items for family, friends or such as for collectors who personally met him. There are not a large number of such weights and they command a higher price when they come up for sale. (I am lucky enough to have five PY items with a script signature in my collection!)
When you said "... a number of H canes and Y canes ..." I guess you meant "PY" rather than "Y". However, it would be worth checking carefully as an individual "Y" cane was used by Paul's father, Salvador (who died in 1955). Weights with a Salvador signature cane are also very collectable and can achieve a good price, even when they may not be of the best overall quality!
Thanks Kevin, yes I did mean PY - cheers - I know my father purchased all his paperweights in the 1970s, on trips up to Scotland and other places; the only reason I know there are PY etc, is that the valuer made a note of that when she did the insurance valuation. I have yet to examine them in detail myself, against his numbered list but I do know that they are all in good condition. I shall try and get them out of the loft where they are securely packaged, in the next week or so (so much to do at the moment, sorting through everything).
-
I have tried to post some photos here but try as I might I still cannot get the files to be small enough to be accepted.
Some individual photos were chosen, of the one that my father said was a signed one by Paul Ysart and some others, which were the most costly to buy when he bought them in the 1970s. If anyone would like me to send these few images to them privately please let me know... I am seeking advice on possible values and/or entertaining any offers that collectors on here might like to give. These were the ones most highly valued by the valuer about ten years ago.
I have not yet decided whether to sell the collection as a whole (again there are lots of photos) - I think there are about 48 - or sell them individually on Ebay.
Thanks for reading and do get in touch if you would like me to send any photos to you privately.
-
There is a whole load of info. and techie tips about posting images to the board directly, here.
We really would love to see at least some of the more unusual ones. :)
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/board,22.0.html
You'll just need to find the right set of instructions or the systems you use yourself.
Failing that, you could send me images and I'll resize them for you.
Click on the envelope under my username to send me a message - that will get us into email contact and you can send me the images once I've sent you my email address.
-
Many thanks! I have just sent you a message. :)
-
Recieved and replied to. :)
-
Images. :)
-
and there's more
-
last couple for now.
-
Many thanks Sue for taking the time to size those pics for me - I know they seem a bit fuzzy but they looked very sharp on my own computer screen; I am able to send a description of any that interest people though, I take that description from the record my dad kept of them and the one given by the valuer ten years ago if I can marry the two up!
-
Hi, could you send me any images of your inherited collection please
Malc
-
Hi there,
Would you mind sending me the images of your collection, please?
Many thanks.
SophieB
-
Now that there are specifics about some items for sale and requests for others, this thread has moved to the Market Place.
Redmoon - if there are any individual weights for which you like further info or confirmation, but not yet ready to sell, please start a new thread for each in the general Paperweights forum.
-
Now that there are specifics about some items for sale and requests for others, this thread has moved to the Market Place.
Redmoon - if there are any individual weights for which you like further info or confirmation, but not yet ready to sell, please start a new thread for each in the general Paperweights forum.
Thanks Kevin
-
I'd like to thank everyone who helped me in my attempt to value and sell the paperweight collection that I inherited from my father.
You have all been so helpful, I really appreciate it.
The weights are now mostly all sold - and the balance I shall be putting up for auction on Ebay.
Thanks again and all the best to you.