Selling Your Valuables Can Be Frustrating
Everyone has some possessions they’re sure “must be worth something.” They’re also sure there “must be someone” who’d buy the things, but don’t know where or how to go about the selling.
Worse, those who do find a buyer usually “let it go” for less than they thought it was worth because they’re “overwhelmed by the sheer hassle of it,” says Los Angeles screenwriter Lois Peyser, who several years ago sold an inherited ring.
Goods most likely to be “worth something” are made of precious metals and gems--sometimes called “good investments” not because they’ll appreciate and make the owner a profit in a few years, but because they have “some intrinsic value,” says Bruce Meyer, president of Geary’s, the Beverly Hills gift store. “If you buy a silver piece for $100 and melt it down, you can still get $30 for the silver. With a porcelain tea set, the sand it’s made from is worth zero.”
Find Out Market Value
Old pieces could be worth more “because there’s value on the piece itself, and not just the gold and diamonds in it,” says Rye, N.Y., antique jewelry dealer Audrey Flashner. But “unlike something their husband bought three years ago, where they have the receipt,” says Flashner, “they haven’t any idea what it’s worth. “
Owners are often advised, therefore, to get an appraisal, specifying that they want retail market value rather than a replacement appraisal for insurance. Appraisals take time and money, of course, although some appraisers might charge less if asked for verbal rather than formal documents.
Experts think that advertising gets one closest to a “retail” price--particularly if the goods are contemporary and readily available elsewhere. The price might only get close, however, because “someone who buys from a private party would want to do better than at a retailer,” says Cosmo Altobelli, a North Hollywood jeweler and appraiser.
Many people, moreover, are reluctant to advertise. “I didn’t want people tracking through my place,” says Iris Pinsky of Los Angeles, who sold her 106-piece set of sterling flatware several years ago. “I didn’t want people even to know I had silver.”
Local retailers or dealers are the most common recourse and, in some ways, the easiest. However, to do it well means “you’ve got to shop the buyers,” says Meyer. Few people know where to start, never mind where to do comparison shopping. With a new piece, some experts suggest the retailer from whom it was bought. Otherwise, “it’s the old story--someone that’s reputable, someone you trust,” says Flashner. “But where do you find them? Ask your friends.”
No Free Appraisals
Another old saw is equally applicable: “Buy retail, sell wholesale.” Dealers are buying for resale, so that estimated market value is immediately cut by half and more to accommodate their profit and sales tax. In fact, if it’s a contemporary item they can get through normal channels, “they want to buy at less than their (ordinary) cost,” Altobelli says, “or why bother?”
Few laymen, moreover, are prepared for the negotiation. Dealers may volunteer no information at all, including what they’d like to pay. “I say, ‘It’s your item: What do you want for it?’ ” says Peter Orgell, vice president of David Orgell Inc., in Beverly Hills. “I don’t give them a free appraisal, and I will not give them an offer straight off. I want them to say what they think it’s worth.”
That’s just business. There’s also a certain amount of routine. “You’re dealing in quicksand, but they have a marvelous time playing the game,” says Peyser. “They start by putting you down: If your diamond is certified a good color, they say it doesn’t look that good to them. And they end--hand on heart--by saying, ‘I wish I could do better for you.’ ”
Many dealers pay purely on weight of the component metal or gem--a good deal for them if there was value as well in the age or artistry, and a potential bonanza with gems, whose color and clarity grade are even more important. Other dealers claim to want an item “just for their own use,” or for a friend, not to sell. The psychology: Who knows? The result: The seller doesn’t push for more money.
Some just shrug it off. “I’m not the Hunt brothers,” says Pinsky. “They could pull the wool over my eyes a thousand different ways.”
The final alternative is an auction house, national or local. Even the biggest, periodically in the news for selling multimillion dollar paintings, sell a lot of smaller stuff. Christie’s average sale price is $10,000, even including the million-dollar items, says Senior Vice President Brian Cole, and at Christie’s East, which handles more humble fare, it’s just below $1,000.
Items for auction are assigned a published estimate of what they should bring, and a secret minimum--the lowest price acceptable. The auction house takes 10% or 15% from the seller (for sale prices respectively over or under $5,000) and 10% from the buyer.
The ultimate sale price usually falls somewhere between wholesale and retail. The audience is perhaps 60% dealers, who will resell the item, and if bidding stops with them, it brings the equivalent of a wholesale price. But bidding could go beyond dealers: “There’s always a chance that on a good day you’ll hit a person who just likes it and bids it up, not looking to resell it,” says Flashner.
Auction houses, however, have their own (slow) routine. They need time to study a photo and careful description, several months to catalogue items (sent at seller’s expense) and put them in an auction, another month to get out a check.
Clearly no alternative is simple or totally fulfilling in terms of time, effort or profit. “No wonder people with a lot of money,” says Peyser, “try to donate their things.”
