Valuing Antiques

Valuing antiques refers to determining how much a specific antique is worth either at auction, for a private sale or for insurance purposes. There is a television show called Antiques Roadshow that does travel about the country holding events where people can bring in antiques to have them valued for free by experts. You can also bring your antiques to an antique dealer to have them appraised.

Learning how to value and appraise antiques takes years of studying and practicing the trade. But there are some basic rules you can use to help you determine if your antiques have any monetary value.

1. Look for manufacturer or designer marks on the piece. Such pieces with an identifying mark will help date the item and make it more valuable than ones without such a mark. If you need to, go over the piece with a magnifying glass because something you may dismiss as a scratch could be the mark of the maker. On hand painted items, the artist usually signed the piece in some way and it doesn’t necessarily have to be on the front.

2. Consider the condition of the piece. Items that are in excellent condition are worth considerably more than items that have fallen into disrepair and show their age. You have to look at all flaws, such as cracks, scratches and tears, excessive usage and missing pieces. Each of these takes away from the value of the antique.

3. Determine whether it is a rare item. If the antique is quite rare with very few of them being in existence or even having been created, then it is valuable no matter what condition it is in.

4. Just because the item is old doesn’t necessarily mean it has any monetary value. In some cases, it may not even be worth as much as you paid for it. In order for an old item to be valuable, it does have to be in high demand. So if you have an item that is hard to find and which collectors are looking for, you will get more for it at auction than if you had an item of which there are hundreds.

5. Sometimes items that people think are antiques are actually fakes and deliberately made to look old. You have to be able to determine if the item is authentic. If it is fake, it has absolutely no value.

6. Restorations and repairs affect the value of antiques because they do not have the original finish or components. It is better to leave the scratches and dents in a piece of furniture, for example, exactly as they are rather than repair them. However, minor repairs may not affect the value.

7. Even damaged items can be worth money if they are salvageable. Some dealers will buy damaged parts to use in repairing other items.