Comments on: Ask Unclutterer: Selling something with an unknown value

By: Keekers

Keekers — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:01:27 +0000

I’m super curious to see a pic of this item and which famous rock star is associated with it! A starship captain’s chair signed by David Bowie? A piano stool signed by Elton John? C’mon, share!

By: Linkblog Slimmer Werken – 9 nov 2009 « Arjan Zuidhof

Linkblog Slimmer Werken – 9 nov 2009 « Arjan Zuidhof — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:45:30 +0000

[...] Ask Unclutterer: Selling something with an unknown value – Erin Doland [...]

By: Sooz

Sooz — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:07:46 +0000

@Michael Moncour has an excellent suggestion there — fans of that rock musician may well be willing to pay a nice sum for a chair like that. You might be quite pleasantly surprised! Fans, by their nature, are often willing to essentially over-pay for memorabilia with an autograph.

Also, I suggest you hold the auction on a place like ebay that is reputable, rather than just taking offers from fans on a forum or fan site. If you go the ebay route, make sure to give the fans a link that will take them to your ebay auction.

By: Jennifer J.

Jennifer J. — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:18:13 +0000

Donating to a favorite charity seems like it would be a win-win situation, once you have the chair appraised, so that you know its value.

By: Michael Moncur

Michael Moncur — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:20:14 +0000

I’d look for a community of fans of the musician in question – an online forum, fan site, etc.

Post a picture of the chair there and ask around. You’ll probably get a few people to verify its existence* and maybe even find a buyer.

* obviously they can’t verify its _authenticity_ but I suspect that won’t be a big issue here – forgers have better things to do than make custom furniture.

By: Patty

Patty — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:46:14 +0000

Since you obtained them from a charity auction – why not find a charity auction and donate them. You can take a chartible deduction for your basis or for the sold price, what ever is higher. This way you’d get something for them.

By: Amy

Amy — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:12:20 +0000

At a charity auction I would think that people would be willing to pay vastly different prices, much higher or much lower, than what an item is worth because it is for charity.

That being said, I’ve always firmly believed that objects are worth only what someone is willing to pay for it. But maybe that is just my opinion.

By: Sky

Sky — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:24:53 +0000

Maybe you could contact the Hard Rock Cafe, they display musicians memorabilia.

By: Pammyfay

Pammyfay — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:53:54 +0000

Is the person who autographed the chair still living? If so, why not try to find a physical address for his agent–yeah, it will take some research–and mail a photo of the chair (with an additional closeup of the signature) in a letter asking if the celebrity remembers having anything to do with it? Hopefully the person would be kind enough to send you a letter back. (Who knows–maybe he’d want to buy the chair from you?)

By: Delores

Delores — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:54:39 +0000

I have two paintings that I inherited from my mother-in-law. They are by a local Alaskan artist who no longer has a shop or presence in town. They are probably worth more than bargain basement prices but I have had them for several years because I have not been able to ascertain if they are worth $5, $50, or $500. I have not found anyone to give me an estimate. I am about ready to give them away as they don’t please me and take up space.

By: Mletta

Mletta — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:04:24 +0000

This is a really relevant question. We bought two coffee tables about four years ago from a now-defunct antiques shop in Boston.

We bought them just because we loved them. It turns out they are quite old and may indeed be very valuable. We’d love to keep them, but space is an issue so we decided to sell.

We’ve gotten such widely different info on price that I suspect that some of the people we asked for some info are outright lying (they offered to “take them off our hands”).

Selling on ebay isn’t an option for us as these would be too expensive to ship and still make some money.

We’ve found that craigslist is truly hit and miss. Mostly miss these days given that you’ve got lots of dealers shopping it as well as regular buyers. The dealers don’t pay even wholesale prices and they are used to the “desperation” (gotta move NOW) of most posters here in NYC–so they often snap things up before you can get an offer at a decent price. Meanwhile, if you post more than once, people who are interested notice and use that as an excuse to keep bargaining down the price.

One friend tried for months to sell an expensive table and got ridiculous offers. (It’s like even yard sales today. People want valuable stuff for literally nothing.)

So the tables remain and we may yet have to find a way to repurpose them.

By: Kathryn Fenner

Kathryn Fenner — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:34:04 +0000

Depending on the value, either eBay or a serious auction house is the best route. Set a reasonable reserve based on the appraised value.

By: Sooz

Sooz — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:15:07 +0000

If it was bought at a charity auction in recent years, is it possible that you may find a write-up of the event online OR in a newspaper’s archives — possibly mentioning the chair and what it sold for (maybe even with a photo of the chair?).

Also, maybe Google images might have an image of the chair from when it was on display.