Quote:
Originally Posted by TxSilver
I know all this RStocker. You have added it to almost every thread. What does it have to do with identifification and value of the alabastro dogs?
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It was a reply to your saying the market is moving. I am glad you think it is. I don't see it at all. The market has everthing to do with the value of an item. Values no longer have a slot because things are selling for such low prices. Some people are getting a good price and others are not haveing any sales. The world market is worse off than the US market and right now we don't have one. I have never seen a market like this. We have gone backwards 40 years on many things. I am not sure we can come up with values that are even close because the market varries across the country so much. I know everyone wants a value on their treasure. Through the years Murano glass is one of those things that has had a very wide range of value depending on location. When I imported cargo containers I had a lot of Murano glass. In my location at the time I could not sell it very well. 99 percent of my sales were to dealers from the Los Angles area. They sold it for 5 times what I could. I will tell you one thing that through the years the average American Antique dealer never put much value on the common pieces of Murano glass. American glass was very hot for 35 years and now there seems to be no market for it either. Take the Blinco glass company for instance. It is one of the last American glass companies. PBS runs specials promoting the glass but the bottom line is in antique shops you can't give it away. For Murano glass it seems to me that the larger costal cities have a market for Murano and other art forms where middle America does not place a high value on them. I take all my dinner ware, stem ware etc back to my daughter where she gets 4 times for it what I can get for it here. I bring the art deco etc out here and sell it do dealers that are friends of mine. Areas of the country have pool parties and other arieas have dinner parties. It might be because of international tavel creats more of a market for import produducts in the costal cities. It has everthing to do with value. That old saying location, location, location. You need a value for a guide so you don't give things away when selling them but the bottom line is that unless it is rare you sell it according to what you paid for it. I have always aimed for trippling my money on small things and doubling it on furniture unless you get it very cheap. Between my antique mall, imports, used furniture store and buying and selling of fine art through the years I have sold over 6 million dollars worth of items. In the end I don't care about the end value. I care about the value at the market level where I am selling at the time. I have sold things through the big auction houses and made great money. I have also sold directly to the high end antique dealers where they have doubled their money or more. I often think something has much more value than what the item is bring. Then I look at some things that bring huge prices that I think are junk.
The best current example of pricing is at Ruby lane. Lenox the furnace company gave a way salt shakers to their clients. They gave a way the RCA dog salt shakers. One lady on Ruby lane has a pair that are not marked Lenox and she wants $80 for the pair. She said she had a pair once marked Lenox. She thinks they are made by the dish ware company. You can scroll down the page and find them for $8 a pr. or go on Ebay where they are at a buy now price of $7.99. I just happen to have a pr I paid a dollar for. I have sold them for $22. Now you tell me what is the value.
As a contractor and builder I quit building and remodeling for others. I made more money buying a house and remodeling it and I built custom homes. I had none of the problems that go with having clients. I sold the home a little under the going rate and turned my money. I made all the profit and not the client. I made more money and sold homes cheper than anyone else. Was I wrong? Many migh think so but I retired at age 41 and went back to the university and received a degree in Architecture, Art, Math and business. Replacement cost are one thing, value another, what you can sell it for is far different depending on location and economic times. The bottom line is the value is not what an item has sold for in the past or what you think it is wroth but what you can get for it at the time of sale. I might be way off but my moth filled wallet says differently. An item no matter how fantastic has no wroth if you can't sell it.
09-19-2009, 11:56 AM
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