Community Chat

[Q4u]

As far as jewelry, always look for hallmarks and familiarize yourself with karat gold, gold filled, electroplate, gold over sterling, etc.  I've seen very valuable items get tossed into the costume jewelry pile.... 

[debcakes]

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@baker wrote:

My MIL died a few ago and had quite a few antiques that were sold at auction for next to nothing. I don't know what part of the country you live in, but in our area no one is paying fair prices for antiques. We hated to let them go for those prices, but we are ageing too and trying to down size and our young people were not interested in the antiques. Hope you have better luck with your things.

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You hit the nail on the head. Young people are not interested in antiques or collectibles, so there is no market. I think I would have been better off selling my antiques 30 years ago or more. My mother has many antiques that should be valuable, but I may have to settle for finding someone who will be willing to haul them off. I have a house full of things and my children are not interested. I have many antiques in boxes, etc, but that is not the style of decorating I like, either. I really have no idea how   to get rid of this stuff.

[novamc1]

True that today's younger people don't need or want what we might have to give them, but as for the value of antiques and other items once considered "valuable collectibles", I think eBay  has put a serious dent in that.

An item that once was considered scarce, because people could only look for it and find  it in their nearby communities, is now commonplace because of the global nature of online selling.  No such thing anymore as a "one-of-a-kind" status for many items.  Somebody in the big wide world out there has lots of them to sell and has the internet as a marketplace.

[Shorty2U]

Thank you for the replies and informative advice. I will take it all into consideration.

And I am very sorry for the loss of your loved ones.

I think my daughter will like some of the antiques more than my son. But I will offer them to both.

I am keeping the clock and a few other things.

After i posted, I was looking online last night and I do see some of things once worth a lot have come down in price.

Perhaps after its all gone through by my children and a dealer, I will donate the rest to charity as someone mentioned.

When dad passed I did go through his other things, just not these antiques. I also have a few personal things of my moms but those I wont be getting rid of just yet.

Thank you all again.