Antique furniture appraiser blowing smoke.

[Godscreated]

Ok, looking for some extra cash to help pay for my new mobile home i intend on buying. Trying to sell off some furniture I damned well know is quality and not reproductions which were handed to my parents by theirs before they adopted me.

So today, I get an appraiser to look at them. One what I can only describe as a antique library or accounting desk solid wood, ornate with iron fixtures dovetailed woodwork, not machine, and a separating book shelf. With a matching coffee table and low boy. They are each worth grands each I am sure of it. The desk itself I couldn't see going for no less than 2 to 5k, if not more. 

What was absurd is he was trying to tell me I could only get 75 to 100 each. 

If anyone has any experience with selling antiques is it better to say put an add in the paper or let a consignment shop or auction house do it for you? I know the stuff is worth way more than he eyeballed.

Be careful of auctions, most will not guarantee a set price and if the money people are not there you lose. Dealers are at auctions looking for deals and so are those looking for antiques, I know I use to buy that way and I knew who the dealers were by the way they bid. Do not believe all you see on Antique Roadshow, remember they are producing a show to sell to a market.

I can tell you that coffee tables are a modern type of furniture and so will not command a big price, low boys are still in style and could very well be fairly new, don't misunderstand when I say new, i'm speaking of things made from the 20th century till today. Furniture style and the makers are more important than what the pieces are. Refinished furniture doesn't necessarily devalue a piece. there are a lot of things that go into making a piece worth what you say yours are worth, without some close up pictures, real age of pieces, types of wood, style and maker it's hard to know what your pieces are worth, they very well could be worth what you think or they could be worth very little. How do you know the dovetails are not machine made and even if they are hand made that might not hold much weight. Before the router almost all furniture had hand made dovetails. I make all my dovetails by hand, but that doesn't mean what I make is worth thousands of dollars. I actually can make almost all joints by hand and all that means is that I've spent a lot of time building a pieces, the maker makes a difference. If your pieces were made in a furniture factory they are probably not going to be worth as much as you think. Post some quality pictures of the pieces and some enlarged details such as the dovetails and hardware. I hope you take this as only as advice, without see the pieces personally I couldn't tell you a lot. Look on the back or bottom of the pieces if you find a stamped number it's a factory made piece and there could even be a date. I have a beautiful mahogany dresser that was made in 1930 and factory built and extremely well built, yet it want bring a thousand dollars. I hope your pieces are worth what you believe they are and that you get a good price for them, just remember most people believe their pieces handed down from a couple generations ago think they have those treasures worth thousands, very few are worth that much, but they do have treasures because those that came before them wanted to give later generations of the family something to remember them by. Sometimes the greater value is from who it came, not the monetary value.

GC