You're driving to an errand and spot an estate sale sign. Not one to pass up some fun, you go in. You spot some unusual looking pieces that you recall seeing once before and the price is right. Now you have to figure out what they are and what they're worth. I've included photos today of items that could be quite a challenge to properly identify. Most people would check
eBay and let that be their deal maker or breaker. I suggest you use it as a rough guideline only. eBay is inconsistent. Times of day, year, location in the world, photograph quality, etc can all affect the final auction price radically. I generally use eBay for identification purposes. It can be quite helpful to find enough information to then go pop into google.
If you still don't know what you have, that's not a problem. Someone else out there doesn't know either and they can help you! I find that by giving a general description of the item's physical attributes, other similar items usually turn up. I use
Google for this, but
Bing has been useful too. For example, this antique
lamp from India puzzled me for months. At first, I couldn't even tell it was an oil lamp; I thought it was for candles. It was so far removed from the mid century modern estate that I found it in, and my brain couldn't quite comprehend it. I kept typing in variations of brass stand, birds, hollow, etc. Finally! I found a website (only one!) selling 3 of these. Then I was enlightened. (okay, bad pun)
The other tool that is tremendously helpful is
Google Images. It's fairly hit and miss in some cases, but it also can be Whammo! Spot on. I've found many helpful websites by linking to them from images. I find the search to be most helpful when I'm in the dark and just describing things blindly. 9 times out of 10, someone else is doing the same thing. They usually have just enough extra info to aim me in the proper direction.
Another site that I find helpful is
Worthpoint. Not from the angle of accurate pricing-they, like eBay that they pull from, are wildly all over the map. Worthpoint helps aggregate information about the history of items by pulling descriptions. I pay for it, and I generally use it up every month-but I'm also dealing with thousands of items that I have to identify for my business. I suggest sharing a membership with another seller or two if you won't use it up. (It gives you a set number of searches each month for a flat rate.)
Collector websites are a treasure trove of information. So many people love to compile all the information they can about their passions and share them. I find sites where every item by a maker is catalogued with history, marks and photographs. I bookmark these sites and refer to them often. Let the homework someone elso has done help you.
And of course, Etsy and Google Shopping can both be informative. Since Etsy doesn't reveal sold prices, I've found it helpful to email sellers asking if they'll share that info. So far, all have. I've also helped people emailing me. Again, I just use it as a guideline since many people just price within their own personal comfort zone. Google Shopping aggregates info from a few different places, including Etsy. It's cool to accidentally run across your own items being sold!
I can't stress enough how vital it is to gather proper information and identification. I've learned this the hard way. Once long ago, I gave up on researching on an item just to get the cash. Found it later online for 150 times what I'd sold it for, in the high thousands. I'm more patient now!
