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Garage Sale Purchase of a $10 Cruet Set Turns Into Sale of $850 Antique
San Francisco, California - November 9, 2007 - Just imagine how ecstatic Marla Stickland was when the tarnished and dusty little Huilier (Cruet Set) she picked up for a mere $10 at a neighborhood garage sale, turned out to be an important antique. She had no idea that such a dull looking item, when cleaned revealed a maker's mark and a bunch of other symbols that once deciphered by Marks4Antiques.com, turned into a sale of $850.
Not only were these marks totally nonsensical to her at the time, but they were dispersed throughout the piece. They were interspersed at various parts of the underside, and looked like initials with a flower, a woman's head, a bearded man's face and other strange looking ciphers. The first thing Marla thought was to use Google and search for all these symbols. But how do you even begin describing all these little images using words and terms, most of which can only be communicated using convoluted and long sentences? She was stuck.
After spending countless frustrating hours On-line, but driven by her intuition that there must be a story in these silver marks, she stumbled upon Marks4Antiques.com. She knew that her cruet set was made mostly of silver, so she thought "if I could at least identify the silver marks, I may have a starting point for more research...". She was right!
Marks4Antiques.com displays all antiques marks in shape categories. So, if a mark looks like a ship, then all marks that look like a ship or a boat, are displayed on one page. If a mark looks like a crown, all marks that look like a crown are listed on one page. The same with animals, flowers, crests, letters and a number of other shape categories. This pictorial method makes it easy to find antiques marks by just looking at images and comparing them.
Well, lo and behold, there they were! All of her marks were listed in their shape categories for silver marks and Marla was able to quickly determine that her $10 Huilier was actually made in France during the early 18th century and specifically signed by one of the most sought after silversmiths of that era, Paul De Lamerie ca 1713 - 1732.
Furthermore, the other silver symbols were the .950 Sterling Silver mark for France during that period and another mark was like a "stamp of approval" by the Association of Silver & Gold Smiths of Paris, France. Marla sold this cleaned up and now identified Huilier for $850. What a find!!
"We get a lot of similar success stories from many of our members" said Lisa Marion of Marks4Antiques.com. "Most of our members are online sellers, antiques dealers or appraisers. We also have several reputable auction houses that constantly use our databases of antiques marks, whether it is for ceramics marks or silver & jewelry marks, because they know that identifying and describing items accurately, increases their chance of attaining higher prices during a sale".
Based on statistics of over 5,000 items sold on eBay and other online venues, it has been determined that items listed with the correct attribution and identity, sold for prices that were at least 60% higher and sold 4 times faster than items that were only generically described. This is partly because most online users search for items by name. In most cases, they know what they want and look for a specific maker. For this reason, items that include their actual origin or maker in the title or description, come up on these searches more prominently and consistently fetch more money.
For example, a "Flow Blue Plate" may bring $20 - $60 on eBay, if lucky. Yet a "Minton Flow Blue Plate ca 1860s" will probably sell for at least $50 - $100 and perhaps more. It will also come up near the top during a search for a buyer that is specifically looking for a Minton Flow Blue plate. "I know it makes sense" Lisa Marion from Marks4Antiques.com continued, "but you'd be surprised how many times we look on eBay and items that are clearly marked and easily identifiable, sell for a mere fraction of what they are worth because the seller did not attribute the item to a specific maker. This may be a great bargain for those that have the time to look through every listing in a certain category, but it is certainly not fair to the Sellers".
Accredited media interested in discussing this topic in more detail are encouraged to schedule an interview by sending their request to Contact@Marks4Antiques.com or visit their Web site at Marks4Antique.com
About Marks4Antiques.com
Marks4Antiques.com was created to help Collectors and Dealers to research Antiques & Collectibles. The successful launch of Marks4Ceramics.com in 2004 was quickly followed by Marks4Silver.com in 2006 and then Values4Antiques.com this year. All websites were designed for use online in order to accommodate the growing number of mobile Antiques and Collectibles Dealers that roam the country to different Auctions or Shows and those that sell or buy online (eBay etc). Subscribing to any of the websites provides easy and fast pictorial methods of identifying and self-appraising items. An active member can also contact the experts of each website for personal assistance when a mark is not already in the database at no additional cost. To facilitate an unbiased Antiques Research & Evaluation environment, no Trade (buying or selling) of items is allowed through these sites as they are totally dedicated to Research. All staff are avid Collectors, Appraisers and professional Dealers. The company is owned and operated in the State of California, USA
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