What Are Your Antiques Worth?
Pricing antiques accurately is one of the most valuable skills a collector, seller, or dealer can develop. Unlike new goods with fixed retail prices, antiques exist in a fluid market where the same item can sell for vastly different amounts depending on where, when, and how it is offered. This guide gives you a practical framework for arriving at fair, evidence-based prices.
Why Antique Pricing Is Different From Regular Pricing
A new item has a manufacturer's suggested price, a wholesale cost, and a retail margin. Antiques have none of these. Each piece is unique — shaped by its age, condition, provenance, rarity, and the current appetite of buyers. Two identical-looking Victorian oil lamps might sell for wildly different amounts if one has documented provenance and the other does not.
This uncertainty is precisely why so many people get pricing wrong. They guess, they copy asking prices from other listings, or they let sentiment override evidence. The antidote is a structured approach built on real market data.
The Foundation: Sold Prices, Not Asking Prices
The single most important rule in antique pricing is this: only use sold prices as your evidence. An item listed at five hundred pounds that sits unsold for six months tells you almost nothing useful. An item that sold at auction for two hundred and twenty pounds tells you exactly what a buyer was willing to pay.
Where to find sold price data:
- eBay completed listings: Filter by "Sold" to see actual sale prices. This is the largest and most accessible source of comparable sales data.
- Auction house results: Most auction houses publish results online. Houses like Bonhams, Christie's, and regional auctioneers all provide sold prices with photographs.
- Price databases: Services like Worthpoint aggregate historical sold prices across multiple platforms.
- Dealer networks: Antique fairs, dealer groups, and trade associations share pricing intelligence informally.
- Trove app: Get quick value estimates directly from your phone when you are out sourcing or sorting through items.
The Five Factors That Determine Antique Value
Every antique's price is shaped by five interconnected variables. Understanding how each one works — and how they interact — is the key to accurate pricing.
1. Condition
Condition is typically the single biggest price driver. A piece in excellent, original condition with no repairs, chips, cracks, or missing parts will almost always command a significant premium over the same item in poor condition.
But condition is nuanced. Some wear is expected and even desirable — it proves authenticity. A Georgian dining table with a perfectly smooth, unmarked surface would be suspicious. Honest age-related patina can actually add value. What damages value is structural problems, amateur repairs, missing parts, and disfiguring damage.
Be honest about condition in your own assessments. Overstating condition leads to returns, disputes, and lost reputation. Understating it means leaving money on the table.
2. Rarity
How many examples survive? A common Staffordshire flatback figurine from the Victorian era might fetch twenty to fifty pounds because thousands were made. A rare colourway or an unusual subject from the same factory might sell for ten times that amount. Rarity drives collector interest because collectors want what others cannot easily find.
Rarity is relative to demand, though. An incredibly rare item that nobody wants to collect is still hard to sell. The sweet spot is an item that is both scarce and sought after.
3. Provenance
Provenance is the documented history of ownership. A painting that hung in a notable collection, a piece of furniture from a documented country house sale, or a piece of jewellery with a known family history all carry premiums. Provenance adds a story, and stories sell.
Even partial provenance helps. A receipt from a respected dealer, a catalogue entry from a previous auction, or a family letter describing the piece all add credibility and value. If you have any documentation, keep it with the item and mention it in your listing.
4. Demand
Demand fluctuates. Mid-century modern furniture has seen enormous price increases over the past two decades. Brown furniture (traditional Victorian and Edwardian mahogany and oak) has fallen out of fashion and prices have dropped significantly. Art Deco pieces remain consistently popular. Demand is driven by interior design trends, generational collecting habits, media exposure, and cultural moments.
You cannot control demand, but you can be aware of it. Selling into a rising market gets better prices. Selling against a declining trend means either accepting lower returns or holding stock until tastes shift again.
5. Venue and Presentation
Where and how you sell matters enormously. The same piece can achieve very different prices depending on the sales channel:
- Specialist auction: Best for rare, high-value, or niche items where expert cataloguing and a targeted buyer audience drive competitive bidding.
- General auction: Good for clearing volume but typically achieves lower prices than specialist sales.
- Online marketplace (eBay, Etsy): Huge audience reach. Works well for items with strong search terms and clear identification. Fees and shipping costs must be factored in.
- Antique fairs and markets: Direct buyer contact, no shipping, and the ability to negotiate. Best for dealers and regular sellers.
- Social media and direct sale: Low fees but requires an established audience. Works well for dealers with a following.
How to Build a Reliable Price Range
Never set a single price for an antique. Always build a range with three tiers:
Step 1: Gather Comparables
Search for five to ten similar items that have actually sold. Match as closely as possible on maker, period, form, size, and condition. The more specific your comparables, the more accurate your pricing.
Step 2: Remove Outliers
Discard the highest and lowest results if they seem anomalous. An unusually high price might reflect two determined bidders in a one-off battle. An unusually low price might reflect a poorly described listing or a damaged example.
Step 3: Adjust for Differences
Your piece will not be identical to your comparables. Adjust for condition differences, size variations, colour or pattern variations, completeness (does it have its lid, its saucer, its original case?), and any provenance advantages or disadvantages.
Step 4: Set Your Three-Tier Range
- Quick-sale price (low): The price at which the item will sell fast — within days. Useful when you need to free up cash or clear stock.
- Market price (mid): The price the item should achieve with a well-written listing, good photos, and reasonable patience. This is your target.
- Premium price (high): Achievable if you find the right buyer, sell through the right venue, or hold until demand peaks. Do not expect this every time.
Condition Grading: A Common Language
Consistent condition grading builds buyer trust and reduces disputes. Use clear, objective grades:
- Mint / As New: No signs of use, wear, or age. Extremely rare for genuine antiques — if something looks mint, question whether it is actually old.
- Excellent: Very light wear consistent with age. No chips, cracks, repairs, or missing parts. All original.
- Very Good: Minor wear and perhaps very small imperfections. No significant damage. Fully functional and displayable.
- Good: Shows its age. May have minor chips, light scratches, small repairs, or some wear to gilding or decoration. Structurally sound.
- Fair: Noticeable damage, repairs, or missing elements. Still displayable or usable but condition issues are visible.
- Poor / As Found: Significant damage, major repairs needed, or substantial parts missing. Priced for restoration or parts.
Always accompany your grade with specific notes. "Very Good — light wear to gilding on rim, no chips or cracks" is far more useful than "Very Good" alone.
Common Pricing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
- Using only one comparable: A single data point is not a trend. Always gather multiple comparables to understand the range.
- Ignoring all-in costs: Platform fees, payment processing, shipping, packaging materials, insurance, and your time all eat into margin. A piece that sells for fifty pounds but costs fifteen to ship and ten in fees nets you twenty-five.
- Sentimental pricing: Your grandmother's teapot may be priceless to you, but the market sets the price. If comparable teapots sell for thirty pounds, that is the market value regardless of emotional attachment.
- Copying asking prices: An item listed at three hundred pounds for the past year has not sold at three hundred pounds. It is not worth three hundred pounds. Look at what similar items actually sold for.
- Ignoring market timing: Christmas decorations sell best in November. Garden ornaments peak in spring. Seasonal awareness improves sell-through rates and prices.
- Not refreshing data: Markets move. Comparables from three years ago may not reflect current values. Always use the most recent sold data available.
Category-Specific Pricing Notes
Ceramics
Maker and pattern are the primary drivers. A common Royal Doulton character jug might sell for ten to twenty pounds. A rare colourway of the same jug could sell for several hundred. Damage to ceramics — even a small chip — can reduce value by thirty to fifty percent or more.
Furniture
Size matters enormously. Oversized Victorian sideboards are currently difficult to sell because modern homes have smaller rooms. Smaller, versatile pieces — side tables, occasional chairs, desks — sell more easily. Original finish and hardware add premium; stripped or heavily restored pieces sell for less.
Silver
Silver has a floor price based on melt value (weight multiplied by current silver price per gram). Decorative, unusual, or maker-marked pieces sell well above melt. Common, plain, or damaged silver often sells near melt value. Always weigh silver items and calculate the melt value as your starting point.
Jewellery
Material value (gold weight, stone quality) provides a floor price. Design, maker, period, and wearability add premium. Art Deco and Victorian jewellery currently commands strong prices. Broken or damaged pieces may still have significant material value.
Collectibles
Collectibles markets can be volatile. What is hot today may cool tomorrow. Price conservatively, sell into strength, and do not hold large inventory in trend-dependent categories unless you can afford the risk.
Using Technology to Price Smarter
Manual pricing research takes time. For a single high-value item, thorough research is worthwhile. But if you are dealing with dozens or hundreds of items — clearing an estate, running a stall, or managing resale inventory — you need faster tools.
Trove helps you get a quick first-pass valuation directly from your phone. Snap a photo, get an identification and estimated value range, and decide in seconds whether an item is worth buying, researching further, or passing on. This is especially valuable at flea markets, car boot sales, and auctions where decisions need to happen fast.
