House clearance

LooniesMum

Stockport, Cheshire

We've had the sad task of clearing out my parents' home after they both died. The contents are now reduced to a few boxes of glass and china that I really do not know what to do with! I've tried e-bay searches and one or two items do show up on there but haven't sold

Is there another way of finding our whether the items have any value? Anyone know where you might take such things..... other than the charity shops?!

Some things have manufacturer's marks but others don't and I'm a complete novice when it comes to antiques. I'm saving a few nice bits to share around the family but no one wants a whole dinner service and I think I've got 2 boxed up!!

Ideas please!

cifpower

A bit of a strecth but maybe you could take your bits and bobs to Flog It?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/beonashow/flogit.shtml

hermum

Your local auction house will usually give free appraisals.

Kyrae

As the above poster has said, take them along to a local auction house. There's a list of auction houses in the north here:

http://www.auctionguides.co.uk/areaprot/auction_details/northern_england.htm

Most good auction houses will be happy to look through your items and give you a rough idea of their value, and they don't charge for this and there's no obligation to sell. If there's anything special and worth money then they might take it out and suggest you auction it seperately, or they might want to put all your items together in one lot and sell them together. It's great fun to watch the auction too, just don't end up buying more than you sell!

The other option is to take them along to a local antiques dealer or house clearance company, but there's no guarantee that theyll be honest with you and pay a fair price! Auction houses are a better option as they have a reputation to keep up so won't try and rip you off, and the more money they sell it for the more money you both get so its in their interest to sell things for as much as possible

Hope that helps!

LooniesMum

Thanks Kyrie - that's a useful post. Will have a look what is near to me - some have no website so it's hard to tell whether they are only holding auctions of cars!

LooniesMum

Oooh....... one of them lets you send photos and they will give a rough estimate. Will probably give that a try - though I'll have to unpack it all !

tooyoung

If you want to get rid of stuff and get the best price, auction houses are the best bet.

I was in a similar position with my mum's stuff. Got so fed up with it hanging around I took it to a car boot. Nearly lost my life in the scrum.

Now I regularly visit auctions for the fun of it and I am amazed at what stuff goes for.