Poa need help with selling items

mum1964 · 10 February 2019 at 12:19PM

Not sure if I have posted this in the correct place. Apologies if not.

My husband has just been given ALPA for health and financial matters, for his 95 year old aunt. It has become apparent that she can no longer npmanage at home, therefore we have moved her into a nursing home, which is self funding.
Now the problems really start, as she has requested that we dispose of all her household bits and pieces. There is rather a lot. We have done the rubbish run, the charity stuff is bagged and ready to go, but we have a large number of paintings and prints, approx 50. I,m not keen on contacting a auction house, due to previous bad experience, but was wondering if anyone was aware of how to get the paintings valued. We are just trying to make sure there is sufficient money to fund the care costs. I am using eBay, for a rough idea, of ornaments etc.

Savvy_Sue · 10 February 2019 at 11:32PM

Obviously I don't know what your previous bad experience with an auction house was, but is there an alternative auction house you could sound out? The one we used was truly excellent.

Marcon · 11 February 2019 at 12:48AM

Nothing to stop you asking a local auction house to come and give you some sort of idea of value. Many will do so (free, in the hope you'll sell via them) and at least you might get an inkling of whether it's worth trying to sell them or if they too are charity shop fodder. Unless your aunt was a discerning collector, you may find the frames are worth more than the pictures - and then only a few pounds each. Have you asked her about any of them, assuming she is compos mentis enough to discuss?

Keep_pedalling · 11 February 2019 at 9:55AM

You could try and sell on EBay but it is going to be a lot of hassle and work for you. The best option is to start with an auction house. Anything of low value they may only be interested in selling as a job lot or not at all, but at least they should be able to identify anything worth going to auction with.

Spelunthus · 11 February 2019 at 11:49AM

There are many honest and trustworth auction houses. Avoid the cowboys who cold-call. Sadly, the reality of the economics means that most domestic art and ornaments will realise very little, after storage, handling and fees. If you can recover 30% of the "value" you are doing well. If you think some items MAY have real value, then it is worthwhile paying for a professional valuation (independant of an auction house). This is all a LOT of work - as is eBay.