How much are my collectibles worth?
Why it’s so hard to advise on collectibles value
Collectibles Yardsale Privacy Policy
The vast world of collecting and why you have to do your own research
ps. join me at the biggest yardsale in the world. it happens every year the first weekend in august. official dates for 2010 are aug. 5-8 but in Jamestown, TN, where it starts, they set up a week in advance.
I get requests all the time, from people wanting me to tell them what their collectibles are worth.
It’s understandable. When I first started at this, I didn’t have a clue what anything was worth, I just knew when I saw something that felt like it was worth something. I have a knack. I can walk into a room full of junk and spot the one treasure. For example, I was somewhere one day, looking for toys for my nieces and nephews and also looking for the few collectible toys I knew anything about - at that time, Pokemon and a SSC.
I glimpsed an unusual doll. I had never seen one like it. I bought it to research. Turned out to be a Blythe Doll. They were only made one year, 1972, though newer versions came back out decades later. It was probably the only thing in that entire place that was worth more than a few dollars.
Anyway, back to the subject of asking advice about what collectibles are worth, this is what I tell folks:
Each type of collectible, and there are hundreds of thousands, is like it’s own little universe. If popular, there may literally be thousands of items in just one line, in just one year.
Unless you specialize, you just can’t know what a particular one is worth. About the only thing I know a lot about is some art, by just a few artists, and vintage Strawberry Shortcake. Everything else, I have to research extensively before I list it.
I’d just do a search on anything you have, and compare prices on the
main collectible sites, like tias, rubylane and, of course, ebay.
However, ebay prices vary so widely that I usually take an average on whatever listings are there for the collectible I am researching and try to find info that supports that elsewhere too.