What is the best way to assess if a collectible item (ceramic figurine) has potential sale value?
I recently became the owner of a rather large collection of Precious Moments figurines. Is there a best way to find out if any of these well-maintained figurines hold any value to collectors?
Answers ( 1 )
There is good news and bad news.
The bad news is that Precious Moments figures, Franklin Mint plates, Lladro figures and other pseudo collectibles have a serious flaw in that they are often purchased with the expectation that they will increase in value, when they are actually produced in quantities that satisfy the existing market, including limited editions and pieces that are no longer in production. Many of these items will sell for less than their original retail price since they are essentially used knick knacks. Most of those few older figures whose selling price has increased somewhat haven’t kept up with inflation, outside of a handful of pieces. Not having the original box drops the selling price by 5 - 20%, further reducing possible profit. Of the original 21 PM figures, some sell for very little, a few may command hundreds of dollars.
The good news is that you didn’t purchase these objects as an investment, so any money you can get for these is a windfall. If a person bought the pieces just because they enjoyed looking at them and felt the price was reasonable, then they got their money’s worth.
The other bad news is that values for objects deliberately created to be collectible are very volatile and the number of people who want any particular piece is limited, so if a few people buy a specific “rare” piece the demand can collapse. If you see that a piece sold for $100, you may still have trouble finding someone else who will pay $50.
There are companies online that offer to help you list and broker sales of Precious Moments and similar items, but they are not free and likely only to be worth using if you happen to have one of the unusual pieces that demand a higher price. This document has a chart of the symbols used to identify manufacture dates. You’ll notice that most of the prices they list run from $5 - $20. It isn’t new but prices won’t have increased much of at all.
http://vintagerarestuff.com/pm344561/PM5456498555.pdf
You are looking at doing a bunch of homework on the off chance that a moderately valuable piece might be amongst the collection and then selling them on eBay. While there are always items that are optimistically overpriced by sellers, simply looking at what identical items have sold for on eBay will give you a rough estimate of what you might be able to get someone else to pay. You might want to keep a piece or two as a memento of the person.