what ive learned about price guides...

we probably have 200 antique price guides......we used to buy several copies of the general guide, schroeders, so we would have one in every truck and ever handy at any buying situation..we also have lots of specific guides.... they used to matter a lot.....several of our buyers would buy by the book so we did too, especially in depression glass , elegant glass and pottery...

.....now it seems like they were so wrong and maybe led us in the antique world over the edge in pricing our stuff. .making most things priced higher than the real market would bear..............maybe it was ebay that proved this to everybody, maybe style change

anyway a huge majority of the prices out there in the antique world today are way lower than the guides say...

now ...IN GENERAL, i think the guides are almost always innacurate....if i could get 50% of the prices in the guides i would be doing great....luckily i dont have to get 50% because i can buy way under that price....as anyone who goes to auctions knows..... the books turned out to be so wrong.....

the good thing is they might tell you what the rare thing is in any category, or good general background info......i keep and value lots of my old guides for that reason...

im very sure this theory can be appplied to the vast middle and lower parts of the antiques out there in the world..like most of the stuff i will ever find.......but in the very high parts, like the top 10% of any category, the super rare, the price guides might be a real help and maybe even way under in value....

IMHO

..ps...i never believe anything i read about antique prices in decorating mags.. outrageously bad sometimes

pss...you can see the real experts on the roadshow, the folks who have studied thier one field for years.......and realize how deep thier knowledge is... so different from the general appraiser at the charity event or in the motel room trying to buy your stuff......

psss....you can find out a lot from looking your thing up on ebay... not the asking price but the selling price......