Selling antique silver?

1

I have been collecting antique silver for a long time and ended up with a rather large and very random collection.

I’m thinking about selling quite a lot of items partly for space but mostly to raise a little money.

I haven’t really ever sold silver before and was hoping someone here might have some advice.

I know of course that I could sell to a precious metal buyer online, but they would only be paying the Scrap value of the metal.

I feel a little uneasy about selling high value items on eBay.

I’ve found a group on Facebook that focuses on bullion and pier to pier buying and selling but I was wondering if anything similar exists for antique silverware and jewelry?

Any advice would be appreciated.

2

Anytime anybody is interested in selling something they have spent a lifetime or a significant portion of a lifetime collecting, folks like me get very interested.

But this isn’t a commercial forum, and I think the owners of this blog might get upset if we attempted to set up shop within its ambit.

So, what I will do is suggest some thoughts about the general means of selling silver.
.
Auctions, either on or offline, represent an excellent way of disposing of silver with some control over the price retained by the assignor. That’s the good news. The bad is that you typically only get 55% or less of the fair market value, what with sellers’ commissions, buyers’ commission and the auctioneers’ cut and tax that needs to be collected and paid on public sale – it does on private sales too. Pace taxman, reading this.

The problem with online auction sites is too much unintended misrepresentation, and shipping costs take all the fun out of it for both buyer and seller.

Putting your silver into a retailer on consignment. You pay him nothing unless he sells it, and then a pre-fixed fee. In order of magnitude, the problems are that he may be pitching his own gear against yours, lack of insurance if loss of damage, and, well, I am still looking for a pair of candlesticks I consigned to someone thirty-two years ago.

So deal with someone you know and trust, and preferably sell outright. Write a simple agreement as to what he can do and what he mustn’t do if you are doing an assignment.

Where and how you sell depends on what you are selling. What period, if it’s silver for everyday use, Victorians or late Georgian or something going back from that a bit stricltly for the collector.

Set up your descriptions thoroughly. What it is, provenance, when and by whom it was made, its weight and size. If it needs to be repaired or has been repaired, be candid. Come up with a fair price and stick to it. Photo clearly with 40pixel or better lens. And take clear shots of fiddly bits like hallmarks.

If you need further and better particulars, there is a lot of expertise lurking around in this blog.

CRWWilson
Guildhall Antiques
Toronto, Canada

3

I realize that your question was primarily aimed as finding an online group dedicated to the business of selling antique silver. If there is such a group they have escaped my notice too.

There are, of course, a number of physical or realtime groups with website attributes which attempt the same function.

As you had not told the forum of you location it was difficult to know who to recommend. You might start with you Midland dealers and if you find them unable to help go down to London and talk to the various specialist sellers in the Silver Vaults.

Then of course there is always the BADA, whose membership roster is a good guide for integrity.

CRWW