How to sell silverware
How to Sell Your Sterling Silver Flatware and Holloware
hello chris hobbiton here from Bellaire
coins golden diamond and the Silver
Queen incorporated
located in Tampa Bay Florida we're here
today to help you get the most for your
sterling silver items when you're
selling Mary Ann has a lot of questions
today I do where can I go to buy and
sell sterling silver the best place to
buy and sell sterling silver is at a
pattern matching service just like the
silver Quinn incorporated we make a
living out of buying and selling your
silver items sometimes for the silver
value but we have over a hundred
thousand customers existing and we can
actually sell this for more than the
silver value so definitely a pattern
matching service how would I know I'm
getting a fair price well getting a fair
price is bait buyer beware seller beware
make sure you check out who you're
selling to if it's not us at the Silver
Queen at least find out have they been
in business for 40 years
are they family owned and operated are
they entrenched in the business make
sure when you walk into the store
there's so much inventory that they
couldn't possibly be gone overnight
because you wouldn't want to take a
check from someone that was there one
day and gone the next would I benefit
from selling my items at an auction
auctions honestly are hit mister
sometimes you can do really great at an
auction you could exceed your
expectations then other times you get
less than a silver value so my
suggestion is always get go somewhere
where you can get an offer immediately
and know what you're getting what if I
choose to leave them on consignment
consignment in this industry is always a
dirty word if person if a person cannot
offer you a fair price that you feel
comfortable with it's best never to
leave it on consignment because
basically what you're doing is you're
giving them your merchandise so that
they can hopefully potentially sell it
for more than you're asking but in
general we've heard so many stories
where customers have been so unsatisfied
in the past with other dealers that they
left things on consignment that they
come to us and they realize it's selling
immediately is the best way
now should I polish it or clean it
before I bring it in
well people love this when I say no you
do not have to polish
you do not have to clean it bring it in
as it is what if I choose to buy or sell
on the Internet
buying or selling on the Internet well
there's a lot of good companies on the
Internet of course the Silver Queen
dot-com is on the Internet and there are
other pattern matching services that are
reputable that you can buy and sell with
however some of the internet auction
sites again just like the regular
auction sites they're hit miss you may
exceed your expectations at one point
and other points you may sell it for
less so again do your research before
you deal with anybody on the Internet
how could I tell them I own whether it's
silver or just silver-plated
good question most sterling silver items
will be marked with an indicator that
will say sterling silver the actual word
or the decimal equivalent of 0.9 to five
and then of course sterling came from
England and they had the original what
they call the passat lion it's a lion
that has three feet on the ground and
one Paul raised if you see that that is
sterling silver a lot of the other
pieces you have might be silver plate
and those are marked on the bottom
they'll usually be marked EPC which is
elective plated copper or you may have
something marked silver ware marked AAA
or double-a what that means is it has
two coats of sterling silver plate or
one coat depending on how many A's there
are so again take a look at the back of
it but when in doubt always come to your
dealer and have us take a look at it and
we'll determine that for you
and if I find out it's just silver plate
is it still worth something in general
silver plate has very little value the
only silver plate items that are really
worth anything are figural that's men
and lions and people carrying Worlds and
flowers if it's not extremely ornate if
it's a simple chalice or platter like
this or plate don't think it has any
value
what about coin silver well coin silver
refers to silver made prior to 1865
that's when silver would actually be
melted down from the coins and they
would form a goblets or silverware
people generally think that that's worth
quite a bit however most coins silver
comes in such bad condition it's just
not worth anything and how would you
determine the overall value of my
silverware
well silverware
and silver items have intrinsic value
which is the metal value but they also
have the artistic or usable value
however people get a little upset
sometimes dealers must weigh your silver
to ensure that you're getting at least
the silver value and then what we do is
we take a look at the pattern we took a
look at the condition the maker there
are better makers names that can be
worth quite a bit more so once we take a
look at the maker how much it weighs the
condition the pattern we formulate that
all together and we make an offer now my
silver items continue to increase in
value in the future the ER items may
increase in value in the future if
silver and gold prices go up this type
of material does follow the silver
market so as silver goes up and gold
goes up your value and your silverware
does increase however the collectability
market has been decreasing over the
years so we have seen it kind of stay
pretty much the same but a lot of people
don't ask that question because they're
thinking about themselves they think
well if I leave this to my kids is it
going to be more valuable someday well a
lot of times they leave it to their kids
and little Johnny little Susie come in
and they sell the silver for less than
you would have sold it for so the best
bet is always have it checked out know
what you have and before you give
something to your heirs make sure that
you ask them do you want it and if they
say well we're just going to sell it
maybe you should do that just give them
the money okay well we've asked a lot of
questions today and we've answered a lot
of questions we hope you learned a lot
but if we did not answer the question
you're looking for please check out our
website at the Silver Queen calm again
silver queen calm or bel-air coins calm
again silver queen calm or bel-air coins
calm my personal email address is Chris
at Silver Queen calm but we've also
joined the New Age technology and we all
have cell phones that are smartphones
now so if you have an item you're not
sure about a picture speaks a thousand
words please take a picture text me that
picture and I can answer the questions
almost immediately my cell phone number
personal cell phone number again Chris
our Burton 727 452 one forty seven
twenty seven
8 to 1 for 8 well we've answered a lot
of questions today and we've hoped you
learned a lot thanks for watching
