03/26/2017
Treasure Hunt in your own home!!!
Whether you’re spring cleaning, downsizing for retirement, or helping your parents do the same, don’t be too quick to throw it all out. Chances are there’s lots of stuff stashed in your attic, basement or garage (or on grandma’s étagère) that can bring in cold cash. Here are 10 types of hidden treasure to look for.
Gold And Silver Jewelry
The real stuff is often thrown in with costume jewelry in a shoebox or dresser drawer. With gold and silver prices so high, even an ugly piece that doesn’t qualify as a valuable heirloom can be sold for its scrap value. Since most refiners won’t take retail customers, you’ll need to get bids from a few gold buying stores in your area.“Tacky”
Heirlooms
Don’t underestimate the value of old stuff (even if it’s not to your taste) that can be hidden in an ordinary, modestly priced house. No, you may not find a Tiffany lamp worth $80,000. But a new client showed Brooklyn, N.Y., appraiser Fran Zemans a collection of porcelain plaques she had inherited and thought were worthless–turned out they were hand-painted in late-19th-century Berlin and worth thousands.
“Tacky” Heirlooms
Don’t underestimate the value of old stuff (even if it’s not to your taste) that can be hidden in an ordinary, modestly priced house. No, you may not find a Tiffany lamp worth $80,000. But a new client showed Brooklyn, N.Y., appraiser Fran Zemans a collection of porcelain plaques she had inherited and thought were worthless–turned out they were hand-painted in late-19th-century Berlin and worth thousands.
Old Posters
Check those cardboard tubes you thought had old dorm room posters in them. Vintage travel posters, used as advertising for airlines, ships and trains, and movie posters can sell for $500 and up. Rich Meliska, who runs an estate liquidation service in Evanston, Ill., found one tube of travel posters in a client’s basement that brought $7,000, and others rolled up in the corner of a closet that brought $16,000.
Oriental Rugs
Yes, the market is depressed, especially for the deep red Bukhara carpets that were all the rage in the 1970s and bring only a few hundred dollars now. But don’t just roll up all of the carpets and sell them at a tag sale. There could be a Lavar Kerman rug, worth thousands, in your collection. So what if it’s old and worn? It can still be valuable. Don’t know what you’ve got? Call in an expert for an hourly consult.
Vases
We don’t know why, but valuable old vases often get overlooked. Richard Wright, of the auction house Wright in Chicago, was helping heirs coordinate the sale of their late parents’ mid-century furniture collection when he spotted a Venini glass vase the children had planned to put in a tag sale; it was worth $7,000. In another house, Brooklyn appraiser Fran Zeman spotted a matte green Arts and Crafts-style Grueby pottery vase worth $10,000. It was jammed under the kitchen cabinets with glass vases from flower delivery services.
Old Stocks And Bonds
Do you have U.S. savings bonds you got when you were born stuffed in an envelope in your home safe deposit box? Check here to see if they’ve stopped earning interest, and if they have, cash them in. If you’re helping an aging (and possibly forgetful) parent to downsize, look for uncashed insurance and dividend checks, stock certificates and even cash (in shirt and coat pockets, unworn shoes–pretty much anywhere but under the mattress).
Vintage Sporting Goods
Of course not every old bicycle in your garage is going to be worth something, but vintage Schwinn bicycles, from the 1950s or before, are now peddled as collectibles for $1,000 and up. Check your attic too. Leather football helmets, wooden tennis racquets, duck decoys and even old folding kayaks have second lives.
Electronics
Online outfits that specialize in your old gadgets (in most cases they refurbish the stuff and sell it abroad) make getting rid of this stuff a snap. Gazelle.com buys items in 20 categories, including desktop computers, cameras (film and digital), cellphones, even Wii videogames you’re tired of ($17.87 for Mario Kart Wii). Another Web service, uSell.com, buys cellphones ($102 for a Nokia N97 Mini or $56 for a Blackberry 9550 Storm 2). At Audiogon.com you can research and sell higher-end electronics. When electronics are too dated, give them to the Salvation Army or another charity.
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