Last Updated on January 1, 2021 by HodgePodgeDays
When was the last time you cleared out your attic? If it hasn’t been for a while, then you might have started to forget just what exactly is up there! Who knows, you might have some antiques up there that could bring you a small fortune.
Not sure what to look for when you are sorting through all your old furniture and clutter? This quick guide to antiques should help you figure out whether or not there is any cash up in the attic.
Research Your Items
You will be surprised by how much you can find out by researching your items on the internet. Firstly, you need to make sure that it’s an antique, though. You should google it to try and figure out when it was made. Googling the type of item and a description should bring some useful results. If there is a maker’s mark, then search for that as well. Generally speaking, something is considered an antique if it is between 50 and 100 years old. If you can find out the maker and the exact year it was made, you may be able to get a bit more money for it as you will know its origins.
Aesthetic Pieces Sell For More
It might be very difficult finding out any information about an item online, especially if it is very old or very rare. Plus, there might be little information on it if the maker is unknown. However, one good rule of thumb is that anything that is aesthetically pleasing should easily sell for a good price. That’s because people are more likely to want to display it in their home if it looks good, regardless of whether or not it is a real antique.
Get Things Valued
It’s always worth taking your old items to an antiques shop like Westland Antiques as they will be able to correctly value them for you. Antique sellers will have all the knowledge needed to give an item a good estimation and will advise you whether it’s worth selling it. In fact, some might offer you a price for things to save you taking all your antiques to auction. But, even if you don’t want to sell an item, it’s worth giving it to an antique shop to look at, as they will be able to give you plenty of info on its origins and maker.
It Might Be Worth Holding Onto
Even though something isn’t worth that much right now, it doesn’t mean it is always going to stay at that value. Antique trends come and go and something that isn’t really fashionable right now might come back into fashion in a few years’ time. So, rather than selling an item for a low price, why not hold onto it and hope that its value will increase as the years go on?
As you can see, it might be worth digging around in your attic to see what you have hiding up there. You never know, you might hit the jackpot!