I recently purchased a pair of tilt top tables at auction, however the auctioneer did not have any information on them. I am interested in learning their approximate age and value. Photos are attached.
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Lovely item!! Do they have any marks at all on them?
It is disappointing to me that the auctioneer didn't have any info. Most of the better houses take the time to learn about the items they sell (at least in my experience they do).
It is very hard to match furniture pieces with a manufacturer without markings. It is not impossible--you could try typing in a detailed description and searching Google images until you find an exact match.
Part of the challenge with unmarked furniture is there were so many repros made of antiques that sometimes it is hard to tell a real original from a Wayfarer or Overstock modern creation.
Hope this gives you a way to focus your research!
Apicozzi, please know I mean no offense in what I am going to postI just find this thread and situation interesting and a really good example of something that I have been bothered by lately with online buying/selling.
You bought lovely pieces but that you had to come to another site to get info about your purchase troubled menot about you, but about the seller.
Out of curiosity I went back to the auction and noticed what I think is a low feedback rating for the seller 91.7% out of 137 feedback total.
I think we buyers have become desensitized to feedback ratings, reviews, star ratings etc. because they have been rendered near useless by the media and are totally overused in places where they shouldnt and underutilized in places where they do matter.
For example, this article talks about fake feedback www.nbcnews.com/
In the case of eBay, for the most part, I still think feedback has value and that we buyers need to know how to tell reputable from shaky sellers.
Anyone can have a few negative feedbacks. Buyers can be terrible people and nothing can make them happy so they leave a negative.
A few negatives that are all totally unrelated, as a buyer I can overlook those. Like if one says package took 3 weeks to get here and another is seller said this is red but it is cranberry and a third said shirt said large but it doesnt fit meehthese are not necessarily the sellers fault, the post office, a color and a size are very subjective. These reviews are not ideal, but they dont bother me like what I saw with this seller.
On this seller, people are using phrases likefraudulent, never returns calls, said sold to me but then awarded it to someone elseouchyes, they could also be subjectivebut to me these have grains of truth that the seller isnt on the up and up and I would run the other way!
I think we all get caught up on the I WANT of buying and forget to pay attention to who is selling this thing we want.
I need to finish the article I am writing about just this very topic. We thrifty buyers need to stick together and make sure our money and our investments are protected!
I will jump off my soapbox now. Thanks for listening!
You cannot determine value unless you know who made it. If there are no markings, it is most likely a knockoff that is not worth a lot.
I do not know how reputable the auction site is but most of the time the individual selling the item will supply at least a little information. Too bad if they know something and did not make it known - good or bad.
yes, I purchased them directly from the auction house on 6/3, but I believe it was also held on eBay "live auctions"
Yes, these sites have a lot of items up for auction and they sell through eBay and the price you paid may or may not have been a good price as the tables (from the pictures) look beautiful and may be worth more money.
I really believe in appraisals (even if you plan to keep the items yourself) because you usually receive a lot more information from an "expert" than you can from "lay" people like us.
I highly recommend Barneby's appraisal site as I have had very good responses from their people. Many people will not use them because they charge $17 for an appraisal but it has always been worth the cost to me.
Here is a link to their site just in case you are interested. An appraisal is good to have for insurance even if the figure is higher than you could sell it for.
I would like to say that your tables are the nicest tables I have seen listed anywhere and not the usual "ordinary" style usually seen.
I hope you enjoy having them in your home.
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