Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
Are Mason's Ironstone thimbles valuable?
I would say most of these thimbles are very low value.
Only 2 have sold on eBay over the past several months and both were sold for under $5.
www.ebay.com/
I have a metal type Humpty Dumpty thimble where the Humpty Dumpty moves up and down. I can't seem to find much on it. It has the Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall etched on it along with 3 horseman and the Humpty Dumpty that moves up and down.
See pictures.
This silver one is asking $54. If yours is not silver it will be worth less. www.ebay.com/
I am desperately in need of clearing an estate to both move on and survive to be honest. This was an unexpected loss and I had to leave my job to move from MA to Florida. Work is tough to come by and expenses are killing me. I have a collection of probably at least 50 thimbles as well as a ton of arts and craft accessories. At this point I need to consider selling everything. Where do I begin?
For the least amount of hassle, start a Nextdoor.com account (free) and post all the things you'd like to sell. Tag it with the words "estate sale" which will gather a lot of people near you.
i agree with Attosa about maybe using Nextdoor and labeling it as an estate sale but there are many pitfalls as this is basically a fancy "yard sale" and may not really net very much money.
If you have other things for sale and let's say you can open the house to let people look at different stuff to buy, you can advertise in different papers "Estate Sale" as well as Nextdoor.org and maybe make more money.
If you cannot open the house then you may have to set up an outdoor (or carport/garage) sale and have everything priced before allowing anyone to take a look. yard sales can net quite a bit of money if enough "sellable" items are available.
Collectible thimbles may or may not sell very well at a yard sale (but they can be easily stolen) as most thimbles are only valued at $3-$10 and at a yard sale may only sell for $3, if at all.
Craft supplies can be bundled and may sell for a few dollars but you have to remember that people go to yard sales (and estate sales) mostly looking for bargains.
This is usually true unless you advertise something special (maybe even thimbles) and then you may have a few collectors stop by but then, they too, are wanting something for a low price. You may have a few thimbles that are more valuable but to find out which ones you would have to research every thimble (maybe eBay and Etsy) and that is a tedious and time consuming job. (Thimbles do not always have a name to research so that makes it even more difficult.)
One thing for sure, any sales you may try should not be a "one person" job as there are thieves who frequent yard sales and estate sales and they are very gifted in their techniques.
According to where you are located, you may have someone come out and give you a "price" on taking everything but generally this will be a very low price (generally shockingly low!).
If you find you have to do this alone (AND I do NOT recommend this!) then I would suggest you set up either a garage or just one (front) room (that you can closed off from the rest of the house) (AND have NO bathroom privileges) so you can see everything that is going on.
Be sure anything valuable that can go in a pocket is stored safely and has to be asked to see or hold.
Have change available and only keep small bills where they can be seen when giving change. Have a safe place for larger bills set up before you begin any sale. Most people still try to use a "fanny belt" when having a yard sale.
You may be able to list an ad on Craigslist and sell your thimbles maybe in groups or all for one price. You could list on other sites if you are familiar with how to use these sites: IOffer, FL4Sale, LetGo, OfferUp and more but these can get confusing if you are doing everything yourself.
A final note: Do not let anyone in your house that you do not know. Maybe a neighbor can help you. Make arrangements to meet in an open area - McDonald's, Burger King, etc.
There are companies that specialize in estate sales. You do have to give them a commission, but they will price the items at what they are worth.
You have my sympathy on your loss. Your situation sounds very stressful.
Since it is just you, you may want a combination solution:
For the thimbles you may want to try one of the in person ebay sellers like this one:
www.ebay.com/
For the arts and crafts items, pack up boxes by like item and sell them on Facebook marketplace at 10 a box (or less) with porch pick up only... this is a good how to:
If you have furniture that is not antique or unusual, I strongly suggest finding a second hand store that does buy outs and sell it to them as a lot. You will only get 1/4 of second hand market retail, which is about 1/16 of what it was valued at new.
If you have antiques, I would find a shop that buys and sell as a lot. Same process as above.
The last method is to see if there are auction houses that haul and sell it all.... meaning you pay them to haul it to their facility...around me it's 75 an hour to pack and haul, then they break up items into auction lots, sell at a live auction and you get a percentage of the sale. Here it averages 60-65% you, the rest the auction house.
Good luck!!
Thank you for responding. I hope some of the suggestions offered by everyone will help you through this disaster you are going through.
There is one thing I would like to point out about having someone come to the house to give you a price on buying "everything". Many people have an illusion about what some call "fairness" but, since I speak from having helped others going through similar situations, what "buyers" will offer is actually so low that only the desperate will accept their offer. I have seen offers of $75-$100 for a complete household of furniture and paraphernalia.
What many have not seen is the way most of these people remove the contents and the total disaster they leave behind. These people are not a "clean up" crew and will take only the items they can sell for a profit and many times destroy everything else as they move through the house. As a general rule, this type of "buy-out" will have a small crew remove what they want and be completely finished in less than an hour.
The "owner" is then left with the very time consuming cleanup and removal of the destruction they left behind. I usually compare this to seeing the aftermath of clean up that is left after having a company cut down some trees. Total shock is usually the reaction.
I do not mean that there are no honest or fair dealers around but finding one may be difficult.
Since you are struggling to do this by yourself, it seems the flea market may be your best avenue. Your biggest problem with handling all of this is time - as you will probably be dealing with this clean up for many months. Being alone makes this even more frustrating so you will have to reconcile within yourself that cleanup will happen but not overnight.
As for the problem with the wild cats, you may have to try and get some assistance from the local humane society (they do have cages to loan and they will pick up any cats you "trap") and sometimes even law enforcement. The problem with all of this is it is usually stated that anything like this is the responsibility of the "owner" and you may have to pay someone to catch and remove the cats.
If you would like to state where in Florida you are located, I would be glad to offer assistance in finding someone to help you if you are anywhere within my area. Of course, acceptance of any assistance offered would be totally your decision.
Some of the suggestions offered (by everyone) may not fit your needs but they may help someone else who may be in a similar situation and happen to see this article (even several years from now).
I feel sure everyone wishes you great success in dealing with these circumstances that have befallen you and that sometime in the future you will be able to look back on this period and smile..
I have a silver thimble with 6 amethysts from around 1900. I am not sure how to price it on eBay.
I have a yellow plastic thimble that says Elvis Presley, April 16, 1956 - Amarillo Texas.
I am looking for information for 2 thimbles, specifically, the age and value. One is a plastic yellow Tastykake and the other is an antique Miss Princine baking soda aluminum.
There are from an estate sale and original.
Thank you.
I saw the Tastykake for $3 on Etsy. The other one is about $8.
Cool! I stopped collecting thimbles years ago because the values weren't holding...but these are neat and make me sad I stopped:
So, there are none of the Tastycake ones SOLD on eBay, so you will want to watch this one to see if it sells:
www.ebay.com/
There are none at the moment of the other on eBay...either sold or active.
I always and only value things by using eBay or other reputable auction site COMPLETED AND SOLD auctions...never us asking prices or active auctions to value. Sold tells you exactly what someone is willing to pay.
I know there is a way on Etsy to figure out how to view SOLD prices...but I haven't figured it out...if you can search there for sold auctions you can watch the ones Judy told you about and see if they sell or if there are other examples of sold auctions.
They are neat! Thanks for sharing!
I just got a large lot of thimble; about 8 have the TCC (The Collectors Cub) logo inside however the rest only have the original company listed inside. Were all the thimbles produced by TCC marked with their logo or did many have only the original company as I do not know if the ones without the logo are the originals or not now?
I was always curious as to why some of the thimbles with "objects" on top were actually called thimbles since it was obvious they could not be used in that capacity. But they did make noticeable objects when placed on/in the thimble collector's cases/shelves.
Any thimble that comes with a TTC certificate has a higher value than without one. Collectors of thimbles will pay a higher price if you can supply them with this certificate.
Not all companies who make collector thimbles will add a TTC certificate to the thimble. Unfortunately, this bring in less of a price if you are selling the collection or looking to get it appraised.
Just like Precious Moments, Kinkade arts, Hummels, porcelain dolls generally and other such 'collectibles', the economics of collector thimbles as a precious commodity is murky and liable not so much to the laws of supply and demand, or the inherent worth/value of the item, but more in arbitrary and complex labelling and false value inflation. With these objects which can all be manufactured in different parts of the world and under different 'franchise' type arrangements, there really is no way to prove value aside from whatever 'certificate of authenticity' is issued.
All the answers here are why my thimble collecting "days" lasted minutes. It seemed like there was a lot of "creating" collectables by the company's own hype...and there were high prices and no later values.
So if you are asking about yours just to learn, I think you got the best info from cybergrannie. I am a fan of the site she shared. There is a Facebook forum you may like m.facebook.com/
If you are asking to sell, tread carefully and do your due diligence using eBay sold auctions to match exactly what you have to what is selling to help you set your values. Remember value is much different than profit, as you pay fees to eBay and PayPal and that eat up profits quickly!
Hopefully you will have a diamond in the rough so to speak with a low supply, high demand piece.
They are lovely pieces! If nothing else, enjoy the beauty!!
I was wondering if any of these thimbles are worth anything?
I have a sterling thimble with a beetle w/bird wings and the inside has the initials MKI (the letter style is like vine, there is a C over the top left leg of the K, and the & sign below and between the two lower legs of the K. Inside, it also says Queen Teie/Sterling Silver PAT. PNG
Does this set have value? I believe each thimble has 24kt gold embellishments. The imprint on each one has the First Lady's name as well as " fine bone china Franklin porcelain limited edition 1978 fp".
Thank you for your time.
I have 91 thimbles and want to know how much they are worth.
Has anyone seen numbers on a Simons thimble before? Is this 1981 or 1891...lol. This one is Washington DC in sterling gold gilt.
Thanks in advance.
I think its 1891. You can always contact the company and upload those pictures. www.simonsbrothers.com/
I feel bad the picture blurs for me. If you look at your item and these websites, you may get the dating answers you need.
This site may help you identify/verify marks (you will have to scroll down a good bit to find or do a control key and f on your keyboard and type in Simons and it will take you right to it):
sites.google.com/
This site may help you with the dating:
This site has an online chat that you can use to get answers if the above two don't help. They can also help with value.
I have found I get better values for things when I ask because I want to insure something vs asking to sell. Not sure if any one else has that same finding!
Hope this is helpful to locating the year and maybe getting you on the path to value if you are going that direction!
I find ones that are like it but not quite the same. It's got a tiny rectangular area with the raised word Austria on it.
It is probably not worth anything, but just wondering if anybody knows if it is an antique or not?
I have acquired these four thimbles and I wondered if anyone knows anything about them? Age? Material, etc.?
