This antique grindstone will be worth more in rural areas than in the city.
With the exception of objects that make use of precious metal or stones, most antiques and collectibles have little intrinsic value. Their price on the secondhand market is a matter of supply and demand, which in turn is subject to fashion. It's not enough for an item to be rare, well-crafted or in good condition -- although these are all important factors. It also has to sit comfortably with modern living and current tastes. Luckily, you can track the prices of most antiques and collectibles by studying guidebooks or by checking auction results.
Instructions
1. Go to your library, which will have a number of general antiques price guides. These guides are essentially extensive illustrated catalogs, usually with very good indexes at the rear to enable you to locate an item easily. Printed under each item is a broad price guide value -- something like "$100 to $150" -- calculated by collating auction results from a six-month period before the book was published. Antiques price guides give you a broad sense of whether an item is valuable or not, but for more accurate data, you need to take further steps.
2. Type a descriptive term for your item plus the word "saleroom" into your computer's search engine. This should bring up a list of items similar to yours which have been auctioned in the past or are about to be auctioned through traditional auction house salerooms. Live lots will carry a broad auctioneer's estimate much like the price guide value in Step 1, but past lots will have been updated with the final hammer price, the figure actually achieved on the day. A recent hammer price from an auction house in the same part of the world as you is the nearest you can get to a completely accurate value for your item.
3. Type the name of your item, plus the word "auction," into your search engine. This should bring up a list of similar lots currently appearing on online auction sites. Use the sites' tracking tools to follow these lots through to their conclusion. Tracking a few lots should enable you to discern a pattern of maximum and minimum prices. In addition, by studying the lots' individual descriptions and photographs you should be able to tell which one matches your items the closest in terms of appearance and condition.
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