Hi Everyone and welcome to the first edition of “What’s Hot & What’s Not”, a monthly article focused on what things are achieving a premium at auction as well as some of the items that are in their soft market period that almost all antiques and collectables go through.  This month, I want to start out sharing the important role that your Auctioneer with the Steffen Group will play when working with you.

As I have the opportunity to speak with families that may be down-sizing, settling an estate or maybe even just reducing their collections, I frequently find that they have taken it upon themselves to throw out some of the items that they believe are trash and have no value.  We live in an amazing world with the on-line auction platform and are finding that some of those pieces of “trash” can be quite valuable.  So, my first suggestion would be to not throw anything away until after we get a chance to look at it together.

This past year I had two great examples that I will quickly share.  The first party we were selling antiques and collectables for.  A really nice collection of things.  In that collection, I came across a tire pump and luggage rack for a bicycle.  I put those two items together in a lot and thought to myself, “boy, I hope these get a bid”.  At the end of the auction, that lot sold to a customer in Kentucky for $475.00!!  If that would have been a typical live auction, it would have been piled in with some other items and sold for a couple bucks.  In case you were wondering, it was identified by three bidders in three different states as a part from a Schwinn bicycle.

The second auction was a case of an estate liquidation where the family member was quite a collector of many things.  The family handling the estate was overwhelmed and was considering paying a company to come empty the property so that they could sell the house.  Our team was able to get involved and sort through the entire estate setting up an auction with over 1200 lots!  After expenses the family was able to receive a nice check instead of having to write a check to someone to come in and empty the property!

So, now is the time to discuss what is “Hot” and what is “Not” in the auction business:

Hot:

Petroliana Automotive and Farm Signage / Advertising: We can thank TV shows like American Pickers for the huge push in the collectability and high sales of these items.  Wood, porcelain, tin, thermometers, pictures, cardboard, can, pumps, bottles, pretty much anything in this category is selling very strong.  I am personally thankful to have contact with two of the top buyers and sellers of these items in the U.S.

High End Glass: The glass market has been extremely soft for years, but good news, it is starting to return!  To be clear though, the glass that is returning is the more expensive glass, not the clear glass.  Hand painted Fenton, Mosser, Indiana, Rainbow decanters, older hand-blown glass, art glass and swung vases (the big tall 1950’s and 60’s vases) are showing some strong selling prices.

Cast iron: The cast iron skillet pots and griddle market has become quite collectable.  While Griswold, Wapak and several others can easily be identified by their markings, some of the older, more rare pieces, are difficult to properly identify.  This past year, I saw one sell for $2600.00!  Because identification can be a challenge, I have found that selling these on-line is really helpful because most high end collectors can identify the small nuances that make a specific piece of cast iron collectable from the photos.

Vintage Christmas: Shiny Brite Ornaments, Blow Molds, Aluminum Christmas Trees, Color Wheel Lights and Ceramic Christmas Trees are strong sellers year around.  These are no longer just something to sell in the fall as dealers and collectors are always on the lookout for their next great vintage piece for their collection.

 

Not:

Precious Moments: The Precious Moments figurine market is very soft.  While these were the thing to collect in the 1970’s and 80’s, the market is over saturated with these figurines as people that were once great collectors have made the decision to down size.

Beanie Babies: This is a product that flooded the market and because of their mass production, it has driven values down.  While there is the “needle in the haystack” beanie, I find more people find great value in donating them to a hospital, ambulance service, police or fire department to donate to children who are going through a difficult time.

China: The China market is has dropped significantly as our lifestyles have changed.  Many of us can think back to the family dinner with the fine China being used whenever you entertained and certainly for Sunday lunch.  With more open concept homes, the dining room has disappeared resulting in less family’s having the need for China.  Others have just found it much easier to use the worlds newest Fine China (paper plates).  ?

Collector Plates: It used to be very common to visit families with large plate collections with everything on them from animals to tourist attractions.  This is in a down market and is also an item that too many were made which led to a reduction in their value and collectability.  A few years ago I was visiting with a family where the husband told me that his wife told him when they got married to never buy her a flower if he got in trouble but to buy her a collector plate.  I took a good look around the room we were all in and said, boy, you must have been in a lot of trouble over the years!  They had plates everywhere.

One point that I want to make about the items that are not selling their best right now.  There is always an exception.  When I did some research for these items, I came across a beanie that sold in 2015 for over one hundred thousand dollars.  I think we all wish that we had sold that one!

Thanks for taking the time to read the first edition of What’s Hot & What’s Not and I hope that the Steffen Group can be your business partner the next time you have something to sell.