Online Appraisals

 


 

We are often asked if we provide appraisal services. Though this is beyond our field of expertise, we can obtain a professional third-party appraisal for you if you need to know how much something is worth. This is a very beneficial service for those who want to sell items online or offline since it offers an unbiased and documented professional opinion. The company we have been using since 2002 has delivered exceptional service and is the only appraisal service we trust our business to. They have a network of more than 60 appraisers who are some of the foremost authorities in a wide variety of industries, all of whom have worked for major auction houses such as Christie's, Sotheby's, and others. You can be sure that the assessment of your item will be the result of years of highly specialized experience.

If you are selling a collectible, vintage item, art, rare or unusual item, and so forth, obtaining an independent professional appraisal is necessary and advantageous. For example, one client decided said she would accept $1,200 for an original oil on canvas painting she hired us to list on eBay for her. We strongly urged her to let us obtain an appraisal. To our shock and hers, the appraisal showed it was worth over $11,000!  If she tried to list the painting on eBay for $1200, she would have thrown away almost $10,000 because she would not have known how to price it or even where to get it appraised at a reasonable price! Don't make this mistake. Get an expert opinion before offering your item to the world. Let us arrange it for you, at a fantastic price:

$39 -- appraisal for a single item or set

  • Current Fair Market Value

  • Insurance Value

  • Details and historical context about your item
     

How it works:

1. Fill out the Appraisal Questionnaire at the bottom of this page. You may submit your responses in one of two ways:

  • use copy and paste to place it in an email message, enter your responses next to each question, and email it to us

  • use copy and paste to place it in a word processing program, enter your responses next to each question, print it out, and snail mail it to us at:

uNcoMmon FiNdS
138 Sea Grove Main Street #840165
St. Augustine, FL 32080
 

2. Send us up to 10 photos (see the "Photographs" section below for important guidelines on taking pictures and how to send them). If you only have hard copy photos, please mail them to us and we will scan them for you for an additional $5 per photo and then return them to you. This price includes a bonus: we'll put your new digital pictures in an online photo album so you can save them to your computer and store them digitally too!

3. Submit payment to us -- click here to enter our order page.

4. We will handle everything from here ... finding the right expert appraiser, furnishing him/her with details about your item, photo management, etc.

5. In 3-6 business days, we will email you the appraisal results.
 

NOTE to local St. Augustine, Florida residents: if you are purchasing just an appraisal without having us sell your item(s) through our Internet Consignment Service, and you need an in-person consultation, local pickup and return of any hard copy photos, etc., or if you need us to take photographs of the item(s), there will be an additional charge for these services above the cost of the appraisal which will be determined on a case-by-case basis. 
 

WANT TO SEE IF WE CAN SELL ITEM(S) FOR YOU ON EBAY, ETC?


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APPRAISAL QUESTIONNAIRE
 

Please answer these questions in detail. Don't be afraid to speak volumes when inputting descriptive text. Try to be as clear and concise as possible and never assume that any detail is too small to mention. For sets, write out a description of each individual item in the collection, including information particular to each piece.
 

circle one:    single item     ~       set of items from the same manufacturer which belong together      ~      other

What is your item?    

Make & Model Number, if any:

Date/Era or Period of item (if known):

Item Condition:          VERY IMPORTANT!
Overall rating, on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the best): ___________________
(Specific details including any and all marks, tears, scuffs, scratches, chips, missing parts, broken pieces, repairs, etc. Search with a magnifying glass if possible.)

If it is supposed to “work”, does it work the way it did when new? If not, please elaborate.

Origin of Item:   
(Where the item came from -- did you inherit it from a relative, find it at a flea market, in the wall of an old house etc?)
 
Has this item been sold at auction or listed in any books or periodicals? Has it been owned by a famous (or infamous) person?
 
When did you purchase/acquire the item(s)?    

Purchase price of item (if known)?    

What is the main material your item is made of?    

Manufacturer/artist: (if known)  

If art, is it signed by the artist?    

Height of item:   

Width of item:   

Length of item:

Depth of item:

Weight of item: 
  
What is the subject matter of your piece?    

Give any other details you feel are pertinent.
   
What is the main reason for your appraisal?    

Are there any notations such as identifying/foundry marks or signatures? If yes specify:    

   
PHOTOGRAPHS:     

We highly recommend submitting photos of your item in order to better establish an accurate value. The appraisers can often instantly recognize an item from a clear image. This accelerates appraisal time. Up to 10 pictures is generally plenty. If you're submitting a collection appraisal, take photos of the collection as a group AND separate photos of each individual piece.

Tips for taking good pictures:

  • Use a contrasting plain background. You may photograph the item on a table against a plain wall, or use white or black poster boards as the background. Be sure there is enough lighting for the item to show clearly.

  • Include images of important details. For example: dates, hallmarks, signatures, manufacturers marks, elaborate carving, etc. The more detail you provide, the better.

  • Include images of anything about the piece that is less than perfect. For example: marks, tears, scuffs, scratches, missing parts, broken pieces, etc.

  • If possible, show your item from more than one point of view.

Learn more picture-taking tips here.

~If you are using a digital camera, upload the photos to your computer.
~If your photos were taken with a film camera, you can use a scanner to convert them to digital format. Or if you cannot obtain digital format, you can mail them to us and we can scan them for you for an additional fee of $5. We will then return them to you by mail.
~If the digital photos you'll be sending us total more than 3 MB (megabytes), please do not send them as email attachments. Here are options:

  • www.filemail.com – free, no signup needed, just upload right on the email form anything up to 2GB at a time.

  • Resize them to make them smaller. If you don't already have photo editing software, you can edit them free online with Pixlr

  • Open a free account at photobucket.com to upload them to your own photo album. You then simply provide us with the URL of each photo as shown in your album. For example, CLICK HERE to see a photo we have uploaded as a demonstration.

  • If you have a gmail account, you can quickly upload photos to Google Drive. Simply provide us with the shareable link for the folder or the individual images.

  • Save them to disk and mail the disk to us.


Which method will you be using to submit photos to us? If using an online photo album, please list the URL's of each photo here:
 

Your contact information:

Your name:
Address:
Email:
Telephone number:
Date:


Thank you for your business!

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