An article in the Paul Fraser Collectibles website mentions how a dress made by Charlotte Todd sold for £78,000 or over $124,000. Who is Charlotte Todd, you ask? She is a friend of Kate Middleton, the fiancé of Prince William. Todd made this dress that Kate wore for a university fashion show and sold it at auction.
Well, it’s nice that the dress pulled in that kind of money. Yet, there’s more. An episode of the Antiques Roadshow featured someone with a Tiffany tea screen from the 1900’s. The appraiser on the show wasn’t sure if was a real Tiffany or a fake. If it was a real Tiffany, it would be worth $15,000 to $20,000. If it was a fake, it would only be worth $1,000. Well, the owner contacted a Tiffany expert and it was proven to be a real Tiffany.
Thankfully for those two, their items proved to be worth something. The trouble comes when people hear about these stories and it encourages them to buy things in the hopes that “…it will be worth something one day.” There’s a lot of stuff (i.e. junk) being sold at flea markets, garage sales, thrift shops and the like. Just because something is old doesn’t necessarily mean it is “worth” something, as in enough money for me to quit my job and move to Florida.
If you are going to buy something with the hopes of it appreciating in value keep these things in mind:
Educate yourself. Learn as much as you can about the item you want to purchase. Find out the difference between a real and a fake/reproduction, what the signs of wear and age are and what the true going prices are.
If something is too good to be true, it probably is. There are a lot of fakes and fly-by-night sellers of collectibles. So, ask questions. If you don’t like the answers or aren’t getting any, don’t deal with the person.
My advice remains not to buy a collectible for investment value, rather to buy for enjoyment value.
Something to think about the next time you are browsing at a flea market.
Source:
http://www.paulfrasercollectibles.com/section.asp?catid=179&docid=6354
http://finance.yahoo.com/currency-converter/#from=GBP;to=USD;amt=78000
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