Price Levels For Daum Nancy Glass
When looking to sell or appraise any antique it is important to know the differences between price levels. The same applies to Daum Nancy glass antiques.
Insurance Value – Anytime you deal with a fragile item like glass you want to seriously consider insuring it. Daum glass will be recognized by any reputable insurer as a valuable asset that should be fully insured with an appropriate appraisal. An insurance value on Daum Nancy glass should be about 30% over a retail value. It is easy to get very optimistic with insurance values because you don’t actually need a buyer at that price.
Retail Value – A retail value is the value a full time Daum or antique glass dealer would assign to an item. A retail value is not going to be very close to a liquidation value. Daum glass is such a specialized area that it can take several years for a better item to be placed with a sophisticated collector at a retail price. A dealer usually determines his or her retail value by using market variables and coming up with a best case scenario price.
Auction Value – The most accurate value for Daum glass is going to be an unbiased auction estimate. When a Daum piece is auctioned the starting bid is typically half of the low estimate. A good auction house that isn’t playing pricing games will make an estimate low enough to sell but high enough to give bidders a direction. We have more about auction pricing tricks here.
Wholesale Value – Different people have different ideas of what wholesale is. However, in most circumstances, at least when dealing with Daum glass, the wholesale value is the price a dealer would pay another dealer for an item. Wholesale doesn’t mean cheap. It is just the value that a specialist would feel comfortable buying a Daum item for where he believes he could make money on the resale to a client.
Public Value – The public value is what an honest dealer should offer to a collector or member of the general public. Even within such a niche market like Daum glass there are still going to be certain dealers who can offer more money than other dealers depending on the item. Some dealers might specialize in vases while others might specialize in lamps. The public value should be fairly close to a wholesale value, but it could be vastly different than a retail value. Obviously any dealer who buys a Daum piece is looking to make a profit, and depending on the market level and desirability of the piece, dealer offers to the public can differ dramatically.
Example: Pretend a rather generic Daum vase is being handled. This is how a typically price range should break out.
Insurance Price: $2,000
Retail Price: $1,500
Auction Estimate: $1,000 – $1,250
Wholesale: $900
Public Price: $750
Obviously there is a big gap between insurance and public values. However, this range is fairly typical of any specialized collectible market. The cost and time to find the correct buyer requires a wide margin between an immediate sale and a best case scenario price.
