Informal poll - selling crystal

hoffse · November 2016

All,

I have a nearly-complete set of crystal I received prior to getting married from a family friend as a college graduation gift. It's good quality crystal (Gorham), but.... it's ugly. It was a very nice gift, but I've hated it since the day I received it. It doesn't match the style of our house or even my fine china because it's too formal.

I have kept it because the lady who gave it to me is close to my family. However, she has now moved to Florida and is elderly, so I doubt she will ever visit our house to know whether we have it or not. There is no price for it on ebay or through any other seller I have checked.

On a whim I contacted replacements to see what they would give me for it, and I just have no idea if the price is fair. My concern is that I'm rather eager to be rid of it to make space for something I like a lot more, so I'm not sure if I'm taking a bath on the offer. Let me be clear - I'm happy for them to make money as a reseller, but I would obviously prefer a fair price.

So throwing this out there for the MM-ers: what would be the minimum you would take for a set of 10 wine glasses and 11 water goblets that are fine crystal, but in a pattern you dislike? I'll share what they offered later, but I want to get some gut responses first.

TIA

csuave · November 2016

Honestly, if an item does not have value to me/I don't want it I'll take whatever I can get for it. I might try to get more than one quote but I wouldn't care too much if the offer I accepted was low.

AprilZ81 · November 2016

Do you know the pattern? Do they still sell it so you can see what it retails for brand new? That would give you a starting point at least.

But I'm with @csuave, if you hate it do your best at due diligence and then take the best offer you can find.

hoffse · November 2016

Yeah, I hear you, and that's the direction I'm leaning.

Thing is though, their buy list was really interesting. They are willing to give me four times as much if I sell them a water goblet vs. the matching the pitcher from the same pattern. And I have 11 of them. It leads me to believe that what I have is actually fairly valuable, or at least rare.

jtmh2012 · November 2016

Why are there 10 wine glasses and 11 water goblets?

I did a quick search for Gorham looks like the value really depends on which ones you have. I saw prices of $30-40/glass just for the wine glasses, but sets at $110....

hoffse · November 2016

jtmh2012 said:

Why are there 10 wine glasses and 11 water goblets?

I did a quick search for Gorham looks like the value really depends on which ones you have. I saw prices of $30-40/glass just for the wine glasses, but sets at $110....

Because that's all she gave me! I never liked it enough to try to complete the set.

The mismatched numbers is one of the reasons I went to replacements first, because they buy per stem, so it doesn't matter if the numbers match or not. I think it would be harder to sell to an individual because they will want exactly X number.

I'm going to try to do some more research. I know the pattern, but it's been discontinued since 1994, so I can't find a current offer.

For the sake of full disclosure, they offered me $16 per water goblet and $14 per wine glass. I would be responsible for shipping. I figure after shipping costs I would probably net at least $250 or so. I'm leaning toward taking it.

julieanne912 · November 2016

They'll probably pay more for something like a water goblet because that's the type of thing that's more likely to break, so someone would want to buy just one of those, vs a pitcher which probably isn't used as often and is a bit more sturdy.

But yeah, I'd be with @csuave on this one. No matter what the actual value is, if I don't like it and I don't use it, then anything I could get for it is a good value to me.

kmurphy2131 · November 2016

I hate having stuff around, so as long as the offer is fair enough, I would get rid of them

hoffse · November 2016

The other alternative is to donate it and write it off our taxes. Our marginal rate is high enough that I could probably break even that way, and it would be less work. I just wish I could find a third party selling it to verify its value!

kmurphy2131 · November 2016

@hoffse we did that with some kitchen appliances and furniture. we could have made money off of selling them, but will only "make" a little less off of a tax write off and it was so nice to just open the garage door when habitat came to take it all away

smerka · November 2016

Does Replacements have any of the same already listed? You could get a feel for what they will turn around sell it for. You could also check and see if you have any resale shops in your area

LillibetteV · November 2016

Depending on the pattern I think that's a reasonable price. I bought 7 Gorham wine glasses at a yard sale recently (for $10) and looked on ebay about getting the 8th and they were selling for $30+ for just one! I never set glassware at the table because we have a bar and people head there to get what they want before dinner so having a minimum number of matching glasses isn't ever an issue for us (some people will end up with a beer or cocktail so different glasses anyways).

I would take the offer since it's a decent amount of money and you don't have to go through the effort of selling each piece yourself.

blondie42107 · November 2016

Can you call them and act like you are interested in a piece to get an idea of what they would sell them for?

hoffse · November 2016

Replacements is pretty great in that any inventory they have is listed online. They don't have anything in this pattern right now, so I think that's why they are willing to pay me this amount.

Blah, I'm not sure.

labro · November 2016

I say take the money and go for it. While $250 isn't a ton, I don't know if you'd really do better trying to sell it on Craigslist or something similar. You could have some luck selling by the piece on Amazon and getting a little bit more money although the prices popping up for used glasses in the Gorham Lady Anne style seem lower than what Replacements is offering to buy them for.

MommyLiberty5013 · November 2016

Or, what about trying to sell a complete set of 10 and 10 (or 8 and 8) on Craigslist and/or ebay and then see what happens and then sell to Replacements? If someone bought the 10 and 10 (8 and 8), then you sell whatever is remaining to Replacements.

MommyLiberty5013 · November 2016

Can you post a pic here? Maybe one of us will want to buy???

Informal poll - selling crystal

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