How to Find Out How Much Vintage Items Are Worth
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You found a great vintage item in your attic or at a yard sale, yay! But how do you tell how much it’s worth? How much is it’s value and can you make money? What can you sell it for? I’ll share with you how I figure out how much an antique piece is worth.
Figure out what the vintage item is
Start by learning more about the item you have. You’ll need this information to look up the item later. Check for markings, brand names, where the product was made etc. If you can’t find anything then you’ll have to describe the item and search it that way.
Example: If you’re unsure what the items above are, you would search “Halloween ghost light” or “Vintage pumpkin yard light” into Google or eBay. Then you would learn that they are called blow molds.
The item below you would search “Vintage mushroom clock” and on the bottom you see that the clock was made in Japan so you could search “Mushroom clock made in Japan”. Then you would learn it’s called a Merry Mushroom clock.
eBay is my favorite resource
eBay is my go-to to find out what an item is currently selling for. I like it because, unlike websites like Etsy, you can search for what items have recently sold for.
It’s important to use the sold filter because that’s what people are willing to pay in real time. Just looking at the active listings doesn’t show what items are selling for.
Related: What Vintage Christmas Decorations are Worth Money?
Steps for searching on eBay
Search for your item. Let’s use the cats in the photo above as an example and type in “Yellow cat salt and pepper shakers”
Look through the results and learn about your item. After searching I learned that these cats are called “Enesco winking kitties”
If you’re on a desktop computer, look at the side bar of all the categories you can filter by. Scroll until you see “Show only” and check “Sold item”
If you’re on mobile, click the filter button on the bottom, click the “Show more” button, scroll down until you see “Sold items” and toggle that option on. Click “Show results”
Now the prices you see are the prices the items sold for. If there is a slash through the price it means they accepted a lower offer
This is how I always decide what I can sell an item for. The “value” of an item changes depending on trends. For instance, Pyrex is really hot right now. Cookie jars used to be worth a lot when they were trendy but now they aren’t as popular. eBay shows in real time what items sell for which is super helpful.
Related: Rare & Valuable Vintage Halloween Items To Sell & Collect
There will always be outliers when looking at how much vintage pieces are selling for. A few will have sold for too little and some will sell for too much. Look into the items and see if they have cracks or defects or are first editions. Get a feel for the average price the item sells for.
I hope you found this helpful for how to figure out what an item is worth! You can check out a list of Valuable Vintage Items to Sell and Collect to get some ideas for what items sell for higher prices.
