Point Values

[TBrandum]

How do ya ll go about putting a price or value on your points i have a overstreet but it seems like a lot of people dont think to highly of their opinion

[StevefromMissouri]

As long as I am alive and can mentally function, they lose all monetary value as soon as I find one!

Go to auctions, view websites, ect. Over time you can get a fairly good idea of the average amount different points are worth, but it all comes down to what someone is willing to pay on that day.

[tomclark]

Yep, what Steve said.

I'd pay quite a bit for a field grade point or piece from my favorite site.....probably.

[TBrandum]

Originally Posted by StevefromMissouri

As long as I am alive and can mentally function, they lose all monetary value as soon as I find one!

Go to auctions, view websites, ect. Over time you can get a fairly good idea of the average amount different points are worth, but it all comes down to what someone is willing to pay on that day.

thats what i have been doing and seem to be in the same ball park on most just had one yesterday that me and the would be buyer were so far off on that it had me wondering if there were any other books that valued points other than OS...thanks for the input

[StevefromMissouri]

As with all price guides for anything collectible, I use them for a point of reference. It gives you an idea of which points are generally worth more compared to others. I still say value can be summed up in the following areas:
1. Rarity
2. Quality of workmanship
3. Length
4. Material/color
5. Condition (any dings)

The more of those criteria the point has going for it, the higher the value.

[MidlandMan]

Good points are to hard to find to be sold. Everything else wouldnt bring enough to want to sell. Once a point loses its context it is worthless!

[Indianasmith]

A point without context may be worthless in terms of archeological data, but it still fetches a pretty price from the right collector!

I watch EBay a lot and go to a lot of shows, it helps me have a good idea of what stuff is worth. And I no longer sell personal finds, PERIOD.

[MidlandMan]

I was speaking on my personal perspective Indi. The art market has a way of regulating itself and is very close to the classic deffinition of a Free market. Glad to hear you dont sell your personal finds.

[drdave514]

"A buyer" would be the least helpful measure of point value. I wouldn't worry too much about an isolated incident if you've been accurate on the rest.

[joshuaream]

Steve pretty much nailed five factors that can affect value, if it has old collector pedigree that will help as well (a documented Meuser slate piece is worth more than a similar piece with no provenance and history.)

My observations on value and selling are:

1. If you aren't going to sell, don't worry too much about value- It's nice to know when you found a great piece, but I've seen a lot of hard working collectors find a great piece and then slowly go crazy about the value until they sell it. Your estimates of dollar value can also catch up to you later if you share that information. A friend of mine had a very nice personally found collection, but he was obsessed about the value of pieces and had little stickers on frames that he would update as he saw similar pieces in an auction. He got caught messing around, the wife divorced him and assets were divided. He had way over priced a lot of his commons, and had to pretty much pay the values he assigned to keep them in the divorce. (She got half of his retirement account, and he had to cash in most of the other half to pay her off to keep them.)

2. If you do sell- Start from the bottom up. Frame up some of the commons and list them on eBay before you put your best pieces up. Too many people sell their best and keep the commons. I could sell 5,000 common pieces and still have just as impressive of a collection from a quality point of view. If I sold my 100 best pieces, I'd have a lot of volume but lower the quality expotentially. (Another way of saying it is sell the bucket/box collection before selling the wall/top shelf collection.)

3. When you sell- Remember that dealers buy to resell, so they need to make a profit. Collectors buy to keep, and if it's a good piece can usually outbid a dealer (if you find collectors who are buying.) The good thing about dealers is they usually buy if the the price is low enough. The great thing about collectors, you usually know where pieces are if you are thinking about trying to buy them back.

4. Dealer Catalogs and Overstreets- Remember they are just starting prices, and are often highball estimates to "set" the bar for pricing. I've bought from a lot of dealers and unless it was a low value specimen piece that wasn't worth bargaining over, I don't think I've ever paid their first number. I've bought some pieces that were pictured in Overstreets, I've paid less than half for some and more than listed price for others.