Another good way to get a feel for value is once you have found a few completed auctions with what you are looking for, and see perhaps one that sticks out as being very high or very low, post a link here and get people's comments on it. Discussions such as that generally do not run afoul of our unwritten (well, I guess written now
) rule against talking money, since they come down to "great deal for the buyer" or "great deal for the seller."
I think the practice of not talking $$ here grew out of all of our frustration with those occasional incidents when someone came to the forum
only to get a free appraisal of something, so they can then sell it for as much as possible on e-bay or somewhere. It sort of makes you feel used. Personally, I have had a couple people take my helpful (sometimes charitable) comments about the value and general worth of a piece and use them almost, but not quite, verbatum in an e-bay auction - my speculations about age, value, etc. became the word of an "expert," and charitable reassurance that the thing wasn't a total piece of crap became assurance it was a rare antique. I think once the forum was even mentioned specifically in an auction as having somehow endorsed the authenticity or age of something.
Anyway, clearly you did not come for that, and that was not the nature of your post, DD. I, too, hope that you stick around to enjoy, learn, and teach.
PS: Andrew was just grumpy before because he needed a vacation, but he is OK now.
