We don't buy. We don't sell. We just tell you what it's worth — and what to do next.
That is the entire job — separating the two without damaging anything, and telling you which is which even when the answer is disappointing.
Flagged for attention · each with its own next step
Grouped, priced as lots, and left alone. We tell you what they're worth together rather than pretending each one is interesting.
Looks at the pile and offers you a single price for all of it.
Their incentive: buy low.
That is not dishonesty, it is their business. But it means the person telling you what it's worth profits from you believing it's worth less.
Looks at the same pile and tells you which three items to get in front of a specialist.
Our incentive: none. Flat fee. We never buy.
We are as happy to tell you it's all common — and that is the most common answer we give.
Up to 600 photos, for a whole household.
Grading results came back, or you found more. We rebuild the report.
Five collections. For anyone settling more than one estate.
Usually less than families hope, and occasionally far more. Most inherited collections are mainly common material worth modest amounts, with a small number of items that genuinely matter. The value of a triage is finding those few without damaging anything — and knowing which of them is worth paying an appraiser to see.
Because we have nothing to gain from what you own. A dealer who values your collection is also the person who wants to buy it, and their incentive is to pay as little as possible. We charge a flat fee, we never buy, we never sell, and we never refer you to a buyer.
No, and we say so on every page. It is an informed estimate from photographs. Its job is to tell you what is worth paying a certified appraiser to examine in person — most collections contain nothing that warrants that expense, and knowing so is worth something too.
We say so, and we do not put a number on it. An item we cannot identify confidently is marked 'worth a professional look' rather than given a made-up range. A wrong number is worse than no number: it either makes you throw away something valuable or embarrass yourself in front of a dealer.
Do not clean, polish, repair or reorganise anything. Cleaning a coin can remove most of its value in thirty seconds and cannot be undone. Every report opens with the Do-NOT list for your collection type, and that section alone is usually worth the fee.
The free first look takes five. A full report takes up to 200, which is enough for most single-person collections; a whole-household estate takes up to 600. More photographs of the same items is more useful than one photograph of everything.
