What is my fine china worth?

Nearly every day someone asks us "What is my china worth?" This is a difficult question. It has only one truly correct answer. That answer does not always make people happy. If you have pieces from the 1600's or 1700's, they should be in a museum. Such fine china can bring exceptional prices. However, such china is mostly already in museums and so exceptional prices are usually not the case. If you have a set of china its value depends on rarity, condition and demand. Secondarily those factors affect each individual piece.  Discontinued dinnerware can be nearly as valuable as discontinued china.  The fact of a manufacturer discontinuing a pattern raises its value. Re-issuing a discontinued pattern can lower the overall price in the whole market. If a potter made a thousand saucers and only seven platters, the platters could be expected to sell for considerably more. However if there are only six people in the world using that pattern and all of them have a broken saucer and all of them have perfect platters, the value of saucers goes up as demand goes up. The value of that seventh platter however dwindles. The moment that Uncle Ned drops and breaks a platter at Christmas dinner, the market for platters jumps. Whether discontinued china or discontinued dinnerware, crystal or flatware or even automobiles or any collectible these are the real factors of marketability.  My topic is however tableware Condition is the next most important factor. Dealing with discontinued china, chips and cracks can destroy 90% of a pieces value. Unless you are dealing with truly antique china, by which I mean from the 19th century or earlier, chips, cracks, "fleabites" or repairs destroy the desirability and value ,of a piece.  All fine china, bone china or porcelain china to the roughest ceramic are subject to cracks chips and to a degree glaze crazing. I've just introduced a new term - crazing doesn't mean that your dishes need a psychiatrist.  (That was a joke!) Crazing is the very thin cracking that can appear in the glaze on your dishes. To my understanding it occurs because of tiny amounts of water in the material escaping over the years. It will work its way out from the inner material and crack the clear glaze that was put over the ceramic material - porcelain china or bone china. There is no escaping it, it comes with the manufacturing process.  Some manufacturers are more prone to crazing than others but I believe that no one is completely exempt. All too often customers want me to purchase their fine china at close to 'retail' prices. What those customers do not know is the cost to me to run the business, advertise and even pay tax on my inventory. I might be doing them a favor by overpaying but my family and creditors would disagree. Please DO not call me to argue about prices. I am in business to make money. I cannot buy your discontinued china at prices that do not allow me to do that. However, I am interested in talking with you and answering questions if I can. You can always email us with a description or picture of your china. It helps us to know your manufacturer and pattern name. That is not always necessary though. Examine your china and it may well have the manufacturers name or a symbol on the back. It may have other words or numbers written there. In some cases that will help to identify it. However, that is not always the case. In some cases we are interested and able to make an offer for pieces that our customers want now. . We were offering consignment but we have found it to be unprofitable as many customers are not willing to wait and most want or need to sell "right now!".  We have yet to solve that - but we are always open to suggestion. "What is my discontinued china worth?". There is only one correct answer. Your fine china is worth what a buyer will pay for it right now.