Curious about the lovely 19th century portrait you inherited from Uncle Edgar?
Thinking of selling grandpa’s antique golf ball collection?
Need to know how much that heirloom vase is really worth?
A new Web site, valuemystuffnow.com, offers the services of 19 experts, all whom have worked for the renowned Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction houses. You submit digital photos of your treasure, pay about $6.50 and receive a report including observations and an estimate within 48 hours.
“A lot of people actually feel intimidated by an auction house or even a dealer,” says site founder Patrick van der Vorst,who reports that his team did 2,500 valuations in its first six weeks, including 120 for a single client.
“I do think it’s tapping into a real need that’s out there.”
Van der Vorst, 38, a former director of Sotheby’s, recently spoke to us by phone from London.
Q. Why online appraisals?
A. There’s no easy way for people to find out how much their items are actually worth.
Q. You have to wait for “Antiques Road Show” to come into town?
A. Something like that. And the traditional channels for getting a valuation — they’re not completely unbiased. We don’t buy or sell anything, so we can tell it as it is, basically — in the good sense and the bad sense.
Q. You’ve assembled quite a team.
A. All our experts have actually worked for Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and most of them were there for, like 30 or 40 years. Most of them have retired in the last year or two years, and they enjoy doing it from home, actually.
Q. What’s the most unusual thing you’ve appraised so far?
A. We valued an Old Master painting at ($160,000 to $245,000). We valued a Damien Hirst painting at ($115,000 to $160,000)We valued two letters that Elvis Presley wrote to one of our clients in the 1960s; it has the name of the client and everything. I think they were ($1,300 to $2,000).
And then there was a 1918 golf ball, a very rare golf ball, which was ($980 to $1,300).
Q. I had no idea that a golf ball would fall within your purview.
A. We’ve got a sports memorabilia expert who used to be the head of the department at Christie’s, and it’s amazing what he’s getting: 1930s tennis rackets and all those things.
Q. What’s next for your customers? After they get their valuation report, what do they do?
A. Most people are just curious to know what they have at home and what it’s worth. And on the valuation report the expert gives his personal comments on the item, so he will say this painting is not worth more because for that artist, it’s a bit early in his career. And that’s what people actually enjoy most about the service, those extra comments.
