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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Shangas, post: 363252, member: 360&quot;]The antiques market in Australia is a bloody rollercoaster at the best of times. And selling silver is a minefield in an earthquake. If you tried to sell silver for weight-value - God. You&#039;d get people chasing after you with pitchforks. I know. </p><p><br /></p><p>That said - a TEAPOT in silver, a large one (like what I have, or bigger), sells for about $500-$1,000+ here, depending on age and condition. Even a tiny one is about $400.00. Telling me &quot;Oh I wouldn&#039;t pay more than X for *whatever*&quot; isn&#039;t really applicable. Our local market is so different, and the prices jump up and down so far it&#039;s just impossible to make any sort of comparison. </p><p><br /></p><p>Stuff that sells for next to nothing overseas, sells for thousands of dollars - literally THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS - here in Australia. </p><p><br /></p><p>I bought the tea-set for resale just because I&#039;ve had a number of people ask me for silver teapots and tea-sets in the past, but around here they&#039;re VERY hard to get for reasonable prices. And I mean VERY hard (see prices mentioned up above, to see why). </p><p><br /></p><p>THAT SAID - I agree that not all silverware is sellable. I don&#039;t buy small stuff these days. </p><p><br /></p><p>Vestas, thimbles, forks, spoons, knives, jugs, milk-jugs, sugar-bowls etc etc etc etc, napkin rings, and so-on and so-forth...there&#039;s just nothing in them. </p><p><br /></p><p>Like you said - if people can&#039;t use it, people won&#039;t buy it. And a lot of that stuff just isn&#039;t applicable in modern life, so there&#039;s no market for it. It doesn&#039;t matter how gorgeous it is or how cheap you got it for, or how old it is or nothin&#039;...people won&#039;t buy it. </p><p><br /></p><p>I mean you CAN still try and sell it, sure. But the only people who will buy it are the people who appreciate it for its rarity/age/uniqueness. Other than that - it&#039;s just gonna SIT and gather a nice layer of dust. </p><p><br /></p><p>When I got into selling antiques, I told myself that anything I buy to resell has to...</p><p><br /></p><p>1). Be cheap (or relatively cheap).</p><p>2). Be in good condition (or can be restored to good condition).</p><p>3). Be useful, or different. </p><p><br /></p><p>If the antique you&#039;re selling isn&#039;t useful, or different - people won&#039;t buy it. Bonbon-baskets, silver salt-cellars, silver tongs, silver butter-knives, silver fish-services, silver goblets...Nobody wants that stuff anymore. And if they do, they don&#039;t wanna pay lots for it. So if you burned yourself buying it...it&#039;s gonna SIT. </p><p><br /></p><p>After maybe 18-months to 2-years of settling in, I finally figured out what&#039;s a wise buy and what isn&#039;t. I consider this a decent buy just because I KNOW there are people out there who want this stuff - because they&#039;ve told me point-blank that they do.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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