5 Reasons to Have Your Fine Art, Antiques, and Estate Appraised

Simpson Galleries’ experts produce the highest quality appraisals on everything from fine art and antiquities to antique furniture and decorative arts. Our auction market experience provides the most accurate and informed valuations for a single item or an entire family estate.  Watch the video below as Ray Simpson discusses the reasoning behind appraising your finest pieces.

We all have at least one story we grew up with about a priceless art piece or a family heirloom. You cannot put a true value on an item without a true appraisal. Having an item appraised not only gives value to the item but it gives history to it.

At Simpson Galleries, we treat each piece as a priceless piece of art. We want the best value for you and to ensure we give your piece the highest appraisal possible. Why look anywhere else for the delicate treatment you deserve? Give us a call today.

Video Transcript

A great way to determine if you need an appraisal is to see if you have a plan. If you have a plan for your items, what you want to do with them in the future, if you want to give them or donate them to someone or give them to a family member, an appraisal is a great way to start with the value and understand what it is that you have and how it can help benefit other people or yourself in the future.

Appraising

Welcome back to Simpson Galleries. My name is Ray Simpson, and today I will be explaining to you the purpose of appraising your property.

Why You Should Appraise

Appraisals can be used for numerous reasons, many of which can add value to your items in the long term. Oftentimes, people will call me for an insurance appraisal, listing your items in your home to let you know what they’re worth, what their replacement value would be worth in the event of a theft or a loss.

Another reason why somebody would want an appraisal would be for estate tax purposes. In the event of the need to have an estate tax appraisal done, we would go in and list the current value of your items for estate tax filing. That is different than an insurance appraisal, as we would not be looking for what replacement value would cost for each item. We would be looking at the actual fair market value of each item in your home.

Another reason why you’d like to update an appraisal value on your items is because the values of things can change over time. Over time, items can be worth a lot more than you paid for them if they’ve appreciated, whereas other times, things would depreciate in value based on market trends.

Know Your Worth

Another reason to have an appraisal, maybe because you want to let your family or beneficiaries of your estate know what these things are worth. People have heard on Antiques Roadshow how things could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars when really in fact they’re only worth a few thousand dollars. Setting this straight up front is usually the best practice when planning out an appraisal for your items.

Sometimes, I’m told by people that their items are priceless, that they’ve grown up listening to their family talk about their items as irreplaceable and one of a kind, and that they are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars when really they’re only worth a few thousand dollars. Having this set straight early on in planning what you’re doing with your items is a very important process, and one that our appraisal services can certainly help with.

Our appraisal services are billed at industry standard rates and are available complimentary if items are consigned to us for future sales. For more information on our appraisal services or any other services that we offer, please email us at [email protected] or give us a call at 713-524-6751. You can also visit our website Simpsongalleries.com to learn more about these important services.