House clearing after death of a parent

A question about : House clearing after death of a parent

Can anyone tell me where to start on finding a new home for the numerous pieces of silver and crystal that I am left with after clearing my parents' house? There are too many to sell individually on ebay and I have no idea what is worth something and what is not. I have dealt with the big furniture but I just don't know where to start with the little bits.

Best answers:

• Charity shops, car boot sale, second hand shops, antique shops and house clearing services may be a way to go. You can also put things through a traditional auction, you should be able to find a local one. If there is anything special amongst it, then you might have to be a little more selective.
  There are tools to help post up items on eBay - or do a job lot rather than individual items.
• Be sure you know if there is anything worth money or is the stuff just suitable for a charity shop.
  Do you know how to tell silver from silver plate?
  Look for a local auction house, they will tell you if you have anything of value
• Following this thread. We have inherited a lot of stuff like this and to be honest I can't even tell the difference between glass and crystal let alone silver and silver plate :/. If you have a lot of stuff how does it work, do you have to take it all to the auction house? I'm kind of worried that I'll take it and it won't be worth anything and they'll think I'm wasting their time, but I want to be sure before getting rid of anything...
• I'd be wary about just taking it all to a chaity shop.
  There might be some valuable bits there.
  Auctioneers, or local antique shop.
  Or you can pay a valuer to come and look at the lot.
• Real silver is hallmarked, they are easy to understand with help.
  https://www.925-1000.com/british_marks.html
  Anything with hallmarks is too good for a charity shop.
  The classic silverplate mark is EPNS, 99.9% of this is worth very little.
  Glass and crystal are slightly more difficult, look around at cheap glass and this will give you a feel for the difference.
  It's basically knowing the person it belonged to, what they bought etc. to give you an idea as to whether things are worth anything.
• One idea is to look on EBay to see what objects are fetching, check sold prices.
  It can be a minefield, eg. some tea sets are worthless others fetch hundreds of pounds.
  Modern items like LLadro tend not to be worth much, postcards, early ones, anything featuring WW1 etc can be worth money, stamps are another minefield, the classic stamp people know is the penny black, not normally worth much unless........ like I said a minefield.
• With china look for the makers name and if you are lucky there will be a pattern name, then type that in this will cut down stuff.
  Glass is much more difficult as very little of it is marked but china should be marked, if it isn't or just says something like foreign then it won't be worth much.
• So sorry for your loss. Having to clear my mum's house was so hard.
  We boxed stuff up and I'm slowly going through it. If there is a lot of glass and crystal then definitely go to an expert to get it valued if you suspect there may be some pricey pieces in there.
• My Mum died in 2001, we still have cupboards full of her china etc, she lived with us in a purpose-built granny flat.
  There are some pieces my parents got as wedding presents in the early 1940s, and some Fraser tartan china from the 50s. Only tea sets.
  Are they worth anything? How do I find out?
• I am afraid that expensive items our parents bought often are of little value today. I inherited some Crown Derby China. The cup and saucer retails at Ј187 yet the auction house would only value it at Ј5! The auctioneer told me the market is flooded with such items as they were kept as cabinet pieces.
  When I had to empty my parents' house I was ruthless. After seeing my brother in law sitting in his lounge surrounded by boxes from his late mother's house ten years after she passed I was spurred into action. I only kept things that had a special memory for and charity shopped the rest. I ended up with 2 under bed boxes.