Posted on 01/25/2007 7:23:11 PM PST by Chong
Can anyone guestimate the value of an old tea pot? It's bright red (chinese red?) and made by Hall in LA. It's in good condition - no chips. Photo coming soon.
On the bottom, there is a square stamp that says, "Hall's superior quality kitchenware" and it has a (low) number to the right of it.
Curious as to the value of it to help me decide whether to sell it or not to an antique dealer. I ran across this while going through my stuff getting ready for garage sale.
If you know something about this, I'd appreciate your opinion. If you are one of those "vanity police" people, I ask you kindly to refrain from condemning me for posting a vanity thread and "eating up the bandwidth, etc." and I will extend the same courtesy to you as well. Thanks!
You've already spent an hour on this thread.
You're welcome. I sell antiques for a living & I can give you some advice on values and what you can expect to get for selling a piece such as your teapot. When you research the mark on the bottom, be sure it is actually an older piece and not a newer one made as a reproduction.BINGO!!! A thoughtful and valuable answer given like in the old days. Thanks, Alice!Also, you may find your teapot in a value book with a value attached to it. Take this with a grain of salt. You will get a much more realistic value by finding it on a site like ebay. It's a rare piece that I can actually sell for book value these days. By looking at items on ebay that have completed auctions, you will see the actual price someone has paid - not the price someone is wanting to get.
Also, if you plan to take it to an antique shop & sell it to a dealer - expect to only get 1/2 to 1/3 of it's retail value - that's selling it at a wholesale price, to give them room for mark-up. The only way you'll get even close to book value is to sell it yourself to a collector (like on ebay).
One more thing - condition is everything! Any little chip, flake or crack will greatly devalue it. I hope this is helpful to you. I find selling antiques to be lots of fun!
Better yet, go to ebay, search and then do "advanced search" for "Completed."
Hey mine wasnt that bad
I would have to spend more than an hour searching myself. So now, you are the timekeeper or sumthin'? How does it make you FEEEEEL to be the timekeeper on fr?
Uh, no, each post has a timestamp on them.
woofie,
Hehe. Okay, yours wasn't that bad. Gotta go for a minute to take more photos if bigskyfreeper approves of me spending a few mitues to take addt'l photos.
Sense of humor... Priceless!
Photo's will definately help. For all we know it's a teapot and it's bright red.
Tell ya what. Why don't you create an excel spreadsheet where you can enter the logged IN and OUT time for each poster here. Ya know, posters who post threads of which you don't approve?
If you need help with excel, post a thread on fr. I will help you, HA!
See post#26
Why don't you do it. You seem to have a lot of time on your hands.
Talk about pot calling ...
I am relaxing for a little FOR A CHANGE from working and trying to gather some info. YOU telling me that I seem to have a lot of time on MY hands?
Go read/timestamp YOUR posts and see who has A LOT OF TIME on his/her hands, you or me?
Why don't you stop shouting to the whole world you don't have time.
According to post #39 link, Chinese Red was a color from the years 1937, 1942, 1984, and 1987. S'ok ..I'll put it on your tab .. ;)
Hey, thanks, starwise.
So, now I know that its official name is Hall Windshield teapot. That red pot you see there is the very same (looking) teapot as mine. So far, I've gathered that mine is worth somewhere around $349-$499 (higher because the production number is low and it's in mint condition.)
Yes, as per post #40 - I believe the teapot is the Los Angeles pattern in Chinese Red & the only one I can find on ebay is the one listed as a Buy-It-Now on stayathomemom's #40 post. I would assume $349 is close to book value - & also would assume it's fairly collectible by the price. I know people that have Hall Value Books, but I don't have one myself - I just use ebay to determine the values of most things.
The counter on the teapot auction shows over 300 people have viewed it, so that tells me it's pretty desireable.
You... really... don't... get... the... point...... DO YOU?
It's okay, it's all right. Sleep tight, BSF!
That's good research. Do you think you are going to try to sell it?
Alice,
I didn't think to look at the counter but 300 people looking at one item IS a lot. Our folks gave it to us along with a lot of old stuff I thought were junk.
Just think, I almost put a $2 tag on it and put it on the garage sale table before Hubby started wondering if it were antique of a sort!!! Thanks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.