An appraiser’s role is not necessarily to determine whether something is “worth anything,” but rather to prove value in situations of consequence, such as reporting for the IRS, courts, or insurance documentation. These assignments require detailed, substantiated reports that establish value through verifiable transactional precedent. These reports can be time consuming and costly, and are often not the best first step if you are simply wondering what something might be worth.
The good news is, if you have properly identified your item, you can easily conduct your own preliminary market research to begin developing an understanding of your item’s potential value. The most reliable early-stage market indicators come from actual completed sales, not asking prices, and there are ways you can access much of this data for no cost.
As a general rule, asking prices are not useful during initial research. The most meaningful data comes from completed public transactions, including records available through databases such as eBay and LiveAuctioneers, which provide free access to past sale results.
Look for Patterns in Market Value
When researching value, it is important to look for patterns of sales rather than isolated results. Reliable assessments are best developed through finding multiple comparable transactions and observing where values tend to cluster, rather than relying on outliers.
For example, if five examples of the exact same print by an artist have sold for around $250, but one example sold for $2,000, the higher sale represents an ‘outlier’ or unusual circumstance, rather than typical market behavior. In most cases, the most reliable value range is found where the majority of comparable sales occur, or in other words, the mode.
In statistics, the mode is the value that appears most frequently within a dataset. In market research, the mode can help identify the most likely realistic value range for an object when multiple comparable sales are available. Outlier sales should be evaluated carefully, as they may reflect unusual condition differences, exceptional provenance, competitive bidding anomalies, or other market distortions.
Using LiveAuctioneers for Research
LiveAuctioneers LLC is one of the most valuable research tools for personal property and fine art market analysis because it aggregates results from a large number of auction houses. Keep in mind, some major auction houses do not list on LiveAuctioneers, so for significant property there are better resources. However, for property will a value of $5,000 or below, LiveAuctioneers is a great start.
Step 1: Create an Account
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- Visit the LiveAuctioneers website
- Register for a free account
- You will be asked to enter a credit card, but no buying or selling activity is required for research access
Step 2: Search Past Auction Results
Use the search bar to type in key words such as: artist name, maker, subject, object type, time period, country of origin, or other identifying key words.
Once you have searched your key terms, click “price results.” You are now in an illustrated database which shows past sales results from a multitude of auction houses, in many cases going back decades.
You can then filter your results by a wide variety of criteria, including location, auction house, materials/medium, price range and more.
You can also sort the results by relevance, time of sale, and value.
Step 3: Selecting Comparables
Selecting appropriate comparables is one of the most important steps in market research, and the level of knowledge required can vary depending on the item. For highly specialized works, such as significant paintings by major/blue-chip artists, selecting true comparables requires extensive knowledge. However for items that are straightforward and/or less significant, comparables selection is not as complex or as financially consequential. In these cases, you can focus on finding items that share the most relevant physical characteristics.
When researching comparables, begin by organizing potential matches in a way that is most useful for comparison. Look for items with the greatest number of shared value-influencing characteristics. This might include:
- Same maker or artist
- Similar condition
- Similar subject matter
- Similar orientation (vertical or horizontal)
- Similar size, or appropriate adjustments for size differences
- Similar degree of finish or detail quality
- Similar medium, edition, or production method
- Signature status (signed versus unsigned)
- Production period
- Level of ornateness or decorative complexity
- Fineness of casting or craftsmanship
- Signatures, marks, or maker’s stamps
Recognizing Red Flags in Results
Not every published auction result represents an honest sale. For more detailed guidance on evaluating auction result reliability, see our blog post: Decoding Auction Results: Not Everything Is As It Seems
Using eBay for Market Research
Step 1: Create an eBay Account
To begin research:
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- Visit eBay’s website
- Select Register or Sign Up
- Create a basic buyer account (no selling account is required for research)
A seller portal is not required for basic market research, but seller accounts provide additional analytical tools, including a longer history of sales (the seller console search feature goes back up to three years, while the traditional ‘search’ history goes back about 90 days).
Step 2: Search Completed Sales
When searching eBay listings:
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- Enter your search term in the search bar
- Scroll down to Filters
- Select Sold Items or Completed Items
This is critical. Only completed sales show actual market acceptance. As a general rule, asking prices are essentially irrelevant in most all cases, and should only be referenced if you are highly experienced in market behavior.
Step 3: Discover Past Sale Prices
When reviewing listings, focus on:
Buy It Now sales that were purchased and do NOT say “or best offer” Auction listings that show final prices
Avoid relying on:
Asking prices Listings that did not sell Sales which say “Or Best Offer” beneath the sale price*
*Listings marked “or best offer” can be very misleading. In many cases, the item sold for significantly less than the listed price if a best offer was accepted. They are to be used only as reference for the value ‘ceiling.’ If you use the ‘research tool’ in the seller portal, you can see what the actual “best offer” price was.
Final Thoughts
For more straightforward or less significant items, conducting your own preliminary research can be a good place to start. Try exploring resources such as LiveAuctioneers or eBay to become familiar with these research tools. Understanding how market research works can be both informative and surprisingly enjoyable.
