Priceless, Until You Price It: Valuing Everyday Estate Items

That box in the attic marked "GOOD" in marker isn't going to price itself. And the number your family has been repeating for thirty years is almost certainly wrong. This book teaches you to find the real one. Not a price list that goes stale the moment it's printed, but a method: how to triage a house full of belongings without spending a lifetime on it, how to read the marks and stamps that identify what you're actually holding, how to find what similar things have truly sold for instead of what sellers merely hope to get, and how to tell the difference between a chip that costs you nothing and one that costs you half the value. You'll learn why "old" doesn't mean "valuable," why the china cabinet everyone treasured often sells for less than the box of tools nobody mentioned, and why a well-meant cleaning can quietly erase a fortune. You'll learn how to weigh gold and silver honestly, when to call a specialist instead of a dealer, and how to work out what actually lands in your pocket after every fee is subtracted. And because an estate is never only about objects, the final chapter covers dividing things fairly among people who love each other, so the sideboard doesn't outlast the relationships around it. Practical, calm, and built for the real work of an attic, a garage, and a family trying to get this right.