Additional Services

When an Appraisal Isn’t the Answer

Quite frequently, clients contact us requesting appraisals when they really need something else entirely. That’s why WorthWise offers a variety of additional valuation and consulting services.

Valuation Services

Sometimes you may just need a rough idea of what an item is worth for your own personal decision-making purposes. In these circumstances, WorthWise may be able to offer you a lower cost valuation estimate.

Onsite Valuation Services or Walk-Through Estimates

If you have a large number of items for which you want estimated values fairly quickly, onsite valuation services are a good option. This is what happens during traditional appraisal fairs and at antique shows with onsite appraisal services. Sometimes these services are also called walk-throughs.

In these cases, we come to your location armed with our laptops, reference materials and various measuring and viewing tools, and set up a place to work. We examine your items and access our databases, other materials and network of specialists as needed to come up with our estimates. At your request, we can create a list or inventory of the items valued that can be left with you for your future use. While we can sometimes complete all our estimates onsite, we sometimes take your information back with us to finalize our estimates without taking up as much of your personal time onsite.

Offsite Valuation Services or Electronic Estimates:

When an onsite visit isn’t necessary because a quick valuation estimate is all that is needed and there aren’t many items to estimate, we can sometimes perform our estimates without an onsite visit from supplied photos and other information such as artist, maker, medium, condition and dimensions. Based on the information you send us, we collect data about past sales of similar (comparable) items recently sold in the same or similar marketplace. Depending on your desires and budget, we can then provide anything from an email with a statement of our estimate of value to a more detailed description of the item with its photo and the information from the actual past sales supporting our estimates.

Consulting Services

Divestiture or Sales Consulting Services:

These days, many of us are downsizing and we no longer have room for the treasures we collected over the decades or inherited from our parents. But navigating the options available for selling them can be a daunting task – especially when different types of objects sell better in different channels, in different locations and even at different times of the year.

In our role as divestiture consultants rather than as appraisers, we can take some of the guesswork out of your decision-making process and improve your chances of achieving a good result. A good result, of course, depends on your objective as well and your preference for high returns, versus low risk or quick payouts. Once your priorities have been established, we can assist you directly with selling your item, or help you identify the best strategy for selling it yourself. We don’t, however, purchase any items from you that we’ve appraised, or appraise any items we have an interest in purchasing. Our primary commitment is to ensure we are providing you with unbiased appraisal services you can trust, and we would never want to give you any real or perceived reason to question that commitment by serving as both appraiser and buyer for you.

Keep in mind, also, that your individual sales results can never be guaranteed. There is always some risk in selling your item through any given venue – some more than others – and we will discuss those with you during our initial consultation.

Personal Property Inventories:

When a large collection of personal property exists, whether owned by you directly or through a trust instrument, one of the first services you may need is an inventory of your assets.

In our role as asset inventory specialists, we can help you get a handle on what you have as well as document the information you have about it. We can create simple spreadsheets for you, or evaluate and use more complex asset management software applications which include fields for uploaded photographs, scans or files to document acquisition information, provenance, restoration reports, prior appraisals or exhibition histories.