I was contacted today by someone dealing with the estate of Donald Benge. I may be asked to go to the house and evaluate the fencing gear there (he DID sell) and come up with a value.
i have no problem doing this (as I offered months ago anyway), and there is a fairly large amount of gear.
Anyone have an idea of how much I should charge for the service, if asked to provide a fee? I probably would actually take it in any gear I found I liked.
TIA
Need fencing equipment? See me at H.O.M. Fencing Supply
Going to your first tournament? Read "Choose yer weapon, Laddie (or: Dude, where's my foil?)"
If you are going to charge by the hour, consultants can get up to $200 per hour. You know what my engineering hourly rate is (the non-discounted one), so you can go from there.
Sorry, but I'm going to stay away from the obvious way this thread could have gone (or most likely will)
Available Now!!"The Care and Feeding of All Things Fencing", Third Edition go to The Armorer's Store or Fencing.net
right the 2nd time, if i know the folks here! Thanks!Originally Posted by Mergs
Need fencing equipment? See me at H.O.M. Fencing Supply
Going to your first tournament? Read "Choose yer weapon, Laddie (or: Dude, where's my foil?)"
Hmmm.... my husband and I used to do quite a bit of this sort of thing because of our business (vintage radio & gramophones). We never charged, because usually they just wanted all the old stuff to go to a good home and they wanted us to haul it away. So it was win-win. We got obsolete parts for nothing and they got stuff that's been collecting dust out of the house.
When we were dealing with collections (or items of significant value). We either bought the lot at wholesale and sold it (making our money there) or sold things for whoever contacted us and took 15%-20%.
If someone insisted on paying us... I suppose we would charge our usual hourly shop rate plus mileage.
Beer, it's whats for dinner! ~ a young snowboarding Canadian
The meek don't want it! ~ sticker on a rock band's guitar
To take the dark side.
You have to consider an annual wage divided by how often the service can be provided.
Could come to thousands of dollars.
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You may want to consider the ethics and think about whether you want to do this. In some subject areas the person who does the valuation should not then be a buyer for the property.
It does depend on the scope of value of the property. I understand Don was a collector, stamps and currency or some things like that. In those areas, where the value can come to thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, it would be less appropriate to both set a value and then be a purchaser. There would also be a larger number of alternatives where the estate could get a valuation.
The fencing equipment could fit into several scenarios. If it is new, recently manufactured equipment, a person who informs the estate of what the current list value is of standard items could then, ethically, tell them what fraction of list value they would bid.
If it is a lifetime's accumulation of odd, out of date, used or damaged items, the situation is less ethically challenging. It would be more like estimating a salvage value.
Another thing to consider is, how difficult would it be for the estate to find another someone who could both give them a valuation and not wish to be a purchaser.
I am not giving you a hard time, I would want you not to be subject to a lot of snide remarks in the future.
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Sam,
I doubt the estate wants to get numbers from you so they can start a fencing supply biz, i.e. they probably want to find out what the lot could bring from an interested party. You're an interested party. If I were in your shoes: I'd inspect the lot and tell them what I'd be willing to pay on the spot. If they did want an itemized breakdown, I'd offer my services at an hourly rate. I bet they're probably happy just to be able to find someone like you.
Remember, Don tried to make a profit on this stuff, you should also.
Call a few appraisers. Make up a story and tell them you want to find out the value of your collection of (make up some bogus set of items here). Ask them what they would charge for the appraisal. Say "Thank you." and hang up the phone.
Choose a number that you are comfortable with and is fair market value for appraisals.
One test is worth a thousand opinions.
I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was. - Toby Keith
Living life without taking the occasional risk is like lemon-pepper chicken without the lemon-peper. It's just chicken.
Bill and Jeff...thanks. I just got a call from the people dealing with teh estate (the probate from hell, apparently!) I'll be going over to the house Monday Jan 7th...we'll see what they want to do after I give my appraisal.
Need fencing equipment? See me at H.O.M. Fencing Supply
Going to your first tournament? Read "Choose yer weapon, Laddie (or: Dude, where's my foil?)"
Best of luck on the appraisal. Please try to stay objective. It'll be tough since you knew Don so well.
Available Now!!"The Care and Feeding of All Things Fencing", Third Edition go to The Armorer's Store or Fencing.net
I'll be able to separate it....but NO one really knew Donald well!
Need fencing equipment? See me at H.O.M. Fencing Supply
Going to your first tournament? Read "Choose yer weapon, Laddie (or: Dude, where's my foil?)"
If it helps at all, I did appraisals on guitars for $30 each. I'd do a collection for maybe $100 or so. These were fairly easy and not too time consuming.
If they are going to sell or auction whatever you don't take, I would suggest you ask for a percentage of what the final selling price is for the gear you helped appraise. You could possibly use that in trade for the gear you want, or you could have them auction everything and you could bid yourself- that way no one could question the ethics involved.
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