Are My Old Dishes Worth Money? Tips for Discovering the Value of Your Old Dinner Set

Are you tired of your old dishes and ready for a change? Before getting rid of that set, it may be worth checking to see if they are worth money.

Valuable old dishes and glassware turn up in thrift stores all the time because the owners didn't realize how collectible their "everyday set" had become. Before donating your dishes or selling them for a song at a yard sale, it's definitely worth checking on-line for the current selling price of your old dinner dishes.

How to research the value of your dishes

Most dishes are identified on the back with a mark called a "back stamp." Back stamps typically include the name of the manufacturer and possibly the city or country where the dishes were made. Some back stamps may include a pattern name and a date of production.

Once you have this information, a search of eBay, Tias, or a china replacement company should turn up the going price for your particular set of dishes. It's worth keeping in mind that most china replacement places charge premium prices for old dishes, and your set probably won't sell for that price. My rule of thumb for pricing those dishes on eBay or some other online auction venue is for 50% the china replacement list price. This is low enough to pull in interested bidders who should "bid up" the price another 50-75%.

In the instances where the pattern name is not printed along with the back stamp, a little more research will be necessary. This is done in one of several ways:

1. The easiest way to find the pattern name is to do a general manufacturer's search on a china replacement web site. Most of these sites have color photographs which allow you to identify the pattern easily. This method will work about 90% of the time.

2. If your pattern is not listed with a china registry, the next step is to do a google search, listing the manufacturer's name and any other identifying marks on the back. A search will pull up all dishes by this manufacturer on both eBay and online antique dealers. With a page by page search, your pattern may turn up.

3. If searching on-line didn't work, a third step is to visit a local bookstore and browse through their collectibles encyclopedias in the "Art & Collectibles" section. Patterns that are extremely hard to find may be listed in one of these directories.

4. Visiting the public library is the final step. While the library doesn't contain current identification guides and prices, they do have some older generally reference books that may list the pattern name of your set.

Once the pattern has been identified, you can search the internet for the going sales price of the set.

So what if my plates don't have a backstamp? To identify these dishes, about the only thing you can do is a search on the internet using descriptive words, such as "vintage dishes" followed by the color of the dishes and a distinct feature of the plates, such as "oval" or "brown house."

Are my plates in good enough condition to sell?

Unless your dishes are very old, highly prized antiques, plates have to look practically brand new in order to appeal to a buyer. Dishes with scratches, stains, spotty platinum trim, nicks, chips, hairline fractures, and missing knobs and handles do not sell.

To check the condition of your plates, there are a few tips that will help you identify problems:

A nick is a tiny, almost invisible chip that usually happens on the rim of the dishes. You can feel a nick with your finger tips and running your fingers around the rim is the best way to find them. If the plate is somewhat rare and the nick is almost invisible, you can sell fetch a nice price for the plate. If the nick is more of a chip, the plate can not be sold.

Hairline cracks are often hard to detect since they can almost like like a craze. A crack can always be detected by flicking your finger near the rim and listening for the sound it makes. If you heard a clear "ringing" sound, the plate is fine. If the plate has a crack, a sound more like a "thud" will be heard.
Crazing is a fine network of cracks found in the finish of the dinnerware. Some crazing may be acceptable in extremely old plates, but are unacceptable in modern plates.

Utensils can scratch the clear glaze of a plate or soup bowl, and can leave tiny telltale scratch marks on the surface. To detect scratch marks, hold the plate up to the light and tilt it until the light bounces off the surface. Most buyers find that one or two tiny cuts is acceptable, but not a whole network of cuts.
Check for lids, knobs, and handles. While no one will buy a cup or tea pot with a broken handle or spout, items that may be missing the lid or base can often be sold as a replacement.

Dishes covered with heavy burnish marks are also difficult to sell. Burnish marks are those silvery gray marks that are caused by a fork or spoon rubbing against the surface of the plate. Before junking those dishes however, you can try cleaning them up with a stoneware cleaning product. The Pflatzgraff company makes a fabulous stoneware cleaner that will remove burnish marks and make those dishes look new again.

Once you've determined that your dishes are worth some money and are in fine condition, they can be listed on-line with a self-service auction house. The secret to getting the best price for those dishes is to sell the dishes by the individual piece or place setting and staggering the listings so as not to "flood the market.". Over the course of a few months, you should find yourself earning a nice profit on your old dinnerware while freeing up some shelf space for a new set of dishes.