Pricing
and Collectors:
Everyone wants to
know what their medical antiques are worth. Well, that's a
difficult question. If the antique's condition is new in the
box, the interest level increases and the value goes up. Many times, price
is relative to demand and the demand varies with the exposure of the item to
collectors. Typically antique dealers pay very little for medical items
because there is great risk they will be stuck with the item for long periods of
time. There is also the great risk of a set or item not being
correct, or containing inconsistent substitutions. The number one
problem with collecting this type of antique material is first identification,
and then figuring out if it's all there. Partial kits or instruments are
not very valuable. Unlike art, which you can look up in a text, medical
antiques are almost totally undocumented other than in auction catalogs, texts, or the
precious few published museum documents available. Only a few true medical
antiques experts
exist. Via this Website, we are trying to gain as much knowledge as
possible about other collectors, pricing, and availability of various
instruments.
For additional
information see: evaluating
unknown sets; valuation of a surgical set;
and pricing
article on this site.
Historically, really
nice medical items have changed hands within the professional community at what could only be described as relatively modest prices. When major pieces
have been sold at the auction houses in New York or London, the prices are not
all that great due to a limited number of collectors or museums willing to pay
top dollar. Unlike art collectors, medical collectors tend to
be a quiet group and not display their collections. They are typically
collectors of the history of the profession, rather than
investor/collectors.
So little is known about most medical items
found in the back alley antique shops that one is at great risk if one pays more
than a few hundred dollars. In general, the items
sold on eBay auctions are quiet often of questionable authenticity as reflected
in the lower prices realized. On the other hand, sometimes prices paid at
on-line auctions will be disproportionately high. It all depends on who is
bidding.
Generally I have
found the interest in a given medical piece is closely related to the specialty
of the buyer if he or she is a physician. With the advent of
Managed-or-ObamaCare, and its financial consequences to the physician community, I
wouldn't be surprised to see prices fall lower due to lack of discretionary
income. Fluctuations in the stock market do not help either.
So, where do you go
to find comparable prices for sets or individual instruments? Search the auction catalogs of Christies,
Sotheby's, eBay, and the older auction houses in the Northeast. Study antique
magazines which cater to scientific and medical sales. Contact museums and
see if they will divulge prices paid for their collections. (Doubtful!)
Attend large antique fairs or shows and see what is placed for sale and then try
to figure out what was actually paid. As you can see, it isn't easy.
It really boils down to "It's worth what someone is willing to pay and
nothing more." There are also auction sales aggregator websites
who will sell you 'prices realized' information. Just Google for the
terms and take a chance to find and view prior sales at a price.
If you spend a huge
amount of time on eBay, you can get an idea of relative prices collectors or
dealer/buyers are willing to pay for a given item at a given time. If you
know the dealers who bid on eBay, you can get a pretty good idea what the
"wholesale" price is to them since they generally have a good idea what a given
piece will bring on the collector market. In some cases, they will
pay top dollar because they know some isolated busy doctor who will pay whatever
they say and not question the price.
Not everyone has time
to dig out values and watch the collectible market and that is why they employ the use of a
"good reputable" medical antiques dealer, of which there are few. Again, just ask and I'll
try to point you in the right direction based on my experience.