Comments on: Entry-Level Civil War Collectibles: They’re Out There if You Know What to Look For

By: Ernest F Mancha Sr.

Ernest F Mancha Sr. — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 15:55:29 +0000

Very interesting items.

By: Ken Hatfield

Ken Hatfield — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 00:49:43 +0000

All excellent questions. However, since I don’t work for WorthPoint per se, I can’t really answer them. I would suggest starting with their “Ask a Worthologist” section under “Research Your Items” at the top of the page. I’m pretty sure they can answer all your questions.

By: DJ

DJ — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 21:02:08 +0000

Ken,

Thanks for the response, but accepting your suggestion creates additional questions:

1) The owner is understandably very “squeamish” about placing these letters in jeopardy. I am assuming that Worthpoint would recommend using an overnight carrier (FedEx) and insurance. But how does one determine an “insurance value” prior to the planned appraisal?
Catch-22.

2) If the above can be sorted, what is the appraisal cost?

3) Is an appraisal cost waived [if] there’s an agreement to use Worthpoint as the auction house?

I’m sure your response will interest others interested in using Worthpoint for similar purposes.

By: Ken Hatfield

Ken Hatfield — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:12:38 +0000

If it was me, I would make a test run on eBay. Put something up, see how it does and go from there. Newspapers typically don’t do that well on our auction unless they talk about historic events and are in really good condition. Bound magazines do better, but eBay is a good place to start.

By: Tom Tallmadge

Tom Tallmadge — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 15:16:10 +0000

I have several bound Harpers Weeklys from the war year, along with many other Northern, and Southern news papers.Whats my best venue to sell these?

By: Ken Hatfield

Ken Hatfield — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:29:15 +0000

The best – and really only – way to authenticate and establish value to a collection like that would be to use a company like WorthPoint to hook you up with a professional appraiser. No one else is going to have the incentive to assess an accurate value to something like that, which could be very valuable, or not. An auction company like ours doesn’t see enough Civil War era correspondence to know how valuable it is. All we could do is give you an estimate, then put it on the auction and hope for the best.

By: DJ

DJ — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 22:22:05 +0000

Among affordable entry level Civil War collectibles, is correspondence, i.e. letters.

I agreed to broker a collection of “marine” related letters for a friend. These are
letters which may or may not contain or verify Civil War history, as they are from a (federal) junior officer, his wife, and his brother, while stationed aboard a service ship that
accompanied the flag ship Minnesota (which was run aground at Hampton Rhodes and part of the famous Monitor vs. Merrimac).

Question: Where does one go to verify a “collection” of such letters and how does one establish a value?