WorthPoint » Will Seippel

Where’s Will? – Ross’ Garage Sale Warehouse

Will Seippel — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:33:57 +0000

A photo of Bob Lang and other members of the Wild Weasel, and F-4 squadron in Viet Nam. Will purchased this pilot’s flight gear, as well as some 1,000 photos from Ross Kapstein’s Garage Sale Warehouse in Atlanta.

WorthPoint CEO and President Will Seippel will be traveling to numerous antique and collectibles shows throughout 2010. He will Twitter where he’s going each week. Anyone who sees him there and comes up to say hello will receive a one-year CEO Club discount membership to WorthPoint. You’ll know it’s Will because he’ll be wearing a white WorthPoint polo shirt.

ATLANTA – This week I made an unannounced stop to on my weekly schedule to Helen Daesy’s estate liquidation sale in the Atlanta NW warehouse District. Helen is the first lady of Atlanta antiques. She knows everyone. She knows more people than I have forgotten. (I will write about Helen another week.)

So, last weekend I was going to do my taxes. Taxes for me, as a dealer, are difficult, as I do not know how much I paid for half of my items, and because I buy in lots, it is near impossible to assign a value to everything.

Anyway, Helen had mentioned to me that I should stop by Logan Circle, down by Chattahoochee, sometime and go see her friend Ross Kapstein, who is opening a new antique store. He sells the type of things I like, she said. Hmm . . . Part of me is thinking: “I have a lot to do this today, Helen, and it is almost noon and I have not shown up at the WorthPoint Corporate offices yet to show the employees I do work on Friday. How do you think I have time to go to a preopening to a new store?” The other side of me is thinking: “Hey, this is cool. Who needs to go to an office on Friday? I can still make it to my patent attorney by 5 p.m. and maybe I can beat everyone else to the stuff that I like and get the good deals!”

Lang’s helmet visor.

Well, the buyer side of me one out and I was off to Ross’s (after I stopped by the office and had lunch with the employees). Totally a good decision. First, let me welcome Ross to the trade. Ross is a retired Atlanta school teacher. He, like some of the rest of us, has been buying things for years. His wife insists it is time for him to start selling some of the things that he has been buying and get that which some of us buyers do not rank as a top priority, otherwise known as “cash flow.”

I was a few minutes late to see Ross, as the Atlanta traffic was itself, exasperated by rain. It took me more than 40 minutes to do what my GPS said I could do in 10. I found Ross the warehouse that he shared with a Chinese importer of new antiques that have the “look” that many Atlantans are chasing at the fraction of the cost of the older items. Then I saw Ross’s inventory that he had set up. I said “wow” to myself as I saw his inventory beautifully displayed in lighted cabinets, but kept my composure. Ross had a very good eye for what to buy and detail. I asked him to walk me through all of his items. It was very quickly clear that:

• Ross loved what he had assembled and sort of collected;
• His favorite was photography and 1960s paintings;
• He did meticulous work on researching the history of his items.

Lang’s flight suit.

A few of the items that he focused on were photographs and photographers of the ’60s. Other items that Ross had that caught me eye were a cabinet photo of a former slave who had the foresight to write his life’s history on the back of the photo; a history book with 200 photos of the 40th US Army Division, in World War Two that ends in the taking of the Negros Islands and McArthur coming in by plane to take over his newly captured prize. Ross’ photo collection of the Southern Ballet left me speechless. He also had vintage electric guitars, Army uniforms, ephemera, early baseball items . . . and much more coming in.

After taking a tour of Ross’s world, we talked for several hours. Ross’s new venture is called the “Garage Sale Warehouse.” Ross is cleaning out all of the cool things he purchased and saved in his travels through Atlanta over the years, moving it form his house to the warehouse. We laughed as I noted his collection was significant enough to open up a museum, covering a lot of Atlanta’s post-Civil War history. He says he focuses on paperbillia and is an eclectologist. He also has a Board of Advisors to council him on purchases he likes but does not understand! We discussed electronic selling and I suspect that you will see Ross on WorthPoint and GoAntiques in the near future. I sensed that Ross liked the hunt so much, and was good at it, he should find a Georgia Tech student to help him start photographing and getting his inventory on line to start producing some cash flow so he could reinvest in additional new inventory. Thus, his former accumulation disease would quickly become a business. This proves to be a difficult transition for many new dealers, as they mostly experienced the buying side, have not worked with computers in this form and often rue parting with some of their beloved stock.

I purchased a car full of WWII- and Viet Nam-era military items from Ross. This included the a Wild Weasel pilot’s flight gear from Viet Nam, about 1,000 photos and the papers, and WWII Army Air pilot flight jacket—very interesting items and things my customers will love.

I will return to Ross’s store soon as he has more I would like to purchase. I also enjoyed making a new friend in the trade and in Atlanta.

Will Seippel is the president and CEO of WorthPoint. Will has been an avid collector since 1974 and dealer of just about all things—with a emphasis on ephemera—antique since 1984.

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Where’s Will? – Militaria-Heavy Chattanooga Estate Sale

Will Seippel — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:53:39 +0000

One of the photos Will bought at the John Smickle estate sale in Chattanooga, Tenn., was this one showing Generals George S. Patton (left), George C. Marshall (trench coat), Omar Bradley (over Marshall’s shoulder) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (center), watching former concentration camp prisoners demonstrating tortures used on them.

This is just a fraction of the merchandise available at the John Smickle estate sale.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – My trip into the collecting world this week was a tremendous event, as I traveled north from Atlanta to Chattanooga and the sale of the estate of John Smickle. For those of you that want to know the story behind the man, unfortunately, I do not fully know it. I did meet someone in the line that morning who knew him and told me John passed in his 50s. I did see some Smickle family World War Two documents in the sale, so I would have to assume that they belonged to his dad.

The first part of the Smickle sale was held three weeks ago. For those of you not familiar with the sale, John Smickle had one of the largest collections of stuff that I had seen in my life. Apparently, he bought a lot from estates and certainly bought more than he sold through the malls he would frequent. But I can say that he had a good eye and seemed to have a focus on militaria and old records, as they made up about two-thirds of the sale.

The first weekend of the sale was the militaria zenith, as there were more than 185 vintage World War One and WWII helmets available, some quite rare. Loose lips slipped, as several people actually slept out in zero degree weather the night before to be the first in line for numbers handed out at 4 a.m. I did not arrive until noon on the first day, and I knew the militaria would be picked hard by that time, but did not feel like leaving at 2 a.m. to get a ticket at 4.

By noon, the militaria was indeed picked hard, but there was still some phenomenal bargains to be had. For example I got a Gorham Joseph Bissell 1916 Gorham bronze plaque of Thomas Jefferson, in an Art & Crafts oak easel frame, for $60. George Bissell works start at several thousand dollars. Another favorite find of mine was a Carlisle Indian School Post card I picked up for $2. I bought several soldier scrapbooks and many other items that I have already turned around and sold, including WWII-era street propaganda posters from the Philippines.

One of the interesting pickups of the day was an ashtray made by an German Afrika Corps prisoner.

The bottom of the ashtray is marked “PW Camp 126,” which was Mellands Camp, located in Gorton, Manchester, Lancashire, England.

Aside from the 185 helmets, there were scores of rare Nazi/SS collar insignias, a (disarmed) aerial bomb, a WWII cockpit canopy, and more than 10,000 WWII photos, which I was able to purchase the majority of them. In regard to the albums, there were more than 25,000 albums and the dealers noted they were cleaning up.

Given my success at the first day, I truly understood the breadth and depth of this sale and was eager for second part of the sale. Apparently, there were several more tractor-trailer loads of items to unload for Part II. I did not know what to expect but I had hoped it would be as good as Part I. I also vowed to get up early this time so I could arrive an hour or so before the doors opened to get a number and go have breakfast before getting down to business.

Planning is great, but reality often the killer. With a son and daughter to act as accomplices, we left my house as planned on Saturday morning at 6 a.m. I had thought about leaving the night before, but the snow/freezing rain anticipated in Tennessee was a concern. I was fortunate I thought about this decision as Interstate 75 was treacherous the night before and was actually closed for several hours. Driving up the next morning I could still see the abandoned cars on the shoulder of the freeway. We got to the sale an hour before it opened and was No. 3 in line! The only problem was they were not giving out numbers and I would have to wait out in the below freezing weather. I resigned my body to that fate and persevered for the next hour standing in a mix of snow and cold rain. The kids stayed in the car.

Another interesting pick includes this Pan Pacific Exposition medallion.

This pair of pre-war Japanese dolls was still in their original cardboard box.

Alas, the Welch’s Antique and Estate Sales, the sale facilitator, held the doors until 9 a.m., sharp, and made sure that the lines were organized and no one cheated to get in early. Given the quality and fair pricing I saw at the previous sale, I immediately found the ephemera and took every stack of paper and photos and gently dumped them into boxes or bags. As I filled each box, my kids hauled them to the storage spot for check outs. This enabled me to work much faster, but I wasn’t sure about what all I was getting or what I was spending, but that did not matter; this was cool, unpicked stuff that my buyers would love (they get frustrated that I only have a virtual store and they can not come to a physical one.)

The next five hours that day were spent picking though John Smickle’s life collection and spending $3,700, mostly on “smalls.” It was quite a sale. My Grand Cherokee was so packed that I practically could not fit my son and daughter in to drive back with me.

The unique items abounded: WWII German POW African Corps-made ashtray; Howard Hughes Spruce Goose crew photo… The list goes on and on. I saw things I have never seen in my almost 40 years of selling.

Jo Welch of Welch’s Antique and Estate Sales of Chattanooga.

Kim, another Welch employee.

Josh made sure everything was under control.

The sale was run by Welch’s Antique and Estate Sales of Chattanooga. They run an extremely professional sale and I would use them as a seller. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff and provide all kinds of bags and boxes to take things home, security . . . you name it. Their focus on detail is fantastic. For me, Chattanooga is now on my list of places to go, if they are running a sale. Thank you Jo and team.

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Will Seippel is the president and CEO of WorthPoint. Will has been an avid collector since 1974 and dealer of just about all things—with a emphasis on ephemera—antique since 1984.

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Where’s Will? – The Original Miami Beach International Antiques Show

Will Seippel — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:26:51 +0000

There were lines of people at the doors on opening day of the Original Miami Beach International Antiques Show. So many people, in fact, that show officials were forced to open early to control the crowd. That is a very good sign for all of us dealers.

Editor’s Note: WorthPoint CEO and President Will Seippel will be traveling to numerous antique and collectibles shows throughout 2010. He will Twitter where he’s going each week. Anyone who sees him there and comes up to say hello will receive a one-year CEO Club discount membership to WorthPoint. You’ll know it’s Will because he’ll be wearing a white WorthPoint polo shirt.

MIAMI – How is the economy doing . . . hmm . . . if the antiques and collectibles market in South Beach and Miami are any indication, it is doing pretty good. I am spending much of my time in the field with buyers and sellers in 2010. It was a New Year’s resolution. I know, it sure sounds like a hardship to start off with Miami in January, while the rest of the country in an icebox! Yes, I even went for a swim while down here and would recommend that the rest of you make the trip and meet me here next year and take in the show.

Will’s tour guide for the Original Miami International Antiques Show was Wortholgist David Mycko, who specialized in horology.

I toured the Original Miami Beach Antiques Show at the Miami Convention Center with our horologist Worthologist David Mycko. For those of you who think that is a dirty word, let me assure you that David is a timepiece expert who specializes in watches. I asked David to help me learn the ropes of the show. I came down on the second day of the show (which ran from Jan. 21 to 25, 2010) and David already had a great opening day, having bought and sold numerous items. David told me there were lines of people at the doors on opening day. So many people, in fact, that show officials were forced to open early to control the crowd. That is a very good sign for all of us dealers.

While walking the floor with David, I immediately noticed two things. The first was the amazing amount of energy present, as the hall nearly crackled with it. The second thing I noticed was that one of my kids had borrowed my memory card from my camera and that I was out of luck as far as taking photographs to illustrate my first thought. Luckily, I was at the booth of Matt Bain of Miami Beach when I realized I was to go photo-less. Matt had a killer display of wristwatches and is a great person. But it was Alison, who works with him, who immediately came to my rescue, offering me the card from her camera. With two gigs of memory, I was back in business at one of the world’s greatest watch and clock shows.

This tiny box, with a portrait of Kaiser Wilhelm painted on the front and edged in diamonds and rubies, was, according to the dealer, a gift from the Kaiser to his daughter.

The thing that caught my eye immediately at Matt’s booth was a really cool James Bond watch. All of us guys want to be like Bond, or at least experience a Bond-like situation, and it is cool to see such a famous timepiece. Matt had a great collection of Rolexes, Breitlings and anything else you could possibly want in a wristwatch. If you’d like to for any of you that want to ask Matt about the Bond watch, you can visit his Web site.

We wondered around some more and I found a New England dealer by the name of Butch McGrath of Scituate, Maine. Butch, who runs a booth with his dad, was an oasis for me, as I am from Maine and it was nice to see New England antiques in Miami. One of things that peaked my interest was a tiny box with Kaiser Wilhelm painted on the front that was edged in diamonds and rubies. On the back was the date of a daughter’s birthday. According to Butch, this was a gift from the Kaiser to his daughter. Another item he had that I thought quite highly of was a leather World War Two flight jacket from the 14th Air Force with the original leather local theatre patches and the flyers bag with the original accoutrements. The flyer’s name was sewn in the bag so someone could have fun with doing research on this ensemble. If you are interested in the above items, Butch can be reached at 781.545.3661.

Next David showed me another watch dealer by the name of Steve Smith. Steve was a great guy that a buyer would feel immediately comfortable with. He seemed to have a watch for everyone (and in their price range).

My favorite watch of the show was the timepiece once owned by Lt. Col. Edward R. Warner of the 1st NY Volunteer Light Artillery.

While I was blown away with some of the pocket watches I had seen earlier, and despite the glory of the earlier European examples, my favorite watch of the show was the timepiece owned by Lt. Col. Edward R. Warner of the 1st NY Volunteers Light Artillery. This group saw very heavy action in the Civil War. The unit’s history can be found at this very cool Web site.

While looking at this watch, I noticed a couple of restored 1960s-era Vespas nearby. The good life would be to drive one of those out with a new vintage time piece in your pocket.

We had a lot of fun. We spotted another great watch over at The Red Barron’s of Atlanta. The watch was attached to an ancient—well old—single-shot percussion gun with a very decorative chain. It was for a gambler, so the story went.

David and I then walked over to see another watch he was looking at buying, but by the time we got there, it was gone. This was another sign that buying that was going on and can only reaffirm the old adage: “you snooze, you lose.”

At this point I was tired and Dave was going on. I ran into a friendly visitor from Baltimore who gladly shared his lunch with me, as I was too tired to wait in line.

All-in-all, it was a great day, and I left the show to head off to the airport. And a special thanks to Andrea and Mary from show promoters DMG World Media for such a fun time. I would highly recommend the show to others next year and heard very good things from shoppers and dealers and that each year the show only gets better.

Will Seippel is the president and CEO of WorthPoint. Will has been an avid collector since 1974 and dealer of just about all things antique—with a emphasis on ephemera—since 1984.

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Expert Appraisers Miss ‘Great Find’ Hiding in Plain Sight

Gregory Watkins — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:22:56 +0000

Will Seippel, the founder, CEO and president of WorthPoint, recently discovered a pair of these 18th-century Sevres end pieces at an estate sale after many people passed them over, including a pair of expert appraisers, who tagged them at $125 each. Their true value is much, much more.

Just as the everyday collector hopes to come across a Great Find—an item bypassed by many, purchased for a pittance and worth thousands—experts can miss a valuable item staring them in the face.

Will Seippel, the founder, CEO and president of WorthPoint, recently had such an experience.

Will wanted to attend a private estate sale in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, but circumstances—in this case a late flight back from Ohio—had delayed his arriving at the sale. By the time he got there, there were only minutes left before it closed for the day at 5 p.m.

“I thought I could get them to apply their second-day 50-percent-off discount early, if I found anything,” Will said.

But after briefly talking with the organizers of the sale, Will had learned that most of the estate’s pieces had been sold ealier in the day, prior to his arrival. Additionally, the sales company had hired two appraisers to help evaluate prices before the sale. So, he thought, finding anything worthwhile was going to be a longshot.

Still, Will decided to look over what was left. His eyes were immediately drawn to a pair of white porcelain pieces—each with four cherubs surrounding a pillar holding up a low bowl. He looked at the tags: $125 each.

He picked one up and turned it over: “I thought I recognized the mark on the bottom and knew immediately I had something.”

The pieces were early porcelain, 18th-century French, Will thought, judging by the irregular salt-glazed finish. They were also made in pieces and then combined into the final piece, as the “technology” did not exist in the early 1700’s to mold such intricate and large pieces in one mold.

A mark and the iron assembly helped to determine the identity of this circa 1740 Sevres end piece.

“They were also sophisticated in the detail and that the floral decoration is usually indicative of Meissen porcelain of the period, but the puttis/cherubs were typically French,” Will said. “The square iron bolts holding them together also dated them.”

What he had found, hiding in plain sight from all the experts and experienced buyers all day long, Will decided, were Sevres porcelain end pieces.

Still, he stood there for a few moments, blinking, because he couldn’t believe what he was holding.

Well, it was time to buy. Since it was 5 p.m. and the end of the first day sale, Will asked the persons conducting the sale to give him second-day pricing to save a trip back the next morning, and possibly waiting in line. He ended up with a very good deal, if not a textbook “Great Find.”

The sophistication in the detail and that the floral decoration is usually indicative of Meissen porcelain of the period, but the puttis/cherubs are typically French.

After getting his buy home, he called Thom Pattie, WorthPoint’s chief Worthologist, who, looking at photos send via e-mail, confirmed that Will had indeed made a good buy: the pieces were marked in an early Sevres mark and were made about 1740.

Wow, a pair of Sevres end pieces in great condition, acquired at a steal at $100, that are easily worth $1,000 to $3,000 each. This story only goes to show that when on the hunt for a Great Find, don’t disregard an item just because an “expert” passed on it.

Gregory Watkins is the editor of WorthPoint.com.

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Point of View on WorthPoint

Mary Brenneman — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:22:23 +0000

Question: Do you consider investing in art, antiques or collectibles an alternative to the stock market? Would you share your strategy with the rest of us?

With banks closing, fraud investigations of financial entities, major companies threatened with bankruptcy and stock prices on the decline, investors are looking for safe alternatives. This week gold jumped to $967 an ounce, the highest since July 17, 2008. Collecting gold items and coins is looking more and more to be a viable investment alternative.

James Taylor, CEO and president of ANACS, American’s oldest coin-grading service, says his business is up 20-30 percent. “People are not only collecting gold, but they want to know its value. It’s not just the new collectors, but people who have been collecting for decades are sending us coins for authentication, grading and attribution,” Taylor said.

With a community of collectors around the world, we’re interested in knowing if you currently view collecting as an investment. Do you consider investing in collecting art, antiques or collectibles an alternative to the stock market? Would you share your strategy with the rest of us?

To start the conversation, we’ve gathered some of the comments from WorthPoint’s Linkedin page for Antique Investors, Sellers and Fans.

“It’s always been something my parents did, I just do it naturally. Been buying anything silver since forever. Gold too! Even if it isn’t great looking, I always figure that one day I could scrap it for more. My Dad was big into scrapping gold and silver. It was like his side hobby! Art is also a decent investment, and some paintings and lithographs cannot only go up in value, but can be passed along in the family for enjoying until there is a need to raise funds.”
Lynne

On WorthPoint’s Linkedin page for Antique Investors, Sellers and Fans

“I joined eBay in 2003, primarily to purchase underpriced, quality scrimshaw. As of this month, eBay prohibits the listing of ALL ivory, including antique scrimshawed whale teeth. I have other sources, but eBay was by far the most fun, and the easiest to monitor.

“I consider my collection to be my personal IRA (Ivory Retirement Account). Most of my scrimshaw is posted on WorthPoint.com, divided into several different collections. Descriptive and historical text is posted with each item. Will Seippel recruited me to become WorthPoint’s scrimshaw Worthologist. My WorthPoint ID is ScrimCollector.

“I believe the knowledgeable acquisition of antiques will outperform traditional stock investments. And it is a heckova lot more fun!”
Douglass Moody, sole proprietor at TradeWinds International

On WorthPoint’s Linkedin page for Antique Investors, Sellers and Fans

“I have to admit that I invest in antiques as opposed to the traditional investment vehicles. I probably average a return of at least 60% if not much more. My IRA, on the other hand, lost 67% this year.

“I did very well this year on my platinum and gold. I lost my job in October and have been very well subsidized through my antiques. My collection is nearly gone, but it can be rebuilt once I have an income.

“I decided long ago that I would be better off with antiques than stocks. The best thing is that I can enjoy them and share them while I have them. No one is in the least bit interested in seeing a portfolio, but they do get a kick out of the antiques.

“The first time I had to sell things off was heartbreaking. The second time was annoying. The third time I was happy that I changed my approach and considered them as investments, which meant that I had to be more careful and knowledgeable about what I bought and at what price I bought it.”
Doug

“Yes, in the past 10 years carefully acquired fine antiques purchased at conservative prices have grossly outperformed the Dow, S&P, gold and silver markets. Of course, your average savings bank account most likely also outperformed my 401k plan (my wife calls it our 201 kaka plan).

“Many years ago as a kid working for Max Vas, the well-known Madison Ave dealer, he used to say ‘It’s always a good time to SELL antiques, or to BUY antiques . . . but it’s never the SAME time.’ I didn’t understand this back then, but after several cycles consisting of several years of hot sales (money chasing after merch) and no sales (product chasing after buyers), I am currently BUYING QUALITY antiques at REASONABLE prices for FUTURE sale.”
Steven

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Finding an Example from Great-Granddad’s Phonograph Company

Tom Carrier — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:46:54 +0000

By Tom Carrier
WorthPoint Worthologist

EDITOR’S NOTE: Brimfield, Mass., is a small New England town with a population of about 5,000 or so. Settled in 1706, it shows its traditional New England quaintness rather well. It has its large, steepled church, and with the leaves of autumn or the snow of winter, looks the part in any Norman Rockwell painting. And then for one week every spring, fall, and summer, the population doubles with 5,000 antique dealers converging on Brimfield to create the “Antique Capital of the United States.”

I had the most unique opportunity to go antique hunting with Will Seippel, CEO and founder of WorthPoint.com to learn about furniture and other things that caught his eye. Will is quite the collector himself and he finds the most fascinating items.

We wandered to the original show that started it all back in 1959; J&J Promotions. There are 20 different shows now at Brimfield, and Will was glad to be back to the place where he himself was a dealer about 20 years ago.

The first stop was the RCA, Edison Electric booth. We were greeted by an oversized Nipper, the original RCA Victor logo and mascot—you remember, the perplexed black and white dog looking into the new fangled Victrola that played the original 78 rpm records. Will found quite a stack of original Edison wax cylinders used for the original phonograph or gramophone. “The thing you have to be careful for is that they don’t end up with a mold on them. When that happens, no more sound.” Will says. These cylinders are very plentiful and the WorthPoint Worthopedia has many auctions where similar cylinders sold on average of $3 to $5 each.

Interestingly, Will walked into a trailer displaying early phonograph cabinets and noticed one from the Sonora Phonograph Company of New York, N.Y.

“It actually belonged to my great-grandfather and that was his record company,” Will says. The company produced phonographs from about 1907 and later also distributed radios until the company closed in 1930. Will tells the story of his grandfather locking the plant after a union strike which bankrupted the firm, all while his father, the true owner of the company, was on vacation. Still, a well preserved Sonora phonograph has been sold at auction for $200 to $300.

I pulled a surprise on Will that day. As the Worthologist recruiter for WorthPoint then, I passed a box full of old license plates and informed Will that we just brought on our own Worthologist for license plates, a very collectible item these days. We found plates for Massachusetts 1966, California 1974, New Hampshire, Kentucky 1970, and Michigan 1976 still in its wrappers.

“I always like to see the ones from Washington, D.C. with ‘No Taxation Without Representation,’” Will says. To get a good idea as to the value of any early license plates visit WorthPoint’s Worthologist Andy Bernstein. Some very early license plates have values into the thousands if you know what to look for.

As always, antiquing with Will Seippel is a great educational experience. Will’s stories, knowledge and the practiced eye made me a better collector. Everyone should go antiquing with Will at least once. It was a great treat.

To watch a video of Will Seippel’s tour of Brimfield, click here.

To see an example of an Editon gramaphone, click here.

To see an example of an Sonora phonograph, click here.

To visit Andy Bernstein’s Worthologist home page, click here.

Tom Carrier is a general Worthologist, with an expertise in a wide variety of subjects, including vexillology, or the study of flags.

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Discussing Sheraton and Victorian Furniture with Will Seippel

Tom Carrier — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:23:45 +0000

By Tom Carrier
WorthPoint Worthologist

It’s a small table he notices first. “What we have here is a beautiful New England work table dating from about 1820, in what they call the Sheraton style,” Seippel says.

Now to me, it was just a small table, but Will notices the brass knob on the front of the small drawer and the birch top. The legs, though, draw his particular attention.

“Generally in New England, you can tell the difference from the southern tables, because the legs were much thinner, which was really more the Puritan ethic to save material. The southern tables would have large legs which they would flaunt how much material they would use, kind of the opposite,” Seippel says. “A very, very nice table.”

We keep moving down the line until he notices an entire table of furniture accessories, such as Victorian hand carved walnut drawer pulls for cottage furniture, door knobs, and even claw feet for a table. “Fred Taylor, our Worthologist for all things Victorian to 1920s to 1950s Grand Rapids furniture, can tell you more than I can, but these are hard to find and they are great to use on your furniture,” Seippel says.

Lastly, we came across a rather large wooden bed. “Here is a nice bed here that’s made out of walnut. It’s a little bit higher end of Victorian furniture. These are very functional beds, and is a great piece to recycle and use. Very comfortable, and saves cutting down a tree to make a new bed. Something like this I would really recommend,” Seippel says. He particularly notices the hand-carved fruit decoration on the headboard and at the foot of the bed itself. “It’s a very nice piece of furniture,” Seippel concludes.

WorthPoint’s Worthopedia auction prices put the door knob at only a few dollars within a large lot, the Victorian bed frame sold at auction from $110 to about $200, while similar small Sheraton work tables were auctioned from $50 to more than $1,200 for an 1830’s walnut southern Sheraton-style work table.

Just to be able to walk alongside Will as he points out the kinds of important antiques and collectibles that would just pass me by is a lesson in itself. After “antiquing” with Will Seippel, I now understand more fully how he was able to pay his way through higher education through the buying and selling of antiques. I certainly will not be able to look at furniture legs quite the same way again.

To watch a video of Will Seippel’s tour of Brimfield, click here.

Tom Carrier is a general Worthologist, with an expertise in a wide variety of subjects, including vexillology, or the study of flags.

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WorthPoint to Launch Redesigned Site

Will Seippel — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:33:22 +0000

We have put our heart and souls into the upcoming launch of the redesigned worthpoint.com, and we hope that our readers and members will find it as exciting as we do.

Today, as I write this, we are a little more than a year old. We are ranked in the top 6,000 sites on the Internet, our page views have jumped to 1.5 million a month, and we are growing at a 5-percent compounded rate.

You have been good to us, checking us out and coming back again and again. We take that as a sign that you like what you see. I promise you that when we launch the new WorthPoint, it is going to get even better. On the redesigned WorthPoint site, we have created the tools for networking, learning, pricing, buying, selling and making a profit. The new site will make all of our collecting experiences easier and more productive. During the next week, we will showcase many of the features and benefits of the new site, and our new membership levels, but here’s a sneak preview of some of the highlights.

What You Can Do on WorthPoint’s Redesigned Site

• Use your profile page to connect with others who share your collecting interests

• Find people who own items you want to buy or who want to buy what you need to sell

• Find and bookmark events and shows on WorthPoint’s extensive, searchable calendar

• Post events and shows on your calendar that others can follow

• Locate business professionals by city and state, for example, estate planners or insurance agents specializing in antiques and collectibles

• Learn about the items you own or want to buy or sell with more than 100 videos and thousands of articles by experts

• Ask our expert Worthologists for evaluations or seek information from the global community of collectors

• Use our extensive database of millions (100 million by the end of 2009) of historical items to price items you want to sell or determine the price you want to pay

• Sell your items: on the classifieds, in our GoAntiques marketplace (dealers only), at one of our auction house partners, through a dealer at an antique show or other venues you find on the site

Room for Everyone

We have room for everyone connected to the collecting world: collectors, buyers, sellers, dealers, Worthologists, galleries, associations, clubs, auction houses, auctioneers, writers, content producers, media professionals, educators, estate planners, insurers, museums, book publishers, repairers, restorers, show promoters, suppliers and wholesalers—you are all valuable members of the collecting community.

I have seen many professionals and respected experts in the collecting world struggle for years to grow their Web traffic, yet they still don’t rate in the top 100,000 sites. Please know that if you are laboring in obscurity, posting useful information on the Internet that no one is seeing, you can put your profile on our site. With a professional membership, you can link to your own site and use our page views to help you build traffic, whether you are an expert collector, a museum or provide professional services to the collecting community.

Last week, our organic traffic grew by a very hefty 16 percent. We expect to continue to grow at a rapid rate because what we offer is valuable to all segments of the collecting industry. Together, by sharing our knowledge, providing information buyers and sellers can trust, creating a fair marketplace for buyers and sellers, we will level the playing field, and that will bring new people into the collecting world.

When we launch next week, I hope you will take a look and let me know what you think of the features on the new site, what works best for you and what changes you’d like to see. We will be adding new features and tools throughout the year, and as always, we intend to listen closely to what our users and members want and need.

Thank you for your trust and support during our inaugural year. In return, we plan to provide you with the best possible experiences on the Internet in the collecting world.

Will Seippel
CEO & founder of WorthPoint

WorthPoint » Will Seippel

Top 10 Worthopedia Searches for February, 2010

Where’s Will? – Ross’ Garage Sale Warehouse

Top 10 Worthopedia Searches for January, 2010

Where’s Will? – Militaria-Heavy Chattanooga Estate Sale

Where’s Will? – The Original Miami Beach International Antiques Show

Expert Appraisers Miss ‘Great Find’ Hiding in Plain Sight

Point of View on WorthPoint

Finding an Example from Great-Granddad’s Phonograph Company

Discussing Sheraton and Victorian Furniture with Will Seippel

WorthPoint to Launch Redesigned Site

What You Can Do on WorthPoint’s Redesigned Site

Room for Everyone