My family has been appraising, auctioning, buying and generally moving items for the better part of a century and what I have learned from our combined experience is…One man’s trash is another man’s treasure! While it is difficult to entirely outline what it takes to make something valuable in one post, I can give you a few rules of thumb to live by.

Value is determined by a few factors…

1. Rarity – this is probably the trickiest of the factors. Rarity is generally a good thing when trying to determine value, but not always. Being 1 of 1 is generally a bad thing, unless its the only Mona Lisa. Basically the world has to know about it…and care, for rarity to matter.

2. Age – I feel like sometimes I sound like a broken record…”Just ’cause it’s old doesn’t necessarily mean it’s valuable” I said (like a million times) Age on an item is a good thing if the shouldn’t be in the shape it is in.

3. Condition – I refer back to age. If you have an original Star Wars poster from the first movie (1978) it could be valuable. It’s not that old relatively speaking but in excellent condition it could be worth $1500-$2000, if it’s in poor condition you’re probably under a hundred bucks…condition means a lot.

4. Desirability – This is a vast factor, but probably the biggest determiner. Desirability could be because of the time we’re in ie; the Model T Ford has dropped in value because anyone who remembers them is gone or has no extra income vs. late 60′s early 70′s muscle cars are skyrocketing currently because the people who always wanted them now have the cash to buy them. The desire for an item may also relate to it’s aesthetic purposes, this is the reason why many old advertising items are popular. They were designed originally to be eye catching and now they look great as decoration.

I realize this is not very in depth, but hopefully I have opened the door a little for you on reasons for value.

Scott Vander Kolk Jr. is a lead appraiser and VK Appraisal and President of Golden Gavel Auction Service, as well as President of the Michigan State Auctioneers Association