An Auction Result is Not an Appraisal!

Auction results are a large part of the data an appraiser interprets to for their value conclusion – but they are far from the only thing!

In any first consultation with me, a client identifies the intended use of the appraisal, and together we determine the objective. These two things help me determine the most appropriate market or markets to search for sales and pricing data, whether for comparable sales, or prices of like items or reproductions.

The most appropriate market is where the items are most commonly bought and sold by buyers and sellers in full possession of all relevant facts about the items and under no compulsion to either buy or sell.

On top of all this is an item’s physical characteristics, and often enough in my corner of the appraisal world, a provenance that establishes additional historical significance. Both can have an effect on value.

So you see appraisals are a multi-faceted process with many moving parts! It takes a mind adept at compilation, interpretation, and interpolation of data to reach a justifiable value conclusion – far more than a simple search of realized prices!