I Just Inherited a Violin

Now what? What is it worth? Is it a long lost Stradivarius or something of that value? I’m rich? When you find a nice collectable at a flea market or inherit one, the mind can start racing. We were blessed or cursed; I am not sure which, with an inheritance of many collectibles. The most substantial of which was a collection of over 60 antique violins and bows. Through all of these, the coins, the records, and the memorabilia, there is always that excitement when the question races through ones mind…Is this the big one? Since this has happened, I look in occasionally on antique shows and there is always the same look when people bring collectables in for appraisal. There is that unsubstantiated excitement that this little item is going to be worth gazillions.

The reality is that it is extremely rare that anything out of Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house is worth a fortune. I have to turn off the shows that appraise collectables when they get to violins. I have spent the last 4 years working with a luthiery reconditioning, restoring and appraising our violin collection so I have a very clear knowledge of the value of antique violins. Without exception, the violins that they appraise on the TV shows are grossly over valued. Most are valued at 5 to 10 times their real value. Or if they do have that value, that is the retail value. To get it you would have to lay out money to recondition or restore the violin and then you would have to pay a 20% commission on the sale. You would only realize 40% of that appraised price at the end of the day or year or decade. There are several more versions of this reality that I will share with you.

1. The first of these realities is that if it was worth that much and was that easy to sell, why hasn’t someone in previous generations done this before? They went through hard times when they needed cash…I am sure some one in the family did? Yeah, there is a reason it has come down to you.

2. The second reality is that your new collectable is valuable but not that valuable. As I mentioned, violins may be worth a thousand or thousands or tens of thousands or dollars. It is all about how rare the collectable is. There are not any more of whatever the collectable is being made so it is about how rare it is and how rare the quality of it is. You may inherit an old coin but if it is of very poor quality it is worth a very small fraction of what a mint quality coin of the same year would be valued at. The other aspect of this reality is that there are a lot more poor quality antiques than there are those of high quality. Demand is always there for high quality antiques. The price is a function of the supply of high quality antiques.

3. You may have a high quality antique but it needs work. The fact that it may be a high quality antique will justify spending more to bring the antique back to near new condition. If you have a poor quality antique, often it is not worth spending the money to fix it up as you would never get your money back. You can spend more money on it than you could ever recover in a sale. If it is a high quality antique, you will net far less if you have to spend 50% of the value restoring it.

4. There are a lot of fakes and knockoff collectables out there. Knockoffs are not something that this generation invented. Collectables is a history of knockoffs. Every member of noted violin making families could only made a few hundred instruments in a lifetime. There are millions of Strad, Amati, Guarnerius and Maggini copies on the planet right now. Coins also had knockoffs and the easiest way to sort them out from the real ones is that they are always much lighter than the real ones.

5. The final reality is that collectables are hard to market. If you have inherited a collectable, you are the rookie in the world of serious collectors. There are scammers and liars and cheaters everywhere. They will try to steal your collectable at the worst or give you as little as possible at best. If you try to sell direct into the market, you are assumed to be uninformed and untrustworthy at the least and one of the scammers at worst impression.

6. To add insult to injury, try to insure you’re collectable for the appraised value. First you have to pay for an appraisal and then you have to pay an exorbitant premium on collectables. Usually you have to get a separate policy from your home owners insurance.

It is an historic event when something as rare as an original Stradivarius is found. Most of histories treasures were accounted for to the last one, decades ago. I hate to burst your bubble but now you can go forward to realize what you really have and what your inheritance may really be worth.

Introduction to the Collection
Pictures and descriptions of the violins in the Mario Cesare Collection