What's it worth?

August 27, 2009 9:37 AM

How much is this blanket/rug worth? My google-fu has me confused.

Here is another picture.

This is a handmade brand new blanket/rug from Afghanistan. It measures about 90" by 79" roughly. The bottle feels kind of like soft leather. It's very plush and thick, has a good weight so it would probably be warm to snuggle under. It's beige and darkish tan. Very pretty.

I don't like fur, even if I did I wouldn't run the risk of my small child damaging it. I've been googling and trying to find out about how much it's worth, but there are so many different kinds for different prices. I could really use the money for it, so I'm planning on selling it soon. I'm not sure where to sell it, maybe ebay, so any suggestions on that would be helpful too. My main question though... What should I reasonably expect to get for this thing?

I would really appreciate any help I could get!

posted by sporaticgenius to home & garden (4 comments total)

My lame answer is, "whatever somebody will pay for it"; even lamer is, "a professional furs appraisal can't be done off jpegs". Since it's not an antique, or otherwise super-valuable enough to have a priceguide, you're stuck looking at a couple things: what did you pay for it, who you bought it from, what do similar ones like it sell for, and your reason for selling it. If you bought it from some accessible importer who anybody can buy the same blanket from, there's no reason for a buyer to come to you. If you must get rid of it, you're at the whim of people who'll pay you the absolute minimum ($20? $50?): sounds like you want to maximize your profit, though. It also sounds like you've got a price in your head, so start with that - buyers are more than happy to tell you if your price is insane; some will do it to guilt you into dropping your price, but after a couple you'll start to see a pattern reflecting the expected price.

However, all is not lost on trying to figure it out yourself: talk to local auctioneers and see if they (or they know 'the guy' who) specializes in fancy furs and/or taxidermy - auction houses do consigment auctions from time to time, so you might have your opportunity there. A pawn shop that does more than the guns/CDs/tools fare might be able to give you an idea of its worth, and might even give you a good price for it even if it's not the full street value. Good luck.

Lastly - found this: furs.com's recommendations for selling or getting furs appraised.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:00 AM on August 27, 2009

What type of fur? That matters.

If you work the 'foreign/handmade angle you could probably fetch upwards of $100-200 for that, maybe more. I'd pay a good $50 for it if I didn't live in Texas.

Along with AzraelBrown's excellent suggestions, you maywwant to look at high end consignment shops or even an antique store.
posted by caveat at 11:29 AM on August 27, 2009

Additional Info: I thought I told what kind of fur it is. It's Chinchilla fur.
posted by sporaticgenius at 11:41 AM on August 27, 2009

Is it real chinchilla fur, or faux fur. here's a real fur that's going for about 35k


unless you paid several thousands of dollars, it's probably faux fur, which looks like it goes for considerably less
posted by Think_Long at 12:51 PM on August 27, 2009