Dear Lee,

Looking for bargain antiques and collectibles? You might check the changes happening in the world of auctions. During the past few years, the major auction houses changed to online and on-land sales with a catalog that is posted online weeks before the sale. You can sign in, see each lot, the description, and estimated price. Want to buy Victorian glass? You can even get an app that will alert you to a coming sale. You must plan ahead if you want “bargain” antiques or collectibles. Check out the lots that are “collections” or “groups.”

James Julia Auctions, like many others, has auctions with bidders seated in the room, calling on the phone, or bidding online. At a recent major art glass auction, they sold a Tiffany Koi lamp for $106,650 and a Galle glass marquetry iris vase for $53,325. Most buyers were looking for the rare high-priced items and not the bargains, a great opportunity for collectors. A group of 16 pieces of Victorian glass made by Stevens & Williams (1830s–1930s) included vases, baskets, a pitcher, epergne, and a glass shoe. Three had slight damage. The 16 pieces sold for $1,423. Do the arithmetic! The average price was $89 for a piece of 19th century English glass. A collection of 11 rose bowls in excellent condition sold for $237, only $21 each. A group of 11 Mary Gregory vases and glasses, a third with slight damage, sold for $54 each. Eleven baskets sold for $593, averaging just $54 each. Two other glass basket collections listed in excellent condition averaged $49 and $95 per basket. And 25 pieces of Amberina, including pitchers, glasses and cups, only three listed with minor roughness, averaged $35. There were also eight other colored glass collections and seven lots of unmatched iridescent lily-shaped shades by Quezal, Loetz and Steuben.

It’s best to go to the auction to examine the glass before you bid. But if you are too far away, you can look for bargains in the after-auction sale listing a few days later when the unsold lots are listed asking for offers. Why the bargains? If a long time collector is moving, down-sizing or has passed away, the collections must be distributed or sold. And the longer it takes, the more money and aggravation is spent on planning, packing, and paying for the upkeep, taxes, etc. on the unused apartment or house and its contents. So a quick sale with some bargains for buyers is welcome.

After you buy more than you need at the bargain prices, you can keep some, give some to family and friends, sell the rest yourself, or give them to a consignment shop. And don’t forget, you can give some to a non-profit museum, charity auction or resale shop and, if you follow all the tax guide lines, get an income tax deduction.

Photograph courtesy of James D. Julia Auctioneers, Fairfield, Maine, www.JamesDJulia.com.