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30 October 2014

How much do you think this is worth?

I'm often emailed photographs like this one below with the simple question.  How much do you think this is worth? I'm thinking of selling it...


Naturally this is a perfectly normal and acceptable question, but answering it isn't always so easy.

On some models the prices things are sold for can vary quite dramatically, from one country to another from one year to another.

The photo above is of one of my Cavendish Personals, about a year ago the prices these were being sold for varied between about €80 and €350, they have now come back to more sensible prices.

So whilst Ebay can give you some idea on prices it isn't set in stone. Do a search on there and look at completed listings which are the ones that have sold, this will give you a better idea on what particular models sold for.

Be careful though because some sellers don't always accurately describe organisers they often put A5 instead of personal size, personal instead of pocket etc.

If it is a more recent model, may be one of the ones recently phased out in UK but may be still available through some retailers, just searching on Google can bring up the details of the prices items were new. Some retailers still list older models even though they no longer have any stock and never likely to have any more stock.

Naturally you need to take the condition of the item in to account, is it like new, unused, well worn but still in reasonable condition.

Are the rings perfect, are there any gaps, photographs with a some rolled up colour paper on the inside of the rings will highlight any ring gaps. Whilst these can be sorted in some cases. If all of the rings have gaps then I would avoid buying the organiser unless the ring mechanism is removable and you are able to find a source of new rings for it that will fit.

If you are selling always be prepared for people making an offer on your for sale price.

Be cautious about people stating that a particular Filofax is 'rare' or 'vintage' there's no definition of these phrases, there's no date which before or age is considered to be then classed as vintage. How rare is rare? 10, 100, 1000 items ever made?

Even some pre-production samples that never went in to full production are produced in numbers of as many as 25-50 and then sold off.

So here is another example of an email I received from one of our readers. Expert opinions please?

It is a Winchester and one with 5/4" rings, so nice and big! Unusual colour may be?




What price would you put on this one?

1 comment:

  1. It's a minefield. I've seen Cavendish binders, and Winchester 5/4s, go for silly money (triple digits in £). On the other hand, in the last month, I've bought an excellent burgundy Cavendish for less than £30 and a very good burgundy Winchester 5/4 for just over £40 from eBay. There appears to be no rhyme or reason!

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