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how best to sell my collection?
tamashii Offline
#1 Posted : Tuesday, August 12, 2008 10:27:49 PM(UTC)
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Joined: 8/10/2008(UTC)
Posts: 2
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Location: San Jose, CA USA
Hi, new here. Nice forum!

I have collected quite a few Persian rugs over the years. Many, not all, are from Qum, and most of those are silk. The smaller ones are all pictorials. I have enjoyed the rugs very much (understatement), but recently I moved to a smaller place where I don't have room for many of them; additionally, my kids are in college and I have more of a need for tuition money than I do the rugs. I don't really want to part with them, but this was something I knew I might do when I bought them, mostly 15-20 years ago.

I am wondering what is the best way/where is the best venue to sell them, and is one at a time best or in groups? I have an appointment tomorrow at the store where I purchased a few of them to have them take a look at one of the rugs and see what they'd offer for it. The rug is approx. 4'6" x 6'9 (not including fringe), very fine, in perfect condition - it has only hung on a wall for the past 16 years or so. It's silk pile on silk foundation. The design is that of the Pazyryk rug - I have not seen another like this anywhere in my travels.

My approach with the store was to tell them that if I'm satisfied with how this goes, I will let them see some of the others, one of which is a very impressive approx. 9 x 12 Qum with center medallion that I think is more like jewelry for the floor than "just" a rug. I think if I have to sell them at all, I want them to go for the best possible price. Is it also crazy that in the back of my mind I am hoping they will find good new "homes" where they will be enjoyed and appreciated and taken care of?

Anyway here are a couple of photos of the rug I'm taking in tomorrow (note: it has nice full fringe, you just can't see it in the photos because I have the rug draped over a king sized bed and the fringe is hanging off the sides). Your feedback and suggestions would be welcome!

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RugPro Offline
#2 Posted : Wednesday, August 13, 2008 7:00:43 AM(UTC)
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Joined: 2/9/2008(UTC)
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Location: New York
Welcome to the Forum! Great to see a rug another rug enthusiast (cough cough, understatement)!!!

Certainly is an interesting interpretation of the Pazyryk rug. I'm sure you already know the history on this piece.

Selling rugs always takes a long time, unless you're desperate to unload, it's going to take a good while to sell these rugs for what you want. Not for any reason other than nice rugs are high ticket items, which in general take some time.

Depending on how much time you have, if I were in your position I would do 4 things:

1.) create a low budget website, use top keywords, great photographs, solid descriptions with history references where possible, and post these rugs up for sale. Most importantly, have all the rugs verified through rugrag.
2.) contact http://jozan.net/ to post your rugs in their for sale section. These carpets often come up in google searches, which is great.
3.) post to ebay for maximum exposure. I can't tell you how many people I know sort these rugs in ebay by price first just to see what's out there. Sure eBay is expensive, but it is worth the exposure. My advise is to post the rugs, wait for several weeks until after they disappear from completed items to re-post. People do look at completed items which have not sold!
4th and lastly, post a classifieds here in rugrag's forum for each one, and maybe even consider craigslist if you don't mind people coming to your home and inspecting the rugs.

Yes, nice rugs should go to a good home where they'll be enjoyed and taken care of. But keep in mind, there are a lot of people out there with a lot of money: they can use a ferrari as a daily driver, and a $15k silk rug as a doormat.

thanks for the great photos, let me know what you think about the feasibility of suggestions listed above. I may add some ideas in the upcoming days.
tamashii Offline
#3 Posted : Friday, September 12, 2008 10:21:03 PM(UTC)
Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 8/10/2008(UTC)
Posts: 2
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Location: San Jose, CA USA
Thank you very much for the reply! I spoke with several dealers locally, all of whom told me I would do better to sell the rugs myself than to go through them, and that ebay would be an appropriate place to start, so I suppose I will start there. Can you explain how I go about getting the rug(s) verified? Is it as simple as using the appraiser on your site, or is there more to it? I want to make sure to price them appropriately and leave no doubt in the mind of someone reading my listings that the rugs are authentic and worth what I am asking.

This is what I got using your (very helpful, by the way) appraiser:

<a href='http://www.RugRag.com/AppraisalViewer.aspx?QueryID=5D7B2879-F8A6-4985-A4F3-0950AD19FACE'>RugRag.com Appraisal Value</a>

I have used craigslist for selling less expensive items; my concern about it is that it seems as though craigslist is really only for people hunting for major bargains; I don't want to give my rugs away, and I fear that's what it would take to sell them on craigslist - though I may try just once and see what sort of response it gets.

Again, thanks for the welcome and the advice!
cloudband Offline
#4 Posted : Saturday, September 13, 2008 8:25:29 AM(UTC)
Rank: Administration

Groups: Administration, Dealers, Member

Joined: 2/9/2008(UTC)
Posts: 134
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Location: Westchester NY
Hey Tamashii, nice rug

The verifications are pretty straight forward. Feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions, info@rugrag.com

Here's a good place to start:

Verification Steps 1 -3


Verification Steps 4-6

David Dilmaghani
Oriental Rugs
info(at)rugrag.com

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