selling really good pots

You are just not a true collector ya know.You still have some storeage space left!

With regards to selling really good pots and the best place for them: This is an interesting area and one I have mixed views upon, depending on the piece in question.
I have taken (over the last few years) one or two very good quality pieces of Chinese porcelain to one auction house in particular, along with canvassing the opinions of others and then my own research via ebay & other avenues. The valuations were laughable, in so much as they varied from fairly realistic to massively undervalued. Some of the auction houses were middle to high end, not your local Saturday sale type auctions, but a good percentage of them were out of touch with reality and were not living up to their self proclaimed hype.

To cut a long story short, I got prices that exceeded all of the estimates from the so called experts. It was risky though, the items went to China and thankfully to decent people. As I pack well I knew there was no chance of damage but there are other risks involved and I was lucky.
If selling high end items I believe that it all comes down to research, knowing exactly what you have & then knowing exactly where to sell it.

The flip side for me now is that I probably wouldn't list a high end piece (overseas) on ebay again, it makes me too nervous

I was offered a lot of money for a very nice flambe piece I was selling, but declined and decided to place it into a saleroom auction. I knew I would get less (and I did), but the element of worry was gone.

Lol, I'll have to work on that Phil

My interest is British Studio pottery. Been collecting for near 25 years now. So know my way around it.
Chinese ceramics are a nightmare. They were forging ceramics 2000 years ago, and have been doing so ever since!
Trouble with Ebay is that in virtually every single disputed case they side with the Buyer. As you said, high value items are a subject of very real worrying that can keep you awake at night. Which is not really worth it.

I don't doubt it Phil and am glad to be able to reap the benefits of your experience, more so as what I know about studio pottery could be written on the reverse side of a small stamp collection.

Auctions are such a minefield though and the advice that some of them give out is often flawed, in my experience.
My biggest gripe was with an auction that had obviously (to me) undervalued some pieces I took the trouble to show them with a possible view to auction entry. I could not contain my laughter when he advised me that an estimate would be £80 to £120 on a piece that I clearly showed him(via my mobile) to have sold in the high hundreds and that similar pieces at their own auction house had realised mid hundreds upwards on past sales. He couldn't or wouldn't admit his mistake and the whole scenario was very funny, but annoying at the same time.
The same said auction house refused another Chinese pot that they deemed too modern, only for it to sell at a small local saleroom (with online catalogue) for over £20,000.
This was not mine, I might add.

Low estimates suit the auction houses. It saves on insurance costs and the customer has a very nice feeling when the price goes much higher.It always pays to be cynical about auctioneers. Most of the so-called 'experts' are generalists with not a lot of detailed knowledge,
Although truth to tell, they do see an awful lot of crap which people expect to be valuable. Most stuff isn't.

I couldn't agree more Phil. The usual trick you mention is done all over, from my experience also. As you rightly say, there are a lot of generalists with a lack of real knowledge.
I'll stop there as can feel a rant emerging. If only I had a pound for every time I have received bad advice from a professional.

There were a series of books produced by the Craft Potter's Association. Every 4 years or so they would publish a book called 'Potters' which basically consisted of photos of their Member's work. These go ay back into the 1970's, the last one cam out in 2012 under the title 'Ceramics'
Most were edited by Emanuel Cooper.
Anyways, you have hundreds of pages of gorgeous studio pottery by Members of the Craft Potter's Association, in each edition. All lovely work.
Yet, only a handful of all those potters have work that is of any much value on the secondary market.


They can be bought very cheaply second hand, and are well worth getting. Scroll down this link.
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&an=emmanuel+cooper&tn=potters&kn=&isbn=

Thank you for the link Phil, that sounds well worth exploring