Thread: Valuation? Any ideas on the value of this red cedar slab coffee table?

Originally Posted by Beardy

I don’t think you can establish a value based on materials cost X plus x amounts of labour at x dollars an hour. If you can get it that is great but you are often hard pressed to do so.

I'm wasn't really trying to establish a value . Just want a nice conversation .
There are a few ways to value it .


Sitting on the back deck waiting for a finish . As it is = somewhere between $25 and $150

Put it in an city general furniture sale at an Auction as it is . Slightly higher price but the commission reduces the final price. $100 to $150 on a good day.


Sell it as a slab here on Market place $200 $300 if your lucky, because we're all tight .

Try it on Gumtree or Ebay . Between $600 and $850 . It wont sell IMHO. But have a go and watch it .

The most common Valuation I have seen is where owners pay to have valuation done for insurance purposes. They pay a professional dealer in furniture , to provide a written quotation as to the pieces value to replace it if it was stolen or was destroyed in a fire . In this case the pieces Value is $2500 + the possibility of inflation or moves in the value in the market place since the item was purchased.

The value is determined by how the owner wants it valued .

If they pay a dealer to do a written valuation to replace it, and lodge it with the insurance co, they get the money back if its taken in a fire or stolen . That is what it is worth .

Thats all quite interesting.
As a customer I can see how all that works in the present and the past day.

I purcased from a city gallery where there were no woodworkers, woodworking galleries, or name based furniture showrooms in cooee.
20 years ago there were fewer designer furniture places where you could go and view quality pieces of handmade furniture so it seemed a rareity to come across a large piece.
20 years ago generic Furniture shops in general had quite limited stock and everything was similar in style---> range.
Gumtree didnt exist so was never an option to explore
Neither did ebay.
The internet was fairly new so there was no way to establish the value of a piece of cedar or current market prices etc, aside from scrolling through the phonebook and trying to track down suppliers and so forth.
I was never going to make one myself.

Talking to the gallery owner did play into the sale. The tree had fallen over in a storm, the timber was salvaged, and the rest of the timber was recycled etc. This was at a time when recycling of timber (as opposed too cutting down big old cedar trees to make tables) was increasing in popularity. We took that into consideration and felt good about the purchase etc.

In hindsight, if I had seen the piece at a garage sale, I would have paid $2-300 dollars for it.
In a city gallery I happily paid $2500 for it.
Even with all this current knowledge, I still feel the same way.
I would happily pay $2500 for it, but I'm certain I wouldnt if it were for sale on gumtree, ebay, or from a photo sitting on someones back deck.
So I can definitely see how all those factors play into a sale and a marketing strategy would be the only way to get a high price.

While I dont have a gallery to sell it through a family member does have a small homewares shop that sells the occasional piece of furniture and other local hand made craft. She sells very small hand made items such as wire sculptures (made by a blind person) and brass door knockers which sometimes go for 5-6 hundred dollars.
Another option would be to place it in a high end area like Noosa heads or Byron Bay but as mentioned that would not be without significant effort.
So while it would be interesting to me to see what it fetched, I dont think I will.

I did have a furniture dealer come around to the house once to buy a large Parker piece, which was worth about $1500, and he was more interested in the cedar table, which doesnt really make sense with what everone is saying. Might just be that ooh and ahh factor I mentioned that people seem to respond with.

The internet and gumtree etc have really had an impact on things I think.
On the one hand its much easier to source things and do some research, however on the other hand, pieces that were once unusual and perhaps seemed rarer, no longer inspire the imagination and perhaps have reduced the perceived value of some things.
I do know that buying a house is much different now, as you can view the previous sales history of houses etc.

I also know that after actually sanding the table and worrying over the dark spots and trying to find a finish to make it beautiful again I am forming a different type of reltionship with the table. A bit like I have played a part iin its creation and am pretty sure I wont be selling it as I look at it differently now. I can definitely see those doors!

I may get it valued though for insurance though, as I definitely dont have the receipt!

Ben

Unfortunately, I think you may have bought that table at the "cutting edge" of a design movement which has now become so widespread that the value of such work has diminished considerably. In the mid 90's, live edge furniture was still a somewhat fringe concept that was still taking off. Nowadays, everyone and their brother has a sawmill and is slabbing out every scraggly back yard and paddock tree they can get their hands on, and then DIY homemakers are buying bases for them online and screwing them together over any given weekend.

So, as much as I'd like to say otherwise, unless there is a famous person's name on the bottom, then I think you would be doing pretty well to get even half of the price you paid.

I hate to be pessimistic, and I truly hope you can prove me wrong, but I'll say this... If I could get $2500 for that table today, I would hang up my Geology hat for good tomorrow.

But I've been wrong many times before and expect I will be many times henceforth.

Best of luck,
Luke

Yes, I can see that it was only a new thing back in the day. And so was the recycled furniture expolsion.
But i definitely dont find it unfortunate. Quite the contrary, i feel very fortunate to have such a nice piece of tree in my home for the last 20 years. It would only be unfortunate if I were invested in the piece as a financial investment. Which im not and never have been.

Just to clarify, I'm not trying to make big money off the table and I arent particularly concerned that its market value has dimished. I never even considered it to be an artpiece I was buying. It wasnt marketed as an artpiece, it was just a woodworker placing a table in a gallery on commission. The art gallery was clear about this and I even spoke to the woodworker over the phone so I was well aware thats what it was.

I'm just curious about its value from a generic point of view in case it was worth selling on its own merits.

When I state the value I think its worth, my point of view is coming from the actual shape of the slab and its pleasingness to the eye.
I understand everything everybody has said, however I have googled for a few hours to check out these cedar slabs that are on sale for the prices mentioned, and as I mentioned in a previous post, I am still yet to see one that I admire more. the crotch sections are either smaller or not as elegant or have a short nubby end and so forth.
From the ones I have just seen I personally wouldnt buy any of them if they were made into a coffee table, at any price, because I dont find their proportions pleasing to the eye.
But its abundently clear that all that is in the eye of the beholder. And personally im a bit fussy when it comes to things like that. I move bookshelfs half an inch to the left just becuase they dont feel right where they are

So I guess I thought that its more proportionate shape made it slightly more valuable than simply the cost of the timber slab at market prices. Just going from my own experience as that was the reason I bought it, due to its proportions being pleasant and soothing.

It's pretty clear that nobody agrees with me though.
Which is all too common in my experience, also.
Great conversation though, thanks for the input. If anyone has the time, id love some more of it in the finishing post ive started So I can actually use the thing again.

Greg and Mal Ward from Boutique Timbers cut up a Cedar(?) log sometime ago. Do a search on the forum.

They may be able to help with a price - just a thought.