Price It!! Antiques and Collectibles

The Library recently began subscribing to Price It! Antiques and Collectibles. This is a comprehensive database that will help you identify, research and price art, antiques and collectibles. The site contains over 23 millions records and is a sophisticated, up-to-date, easy-to-use tool for anyone dealing online or checking out land-auction items. If you're a professional art appraiser or a budding eBay seller, check out this free (to Library District users) database.

Have a bunch of Pokeman cards cluttering up your basement? How about that Star Wars collection of action figures in your son's closet? Did you get a preview of a local auction and want to check on the base prices of that piece of Japanese art? Go to www.dalva.fcgov.com . Once you're in the Library District's webpage, go to "databases", then drop down to Price It! It's easy to use and can get you the base price you need to make the most of your selling efforts. If you're searching from home, a box will pop up asking for your Fort Collins Regional Library District borrowing number.

Price It! is great if you're new to eBay and online selling. When I had my eBay business, I found the biggest problem was in pricing the items. Items like packets of, or boxes of, trading cards that my son had collected in second grade, or those boxes of Spanish language Christmas cards I picked up from a gift store close out. Rare books? I can hardly wait to get my collection online.

Databases like Price It! Antique's & Collectibles are available (from Thomson/Gale publishers) through your local library. When people comment that libraries are no longer relevant, think of this or other databases you can get online through your local library. I see public libraries today as places where the community pools its tax dollars and says, "Here, we'll provide the funds. You choose the expensive databases that will help our small businesses grow, our high school students get their homework done, our college students excel. Provide the databases that can get us that part for our 1982 Pinto, or can give us the research material we need to attract that primary employer."

In any case, enjoy searching Price It!