insulators prices ? ? ? ? ?

[b0ttl3capgirl]

Hello,
Last weekend while hitting the flea markets, I happened to notice that there were quite a few insulators. Im not an insulator collector myself, but thought I might pick up a few to share with you all, if I knew what to look for. They were all basically the same shape, a few minor differences. Also some were clear & some green. Most had a name embossed on them, but I cant remember what it was. So whats a good price to pay for them and what else is there to look for.

Thanks ahead of time.

 

[Bixel]

Well, as with bottles, insulators arent just "one price" as alot of antique dealers believe(unless they are threadless or purple of course, as they always tell you[])

Insulators have a wide price range, going from "worthless"(10 or less cents each) to hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

If you want to take a chance and just buy some insulators to see if you strike it rich, I wouldnt be paying more than a couple bucks a piece.

A couple simple tips to weed out what will probably be worth nothing

1. Do not buy Hemingray-42 or Dominion- 42 insulators as these are extremly common. A few variations of these can be valuable, BUT the likelyhood of that happening is rare.
2. Stay away from porcelain insulators, as the amount of common porcelain insulators to valuable porcelain insulators as far as styles is about 600-1 (600 common styles to one valuable style)


If anybody else wants to chime in, go ahead, but thats just a couple simple tips that I give people who ask me.
After those couple simple rules, it gets down to remembering alot of stuff, and knowing what you are looking at.

 

[David Fertig]

Take a pic and post it here. We'll tell you what you passed up.

 

[ironmountain]

I like how IR put it about single pricing of insulators. There's a guy on the local CL who always has 4 or 5 of them up for 40 bucks! he keeps the same pic for them, so hopefully he isn't selling them to people. They make nice paperweights and are pretty on a windowsill but that's about it. Side observation: Anyone notice how expensive things are on CL now? No idea how people could want 75-80% retail on items that are 10yrs old...

 

[David Fertig]

ORIGINAL: ironmountain

I like how IR put it about single pricing of insulators. There's a guy on the local CL who always has 4 or 5 of them up for 40 bucks! he keeps the same pic for them, so hopefully he isn't selling them to people. They make nice paperweights and are pretty on a windowsill but that's about it. Side observation: Anyone notice how expensive things are on CL now? No idea how people could want 75-80% retail on items that are 10yrs old...

Yeah. One of the dealers I know lucked into some insulators a few years ago. Put them one at a time in his showcase for about $40-45 each. Sold each one fairly quickly after putting it in the case. After he had sold them all, he found out that he could have gotten about $250 a piece.

I'd say if your CL guy still has them, they're probably not worth it. You'll see that all the time. There's a few on FeeBay right now for $499.99. They either have no clue or are just hoping someone bites. Hey, if someone is willing to give you $500 for something worth a buck, why not sell it? As long as you are not misrepresenting it.