Thanks for your suggestions. Haven't had much luck
with ebay. Our low value items didn't sell. Auctions
that do lesser value items are 5 hours away in upstate
New York. We have over 15 19c. field plows that no one
local will take. Nearby museums are full. Would a
ceremonial burial be out of line?
Tom Edmonds
Southampton Historical Museum

--- Marc Williams <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> At least throughout New England, and I would imagine
> throughout most of the
> country, there are small, usually small-town or
> rural auction houses that
> will sell ANYTHING.  Usually, these are weekday
> evening sales and may net
> only a few dollars, but that is better than unwanted
> items sitting around
> taking up valuable space.
> 
> Another alternative is of course ebay.  This is
> certainly public, and may be
> a bit more work, but you can specify a reasonable
> fee for handling in
> addition to shipping costs, thus recovering some/all
> of your labor.  Larger
> items can be listed as "local pick-up only" to avoid
> shipping.  If you do
> not want to do the listing yourselves, there are
> companies that will handle
> the whole process for a fee, you just drop off the
> items.  Entire businesses
> exist doing nothing but selling on ebay, and they
> are more than happy to
> include you.  It's also a fun thing for someone who
> is retired to do and
> willing to donate their time to the museum.  It even
> can be used as a
> fundraising program, where donors give unwanted
> items to the museum
> specifically for sale on ebay.  Even cars are an
> option - I personally have
> purchased three on ebay!
> 
> Marc
> 
> American Conservation Consortium, Ltd.
>      4 Rockville Road
>      Broad Brook, CT 06016
>      www.conservator.com
>      860-386-6058
> 
> *Collections Preservation Consultation
> *Conservation Assessments & Surveys
> *Low-Tech Environmental Control
> *Moisture Management Solutions
> *Collections in Historic Structures
> *Conservation Treatment of:
>      Furniture
>      Painted Wood
>      Horse-Drawn Vehicles
>      Architectural Interiors
> 
> Marc A. Williams, President
>      MS in Art Conservation, Winterthur Museum
> Program
>      Former Chief Wooden Object Conservator,
> Smithsonian Institution
>      Fellow, American Institute for Conservation
> (AIC)
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jill Chancey" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, October 20, 2006 3:03 PM
> Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Sample procedures for
> handling sale of unaccessioned
> objects?
> 
> 
> > Re: auctioning low-to-mid-value auction items, you
> may wish to contact
> > regional auction houses outside of the Big Names &
> Big Northeastern
> > Cities, as the decorator market for such items is
> still strong in the
> > "provinces."  New Orleans, for example, has two
> local auction houses
> > which do a strong business in decorator-quality
> items in addition to
> > their high-end sales.  I would guess there are
> others in Atlanta,
> > Chicago, Dallas - anywhere people are paying
> decorators to do up their
> > houses.
> >
> > To answer the original question, we get approval
> from our Collections
> > Committee, which is made up of Board members and
> several community
> > (non-Board) members, to sell never-accessioned
> items, usually through
> > public auction houses.  I believe they report the
> sale to the Board, but
> > no Board vote is required.  In the event that no
> auction house wants it,
> > we offer it to the committee that runs the silent
> auction for our annual
> > gala fundraiser.  This is the sale venue of last
> resort, since it is
> > technically public but you have to be invited to
> the auction preview or
> > buy tickets to the museum gala to attend the
> auction.   Stuff that we
> > can't sell at all has ended up filling space,
> decoratively, in a
> > conference room and several rooms that we rent out
> for private
> > functions.   A few things have gone to the
> education department for use
> > in still life drawing.
> >
> > --
> > Jill R. Chancey, PhD
> > Curator
> > Lauren Rogers Museum of Art
> > PO Box 1108
> > Laurel, MS 39440
> > www.LRMA.org
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> >
>
=========================================================
> > Important Subscriber Information:
> >
> > The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
> http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may
> obtain detailed
> information about the listserv commands by sending a
> one line e-mail message
> to [log in to unmask] . The body of the
> message should read "help"
> (without the quotes).
> >
> > If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one
> line e-mail message to
> [log in to unmask] . The body of the
> message should read "Signoff
> Museum-L" (without the quotes).
> 
>
=========================================================
> Important Subscriber Information:
> 
> The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
> http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may
> obtain detailed information about the listserv
> commands by sending a one line e-mail message to
> [log in to unmask] . The body of the
> message should read "help" (without the quotes).
> 
> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one
> line e-mail message to [log in to unmask]
> . The body of the message should read "Signoff
> Museum-L" (without the quotes).
> 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).