If you’ve ever looked up a piece online before bringing it in to consign, you already know the experience. A quick search returns a broad range, sometimes wildly broad, and you walk away with a number in your head. Maybe $150. Maybe $400. Maybe more.
That number feels like fair market value. It isn’t.
Understanding the difference is one of the most useful things a consignor can know, and it’s something our team at Around the Block navigates every single day.
Fair Market Value and The Problem With Online Listings
When you search for a piece online, what you’re seeing are asking prices. Listings. Someone’s optimism, not the market’s reality. A vintage side table might be listed anywhere from $80 to $600, depending on the seller, the platform, the photography, and any number of other variables unrelated to what buyers are actually willing to pay.
Apps and aggregator sites have the same limitation. They pull listing data, not transaction data. The gap between what something is listed for and what it sells for can be significant. In the consignment world, that gap is everything.
What Fair Market Value Actually Means
Fair market value, as we apply it, is the price most commonly realized for a comparable item in today’s market. Not the highest price achieved under ideal conditions. Not an average pulled from listings. The price that actually changes hands, most often, between a willing buyer and a willing seller who both understand what they’re dealing with.
Think of it the way a seasoned real estate agent approaches a listing. They don’t tell you what your neighbour hopes to get for their house. They show you what comparable properties have actually sold for, in your market, recently. That’s the number that matters.
The rest is noise.
We take the same approach. Our pricing draws on our own sales history, a database built from years of transactions in this specific market, alongside broader market data.
When we price a consignment piece, we’re looking at what buyers in our showroom and beyond have demonstrated they’ll pay. Not what someone once listed a similar piece for, and not what a piece might theoretically command at auction under the right circumstances.
Why Fair Market Value Protects You as a Consignor
Overpricing feels safe. It doesn’t leave money on the table. But in practice, a piece priced above what the market will sustain tends to sit. And a piece that sits loses momentum. Buyers notice when something has been on the floor for weeks. The longer it lingers, the harder it becomes to sell at any price.
Pricing to fair market value moves pieces efficiently. It puts your consignment return in your hands sooner and keeps your items positioned where serious buyers are looking.
Our consignors receive 60% of the selling price. A piece that sells at fair market value in the first few weeks will almost always outperform a piece that sits at an inflated price for months before a reduction.
We’ve also seen the reverse: pieces that come in and surprise everyone. Items that looked modest but had strong collector demand. Our job is to know the difference, and our appraisers are here precisely for that reason.
The Conversation We Have at Intake
The intake appointment is where pricing gets established. It’s also where the most important conversation happens. We understand that many of the pieces people bring to us carry personal history: a parent’s collection, a home that’s being downsized, years of careful accumulation. That history matters, and we treat it with respect.
But sentimental value and fair market value are two different things. Our role is to give you an honest assessment of what the market will bear, not to validate a number you found online, and not to set a price that feels good but won’t translate to a sale. We’d rather have that conversation clearly at the start than leave you waiting for a result that won’t come.
When we agree on pricing together, we’re setting your consignment up to succeed.
A Note on What We Carry
Around the Block specialises in fine furniture, art, sterling silver, crystal, porcelain, vintage costume jewellery, and designer accessories: pieces that have a genuine secondary market and buyers who know what they’re looking for.
We’re selective about what we accept because we’re accountable to both our consignors and our clients. That selectivity is part of how we maintain the credibility that makes your piece worth more when it’s on our floor.
Fair market value isn’t a ceiling. It’s the foundation that makes a real sale possible.
Ready to consign? Book an intake appointment or learn more about our process on our consignment page.
