What are they worth?

We all have a perceived value of something we own. What we think it should be worth is not always what somebody is willing to pay for it. No place is this more true than with arrowheads.

PLEASE NOTE: If you own a reference book that is also a price guide for Native American artifacts, don't expect to find a lot of people who are willing to pay the prices listed in the reference book. Many people have grand ideas that their arrowheads are worth exactly what it says in the price guides. Some of these books offer inflated artifact values in an effort to sell more books, and do not give realistic prices in the current market. For those of you who watch the traveling antique shows on television, and they tell somebody that the chair they pulled down from their attic is worth a million dollars, don't believe it. Perhaps they have sold similar pieces for the amounts they state, but in the real world, that wealthy collector who is willing to pay a small fortune for what you are selling is a very rare occurrence. If you have a few hundred arrowheads and expect me to tell you that they are worth tens of thousands of dollars, I'm afraid you are probably in for a big disappointment. I look at the contents of the overall collection, and make a reasonable offer based on the current market value. Not on what a book says they should be worth. In most collections, a very small percentage of the collection hold the majority of the value. Please keep this in mind when asking for an appraisal.

Online auction sites have pretty much set the standard for prices on many things. Before the Internet, dealers of artifacts would meet at local shows to buy and sell artifacts. Sellers would ask a certain price, and buyers could either take it or leave it. Now you can put an artifact online where thousands of people will have the opportunity to see and bid on it. But those thousands of people will also be able to see and bid on many other artifacts, some better, some worse than the piece you have for sale. Consequently, what may have sold at an artifact show for $500 will only get $250 on the Internet, because there are more nice arrowheads available, and competition drives prices down. But you can still have a very unique artifact that is very uncommon, and worth a lot of money.

If you want to sell your artifacts, and have an idea of how much you want for them, tell me your price. I will give you my honest opinion of their value, and let you know what I feel they are worth to me based on the pictures you provide. I will tell you honestly what I feel an item is worth. Because I will most likely be buying many items from you, what I offer will be somewhat less that their current market value. If you have an artifact that is worth $500 on the open market, and if that is the only artifact you are selling, I will probably offer you $400 for it. But if I will be buying many artifacts from you, I will offer less. Remember that you can always sell them yourself on the Internet if you have the know-how, and technical expertise. But selling online is a lot of work, it can be very expensive, and if you don't know what you are doing, you either won't sell your artifacts, or you will let them go for too little.

Every Native American artifact is unique, even if they are the same variety and approximatly the same age, some just look better than others. Over the last hundred years or so, many arrowhead varieties have been classified based on age, and general location where they are found. A very common point worth only a few dollars, could be worth many times more if it was crafted from an uncommon material such as a brightly colored jasper, or translucent agate. Appearance and symmetry have as much to do with value as the variety and age. As with anything people buy, things in a more appealing condition will bring a higher price. What may appear to you as a perfect arrowhead may have flaws that are unappealing to a collector.

What makes an arrowhead worth something?

There are many things that can have an effect on the value of an artifact. Most importantly, condition, variety, age, and the material it was made from. Native Americans spent their lives perfecting their skills at making stone tools, and passing down that skill the subsequent generations. They were true artists, and it shows in their work.

Anyone who has ever hunted arrowheads can tell you that they have probably bent over and picked up a thousand broken pieces of arrowheads, before finding a complete one. Most of us have boxes full of broken arrowheads laying around that we call "field grade" artifacts. These are very common, and aren't worth very much money. If you have a large number of broken or field grade points that you have found yourself, you would be better off keeping them, since they are worth very little. I keep all of mine, and look back fondly upon each piece and the day I found it. They are worth a lot more as a keepsake than they would be to a collector. There are instances where a piece of a rare arrowhead could be worth quite a bit, so it is worth looking through those pieces carefully, just to make sure.

If you would like me to look at your collection, the only possible way to do that (short of you bringing it to me in Kentucky) is for me to see pictures of it. The easiest way to do that is for you to email jpeg pictures to me at les@ancientarrowheads.com. Please make the pictures as clear as possible, and please get very close to the artifacts when taking the shot. A description of where and when they were found will help in my evaluation and appraisal.

If you are showing me things you would like to sell, and if I see something I would like to buy from you, I will make an offer. Please remember that what I estimate the value of a collection for won't necessarily be how much I offer. The costs involved to sell items can run as high as 30% percent of the selling price, so my offer will be lower than what I appraise it for. You of course are welcome to sell it on your own to somebody else.

If we decide to do business together, you will need to ship all of the items we have discussed to me. Please make sure that the artifacts are carefully packaged, and that no two pieces are able to touch. Stone is just as fragile as glass, so please package it accordingly. You should also insure the package for at least as much as the estimated value just in case. If your collection is very large and too big to ship or contains a high quality piece, I may come to you to personally view your collection.

While pictures are the easiest way for me to review your collection, there are many characteristics that aren't visible in the pictures, and will require a closer examination. In some cases, I'll find that the item wasn't quite as good as the picture and I'll have to adjust my offer downward to compensate. Other times, I'll find that what you sent me is much better than pictured, and I will offer more. Regardless, you must be happy with my offer, and I would never make a low-ball offer. We both need to be happy with my offer, and there will never be any pressure from me to sell at an unreasonably low price.

Is this legal?

If you have inherited a very old collection from a family member, or if all of your items were personally found over many years on private property, it is perfectly legal to sell your collection. The only exception would be if any items in your collection are made from endangered species such as eagle feathers. Any human remains or grave items of any kind are not legal to sell. After all, you wouldn't want somebody poking around in one of your ancestors graves and selling their jewelry or bones.

Hunting artifacts on any federal/state owned land is considered illegal by federal authorities without prior written permission or permits.

Here is a link to the complete ARPA of 1979.

http://www.nps.gov/history/local-law/FHPL_ArchRsrcsProt.pdf

While it will have no effect on an old family collection, several states have created laws to make it illegal to pick up any type of artifact from the ground, including any items older than 100 years. So if you plan on hunting for arrowheads in the future, it would be very wise to check the laws where you plan on hunting.