Secondary Market

From Marilyn on 27th March 2008. I have been looking at my articles for the group on this subject going back to 2003. This is an edited and updated review for the site.

Presumably like everyone else, I started collecting Hazles because I liked them! I had never collected anything before and knew very little about collecting. It was only later that I discovered there was such a thing as a secondary market for discontinued pieces.

State of the Market
Secondary prices don't always continue in an upward trend. Many well known collectables have gone through periods of rocketing prices which then fall back again.

There have been many articles on the group about how the retail market for Gifts & Collectables started to decline in 2001. Within a short time of Foot & Mouth hitting the UK some Hazle stockists, especially in tourist areas, were reporting a 40% drop in footfall. Thus far the ongoing ‘War on Terror’ has put paid to any improvement and many retailers have gone out of business.

Despite this, the Secondary Market in many collectables continued to remain buoyant for two or three years. At the peak around 2002-3 some secondary Hazles were exchanging hands for very high prices. The top dealer price of £1100 was for a painting on the rare London Liberty building in September 2002. Some people feel that it is only a matter of time before the Hazle secondary market picks up again and that this could be a good time to buy. Expert Eric Knowles did say they would be contested for by future generations...

eBay
The market for Hazle Ceramics on eBay really took off in the spring of 2003, around the time we started this forum. Over the course of a year, hundreds of secondary Hazles change hands on eBay, currently making it the main place to trade. The Hazle secondary market has always been small and values on eBay are usually inconsistent even for the same thing. But they have been generally been lower in past few years.

Private Sales
Even before eBay there wasn’t really a great deal of private trading between collectors. The Collectors’ Club can put people in touch but this facility is not used much. It can be hard to know what to offer or to settle on a price both parties consider fair. In the past people have produced secondary price lists for larger collectables markets such as Lilliput Lane, which have been generally accepted as guidelines. I don't know what status these lists have now, as Lilliput and others have also gone down in value.

Between 2001-2 I occasionally advertised for old Hazles to buy, usually in Collect it! magazine, but would never do this now. A handful of people contacted me usually with a few standard ceramics and were keen to offload them all. I would not wish or be in a position to take on extra pieces as I sometimes did then, just to get the ones I wanted. Some sellers expected John English prices, despite no overheads or taxes.

Professional Dealers
The two main UK secondary market dealers, Len of Roding Arts and Brian at John English Gifts usually carry a selection of pieces (see Stockists section of Hazle's website in Contacts). Prices are generally higher than eBay but there can be exceptions. There will always be a role for dealers - for those who don’t use the internet, don’t wish to sell direct and so on.

Collectables Price Guides
According to these, private sales are reckoned to fetch 30% lower than dealer prices. This has probably been a “rule of thumb” for years but may not take into account current market conditions.

Closing Remarks
People often ask me for advice on selling which I find quite difficult to give in such an uncertain market. An obvious aspect of an eBay auction is that it does remove the element of negotiation - a potential source of angst. The downside is that there is some work involved in doing a listing - and fees can be up to 10% of the final value. But it is still probably the best way to reach a lot of people and "test the market" if you do want to sell. Although Hazle values are often low there can be good results too. And of course you can always put a reserve to protect the minimum price.

The other question I am sometimes asked is which Hazles are the best bet for the future. And more specifically, for example, will the pre-1993 pieces with the full front signature of Hazle Boyles continue to be popular? My view is that if there are two "identical" ceramics and one is signed Hazle Boyles and the other Hazle, the full HB one is likely to command a higher price. However the modelling and painting of the original pieces is generally less refined.

As there were far fewer themes painted in the early days, the HB pieces say for the Florist, Teashop and so on are often in relatively high numbers - as are the same pieces with a front signature of Hazle. But you also have to bear in mind that the numbers produced of any Hazle Ceramic are generally vastly less than for any other collectable.

Hazle's highly detailed, short-run Limited Paintings became more available from 2003 and I can't help wondering if some of these could do well in years to come. Eventual publication of the Hazle Guide with approximate numbers of every known ceramic may help prices find their own level.