Replacements is notorious for offering next to nothing to the sellers, but of course, it pays to check.
Absolute truth. I have a bunch of my grandmother's collectibles that I was looking to sell. They are selling them for about $200 apiece on their website, but they offered me between $10 and $20 each when contacted them.
Are they actually "selling" or are they simply sitting there, listed but not moving? Once produced, a listing up on the Replacements sites costs them very little.
I'm lucky to have a China Finder business near my neighborhood and when I was decluttering some years ago I took in a bunch of china ware. He didn't want the antique pieces because it doesn't sell. It was this particular pattern that is not popular. Of the thousands of china patterns produced over the centuries, only a few are very collectible. But, he took all of my contemporary dinnerware which admittedly was very expensive when I bought it, and it's still being collected. I've seen it used in at least 2 films.
These are just random observations about old china and tableware, it's one of my collecting interests. When I get rid of stuff, I'm more interested in placing it in the hands of someone who wants it than I am in getting money out of it. I inherited a pre-war punch bowl set from my mom and I didn't want it, yet I felt responsible for disposing of it responsibly. I took it to my friend who runs an antique store and told her that I didn't think it was worth much because people just do NOT use punch bowls any more. She managed to sell it for $250+ BUT it sat in her shop for a year and she is always a very beautiful and skilled saleswoman. So it's not as though she had no investment in it, she paid for real estate costs to house it before it sold. We split the profits.
I have about 50 pieces of Victorian flow blue china which has always been a strong collectible. Yet, in recent 15 years, prices have gone way down. Victoriana is out, it's not very popular. But that's fine with me because I've always loved flow blue and I collected it for the fun of it, and when I have to get rid of it I'm sure that I'll get "pennies on the dollar" because I'm not a retailer.