Replacements may also give you a "we are not buying that pattern" answer which means there is no market for it.
In St. Louis we had a small Replacements-like busness here. Being the china addict I am, I loved browsing there. 95% of his business was online.
He had some kind of,device that polished scratches off plates surfaces.
Over the years I took various china pieces to him, some he bought, others he rejected as "no market."
One trip was funny because it yielded result different than what I expected. I took antique plates and some of our everyday plates that I was swapping out for somethng new and different. He rejected the antiques and bought up all of the contemporary ones.
Our neighborhood collects objects from residents and has a big sale annually that benefits our park. Weve had several sets of Haviland, the pretty, old, delicate 1920's -1940's era stuff, and it never sells. When we took ot to him, he refused it.
There are only a few patterns from a couple of "Haviland" makers that sell.