Hi everyone, can you give me any ideas?

[Paper Roses]

In the near future I will be selling my house and downsizing. Like many others, my new lifestyle will be different. I am trying to figure out how to sell some things that my children do not want. The major problem I am having is trying to find either a dealer in Japanese porcelain or a New England auction house that would be interested in selling:

Noritake,Nippon 'Mandarin' pattern dinner service.
I believe at last count, I had 146 pieces, service for 12 plus platters, serving dishes and lots more. The link--from Replacements Ltd.-- shows the pattern but their color is a little off. I also think the prices they sell the few pieces they have are high but--who knows. I just don't know what to do with it but I am long past the time when I need all this china.

http://www.replacements.com/webquote/N__MANDA.htm?mkd=022420147872795

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[safeinOhio]

1. I've found the market

for dinner ware is not good. The time I spent working in a very large mall, I saw few sets go out the door. The ones that did sell were pennies on the dollar for what they sold for 10 or 20 years ago. There are so many of us in the "downsizing" generation it is very hard to sell what was dear to us.

What is the actual fair market value? I get that by watching EBay sold listings. Millions of buyers and dealers pretty much set the market value there. Most likely the best you can do is to list the set there. Replacement services will charge you a bunch for a missing item, but only give you a few cents on the dollar of what they sell them for.

Sometimes the best you can do, if you itemize your taxes, is to donate to a nonprofit.

Wedding gift?

[TeamPooka]

2. My mom's trick was to pass on these "family heirlooms" to every kid, cousin and grandkid and

let them deal with it.

[grasswire]

3. my understanding from reading the trade publications..

...is there is little market now for sets of china, even very good china. Spode or Wedgwood would be a different matter, of course.