A Review of “What’s this worth?” by Steven Wills
Steven Wills, known as a prolific modern artist, photographer, and author dedicated to celebrating the natural world, delivers a comprehensive and highly practical guide to object valuation in What’s this worth?. Wills, whose artistic journey includes mastery of photo art, digital innovation, and publications on subjects like his nature art and building log cabins, brings a broad and informed perspective to the topic of determining value.
The guide systematically breaks down the worth of various items, organizing valuation methods into three main categories: Financial and Collectible, Intrinsic and Material, and Aesthetic and Artistic.
Content Highlights and Utility:
- Financial and Collectible Valuation: This section details that monetary worth is driven by scarcity, condition, origin, and material composition. Key factors include:
- Rarity and Scarcity: Value is increased by limited-issue items, first editions of books, rare watch complications, and manufacturing errors (like misaligned stamp perforations).
- Condition and Preservation: This is noted as the most critical factor for all items. The guide stresses that flaws like chips, cracks, dents, or worn cases severely reduce value, and advises against cleaning silver or other antiques. For books, the condition of the dust jacket (sometimes up to 95% of a book’s worth) and the completeness of the item are crucial.
- Maker Recognition: Prestige of the maker is a major factor, whether for watch brands (e.g., Rolex) or recognized artists, which can increase a painting’s value by as much as four times.
- Intrinsic and Material Valuation: This covers material’s current market worth, such as Melt Value for silver and gold, which involves subtracting the value of non-gold parts. It also includes the application of the 70% Rule for Real Estate financial estimation (house flipping).
- Aesthetic and Artistic Valuation: For art and design, the guide explains how value is tied to visual impact and technical execution, covering principles like Visual Weight for interior design and Technical Value (lightness/darkness of color) in abstract and watercolor painting.
Objects and Methods:
The document provides specific steps for valuing a wide array of objects, including a book published in 1880, postage stamps, silver goblets, gold watches, abstract paintings, and vintage vases. For all items, the most reliable methods for determining price are identified as seeking an Expert Appraisal and checking Comparative Sales to find the Fair Market Value (FMV) based on actual sold prices, rather than just ambitious asking prices.
What’s this worth? is an invaluable reference for anyone seeking a structured method to understand and assess the true value of collectibles and assets.
Sbwills.com


