Know the number before they name one.
The first estimate you hear from a house or dealer is a negotiating position, not a fact. Cove prepares a current, evidenced view of value before that conversation starts, so every estimate, reserve, and offer gets measured against your number.
Three numbers, and the difference between them.
Sellers who know only one number, the one the house offered, negotiate blind. The sale conversation is really about three numbers and where your work sits among them.
Fair Market Value.
What the work would change hands for between a willing buyer and a willing seller. The anchor every other number should be measured against.
What you would keep.
Marketable Cash Value: value minus the costs of selling. Commissions, fees, and terms differ by venue, and the spread between offers is often wider than it looks.
Whether the moment is now.
Markets come to pieces. A monitored collection shows whether the market has come to yours, or whether waiting is the better trade.
Walk in with the evidence.
A current appraisal prepared to USPAP standards, plus the work's full file, ready before the first conversation with any house, dealer, or private buyer.
Your number, evidenced.
Fair Market Value with comparable sales sourced, dated, and attached, so you can hold any estimate up against the actual market.
The work, ready to show.
Provenance, condition, exhibition history, and images, organized and shareable with a specialist or a buyer's advisor on your terms. A documented work is an easier sale at a better price.
Clean after the sale.
The sale is recorded, the work is deaccessioned, and the collection record stays complete, including what the sale says about the works you kept.
Cove prepares the appraisal and the documentation, and can support the consignment itself. The venue and the deal remain yours: Cove's number carries no commission on the outcome.
The best sales start before the seller needs one.
A monitored collection tells you when the market has come to a piece you own, one collector's photograph gained 504% since 1999, visible the day the market moved. Selling into strength beats selling on deadline, every time.
That watchfulness is the heart of the third door: knowing what you hold, and when to move.
Appraisals for what comes next.
Tell us what you are thinking of selling.
The work, the timeline, and whether a venue is already in the conversation. We will quote the engagement. From $100 per piece, scaling with volume.
Thank you.
A member of the Cove team will be in touch shortly.