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From: Ron
Remote Name: 68.231.53.22
Date: 01/29/2012
Time: 11:45:50 AM
Alan, I should have mentioned on your first post that photobucket and other similar sites do not allow links to be embedded. You need to cut and paste them to get them to work. Your first post had [/IMG added to them which also had to be removed to get it to work properly. This was eliminated in your second post. The master stein has the so-called "castle mark." It is really the tower of the abbey on the Mettlach factory. The two-digit number below and left of the factory mark indicates the year of manufacture, 1897. The 13 on the smaller stein is probably some kind of control mark, but its meaning has not been determined. The factory mark on this stein is the Mercury mark. It is dated by the sccallops and dots at the bottom of the mark. The year of manufacture for this stein is 1883. Do the other five steins have the same Mercury mark? The estimated values are generally based on auction catalog prices. Those are not the prices realized by the sellers as about 30% goes to the auction company to cover their cost and profit. The same would be true if you sold it to an antique dealer or a consignment shop, although the discount will be a little higher as they may have to hold it longer as they don't reach the specialized market that would most likely buy the stein. Private sales, including eBay, will generally be at the lower end of the range or less. Defects can have a dramatic impact on the prices, depending on the extent of the damage. Repairs can be costly and will never return the price to what a mint condition price would be. I don't know what the damage looks like, but it could range from $50 up to a total loss of $150. There are a lot of factors that can determine what an object will sell for and the market is constantly changing. Ron