Selling a rug: the routes compared

First know what you are selling

No route can be chosen before this step. A hand-knotted rug and a machine-made rug are not sold in the same place, and the difference can be read on the back in ten seconds: on a hand-knotted rug, the design appears on the back as sharply as on the front and the knots are slightly irregular; on a machine-made rug, the back is regular, often backed with a cloth, and the design there is blurred. The guide to recognising a hand-knotted rug sets out the other tests.

Then take the exact dimensions, in centimetres and excluding the fringes. Photograph the whole front, the whole back, and a close-up of the knotting taken from a few centimetres away, in daylight and without flash. Those three images and those two measurements are enough to obtain a first opinion from any professional, and will save you having a heavy rug moved for nothing.

Finally note the faults, honestly: worn fringes, open selvedges, wear along the traffic route, grazed patches, tidemarks, smell, old restorations. They will be seen in any case, and a seller who declares them gets a better price: a buyer who discovers a fault assumes there are others.

The auction house

This is the route that exposes your rug to the largest number of serious buyers at once. You consign the piece, it is examined, valued, entered in the catalogue of a forthcoming sale, then knocked down on the day. The seller's fees are withheld from the proceeds of the sale; each house sets its own and publishes them in its terms and conditions. Ask for them in writing before consigning, along with what is added to them: photography, insurance, transport, and sometimes a fee if the lot finds no taker.

Two constraints come with it. The timing first: the calendar is that of the sales, not yours, and between consignment and payment you must allow the time to prepare the sale and then the time for the buyer to settle. Then the uncertainty, and it is real: an auction is an event, on a date, in a saleroom. If the two or three collectors who wanted that kind of piece are not there that day, the lot goes at the reserve price or stays unsold — and a lot that has passed unsuccessfully is harder to offer again afterwards.

It is the right route for a piece with an identifiable market: antique, in good condition, of a sought-after origin, of large format and good workmanship. It is the wrong route for an ordinary rug from the last third of the twentieth century, heavily worn, or of unusual format: it will take up a catalogue number for nothing and will have cost you two journeys.

Bric-a-brac fairs and flea markets

You sell it yourself, you are paid at once, and nobody takes a cut. That is the only good news, but it is true. The rest is work: transporting the rug, holding a pitch for a whole day, displaying it unrolled — a rolled rug does not sell — and taking it home in the evening if it has not gone.

Above all, know who buys at a market. They are mostly dealers, there to find stock at a price that leaves them a margin, and they recognise what you have better than you do. So you sell at a dealer's price without the benefit of the dealer's work. For a piece of no great value, or badly damaged, that is reasonable and quick. For an antique piece, it is the route where the gap between what you receive and what the piece is worth is widest.

Online platforms

The audience is the widest of all, and that is their only decisive advantage. Everything else falls to you, beginning with the weight. A hand-knotted wool rug weighs of the order of two and a half to four kilos per square metre depending on the density and the height of the pile: a 200 × 300 piece therefore weighs fifteen to twenty-four kilos, rolled to nearly two metres. That fits neither a parcel shop nor an ordinary postage rate, and transport weighs heavily in the buyer's decision.

Then come the disputes. A buyer who finds on delivery a patch of wear he had not seen in the photographs opens a claim, and buyer protection schemes generally leave the seller with the burden of proof and the cost of the return. A rug, whose condition is hard to judge on a screen and whose return is expensive, is a poor object for that mechanism.

Finally the price. On these sites, your hand-knotted rug appears in the same list of results as new imported rugs sold at the price of a fitted carpet. The buyer able to tell the difference exists, but he is rare and he starts by haggling. Add the appointments that are not kept and the home visits from people you do not know, for a bulky object that takes two people to carry.

This route suits a small rug in good condition, one the buyer can carry away under his arm, and a seller with time in hand.

Consignment with a dealer

The rug remains your property and waits at a dealer's until a buyer comes along for that kind of piece. It is often the best price expectation after a successful auction, because the rug is shown cleaned, unrolled and presented, to people who are looking for exactly that.

In exchange, you have no control over the timing: it may be three weeks or two years, and you are paid only after the sale. Have a consignment receipt drawn up naming the piece, its measured dimensions, its condition with its faults, the agreed floor price, the commission, the length of the consignment and the insurance cover during it. A consignment with no written document is not a consignment: it is a loan.

Direct purchase, and what it costs you

The principle is simple. A dealer examines the rug, states a price, and if you accept he takes it away and pays you. That is what we do: free valuation at your home, a figure stated in front of you and left in writing, collection included, payment the same day — in cash up to €3,000, by instant transfer or banker's draft above that, as article 67 of the Act of 18 September 2017 requires, capping any cash payment at €3,000.

Now let us state the disadvantage, since it exists and is structural. A direct purchase brings in less than a successful auction. It is mechanical: the buyer advances the money, ties up the rug, takes on its cleaning and any restoration, and carries the risk of not reselling it, or of reselling it in two years. That risk has a cost, and that cost is deducted from the price he offers you. Nobody can both pay you today and pay you the price of an auction that would have gone well.

What you get in exchange is just as real: a firm figure, straight away, with no transport, no fees, no commission, no buyer to find and no unsold lot coming back. For an estate to be cleared within a fixed time, for a lot of several pieces, for a house move, it is often the best ratio between what you receive and what you put in. For a rare piece, in good condition and with no urgency, an auction house may do better. We say so when that is the case.

Comparing two offers without going wrong

Three precautions are enough. The first: compare on the same measurements. A few centimetres of difference on a large piece change the area, and so the figure. Have it measured excluding the fringes, in front of you, and note the measurement once and for all.

The second: insist on a written document that names the piece. Hand-knotted or not, origin, measured dimensions, material of the pile and of the foundation, condition with the faults listed one by one, amount offered. A figure stated without a description compares with nothing and is of no use to you six months later, neither for a division between heirs nor for insurance.

The third: a valuation should cost you nothing, nor be conditional on the sale. Be wary of the reverse arrangement, where you pay for an expert report and then receive a purchase offer. A dealer's opinion is not, in any case, a sworn appraisal, and an honest professional will tell you so rather than sell you one document in place of another.

One question always comes back: should the rug be cleaned or restored before selling? A wash is often justified, because a clean rug is easier to judge. Heavy restoration undertaken to push the price up, much more rarely: the buyer pays for what he sees, he did not choose that restoration, and the outlay is not always recovered in the price. Ask for an opinion before committing to the expense. For a lot or a house to be cleared, see house clearance and estates.