Question:
I have a 12 piece Hearthside dinnerware set which includes 12 each of dinner plate, salad plate, cereal bowl, saucer, and cup. In addition, there are 7 extra pieces including sugar bowl with top and creamer, two serving platters, one single serving bowl, one divided serving bowl, and a gravy bowl with top. One of the salad plates has a chip and one of the cereal bowls has imperfect hand painting. I am attaching pictures of the set. My question is what the value of the pottery is and how would I go about selling it. I am having difficulty uploading the pictures, so will send those separately.

Answer: Collector interest in Hearthside is mid-level; it is not among the more popular patterns but there are people who collect it. But your set consists of basic place setting pieces and mostly common accessories, and that poses a problem when it comes to selling. Collectors of a pattern already have most of the common pieces they need; they seek the harder to find accessories such as pitchers, teapots and casseroles. You could sell the set piece by piece to collectors with gaps in their collection in hopes of getting full value, but that works best with the most highly sought patterns such as Round Up. You’d likely end up with quite a few unsold pieces. Or you can try to sell the entire set all together. But you probably won’t find much interest in such a large set with few accessories, and you should expect to sell it at a significant discount compared to piece by piece sales. You might also consider dividing your set of 12 place settings into one of 8 place settings and another of 4. Or into three sets of 4 place settings. Please see the FAQ section for more advice on selling Red Wing.

The following approximate values are for a single piece in excellent condition:
Dinner plate: $15-20
Salad plate: $10
Cereal bowl: $10-15
Cup & saucer: $15
Sugar bowl: $15-20
Creamer: $15-20
Platter 13 inch: $25
Serving bowl: $25
Divided vegetable: $25
Gravy: $30-35

That adds up to over $700 for your entire collection. You might get half that much selling the set as a single unit.

Larry