If you’re lucky, you’ve got a few old trophies around: great grand-somebody’s golfing trophy or dog show trophy or crew or whatever. Do you have any idea what it’s worth? It’s well worth taking a look…just poking around on ebay revealed that a trophy of good quality and in good condition can bring thousands of dollars, even more.

Quite frankly, I just like them. I like they way they look — the loving cups (the two handled trophy) are the most common. Look for hand-engraved inscriptions (you’ll know it’s hand engraved because it’s more pronounced — deeper into the silver): hand engraved appears darker than machine engraved.

But if you’re sentimental, or just plain like the way it looks and want to keep it, then for crying out loud — put it out! If you’re able to find one in a junk shop, take a look at the bottom to see if it’s plate or sterling. Either way, it’ll be fun to have — but plate versus silver will certainly impact the price.

I have a friend who has an entire collection of antique trophies. She started with just two of her grandfather’s dog trial trophies. It grew significantly from there, largely by her poking around antique shops and looking for tarnished forgotten treasures in dusty corners. She just had it appraised…now that performance is worth a trophy and a half!

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