I inherited a uke colection, and I need help IDing and appraising!

Sorry for your loss. Your Mother had amazing taste in ukuleles.
I wish I was in the States as I’d love these for my shop. This is a really beautiful collection. Please make sure you don’t accept any offers under 5 figures. If you add these up even modestly you get a very large number.
Matt
 
If selling is too much of a hassle for you. Consider donating to a charity. I've done that with numerous ukes to a group that helps children here in SoCal.
 
Very sorry for your loss and good on you for working to sort out her collection. Like a couple others, I'm interested in the Collings stuff if you decide to sell them individually rather than through a consignment/shop.
 
If you decide you are going to sell any of the ukuleles yourself, I am interested in the Ko'olau.

Good luck, however you decide to proceed.
 
Sorry for you loss. Mom had a great collection. Hope she enjoyed playing them.
 
This post, parts of the thread & especially the link to the photos... one of the most fun & amazing things I've seen on this forum & perhaps on social media in a while. Thank you for taking the time to take individual photos & posting them for us to see... Makes me really, really curious about your mother, who had incredible taste & probably curiosity... am so sorry for your loss. Wonder how & when she got into ukuleles.

Consider taking your time, not being in a rush, to get them to their next home. I am not an expert but there's not much in the collection that will depreciate... The Collings UC-1 mahogany (presumably) with the "haircut" headstock gave me whiplash as it did others. Taking up the ukulele might give you more insight into what would be keepers to you.

Also everything written below, perhaps add another hygrometer/thermometer (to get consensus in lieu of calibration). If humidity is needed, just get one for the space where they are stored & not individual ones... filling individual instrument humidifiers would be incredibly tedious.

Yes, the year that the ukulele was made makes a difference. As does the shape that the ukulele is in. Most of yours look to be in excellent shape.

I'd make to suggestions right away: 1. Keep them in a room that has 45-50 percent humidity. Buy an electronic humidifier that will keep a constant humidity and an accurate gauge to check it. 2. Loosen the strings slightly to lessen the tension in the necks.

You have a number of expensive, highly-desirable ukuleles. Both custom and small production mfgs. Plus some good quality mass produced.

You can contact Collings with the serial numbers of the two Collings ukes you have and they will give you all of the information they have about the construction specs. From the labels it looks as though they were signed by Bill Collings which increases their value. They are worth well over $1k, each. Depending upon condition, model, serial number, etc.

Your Mother had excellent taste in ukuleles. I agree that you could get close to $40k selling them individually. If you're going to go consignment, use a musical instrument specialist. Not an estate agent. Best of luck with the sale(s).

Again, condolences for your loss.
 
My wife and I were viewing the instruments and she noticed two Mike DaSilva ukuleles.

Mike is an excellent luthier based in Berkeley, CA.

You have a beautiful collection.
 
Sorry for your loss. Your Mother had amazing taste in ukuleles.
I wish I was in the States as I’d love these for my shop. This is a really beautiful collection. Please make sure you don’t accept any offers under 5 figures. If you add these up even modestly you get a very large number.
Matt


I saw 2 DaSilva ukuleles. The least expensive, bottom line DaSilva custom ukulele is $1000, for a Soprano.
I believe a modest valuation, The ukuleles are worth a minimum of $100 to $1000 each.

As Matt says, even modestly, there is great valuation there.
 
What an amazing collection!

My condolences on your mother's passing. She obviously had an incredible taste in ukuleles. So many high end, rare and desirable instruments not often found in 1 collection. Whatever you decide to do with them, I hope that you enjoy them while you have them. :)
 
I was going to say - your mother sure knew how to pick her instruments! Sorry for your loss and hope her ukuleles find their next home in a place where they are as cherished as where they've been.

Sorry for your loss. Your Mother had amazing taste in ukuleles.
I wish I was in the States as I’d love these for my shop. This is a really beautiful collection. Please make sure you don’t accept any offers under 5 figures. If you add these up even modestly you get a very large number.
Matt
 
Boy, looking through these, I think your instruments could sell for close to $20,000 or maybe more. If they were mine I would try to find a high end re-seller to buy or sell on commission. You might try www.ukulelefriend.com. Good luck.
 
Wow...great collection of ukes there. Some very nice brands K brands and customs.

These are the brands that stand out to me: Koaloha, Kanilea, Kamaka, Ko'olau, Black Bear, Pohaku, Graziano, Gstring, DaSilva, Collings, Loprinzi, Larrivee, Mya Moe, Maui Music.

You've got a lot of ukes here...if you want to sell them individually on eBay or to members here, it will take a lot of time. Plus you'll have to deal with packing/shipping. Your best bet would be to go to Gryphon Stringed Instruments since they're local to you. I would do some research first to get an idea of what each instrument would cost. Some members say to expect to get 20-30% less than retail, which I think is reasonable. There's some very knowledgeable members on here and hopefully you'll get a lot of help IDing the ukes. I'm afraid I'm not much help in that dept...I'm terrible at figuring out the date, wood, etc from online pics. Good luck!!
 
Sorry for your loss. If no one has mentioned this yet, I suggest you keep them and start taking ukulele lessons! You have a wonderful collection of ukes and, if you can afford it, keep them for at least two years while you learn to play and learn about ukuleles in general. You can then make up your mind what to do with some or all of them. There's a good possibility that if you do this you might develop that "love of uke" you find here and thank your mom a lot more for the ukes than for the money they will bring.
 
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Sorry for the loss of your mom.

If it was me and I have no interest in playing, I would go to Gryphon and negotiate a bulk sale price. Yes, you can try consignment but it might take some time and having money in the hand allows you to do something else with it. Also, they have to run a business so they might put other ukes up on the wall that have higher profit margin or easier to sell. Time is money so I wouldn't spend too much time and effort on something I don't know about.

Good luck
 
Many responses with good intentions. I would take them to Gryphon for an appraisal, and then talk it over with your family.
 
*NOTE* I also posted this in the Uke beginners section, so if double posting violates any rules, please let me know and I'll happily delete this*

Hi everyone!

I'm new to this forum as of today, and was hoping you all could lend me your expertise. I recently inherited a collection of 60 ukuleles (along with some small guitars and other instruments and, as I know nothing about ukes, was wondering if you all would be willing to look and help me know what I have as well as what the individual instruments may be worth.

I've created an Imgur album here with multiple pictures of each instrument. For most of them I've included a DVD case to help give a sense of scale. If you wouldn't mind taking a look, that would be incredibly helpful. Each instrument is numbered for convenience as well.

I would also love to know what you think the best way would be to help these guys get out into the world. I'm not a musician, and even if I were to learn the uke, I definitely don't need 60 instruments. Would it be best to sell them piece by piece? Sell them as a lot to a music or uke specialty store? consignment?

Thanks in advance, and I look forward to hearing what you all think of my mother's collection.

I only saw a few the mele and a few plastic ukes as I don't have a app, the mele is
A six string worth about 300.00, those vintage plastics at 200.00 eack. I'm bring a bit conservative but that's if you sell the whole lot to a music store you won't get much
Private sales are risky, but you may get a bit mire. Marketplace sales on uu or flea market place you can sell to ukes who know their value too. I'd stay away from eBay as its risky. Sorry to hear your mom passed awzy, was she a uu member . My sincerest condolences to you and your ohana ☺, what kind of guitars does she have
 
Boy, looking through these, I think your instruments could sell for close to $20,000 or maybe more. If they were mine I would try to find a high end re-seller to buy or sell on commission. You might try www.ukulelefriend.com. Good luck.

With more than 100 instruments, that would be an average of $200 per instrument. If sold in bulk to a dealer, who would need to make a profit and be stuck with those not easy to sell, that might be acceptable. But if you sold individually to end users I believe the value is more than twice that.
A good idea would be to list them all in a spreadsheet.
Google retail values and out them in a column. Make a column with an estimated resale value of about 70%.make a summation.
If the spreadsheet is made in Google docs, it will be easy to share and have people from this forum help with input.
 
I noticed a date on one of the labels of 2009. I'd guess that a few are older than that and some are newer. That will affect the prices.

I suspect that a handful of them will be considered collectors items. With low serial numbers. By the same token, some of the customs may be early years of the luthier making ukes and not be as well regarded as later efforts. There are some that should fetch well over $1000, like the GString, Collings, Ko'olau, Black Bear, DaSilva, Larrivee, & Mya Moe.

The Martin Uke is in great shape. As are the Martin and other brands guitars. I think some of these may be rare.

Conservatively, the Koaloha, Kanilea, Kamaka, Graziano, Pohaku & Maui Music $800 plus range.

The plastic ukes are collectors items and will sell for a hundred or so. The Ohanas and Kalas for $300-400.

I don't recognize some of the brands.

These are ballpark WAGs and not to be taken as gospel.

From what I understand, consignment and estate buyers generally pay 60% of the value they think they can resell the item. Some even less. (Consignment, you wait until the item is sold before you are paid.) If possible, talk to more than one place to get more than one estimate. Try to get estimates for individual instruments as well as an entire collection one.

I'd talk to several dealers, as if they have appraisers (you may have to pay for the service). Google to see if there are any instrument appraisers in your area.

Ask the dealers if they are interested in acquiring the lot. Or any individual items that standout to them.

The dealers need to make a profit on anything they acquire. Some items will sell quickly, others will take months or years to sell. Most of these are very desirable and should sell quickly.

Make sure your homeowners' insurance covers them. You may need a rider. Until they are sold.

Best of luck.
 
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Was your mom an active uu forums member? What was her name please, just saw the whole collection , your high end ukes alone I'd say 8 to 10 thousand realistically
Then there's the reselling commission by a store or dealer from 20 percent to 25% . Good Luck if you list your mom's name and she's known here , they might sell even better
 
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I'd be interested in talking to you about one of the guitars - sent a pm. I live in the SF bay area, so we could at least avoid the shipping hassles.
 
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