There are lots of firms out there offering free valuations of high-value possessions, from works of fine art to rare books and manuscripts, antiques to luxury timepieces, classic vehicles to fine wines and so on. Established auctioneers such as Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Phillips, and Fellows perform this expert process gratis, as does the BBC’s Antique Road Show television programme.
However, when you look a little closer, two points are unavoidable. First, auctioning valuables can be a time-consuming business. The custom is to physically take your items to them. Christie’s, for example, reviews up to six items for free, but once you’ve submitted all the necessary details (e.g., the dimensions and materials of the item, information about when, where and how it was acquired, electronic copies of appraisals, any related literature and any authenticity certificates), it’ll take 4-6 weeks for a provisional response. That’s because the expert valuers only actually see the documentation and photographs of the item, and can only determine the value at auction more accurately when they inspect the item physically, which comes after the 4 to 6-week provisional estimate.
Second, people tend to put their cherished possessions forward for valuation when they need to raise cash. With auction houses, excellent and knowledgeable though their valuation experts undoubtedly are, there’s only one way that the process is going to end: bidding farewell to a prized, even revered, personal possession that will be sold at auction in order to raise the needed money. That item could be a family heirloom, a gift from a now-departed loved one or a piece of jewellery bought in happier times.
At peer-to-peer lender platform Unbolted, we take a different approach. We offer free valuations, then turn them into cash fast. That’s because we offer secured asset loans, courtesy of our hundreds of individual investors. Instead of proceeding straight to auction to sell your cherished item, we use it as collateral for your borrowing, keeping it in bespoke safe storage for the duration of the loan.
Our process is quick. With our expert valuation partners on standby to rapidly value collateralised assets on a secondary market, we can usually make a provisional offer within hours of an uploaded image of the asset reaching our digital platform. With our next-day courier service (or, if you live near enough, your own personal delivery to our London office), our valuation experts can easily inspect the actual item, allowing us to accurately determine its secondary market value. Money can usually be electronically transferred into your account within hours of the item arriving at our headquarters. That's hours, or days at most - not weeks.
The beauty of this approach is simple: you don’t have to part with your deeply loved possession out of necessity. Provided you can repay the amount within the term of the loan (usually six months, although on occasions we can extend it), you get your expertly stored possession back. We only sell it at auction if you decide you’d rather simply keep the cash. If, however, you’re in a position to repay earlier than the loan term, then you can do so with no penalty whatsoever.
Finally, with a loan from p2p lender Unbolted, you never have to worry about the intrusive and potentially harmful effects of a credit search. Your asset is all the security we require for your borrowing.
