Q: Someone I am counseling with would like to sell her valuable doll collection. What are her options? What is the best/safest method? I don’t know what to suggest.

A: How valuable is the doll collection? Are we talking $1,000 or $100,000?

Either way, you should call a local auction house and then talk to someone from either Christie’s, Sotheby’s or one of the other top auction houses about the collection. There may be a fee involved to appraise the collection (which they may be able to do from digital photos sent through the Internet), but if the collection is truly valuable, spending several hundred dollars is money well spent.

Having an appraisal from a top auction house would then allow your client to perhaps sell the collection her self on E-Bay, but I do think the best price for a top collection would come from a nationally-known auction company.