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Norman Rockwell Ship Builder Plate

Royal Doulton Chanticlair Sculpted Rooster Platter

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Gone With The Wind: Scarlett Collector Plate

Spode Christmas Tree Dinner Plate

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Porcelain Plate of Elvis Presley Photo Characature Cartoon

Replacement Plates

Finding Replacement Plates

Sometimes, accidents just happen and you end up needing replacement plates. It might be your pet cat jumping up to explore a cabinet, a toddler throwing a ball in the house, or maybe just your own butter fingers. Before you even know what happened, one of your collectible plates goes crashing to the ground and it turns into a slow motion scene from a movie.

If this has happened to you, there are some ways to get replacements for even the most difficult to find decorative collectible plate. I'll tell you right now, that the very first place I look is eBay. Why? Because there are so many plates on there and it is a market designed for selling items like replacement plates. If you do choose eBay, the trade off for the convenience may be a price higher than you like (but not necessarily) but the upside is that you can find any number of collectibles being sold. These are often sold by inexperienced sellers who do not understand what they actually own, so sometimes you can grab a real bargain.

The flip side to eBay sellers is that you can also find some people who really know their stuff. If you are looking to find a particular collector's plate, you can often search it out and find it listed by someone who can give you an incredibly detailed description. There are many people who sell replacement plates full time. It is their livlihood and they take it seriously. You won't get a steal from them, but you will find the plate you want more often than not.

If you are feeling more adventurous and you are not in any great hurry to find the replacement, you can also go out on your own and check a few places. You will want to head to yard sales, estate sales and thrift shops. Each of these will offer a slightly different situation to you.

Estate sales often have tons of older items up for sale. These sales are usually held after a person dies. If the person collected plates, it is likely that the company hosting the sale knows what the plates are worth. You may find a decent deal if the plates have not moved by the last half of the sale. Sometimes the prices are cut in half around one o'clock of the last day. If you don't like the price, you can often leave a bid for the family to consider. If they really want to get things moved along, you may get a call after the sale ends saying that they have accepted your bid.

Yard sales are hard to predict. Many times you will find people willing to sell off their items at VERY low prices. They are tired of looking at the things sitting around their house and they just want it gone now. The other extreme is the yard sale seller who looks things up on eBay and then tries to charge the highest price they saw something selling for on the site. Usually, you are better off leaving these items alone. If they are quoting eBay prices, there is a good chance you can find it cheaper on eBay yourself with a little bit of patience. Again, you can make these people an offer and see if they decide to take it after their items haven't sold.

Thrift stores used to be a much better place to shop. Now, eBay sellers swarm the shops looking for things they can re-sell. Thrift stores have caught on to this and they now either raise the prices before putting the merchandise out or the sell the better quality collectibles on their own websites and completely ignore their retail outlets. Shopping thrift stores often ends in frustration.

Any of these last three options are very hit or miss. Sometimes ads for these events will include data about specific items, but most times they do not. You pretty much just have to drive around from place to place hoping to find what you are looking for and your odds are not very good. If you enjoy the thrill of the hunt for what you collect though, it can be fun and sometimes you can find a really incredible deal.

To help you out, here are some of the currently listed discontinued plates being offered for sale on eBay!