How a Park West Trade-Up Works: The Numbers, the Fee and the 5x Rule

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This example uses a $199 fee from the trade-up form discussed in our guide. Confirm the current fee and conditions with Park West before agreeing to a trade.

This is the founders’ trade-up experience, not a promise of current gallery terms. Confirm the purchase multiple and conditions with Park West.

Sooner or later, every Park West collector hears the offer: trade in pieces you own toward something new. The form you sign is a single page, and it looks simple. But three rules decide what the trade is really worth to you: how the credit is calculated, a flat fee on every piece, and how much new art you have to buy to use the credit.

To show how the numbers work, we’ve drawn up a sample form in the same layout as a Park West Art Trade-Up Request. The rules printed on it are the ones on the real form. The pieces, prices and every other detail are fictional, invented for this example.

Reading the form

1. The rules. Four lines in capitals: “Art must be returned as it appears on the client history. Hammer price is the trade in price. Framed art is to be returned framed. Unframed art is to be returned unframed.” The second line is the one that matters. Your credit is based on the hammer price, meaning the price the piece sold for on your original Park West invoice. It isn’t the appraised value, and it doesn’t include the sales tax or shipping you paid.
2. The restocking fee. “Framed or unframed, $199 each piece.” It’s a flat amount per piece, whatever the piece cost.
3. Price. The hammer price of each piece, taken from your purchase history.
4. Total line cost. Price minus the fee. This is the credit each piece earns.
5. Totals. In the example, $19,300 in hammer prices minus $1,194 in fees (6 × $199) gives $18,106 of credit toward a new purchase.

The five-times rule

Here’s what the form doesn’t show. In our experience as Park West VIP collectors, a trade-up requires you to spend five times the amount you trade in on new art. With $18,106 of credit, you need to buy at least about $90,500 of new work to use it.

Terms are set by Park West and can change, so confirm the current multiple and conditions with the gallery before you agree to a trade.

What the flat fee does to each piece

Because the fee is the same $199 on every piece, it takes a small share of an expensive piece and most of a cheap one. The six fictional pieces from the sample:

The fee hardly registers on piece A: $199 on a $10,000 piece is 2%. Piece F, marked in red on the sample, cost $300 at hammer and earns $101 of credit, so two thirds of its price goes to the fee. Across all six pieces the fee is only 6%, because the expensive pieces carry the total. That average hides how badly the cheaper pieces do.

Leave the cheap pieces out?

Each piece is a separate decision. Under a five-times rule, piece F adds $101 of credit but raises the amount you must spend by about $505. Pieces E and F together add $402 of credit and cost $398 in fees. If you can sell inexpensive pieces privately for more than their trade-up credit, it often makes sense to trade only the higher-value pieces.

Questions to ask before you trade

• What did I pay at hammer? Look it up on the original invoice, not the appraisal. That figure, minus $199, is your credit.
• Do I want to spend five times that on new Park West art right now? The credit only works toward a new purchase of that size. It isn’t cash.
• Would the piece net more elsewhere? Compare the credit with what a private sale would bring after shipping and any selling fees. For an expensive piece the trade-up can be simple and fair. For an inexpensive one the flat fee can eat most of the value.
• Is the piece exactly as I bought it? It has to go back as it appears on your client history, framed if it was sold framed. If you reframed it, ask before you sign.
• How does it go back? Ask the gallery how and when the pieces are returned, and keep proof of the hand-over.

After the trade: update your records

1. File the trade-up form with the new invoice. The invoice shows the credit, and the form shows which pieces paid for it.
2. Remove the traded pieces from your insurance schedule. See organizing appraisals for your insurer.
3. Record what each piece brought in. Note the credit, the fee and the date against each piece, so your collection’s history and any gain or loss stay accurate. Ask your tax adviser how a trade-in should be treated in your situation.
4. Keep the certificates and appraisals of the traded pieces with the form, as a record of what left the collection and why.

How Park West Collectors handles a trade-up

Upload or email your Art Trade-Up Request. We read every line and match each piece to your collection by registration number, then show you the result to confirm. Nothing changes until you do. Confirmed pieces move out of your active collection as “Traded up with Park West”, with the credit as the amount received and the $199 as a cost. Your Ledger then shows the gain or loss on each piece, ready to download for Excel or your accountant.

Your Art Vault is an independent platform operated by Kerja Group LLC, written by collectors for collectors. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Park West Gallery. Park West documents shown are from our own collection, with personal details removed, and are reproduced for explanation only. This article is general information, not legal, tax or insurance advice.