What makes a paperweight valuable

Condition, attribution, rarity and fashion — the four things that decide what a paperweight is worth, and why a price on its own tells you nothing.
Several dozen glass paperweights arranged together in rows, showing a wide range of millefiori, floral and abstract designs.

This guide gives no numbers, because a number without a specific object, a specific condition and a specific date is not information.

Condition first

Glass does not improve. Bruises, chips, scratches across the dome and heavy repolishing all reduce what a weight is worth, and repolishing in particular can change the profile enough to alter how the setup reads. Damage that would be trivial on a piece of furniture is not trivial here.

Then attribution

A documented maker is worth more than an inferred one, and the gap is often large. This is precisely why attribution should be recorded as what it is. If a seller tells you a weight is something, ask what that rests on.

Rarity, carefully

Rare is not the same as scarce, and scarce is not the same as sought after. An unusual cane arrangement from a maker nobody collects is unusual and cheap.

Fashion

Taste moves. What was expensive twenty years ago is not reliably expensive now, and nothing about a collecting market guarantees that it will move back. Buy the object.