My favorite NEW way to purge stuff! !

[NewGig]

I've been sending things to auction for the past 2 months. The advantages are that I don't have to handle (whatever) again and we get a little $ back. (It's all going against debt.)

I have sent items to two different household/antique auction houses and a book auction house. There are definite holes in the stored stuff now, a bit less debt and I have a bit more time.

My new goal is to 1) Finish cleaning out/culling the attic (last big piece of furniture was in there) and then 2) close the storage.

I am psyched! This works, it doesn't push on my PTSD, we have more room, less debt and I have less stress. I do still. have an antique booth and donate some of what doesn't sell right away to my favorite thrift shop, which had been my strategy before. But the auction means I can just get rid of piles of things instead of a few here and there.

[GeorgeParker]

Someone in Dallas decided to sell a bunch of semi-valuable stuff through a newish but legit-looking auction service. The auction company picked up her stuff, told her verbally what they thought it would sell for, and said they'd send her a check when it sold. A month later the auction company suddenly vanished without a trace and the owner couldn't be found. No doubt he had stolen as much as he could in Dallas and moved to greener pastures where he could reopen under a different name. Caveat Venditor!!!!!

[Teacher Terry]

That’s awful George! I sold a antique barrister bookcase and a chair at a local auction site that’s been around for years. Once they took their cut I could have done better myself. Since you have a lot of stuff newgig I think you found a good solution.

[NewGig]

Terry,

Yes, I could have made more selling the items myself. It's the type of thing I used to sell at flea markets. But I'm not doing flea markets because of COVID. The last time I did an outdoor flea market I got a case of sunstroke, so no outdoor markets for me. This solves my problem without ending up under a tree trying to avoid blacking out. The auction house I'm using has a function where for a small flat fee they'll come and pick up whatever. So, I'm using it for items which I can't transport without renting a truck and merchandise which didn't sell in my antique booth. The auction is located an hour away. Because of that, she has a different customer base than I do. She attracts people from the "nearby" large, major city. I saw some things go in an auction of hers for more than you can buy them for new, which I think is nuts, but... it happens. And, if i'm the seller, that's to my advantage.

[pinkytoe]

I sent an old Mission furniture catalog to a rare books auction house and got a check for $600.

[NewGig]

There are ways to vet people selling things for you. The easiest is probably looking for state professional organizations. If someone is a member of the state auctioneer's association, has their license number prominently displayed, for example, they're probably legit. Auctioneers are licensed by the state. General junk dealers and house clean out people are NOT, at least they aren't here.

I was apprehensive when she took the first load, but 3 days after the auction ended, she paid us via paypal. The book auction I was less worried about. The guy who is the auctioneer is a former customer of mine. The first antique auction house pissed me off when I took a load up there (45 minutes away) and they rejected the entire thing, when they'd sold everything we'd taken them earlier this year... I started looking elsewhere and found this woman who's south of me, caters to the large city crowd, and will do pick ups within an hour of her home (and we just squeak by) for a set fee. That fee is cheaper than I can rent a van or truck, so it's worth it. She's been here 2x now. Either by the end of this month or early next spring, I expect to give her a 3rd and last load to pick up. We've also talked about the possibility of my taking her smaller stuff and/or her meeting me at the antique store to do a pickup....

[iris lilies]

NewGig, it is good to hear this latest news from you. Glad you are making progress.

Do you actually make enough money on your antique booth sales to pay for the booth? I ask that because I really wonder about many of the antique booth owners around here.

[NewGig]

Many times, no. There are people who do. They sell shiny items and/or work their booth extensively, once a week, or more. Mine is 45 minutes from here and so I don't get there often enough. When I do and have the right stuff? Yep, I make money. But I don't do that consistently enough to pay my rent all the time. Frequently, the high ticket items which sell are piece of my husband's who knows a bit about photo equipment. He sold 2 light stands, for example, for a good bit more than he paid for them, because he looked at them and knew what they were worth. I can do the same with books, but it takes longer usually to sell books, if you can.

The last high ticket item I had was a German silver runner which had been my Grandmother's. The house my dad was raised in was a Victorian, and big, my Grandfather was prosperous. When the Depression happened, my grandparents both died, and my Dad, a young man at the time, had to sell it. He kept a few things. The German silver runner was one piece. It sat in a drawer my entire childhood. I'd carried it from the desert to Florida to New England and it sat in a drawer the entire time. I got tired of moving it around and took it to the booth and it sold in about 6 weeks. I was ready to pull it and had an auction house interested. The day before I went to pull it? It sold.

But a lot of what I sell is excess household stuff. A metal paper organizer was the last piece. I can sell high ticket stuff, but it comes and goes. Supposedly dealers like my booth a lot, but they want bargains, they buy things after I discount them.

If there's a formula for getting items to sell that makes enough $ I'd love to learn it. I don't mind paying to get rid of stuff, but it would be nice to not have the drain on our finances. One thing I did which worked well was to move to a more visible booth. It's more $, but I make more $ too and make my rent more often, about 1/2 the time now, where it was 25% before....

[Teacher Terry]

The fact that they are picking your stuff up is worth a lot of value because it’s your time and money. Congrats on getting rid of stuff!

[iris lilies]

What is a German
silver runner? I mean I have a vague idea of German silver, but I have no idea what a “runner” is in silver.
Mr. Google does not help me here.