Any experiences with auctioneers/consigning pieces? (Long, with rambling)

[Readsomething]

Hi, all! Although I haven't posted a lot, I'm a voracious lurker (if such a thing is not oxymoronic, haha). I come here for motivation and lots of advice.

We are in a serious decluttering mode. SERIOUS. I am so happy that DH is finally on board. It's a long story, but we've been married nearly 18 years, and for the first decade or so, we struggled with infertility/miscarriage/etc., and we both turned to compulsive shopping/collecting to deal with that. When DH and I first met, he collected *furniture*! He had way more furniture than he needed for his home, then when my stuff came along, then we added stuff together, plus our numerous collections of smaller stuff ... oy.

I've been a declutterer off and on. I get tired of sitting among the junk and then I start purging. I sell a lot on eBay, but I'll inevitably use the money for some other collection, so it's just a matter of recycling collections. I'm between hobbies right now. ;)

HOWEVER ... we adopted our DD from China in 2003. We've spent less on our junque since then, but the usual kid stuff (plus all the clothing I compulsively collected while waiting for the adoption paperwork to go through) piled up.

Last year, I finally convinced DH to have a yard sale. (We even included a few items from his collections of political buttons and memorabilia, plus his collection of postcards). We made $900 in two days and got rid of a LOT of stuff. :0!

Two weeks ago, we had another enormous sale and made $930. DH sold a table and a chair by some famous 60s designer. He was happy with the deal he made, so he's now convinced that it's possible not to get ripped off. :)

We have a few other pieces, none of which would really do well in a yard sale -- an Eastlake (early 20th century) dresser, an antique Chinese cabinet, etc. We literally gave away a giant bookcase that was about 6 feet by 5 feet. Most of the books were sold at the yard sale. My huge collection of frugality and SL books will go to eBay. My new rule -- if I've read it, it leaves. I don't need to keep a book to remind me that I read it. Books I want to keep will be few and far between, and if I can get it in Kindle format, I will "store" it that way. In April, DH bought me a Kindle, and I'm now officially an e-reader convert. The piles of books are decreasing rapidly, and I feel so much freer!

Now to get to my point (ha) ... has anyone had any experience with calling an auctioneer and getting an estimate, or consigning the pieces to an auction? I'm guessing someone here has at least had to deal with an estate, which can be overwhelming.

We're both finally on board with decluttering. Every time we get rid of a piece of furniture, the room is bigger, brighter, easier to BE in. Late last year, we got rid of our 15-year-old sagging living room furniture that didn't work well in the room and replaced it with a new leather sectional that will withstand the kid and the dogs much better. ;) We rearranged the room to fit and we LOVE it. Now we want to get rid of the coffee table that doesn't work (and replace it with NOTHING!) because the table is just a "crap catcher," as I like to say. We have two small end tables, at each end of the sectional, that work great for our needs.

Our ultimate goal -- DH is in an industry that has major turmoil. It's been ongoing for about 8 years right now. He's older (50), and another round of layoffs is imminent. Replacing him with a younger, cheaper worker would make "sense" for the company. If he does get laid off, we want to be free and clear to pull up stakes and MOVE TO CHINA! DH has already investigated what it would take to teach English or get a job in his field (he has even gotten an offer from an employer there).

Anything we want to keep (our brass and iron bed, DD's brass and iron bed, the sofa) will be stored, and I *hate* the idea of paying a huge storage fee. So anything we keep will need to survive multiple purges. (The beds were custom made for us and are future heirlooms. Our bed has a tiny plaque on it with the date our relationship began. We're not getting rid of it.) :D

I am contemplating having another yard sale this summer (our city requires a yard sale permit, and limits each household to two sales per year). We're getting a new vacuum, replacing our seriously overworked 15-year-old Miele, this week. The old one will be sold. It's tired, but not dead. I don't want to just toss it when someone can use it.

[sweetana3]

Auctioneers range from lovely Christian businesspeople to downright scum. Each will have a different fee schedule. I would ask around for recommendations and attend a sale. Interview them and talk about what you have to sell. The ones who take good items do good advertising, have a loyal clientel, and regular schedule. Some only sell a particular type of item.

A minimum of 25% should be the cost of sale and remember that if there are no buyers, the amount received will be less so good auction customers is a must.

[Zoebird]

I have, and it helps to get a good (local) recommendation. I went through my MIL's auction house, which is a company that she has used several times when a family member passes, and that other members of her family used. I called them, and asked for a *referral* to a local business to me. Through that, I felt confident that I was going with a decent outfit.

The nice thing is that this particular group will do a lot more. If you have a decent piece, you drop it off, have a reserve in mind, etc -- the fees will likely be much less. In addition, it will go into a similar auction with similar items, and if they are decent antiques, you should do well with the whole process. If you're simply -- as my MIL does -- having the auctioneer come and value out everything around the house, design an auction around it for contents, etc -- the fees are much higher because there is much more work to be done. Nonetheless, a good auctioneer will do a good job, and you'll usually be happy with the outcomes.

In addition, the auctioneer that we utilized would also keep what didn't sell and put it into other auctions, then at a different fee structure because there is, at that point, much less work. EG, if grandma's table didn't sell at the house auction, they take it back to their place, store it, and put it up at the next large furniture auction. There, you have the reserve price set, and so on.

Definitely a nice way to get rid of things quickly, if needs be.

[Readsomething]

Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it!

We would be using a local auctioneer that DH has actually purchased some pieces from. He's attended numerous sales there. And this auction house is well known among local collectors. In our area, auctions are fairly popular (though probably less popular than they were before the economy nose-dived). The auction house has a web site for instructions on how to contact them to get valuations, pickup, etc. We would probably go that route -- we don't have a truck and we have NO interest in physically moving any of these pieces ourselves.

[goldensmom]

We've had 2 farm auctions conducted by the same 2nd generation, local auctioneer. They were great to work with. They would not do an auction for less then $8000*. They came out and did an appraisal to see if they thought it would meet their minimum and we went from there. Their fee was 20%. They did everything, we just had to be there to answer questions.

*If the valuation was less than $8000, they would combine auctions.

[Selah]

We moved across country late last year and after a massive decluttering, packing the car, and mailing off a few boxes to ourselves at our new home, had an auctioneer come in and take EVERYTHING. He and his crew cleared the entire house in less than two hours, and over the coming months auctioned off our stuff. We got several checks at random times, and nearly everything has been sold. Their auction fee was 20%, and they cleared out the house for free. It was AWESOME. A few small items weren't accounted for, and when we stopped in on a visit to our (now-rented-out) home a few weeks ago, we spotted some items that had been mistakenly attributed to someone else who had a similar item. We got those little confusions sorted out quickly and with no problem.

[the rickster]

You guys rock! It's such a great feeling to unload stuff and get some cash back. We have really struggled with this. My g/f's mom died two years ago and we have been going through her things ever since. We used an auction house that had a good reputation, but they were pretty awful. They didn't do much of anything they said they were going to do, and we ended up basically giving away some very valuable marble-topped furniture. My girlfriend ended up with a pittance, we'd have been better using Craigslist and selling stuff for 10 cents on the dollar.

This year, she sold some other furniture with a different auctioneer who was more generalized and we didn't expect much--we just needed to get rid of it fast. But things turned out pretty well. So you just never know.

Has anyone tried Angie's List to compare services? They collect reviews on all sorts of categories, like--for example--Dallas roofing contractors (http://www.angieslist.com/companylist/dallas/roofing.htm). I wonder if it's better than just asking around.