Experience with Estate Sales

[iris lilies]

When we lived in Michigan there were tons of wonderful estate sales--not so here.

but is that really a function of location? Or is it a function of time marching on? As more and more boomers get their stuff out there on the” used stuff “ market there’s just a lot of stuff, so people don’t find it profitable to unload it anymore since the market is saturated.

My personal observation about our local auction house just down the street in Hermann is the stuff they have to sell is old and ugly. But I theorize that fall and winter sales are popular because it gives the local senior populous something to do and they apparently have money to buy stupid old crap because I guarantee it isnt young people buying that ugly stuff.

I’m still shocked an old piece of brown furniture we sent down there sold for $400. To me it was a $35 item.

I recently spent $1500 on an 1885 Chinese chest of drawers. It’s very cool and I’ve always like this style of furniture ‘tho it is ‘out there.’ it was in the high-end antique store I go to in St. Louis, love that store. But… when the time comes to liquidate my stuff, who knows if anyone will want it and that’s fine, it can go for a few bucks and it won’t bother me and the rare person might be thrilled with their deal.

[bae]

I had to deal with two different large estates. MIL and FIL's homes, in two different states.

In both cases, I ended up adopting a layered approach:

- called in specialists for book collections, high-end art, and so on
- called in junk-removal specialists for the "junk" - great service, you simply pointed at stuff that you wanted gone, and it vanished. Companies I used both claimed a considerable portion of the "junk" would end up in the recycling or re-use stream and not just taken to the dump
- estate sale folks for the remnants. (Old brown furniture has no market in modern times, btw). Minimal cash was produced, but it got the materials out of the house
- bring back in junk-removal folks for final clean-out

At the first home I had to deal with, I initially started trying to do it all myself, but a 4 story Victorian home that someone had lived in for 50+ years was too challenging, and after a week+ of dump runs with a rented truck, I gave up.

[Tybee]

but is that really a function of location?

Definitely a function of location. I think it had to do with Scandinavian vs. Yankee culture. Everyone there knew by a certain age, you had to do Swedish death cleaning and then go into the home, and you did it yourself or had your kids do it with you. Here people seem to hang onto things longer. Or maybe they handed them out earlier to their kids, I don't know. There is not an estate sale culture the way there was in Northern Michigan.

[early morning]

Good luck whatever you do, Rosa. I'm with Tybee on the pricing, though - I really don't like unpriced, make-me-an-offer sales. I don't want to pay much for whatever I buy, obviously. But I also don't want to offend by offering $1 for something the seller thinks may be worth $100. And maybe it is, to the right person. So - I'd rather not do the pricing for the sellers, thank you very much! :-) I'm fine with the table-priced things, or even room priced, not everything needs a sticker! But I'm not comfortable with a whole house of make an offer stuff. Although donation sales don't bother me as much. Strange hiccup in my own brain, I know...

[iris lilies]

no American likes unpriced, barter-type sales. We just aren’t used to it.

[sweetana3]

I agree that unpriced sales are a turnoff. Even if there is a poster or sign of some kind that gives the general idea of pricing it would make me more inclined to stay and maybe buy. In past years, I have left sales where I could not figure out what the pricing was in general.

[rosarugosa]

I'm another one who does not like a lack of pricing, but I really hate the idea of putting price tags on everything. The price by table idea is a good one, or even a price by categories, e.g. all cleaning products $1, all tools $5. At this point we've taken all the more valuable stuff out and I'm going to list some of it on eBay. We've had friends do walk-throughs to take what they want. I don't think there is enough there of value for an estate company to be interested, but as much as we've removed, there is still a lot of small miscellany remaining (and large furniture items). It would be nice if we could keep as much as possible out of the waste stream.

Dark humor: Sis and I telling each other "I hope I die first so I don't have to go through all your crap some day," lol.

[happystuff]

Dark humor: Sis and I telling each other "I hope I die first so I don't have to go through all your crap some day," lol.