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Do these drive anyone else crazy? Every single time I go to an estate sale in my area Im blown away by the asking price of items. Ok I get it that the company is brought in to try to get the most money for the deceased persons estate but seriously, its not a store. I don't take 1,000 bucks with me when I go garage sale'ing on Sat mornings.
Our most recent adventure we stopped by one of these and I found a nice antique coffee table that I could tell was hand carved. I asked the lady how much and she told me $550. I was like what??? Then they were selling plate silver for $20 a pop.
Drives me crazy because theres usually so much nice stuff at these sales...
sometimes they are expensive and sometimes they are cheap. I also know that you have to be willing to wheel and deal with the person at the estate sale. when I lived in Wisconsin, I bought 2 .50 caliber rifles for $3000. as I was loading the rifles into my truck, the lady told me to take all the ammo for it with me, almost 7000 rounds of 50 BMG ammo. I got very lucky that day.
If you want cheap, stick to yard and garage sales...
Seriously. The goal and tone of an estate sale is not the same as a yard sale.
It's because of all the haggling and insulting low balling that sellers MUST increase their prices so they can be negotiated down and the buyer "gets a good deal." A huge waste of time IMHO both when im buying and when im selling.
I try to price thing at the absolute minimum I will accept and declare this as to not waste both of our times. Yet the professional hagglers don't seem to comprehend this and waste my time anyway.
I once had someone offer me TEN DOLLARS for a book worth over $300. If i was going to negotiate before, i sure as H ain't gonna now!
When I was a dealer, I would give a better deal to a nice customer than any hard*ss coming off as some know-it-all making lowball offers or insulting the condition of my inventory. To those types, I wished them good day and sent them packing.
EXACTLY!! I long for the day when the majority of buyers figure this out.
And BTW- pointing out all the flaws and insulting our inventory does not score you points. Competent sellers are fully aware of the applicable flaws in their items and have already priced according.
We don't have many estate sales here. I have never been to one, we do have weekly auctions that are kind of fun. Estate sale sounds like you are going to spend alot of money.
We don't have many estate sales here. I have never been to one, we do have weekly auctions that are kind of fun. Estate sale sounds like you are going to spend alot of money.
It all depends... many times, buyers will end up spending more at an auction than at an estate sale.
1. At most auctions, cheap items are grouped in box lots. No auctioneer is going to drag out the night by selling each inexpensive item one at a time.
2. The competitive nature of bidding on the lots only makes each auction lot more money to own.
3. Between the preview time and when the auctioneer starts to auction them off, items go missing or can be damaged by others inspecting and handling the lots. So buyer beware on a box lot of glass or china.
4. When the item is up and the bidding begins, it looks more desirable and interesting than it is as others are bidding on it. Winners remorse is a more common possibility.
I know auction attenders that start bidding on items that they didn't want during the preview, but because they saw certain dealers bidding on the lot, they decided that they wanted it also. Such is the nature of "auction fever".
The wife and I do estate sales almost every weekend. It's more of an adventure than a dedicated way to make money. We have come across numerous "deals" where we could make a serious profit on some items. I collect kerosene lamps, mostly Bradley & Hubbard but I have a few Rayos too and a couple of Millers. I came a cross a piano lamp that had the silicated glass chimney, banquet glass bulb, center draft round wick. with the raising font and I paid $120.00 for it. I had it appraised at $4000.00. Today I paid $101.00 for 3 Windberg paintings. All were custom framed. One was a signed National Park Series 22"x 28". The signed print goes for $1250.00 IF you can find one. The frame is another $400.00. The wife likes Toby Mugs and mantle clocks. She picked up an early John Walker mantle clock that was a presentation gift at the Millbank Prison in London dated January 1874. It's being appraised by the John Walker folks in London so I don't know a value but considering the history of Millbank Prison of sending criminals to Australia, it's probably worth more than the $120.00 she paid for it. Do we always strike gold at these sales? Nope. You might find something like these though about every 10 estate sales you go to. At least that's the way it works around here. Once you get involved, you find that some dealers are nothing more than junk dealers having "estate sales" and then you have real estate sales. You also learn who puts decent prices on their goods and who puts outrageous prices on the goods. Around here, the first day of sales is retail. Second day is 30 to 50% off, and if there is a third day, 50% off or make an offer. WE try to make the second day. If you have the interest, here's a website that shows the sales in your area. Most will have pics of the items coming up for sale but usually there's more there than they have pics. It can be a ton of fun! Find Estate Sales
EXACTLY!! I long for the day when the majority of buyers figure this out.
And BTW- pointing out all the flaws and insulting our inventory does not score you points. Competent sellers are fully aware of the applicable flaws in their items and have already priced according.
And the flip side of this is every time I walk into an antique store in my area Ill see a piece of furniture that says $3000, scratched out, 2000, scratched out, 1500, scratched out, 700......how long does a piece of furniture need to sit around wasting space before the seller realizes not everything is a Chipendale just because its old.
There is a place for estate sales (we called them tag sales in Ohio) in the hierarchy of selling used things. The bottom feeders are never going to find prices reasonable at one. I believe they are the best place to buy wholesale items a dealer would buy. They are typically conducted by companies which manage, advertise, provide security, and help set prices, so things are a bit more expensive.
When I used to go to them, I found they were the best place to buy high quality household items, like Waterford crystal, sterling flatware, fine old linens, nearly new high end furniture, or a really unusual lamp, etc. Sometimes a person's lifetime collection of things was awful, but sometimes it was a treasure trove. I still have some lovely bird lithographs in civil war era oval frames I bought from a tag sale. When I buy something for my home, only I know what something is worth TO ME, and so I'll either buy it or not depending upon its quality and beauty.
There was always a place to leave a bid for an item, and on the final day, if the item did not sell for the asking price, the owner could choose to sell it for the bid price. I was called a few times when my bid was accepted.
Let me share a secret with you that was given to us by a dealer- furniture doesn't sell at these sales. It's rare that the furniture sells. Most often, the dealers are on a percentage commission of sales. Go by the second day and they will normally take offers......most any offers. I've seen NICE, pristine solid wood, old bedroom sets that costs well over 5 grand to buy sell for $350.00 on the second day. That's why we go on the second day. If we decide we'd like to have it but don't like the price, make an offer and you'll usually be taking it home. From an Estate Dealers prospective, any money that comes in the door is partly theirs. The value of what goes out the door is not their concern, just what they sell. And while this might sound like the seller is getting screwed, in most cases the family has already taken the items they want. The leftovers are either to be turned to cash or donated to a charity to get it out of the house. So as far as the family is concerned, if they get a dollar for it, that's a dollar they didn't have yesterday. Estate Sales are not for making a profit or generating cash from assets. It's about getting rid of stuff the family doesn't want.
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