Estate sale questions

[Robinrs]

Has anyone ever had one? My aunt is on the verge of having a nervous breakdown taking care of my parent's assets. She's thinking of having an estate sale but the garage sale we had a few months back was such a BUST I don't know if it will work.

Has anyone tried selling estate items on EBAY?

Any hints on how to do this successfully?

I'd appreciate any advice, thanks!

 

[MerryPoppins]

I've sold lots of things on Ebay. Sometimes I am amazed that people will fight over what I consider to be junk for high prices and will pass up something wonderful at a decent price. Are the things you are needing to sell large items like furniture or smaller items? My experience is that you can often do much better on Ebay than at a garage sale, but it takes a lot of time to list it all.

My advice: You can save yourself a lot of headaches if you don't accept checks. Some will always bounce. Things sell much better with photos. When figuring shipping, consider packing materials for breakable items or have them professionally packed.

Large items will either have to be picked up or will cost a lot for shipping. I haven't sold anything huge, so I can't really say if it is worth it. It might be if you are in a large metropolitan area.

I know they even sell cars, so I say check it out. Search on Ebay for items like what you are wanting to sell. Are they getting bids? What are the starting bids? Also search for auctions that have ended. What did they go for? Or did they even get a bid. That can really help you with pricing.

 

[Pebblszzz]

When my mother passed away and I was in charge of her estate sale, I consulted the yellow pages.

I hired an estate sales company to come in and do all the work, and I don't regret it a bit.

I would, however, ensure that any seriously valuable (and "pocket-able") items are within your view at all times, as we had quite a turnout, and some expensive goodies got lifted.

If memory serves, they kept 10%. It was worth it to be rid of the headache, in my opinion. Just don't expect to get the actual value of the items - I was disappointed at some of their prices, and told them as much. For example, my mother had hired a company to build her a special china cabinet - she paid $7,000 to have this thing built. They put a $200 price tag on it, so I bought it!! I would say that the entire house full of stuff was probably worth about $40-50,000, and we got $24,000 out of it.

As for eBay, my hubby's quite the expert, but I can say a few things about my own experiences.

I've sold some collectibles on eBay, and got about what I expected. It was a pain, though - having to box stuff up and ship it off, all to different addresses. They have lots of help screens to get you going, and can explain it a lot better than I can.

Good luck, Robin! Miss you!

 

[December99]

Do you have an "auction" house in the area? We have those here in Illinois and I know people have had alot of success with them. You take the stuff, they set up an account, and whatever sells goes in your account. They have sales on the weekends and it's an actual auction except people come there rather then coming to you. Less hassle and less time consuming for you.

If we would not have done so well on my mom's sale, we would have done that as there were several places like that in our area.

Hopefully you will have some luck getting stuff taken care of. I know it's hard having to deal with it but it's such a better feeling when it's done.

 

[jipsy]

Use either an estate sale company or an auction company.

Estate sale company will come in and estimate the value of everything, price it, and handle the sale for a percentage.

With an auction, you'll need to have everything separated into categories and packed in boxes, with the exception of furniture. They'll pick it up, sell it at auction, keep a percentage, and call you to come pick up your check.

eBay is very time consuming. If she's having a hard time coordinating a one time garage sale, she and you won't like eBaying each individual item or lot. You'll have to take pictures, write up descriptions, post each one, email the winners, box it up, figure shipping, wait for money orders or checks to clear, then actually ship the item.

 

[Dancind]

I've been EBaying for seven years! You would probably get the best prices on Ebay, depending on what you are selling. A search is the best idea. If there are some items in the estate that have real collectible value but not much of a market in your area, you would do much better on Ebay. For instance, I collect dolls from the 50's. Some would sell locally for under $200, but on Ebay I would get twice that. Bigger market is why. They are also small and easy to package. Bigger items and glassware are a pain, and may not bring as much. It is amazing, though, what some things go for. Check out old fishing lures! You really need some feedback to sell on Ebay, but it helps a lot if you agree to accept credit cards through Paypal. So, I would suggest splitting things up between an estate sale and Ebay. Feel free to PM if you have questions, and best of luck. Diana

 

[Marla Hellwig]

We have done the auction thing - after we went through and got what we wanted - one they did the auction right at the house and other they packed up what they wanted and took back to their auction house