Advice needed for huge estate

[Ahakunut]

My mother in law passed away several months ago and I have been put in charge of clearing out her home. She collected anything and everything including original boxes. For example, vintage jewelry-several dressers are filled, beautiful cut glass items are all over the house, crystal, full dinnerware sets like Friendly Village, Spode, etc., dolls, dolls and more dolls with original boxes 1900's to present, Hummels of every variety, 1000's of various figurines (some junk, some not), rooms filled with brand new items never taken out of the box/pkg., ( I found 273 brand new towel sets with all tags still attached.), vintage clothes, furs, old full bottles of perfume, the cellar is filled with old tools, cans, bottles, games. I could go on and on. This house could easily be on one of those hoarder shows, but it's not filled with trash. There's barely a path to walk thru. Oh, coins! She stashed coins all over the house. Of what I found so far, after stacking the boxes up they measure about 4 ft. X 4 ft. and about 3ft. tall. Every type of coin you can imagine. She was 101 yrs old when she passed so you can imagine how much she has amassed.
Here's my problem. The home is in the N.E. and I live in Hawaii. We have two years according to the will before we have to sell the house. My brother in law lives here, but happily wants me to handle the clean out. I don't want to donate all of this. My brother in law does not want any sort of estate sale or anyone coming to the house. The only thing I know about eBay is the founder, Pierre Omidiyar, whose child is in my sons class. I couldn't possibly sell/ship that much from Hawaii. I've been at the house for over a week now and will be here for another month.
Can any of you advise me on the best way to sell all of this? No help from the brother in law so that's out. He works way too many hours. I need to research anything that may be of value, but I'm afraid I'll miss the big one, especially with the coins. I'm a little overwhelmed! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Sorry about the long post. Thanks for listening!

 

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[digging440yrs]

If it were me, i would have an antique auctioneer come to the house, but you need to be there. Also, have the auction at the house. Reason being-the auctioneer may be honest, but the hired hands that would have to move everything to the auction house may not be. This has happened, i know for a fact. Hired hands can easily slip items in their pockets.----good luck

 

[Beans]

So is the House in Hawaii? You mentioned N.E. which to me means the Northeast US.

 

[yardgoat]

You might want to check with a local auction house that deals with estates, I would ask the auctioneer for some references from past auctions and get the auction costs in writing. It might be the fastest and easiest way to go for you.

 

[Lost&Found]

Welcome to the forum. If the estate is so large you might want to consider a professional estate liquidation company whose track record you can research and reach a deal on a percentage of sales receipts. I would interview a few of them before I would decide on my choice.

If you don't want to go that route I would just gather items that might have value such as coins, jewelry, artwork, pottery and antiques. Then I would get appraisals from experts. Nobody knows everything and some items might be overlooked. But by doing due diligence on the average you should be ahead of the game.

 

[mojjax]

I think you should get reputable NE auction house to sell the stuff for you . Some up here are very honest . Others are questionable . What state in the NE ? Maybe check "Angies List" for auction houses -People give feedback . - Good Luck !

 

[Ahakunut]

You're right. The house is so jammed full of things anyone coming in here could pocket whatever they wanted and no one would know. Thank you for the advice!!

 

[Ahakunut]

So is the House in Hawaii? You mentioned N.E. which to me means the Northeast US.

I'm sorry, the house is in New England and I live in Hawaii making it hard to handle all of this.

 

[Army of 1]

I agree with what advice has been given to put it in the hands of a reputable auction house , they will take care of everything for a percentage of the sale , hope it goes well ..cheers Mick

 

[Beans]

Sounds like there are a lot of valuable items in the house. If that is the case your best bet may be to hire an Attorney to take care of the Estate. This would not be a one weekend Estate sale. One thing that I would do first is Inventory everything. Take pictures of what you have like one does for insurance companies. Once other people get involved it could be easy to loose or misplace things. Best of luck to you on this and hope all goes well for you.

 

[mojjax]

You have 2 years according to the will - just take a deep breath breath & relax .
And I am sorry for your loss of her . 101 ! God bless ! She must of touched so many lives . She had the wisdom of a century !

 

[Ahakunut]

Sounds like there are a lot of valuable items in the house. If that is the case your best bet may be to hire an Attorney to take care of the Estate. This would not be a one weekend Estate sale. One thing that I would do first is Inventory everything. Take pictures of what you have like one does for insurance companies. Once other people get involved it could be easy to loose or misplace things. Best of luck to you on this and hope all goes well for you.

For the past week I've been working on inventorying everything. I'm grouping like objects, taking a photo and logging a description of each item in a notebook. I haven't even made a dent in this! So much stuff!! Thank you for the advice!

 

[Ahakunut]

Wow! You guys are great! Thank you so much for all the advice. I'm researching auction houses now based on everyone's recommendation.

 

[Butter Hat]

This isn't about sales, but if your MIL kept any sort of journals, or letters, try to keep them separate to pass along to family members, as this kind of personal record is invaluable.

My condolences and good luck.

 

[DFW_THer]

Nope--I wouldn't even recommend considering ebay unless you want to quit your full time job and move.
If you want it cleared out in a timely fashion (yes, I know you have two years), and you want to maximize your dollar, then a good estate auction house is the only way to go. Many things will sell under market value, but other items will surprise you. It sounds like you have enough for more than a single day auction.

In your review process, lean toward the auction houses that have good websites and catalogs, and also offer amiable customer service. If that auction house takes 25% (that's a high guess) over another auction house that takes 15% but doesn't have a decent website or not many reviews, take the 25% auction house. Don't just settle for a lower percentage.

It sounds like with the other advice already in this thread, you are off on the right foot, and you came to the right place.

Oh--I'll clear the house for 10 grand. You can put your pencil and camera down now. I'm in NE, will travel.

*grin

Best of luck & sorry for the loss.

 

[jerseyben]

Which NE state is the house located?

 

[Ahakunut]

This isn't about sales, but if your MIL kept any sort of journals, or letters, try to keep them separate to pass along to family members, as this kind of personal record is invaluable.

My condolences and good luck.

It's funny you mentioned the letters, journal, etc. She left notes of instruction all over the house, tucked away in odd places. Inside some items are descriptions or the history. She wrote these over the years so they're in/on just about everything. Attached to her will was a note saying "See you later alligator!"

 

[Ahakunut]

Which NE state is the house located?

Massachusetts

 

[Lost&Found]

BTW, forum members are very good in identifying and evaluating all kinds of items. Feel free to post pictures of items you have questions about or not sure of what they are.

 

[Ahakunut]

BTW, forum members are very good in identifying and evaluating all kinds of items. Feel free to post pictures of items you have questions about or not sure of what they are.

Thank you! I was fretting about whether or not I should post pictures for help identifying items since they aren't technically a garage sale find.