Tips for estate sales?

[Jon Phillips]

It's all in the delivery. There is one guy at all of our sales that never just pays the marked price (or half on the second day), and moves on. He makes himself a nuisance every time, and we dread to have to deal with him.

There are others that will come in and buy a big pile then ask for a discount on a few other items. They understand how the "game" is played. They don't ask every time, on every item, like the other guy.

 

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[clovis97]

Jon,

Thank you for your continued advice.

How do you figure out how to price items, whether it is common household stuff, or a collectible? How much time do you spend researching?

Do you ever cringe when you find out later that you sold an item too cheap?

I flea market as well as ebay, and I find that pricing is the hardest thing we do.

Thoughts?

 

[Jon Phillips]

A lot of what we price comes from experience. At one to two sales a week, you see a lot of the same things over and over, and you just put the same price on the stuff from week to week. Sometimes that changes. As I'm sure you know...something is only worth what someone is willing to pay. One time we had a sale that had over 2,000 used golf balls! We put 12 to a ziplock bag for $2.00, and sold every one! We have been charging $2.00 a dozen since then for used ones, but last weekend we had about half left over, so we put them at $1.00 a dozen this week. If they all sell, after a while...we'll put them back at $2.00 and see what happens.

As far as bigger ticket items, and antiques and collectibles...the best source really is ended auctions on ebay. If something actually sold for $250, we might put $130-$150 on it, unless it is a very rare or desireable item, then we might price it closer to it's current market value.

What a lot of the dealers and resellers that complain about estate sales fail to realize is, we are not "ebay seller wholesale supply". We are selling to the same market as they are...the final end-user/collector. The difference is...we only have 2 days to sell the stuff, so we tend to price it under current market value, and that often leaves a lot of "meat on the bones" for the dealers and resellers. It's also a business, not a hobby, so we need to make money just like they do...and we have a lot more overhead than they do....but....we are selling for a percentage, and don't have to purchase the items first like they do, so I understand that they need some room to make some money.

If there is no ended item that actually sold, and everyone is asking about the same thing, we will usually price something about 1/4 of the asking price on the auctions.

Like I said before, we usually sell about everything in the house. I would rather sell everything for cheap, than have a house full of overpriced stuff left over!

I can tell you that by conversations with dealers and resellers at our sales...that they tend to want to at least double their money. They will take a chance on some things, and will sometimes come back and tell me they did good on something, or only broke even.....


Some other advice I would give you is, be thorough. I saw a thread on here where people said if they see ebay printouts at a sale they turn around and leave! Really?! What if the ebay printout said something just like it sold for $400, and they were asking $200, and it would be half price the second day, like all the sales around here? We put out printouts sometimes to show what something is, or how valuable some, otherwise unremarkable looking, item might be, but we don't ever ask the ebay price for anything...and we are sure smart enough to know the difference between "asking" price and "selling" price. Be willing to go the extra mile and take your time. Some sellers come busting into the house, grab a few items, then run off to the next one to try to stay ahead of the other dealers. Then the other sellers come in and get all the stuff the other one overlooked!

As far as having regrets that we sold something too cheap...it happens! You just have to get over it! It bothers my mom way more than me! One guy says he got over $35k for an oil painting that he paid $65 for from us...but who knows? Another story floating around is that someone bought a painting from one of the other sales, and it had like $2,500 hidden in the back..... The way I look at it is.....if people don't make a good score every now and then, there is no reason to come to the sales unless you are looking for used furniture or something...

 

[clovis97]

Jon,

Thank you again for your posts. Every last one of them rings 100% true.

You are exactly right about being thorough. I really cannot believe the stuff that some dealers overlook, not only at the opening, but on the second day.

This might be a dumb example, but my wife and I hit a sale and were second in line. Upstairs, I saw some vintage vanity license plates from the 70's. I already had purchased more than two truck loads (no joke), so I passed on the plates. I went back the second day, and bought the plates for .50 each. I listed them on ebay for $25 each, and they all sold within a few days. It amazes me that every dealer and ebayer in the county overlooked that $125 profit.

I also picked up a pretty rare wood plane for $10, even though the sale had been open for 3 hours. I sold that for $225.

I know those are two silly examples, but it does pay to look hard.

 

[clovis97]

John,

I'd also like to know how you price furniture.

Let's say you have a 8-10 year old couch in super condition, with no issues whatsoever. Let's say it has been in a formal living room, and has seen minimal wear.

A new couch in a comparable model would cost $900 new. Of course, a new couch could be bought in the newest colors and styles, while this one might be a little dated.

How do you price it?

 

[Jon Phillips]

Something like that is going to be very specific to the area you are selling in. We hold most of our sales in a retirement community, and furniture runs the spectrum from early 70's green/brown/yellow stuff, all the way to brand new, designer, and upper level Lay-Z-Boy, etc.

Some older people don't mind the older style furniture, so we might be able to get more for a dated sofa in this area, than we could somewhere else.

We sold an ugly, but perfect, sleeper sofa from the 70's for about $100 last week, and we have a set this weekend that includes a (brand new) sofa, ottoman, and chair-and-a-half loveseat that retails for over $2,500 on sale. We put around $1,200 or so on the three pieces, and will probably get it because of the neighborhood it is in.

An older, but nice sofa that is $900 new, we would probably put $300 on but not be surprised if it went for 1/2 price the second day.

We had a two-piece Victorian style (but not antique) sofa last week that we put $300 on...we ended up selling it to one of our favorite customers for $250, but we could have easily got the $300.......