My mother passed away in November 2006. From the 1970's through the 1990's, she was an avid collector of just about EVERYTHING. We lived in a 2500 sq. ft. Victorian house with full cellar and attic just PACKED with her auction, rummage and garage sale purchases. Dad's been gone since 1983. Now I have to try and sell off much of the contents since that house is much too big for me now and I want to sell it. However, I find that I've hit the garage sale market at a very bad time. I'm alone, so it's a lot of work for me to set up and knock down a sale with so much to deal with (see photo below of one I had last year). This past weekend, I sold 4 items for a grand total of $15. A few weeks ago, my aunt had a sale, so I though a change of venue would help. Only ten people stopped all day and I didn't sell a thing at her house. Even she remarked at the downturn in garage sale attendees. She lives in a busy and affluent area about 10 miles from me and she claims that she usually has hundreds of cars stopping. I wanted to know if other people that have garage sales are experiencing this also, or is it just in my locale (upstate New York)? What IS selling right now? I know it isn't sets of dinnerware, Depression glass, framed pictures or books. What's going on the the garage sale market, in general?
This post was last modified: 06-10-2009 08:33 PM by debodun.
Very sorry to hear about your Moms passing. It sounds to me like you should market this as an Estate Sale. Marketing it as an estate sale instead of a garage sale is going to change peoples mindsets about it and put your sale among the first ones they choose to go to. The problem is that this time of year, there are so many "garage" sales right now that they are diluting the market of buyers for you, especially true if you live a little far from town. Estate sales typically attract an audience that is more focused on collecting and serious buyers rather than casual deal seekers, although you will find both at your sale.
Of course, advertising it on weekendtreasure.com, your local newspaper as well as Craigslist is going to be essential to getting people to your sale. You may also seriously consider hiring a professional estate liquidator. Yes, they will charge you on average about a 30% commission, but they take care of EVERYTHING, including getting people to your sale, organizing and tagging items, pricing research (many are licensed appraisers), cleaning up after the sale and donating any items that you don't want and can't sell to charity. And it is their own best interest to get maximum dollar amount for your items.
Mike
Mike Judkins, Chief Treasure Hunter & Founding Member
This post was last modified: 06-09-2009 04:27 AM by weekendtreasure.
Thank you for your advice, Mike. I've already gone just about every route I could think of. I first started with an auctioneer that took probably the best pieces of furniture and either sold them at a fraction of their value or didn't sell them at all. He let an 8 foot solid oak church bench go for $20. Both the 8 foot pine plank dining room table with 8 ladderback chairs and the oak china cabinet went for a mere $35 each. Other estate liquidators have said that their fee would cost me more than I could ever realize from an estate sale. Many gripe that the "recession" has hit the antique business very hard. One local antique dealer told me that because of this he can only afford to deal in the very finest high-end antiques. Who has that? I've taken so much to the Salvation Army and Goodwill, that they have requested that I do not bring any more (believe it or not). Craig's List hasn't helped much - I more often than not end up waiting for people that say they are coming to buy and never show up. I won't deal on Ebay because #1) a credit card is needed to establish an account and #2) I don't want the hassle of packing and shipping. My only other option is to throw it away or try to sell at my own tag sales. I think some of the items I still have are too good to toss, but at the same, I'm wearing myself out trying to hold a few sales every few weeks. I have a few Web sites showing some of what I;m dealing with. The first is for the things I am currently attempting to sell. Maybe you could look and see if I might be asking too much, or whether I'm in a good price range: http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/forsale0/
Wow, you have taken the time to take photos and document and price a LOT of items, which is more than I can say for most people.
I am surprised to hear that you had contacted an estate liquidator who sounded reluctant to take on your estate since there appears to be quite a lot of items, some of which are very fine quality. I am no appraiser, but at least some of those items should be worth good money. Others such as the furniture look like they are in need of serious repair, and other stuff may be best off in the dollar bin.
There are two routes you can take. Route 1 is to do some serious price research on each of your items and if you are having trouble in the past selling those same items lower the prices a little bit, then, rather than holding a sale by yourself, try to arrange it so that you are part of a larger sale. Perhaps you can find a local community sale such as at a church or annual garage sale event at a community center, or try to arrange for setting up at your local flea market or talk a friend into organizing a block sale where you can bring your stuff. This is going to take a lot of time and effort.
Route 2 is to look for a professional appraiser/estate liquidator. If I were in your shoes this is probably what I would do since we are dealing with a lot of items here and Im not an appraiser so wouldnt know what to price things at. I would contact as many liquidators as I could and get them to hold an estate sale or at least have them evaluate the inventory of the house and get the things they feel would sell to a local auction house (there are lots of these).
Looking in your area I found the following estate liqudation companies and auction houses:
Just had one more thought. A guy that's posted here before runs a website called Bonanzle (http://www.bonanzle.com) that is an ebay alternative and seems to be focused on large collections of antiques like this. I know you said you didn't want the hassle of shipping items, but just wanted to throw that out there anyway.
Mike Judkins, Chief Treasure Hunter & Founding Member
Thank you again for taking the time to look at my "treasures" and responding. I have given some thing away to church bazaars and white elephant sales. There are two names on your list of estate dealers that sound familiar - J&K Antiques & Estate sales in Schenectady and the Peddlers Treasure Chest. If I remember correctly, J&K never returned my phone messages, so after a while I gave up. I believe the Peddlar's Wagon was one that quoted be an exhorbitant commission fee and only wanted very fine high-end items (e.g. Sotheby's quality) which sort of belied their business name.
I admit that much of the upholstered furniture has suffered due to my mother owning numerous cats (up to 11 at one time) who just love to pick the stuffing out of the sofas and chairs. I was hoping to sell to someone that could do the work themselves. I know how expensive upholstery work is.
I was just debating whether to try and have another sale this Saturday.
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