We go to estate sales often. Mostly we are interested in the houses. There are amazing bargains to be had but one must know what they are looking for and what it is worth. I have change out all of my cookware over the last couple of years and now have All Clad. I have a nice selection of high end kitchen knives.
I scored really big once. There was a ring available. They wanted $425.00 for it. The guy who was running the sale thought it was a really good costume piece and by the quality I agreed that even if it was costume, it was exquisite. In the back of my mind I was almost sure that the stones were real. I paid the guy and then we took it to be appraised.
It turned out that it was a 5/8th carat miner’s cut diamond surrounded by twelve small, but very nice, Burmese rubies. The appraiser said the price could actually be higher if I would let him remove and weigh the stones. That would be vandalism. I was happy enough to find that the ring I had paid $450.00 for was worth more than $5,000.00.
Conversely, there WAS an estate sale company in my city (I haven’t seen evidence of them for a couple years now) that charged even higher prices than one would find in an antique store, assuming one would want those things in the first place. Collectable plates from Bradford Mint for $25 each, that kind of thing.
It didn’t take me very long to figure out immediately if it was “them”, and leave ASAP. Yet another reason I didn’t like them was because one of the women would grab your arm and try to take you on a guided tour; whenever people do that, I tell them that I can decide for myself what I want to buy, and please let go of me or I will leave.
I went to an estate sale in the rich part of town that was the home of an Asian fine goods importer, and she only dealt with high-end stuff. Her house (essentially a mansion) was incredible. There was a whole bathroom that was designed to look like a real forest with a waterfall and stones embedded everywhere, and real wood sculpted to look like trees for the appliances. Cabinets full of jade carvings and statues were everywhere. Her bedroom had one of those wooden-style Chinese beds with tons of carving that must have been worth thousands. I couldn’t afford anything in the sale, but it was fun to look and they let you wander everywhere.
Until I stumbled into a room that looked totally different from all the rest, with just a tv and recliner, and the lady of the house was in there. She jumped over to me and grabbed my arm and started saying I had to help her because everyone was stealing all of her possessions and she didn’t know why. She was so upset. I realized she had dementia and her family (for some reason???) kept her in the house while the sale was going on. I’ve never had such an intense shift of mood and it ended up being a real bummer. I don’t know what her family was thinking.
We went to a sale at the house of one of the very first Mary Kay sales women. Four floors, although each floor was a bit smaller than the one below numerous. Grand staircase. Numerous bedrooms, including a couple of themed bedrooms like an animal print bedroom.
All the ticky tacky that money could buy.
We go garage sailing all the time. Estate sales are, of course, or favorites. (All to often, idiots mislabel ordinary moving or yard sales as “estate sales” but that’s neither here nor there.)
The coolest thing we’ve gotten is a three-song, 50-note Sankyo Orpheus music box. We learned later they retail at over $800 for the mechanism alone. While we didn’t get to pick the songs, that’s a small tradeoff when we paid $7 for it.
I went to a neighborhood antique store in Portland that was having an estate sale. The old guy that owned the place had died and the heirs didn’t want to have to deal with all the stuff in the place, much of which wasn’t worth much. I scored at 1940s-50s vintage Stanley 14" jack plane for $15. I also grabbed a display box full of arrowheads that I ended up giving to my grandson. No idea of the value of them, but likely not much.
You must know your stones, I’d definitely balk at the price and walk away.
Going through my moms old jewelry was fun, I don’t remembered her wearing any of it and some was my Nan’s. It was mixed up in an old box with old pins and buttons. The daughters and granddaughters all went through taking what they wanted. I got the leftovers. Fine I’ll take the diamond and sapphire pinky ring and the blue topaz earrings y’all thought were junk.
That’s exactly what the people who worked at the library I volunteer at kept telling a man who wanted them to turn the place upside down to find a rare (but not particularly valuable) book he had accidentally donated.
In the meantime, it ended up in the warehouse of our auctioneer, 100+ miles away, and was sold there. No, he hadn’t bid on it.
This weekend, there was an estate sale not far from me, and it was in a cul-de-sac that had maybe 5 parking spaces, and the nearest area where one could park that wasn’t in someone’s private drive was probably 3 blocks away. I turned around and went somewhere else.
Went to one sale yesterday. The cashier, who was set up in the garage, warned everyone who approached that the house had been shut up for three years and that it did not smell like a rose garden. She advised anyone with a mold allergy to stay away. She recommended masks for anyone venturing in.
I went in to find a foul and filthy interior that had obviously been a hoarder’s domicile. There were, I’m guessing, at least 300 collector plates and thousands of individual figurines, and a whole lotta other crap. They were arranged by the workers on shelving units but they retained a good amount of the dust they had collected over the years. I did not stay long.
Today, I hit five different sales, only one of which I noticed a stench. I bought a needed shovel, a not-so-needed pair of needle-nose pliers, a nice organizer filled with various fasteners, and a book by Ricky Jay (no, not THAT @RickJay). I considered but passed on a Dremel multi tool and a vinyl copy of Herb Alpert’s “Whipped Cream & Other Delights”. I sorta regret not grabbing the Whipped Cream - I know it is semi-sought after and this copy was in good shape.
Worth noting: One of the sales was in a double-wide trailer. I was amazed at how large it was on the inside, including a ridiculous-sized bathroom with a large, round, jetted tub.
My cousin owns a 5 unit apartment building. It has 4 garage spaces that are full of crap of previous tenants. Now I haven’t seen it in ~10 years, but I’m sure it’s just getting fuller. Not cars.
Cousin needs to and wants to sell apartments. But cleaning that out will be a MAJOR hassle. I’m talking roll off dumpster.
I suggested a garage sale. “Anything/Everything you can carry for $10” Something like that. No charge for ‘admission’. I donno.
