We discovered the fun of going to estate sales a couple of years ago, and have been to at least one nearly every week since.
We get bargains, certainly, and **rjk **has a weakness for old cookbooks, to the point that we could open a used cook-book store if we wanted to. I look for anything that catches my fancy.
What I really like is that I get to see the insides of the houses & how the people lived, from some of the poorest to some of the wealthiest neighborhoods around here. It’s like househunting as a hobby, without the ethical problems.
Does anyone else here go to estate sales? Stories? Favorite sights?
I enjoy estate sales too. Because I work it’s hard for me to get to the good ones before the hordes strip them clean. Occasionally I’ve gone in late to work so I could hit a sale near home. I do love seeing the insides of people’s homes, especially historic mansions. I look for ethnographic items (drums, masks, carvings, etc.) as well as vintage household stuff (nice blankets, cast iron cookware, wooden bowls, etc.).
We love hitting up the estate sales around us (north burbs of Chicago). Lots of money in the area and lots of amazing treasures to be had for fairly cheap. We even started a little Etsy shop to re-sell some of the cool vintage items we find but don’t have room for.
I used to garage/tag/yard/estate sale, mostly for books but I kept my eye on tools, too. Haven’t gotten back into the habit since unloading 30+ years of my own stuff to move cross country…
I love estate sales–and yes, it’s because not only can I find some great bargains, but because I’m nosey as hell and love to see the inside of other people’s houses. (I used to clean houses for awhile for pretty much the very same reason.)
Last week, I found a beautiful slab of marble. It’s about three feet by two feet and I paid $3 for it. Yes, $3. I have yet to decide what I’m going to do with it, but couldn’t pass it up for $3.
I think I mentioned this in an earlier thread, but my parents dragged us to estate sales/tag sales and the like. My only experience with auctions was from watching Abbott & Costello comedies, from which I learned that I might accidentally buy something if I did something like scratch my nose. So I literally sat on my hands.
My wife and I never miss an estate sale. We also go mainly to check out the houses, but we have made some pretty good scores over the years. A couple of years ago, a ring caught my wife’s eye. The seller insisted that it was a very nice costume piece. I looked at it pretty close and paid the guy $425.00. I paid for a professional appraisal, and the jeweler valued it at $5000.00
I’ve never visited an estate sale, but through some very odd bounces of the ball, I have a part-time job as the photographer for an estate sale company. I’m a decent enough photographer, but the main appeal to the estate sale company is that I am a very fast photographer. I can run around and get decent shots of 50 items in an hour.
You can get some amazing deals, because, as the person I work for explains it, the idea is to empty the house, not produce the highest price. If you have gallery quality art, or a whole bunch of designer furniture, you really should use an auction company - but they are not going to get rid of all your crap the way an estate sale will.
Last week, I got a nearly new BluRay player for $15.
I get nearly all my kid’s clothing from church yard sales, estate sales and moving sales. I found two in a very fancy neighborhood that have nearly have all new stuff twice a year. Plus books and cheap shoes and toys at equally low prices. Estate sales can be nice for items like good pictures and china. I tend to hit them less often because I frequently find homeowners tend to have a ridiculously overinflated sense of their own items. I really don’t want to buy your broken office chair for fifty bucks or your mother’s old clothing Dress Barn items for twenty bucks each.
I go to auctions. Here in Tennessee, auctions are commonly used to settle estates, and they sell everything down to box lots containing empty margarine tubs and half-empty bottles of shampoo. My best purchase was when I when to an auction interested in an old antique trunk on the flyer, and ending up buying a 150 year old farmhouse and 14 acres! Here’s a picture of the house as I bought it, and here’s a pic after I painted it last year. This year my brother in law and I will be putting on a new metal roof.
It works the opposite way around here. Don’t take your regular, household stuff to an auction unless you want it given away. Estate sales price things at retail or above and it’s hard to get good deals. Once in while you might find something they under priced because they don’t know what it is. I know most of the estate sale companies in the area and I choose my sales by who knows the least about what I’m after.
I buy antique glass and ceramics to sell at auction. I’m just now getting back to it after being sick for most of this year. I started selling at my usual auction again last Friday night. Now that I’m feeling a little better I want to expand. There are several auction houses near me and I’m going to start selling at one or two more. I have a couple of people that I sell to directly and I plan to start quietly advertising my services. I already have an Etsy page for my crafts so another one will be easy. This means going to even more sales. At my best I was hitting around thirty yard/estate sales on a Saturday. I go to thrift stores during the week as well as any early estate sales. I really enjoy it and I’ve made a lot of friends doing it.
I’m usually on the hunt for embroidered items, milk glass and costume jewelry. You really do have to get there on the first day to score the good stuff though.
I love estate sales. Almost all of my furniture, home furnishings, and kitchen items are from estate sales. I especially love the ones where there are good vintage items like metal brooches and other costume jewelry, vintage clothing, hats. I can almost always find things to feed my crafting hobbies. Fabric and sewing notions are next to nothing. I can make a pencil skirt for about .50 with my estate sale goodies.
OMG I just love that house and the horsies. Can I come visit? I’ll bring a signed copy of my book and a really charming ten year old who wants to be a vet.
Probably. I see most postings online. We just go sometimes because we’re passing through and it is temping. I also like looking in people’s houses. I saw the most beautiful house a few weeks ago with skylights and wonderful plantings and glorious built-ins. It was worth the time just to walk through the place.
We had to hire an estate sale person to take care of my mother’s estate after her passing. Many of the things that were part of the estate showed up 2 weeks later in the lady’s personal little resale shop, yet not one receipt showed that those items had been sold. She claimed they weren’t ours, but, my wife had taken pictures of everything prior to the estate sale setup. She tried lying her way out of that even after we showed her the proof.
I would highly recommend that any dealing with an estate sales person is subject to the highest degree of scrutiny. And, keep both eyes on that person, and your hand on your wallet.
At my best I was hitting around thirty yard/estate sales on a Saturday. I go to thrift stores during the week as well as any early estate sales. I really enjoy it and I’ve made a lot of friends doing it.
