Whether you have been inspired by
vintage blogs and want to check out the estate sales on your own or are a
veteran estate sale shopper, here are some tips and FAQS from Trent Services.
First off, what is an estate sale?
Does it always mean someone has died?
You should think of an estate sale
as the sale of a house’s contents. It could
not be called a house sale or a household sale because either of those terms
conveys you either need a realtor or a blender (though the house itself may be
for sale, as may a blender). The owner
of the house and its contents may have passed away or they may just be retiring
and downsizing. Trent Services conducts
estate sales with executors and owners.
A professional sale should have
purged all personal items and information from the sale, and heir-approved
items have been cleaned and priced, so it should feel more like a showroom than
a home. It is normal to reflect on the collection or the human propensity to
collect, but ruminating too much upon death can detract from the shopping
experience.
I just need household basics; are estate sales just for fancy,
expensive things?
Absolutely not, as discussed above,
an estate sale can include the entire contents of a house – from gently used
(or unused) appliances to mattresses to the antique and collectible. Whether the owner has passed away or is
downsizing, Trent Services has sold gently used mattress sets for less than
$100. Our niche does not include
mattresses, so this is done as a service to the owner who needs them out of the
house Household basics can be very reasonably priced at estate sales, and you may find some (appliances, mugs, plates, even cleaning products) new in the box or barely used.
How do I find estate sales near me?
When I was in elementary school (post-internet, but pre-Mapquest), Saturdays began early with the classifieds, maps, and notes from grocery store
bulletin board ads earlier that week.
These days, one of the best sources is estatesales.net. Companies pay to post ads, so they have an
incentive to make it effective, but it is free for customers to find
sales. There is a limit to the number of
photos the company can post so while you will never be able to see everything
in advance, you should get a feel for the sale’s vibe (whether it is MCM,
antique, colorful, packed or sparse).
Craigslist has expanded to even more cities and towns, so you can also
find sales on craigslist.org (locate your nearest city/town). Craigslist has no standards or hoops to jump
through, so you will find estate sale ads of varying quality interspersed among
yard sales and household item sales in the “garage sales” category (under “for
sale”). You can also look in your local
paper’s classifieds section. There are
many “classic” estate sale buyers who still use only this source. As the weekend approaches, and certainly on
Saturday and Sunday, you may also notice signs posted in your neighborhood.
Tip: Cast a wide net when you are looking for
sales. While Trent Services blankets the
surrounding area (online and brick and mortar) with comprehensive ads, there
are other professionals who are content to use only one of the above
advertising options. This saves them
time and money, but it is intended to limit the crowd their sale gets. Coupling this with a refusal to negotiate and
they find themselves with the majority of a house’s contents either on
consignment or as a buyout package at the conclusion of the sale.
The estate sale company has a lot of rules, what should I expect?
There are no industry standards
when it comes to estate sales, though there are some common rules. These rules are not meant to intimidate the
well-intentioned customer, they have typically evolved from encounters with the
over-eager and moderately disturbing customers.
For instance, a company may have a
start time as well as an earlier time at which you may arrive at the front door
and obtain a number. This is because
most local dealers are in competition with each other at these sales and want
to get in and out before others. When I
was in middle school helping set up the packing supplies for purchases inside a
house the morning a sale was set to start, I scared the rest of the Trent
Service staff by screaming. I had looked
up from the sales table towards the back of the house and met the eyes of a
scruffy man who was standing in a bush with his face against the window. He wanted a sneak peak of the house to know
where to race first. I wanted to hide
under the table out of sight until the sale officially started.
Tip (and good method to avoid arrest): Do not go creeping around a house. If you notice that estatesales.net often
doesn’t post the address until shortly before the sale, that is to prevent
calls to the police for trespassing, or worse, attempted burglary.
Some estate sale shoppers rock a
huge empty tote at the start of every sale.
Some estate sales post signs prohibiting large bags and totes. I occasionally get asked if I need to hold
onto a customer’s purse (whether its small or an oversized Longchamp). Do not feel pressured to leave your purse
with a company. If they are firm about
all purses, you can lock your purse in your trunk and just bring your
wallet. If you want to be green and use
reusable bags, do not fill the bags during the sale without first asking the
permission of the person running the sale.
People do shoplift from estate sales.
No one ever believes me when I tell them this, but apparently there are
no areas safe from kleptomaniacs. If you
find yourself in love with more things than you can carry, ask to start a pile
by the professional. You might even
protect your pile from other customers’ prying eyes by then concealing it in
your bag on the floor.
Do I have to be there when the sale starts?
No, as I have previously alluded
to, the beginning of most well-advertised sales in densely populated areas
during estate sale season resembles a stampede.
Dealers and “professional estate sale shoppers” rush the door and
disperse quickly. This is also why some
estate sale companies have a rule about how many people can be allowed in at a
time. If only 20 people are allowed in,
the 21st person often becomes critical of how much space there seems
to be and how many people are upstairs vs. downstairs. Those first people in are often in a rush to
be the first in at a subsequent sale, so they will not be able to see
everything (even though they may think otherwise). If you are looking for a household basic or
are just feeling crafty and do not know what will strike your fancy, the rushed
atmosphere of the start of a sale is not worth it.
Fact: Unless a sale priced every
item in the house (from votive candleholders to victorian couches) at $1, or
was to sparse to even justify the term “estate sale,” it will not sell out in
an hour, or a day.
Tip: Often there are further
discounts and/or more room for negotiation on subsequent days, so if you hope
to begin your estate sale shopping experience in a low-pressure,
bargain-hunting atmosphere, you may prefer the second or third day.
Happy hunting this weekend!
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