Oh Great...Even the Estate Sale People Don't Want Our Stuff :(

15 years ago

DH & I have been wanting to put our house for sale for a few months now, even with the bad market. It's just too much for to maintain right now. After caregiving for both my parents in this home for 6 years, it's just time to move on. Too much house for only 2 people & Too many memories.

In 2002, we had very nice in-law quarters added onto our existing home. My mom had just been dx'd with Alzheimers & things were getting hard for my Dad to handle it all (the house upkeep, Dr. appts., my Mom, etc. etc.) alone. So we convinced them to move here from the Chgo area.

At that time, I TRIED to convince them to get rid of as much stuff as possible. They paired down some, but I still had 185 boxes of "stuff" that they had accumulated over 50 years. The garage & sheds also got packed up.

Of course, it all got moved into our basement. They were of the Depression Era, so nothing could ever be thrown out.

And, my Dad loved to "putter" with all his stuff--until he was dx'd with Multiple Myeloma. He passed in 2005 & my Mom just passed December 2007.

Anyway, we had a couple who do Estate Sales come in to look at the boxes, clothes, a millon tools, gardening stuff & furniture etc. etc. Well, we have enough stuff, just not enough "antique or collector-worthy" stuff. They didn't feel it would be worth their time to get it set up without a better pay-off for them. I can respect that since that's what they do for a living.

Then I asked her about using a buy-out, clean-out service & she told me that they really undercut you & will never pay you enough for what it's worth. So, the stuff is not nice enough for an estate sale, but too good for a buy-out clean-out guy??? HUH?

And when I asked her opinion about what to do about old jewelry--like is it better to sell it off for scrap gold, or try to sell it intact she suddenly became interested again. She said if it was good quality vintage, she could put it in with one of her future sales. Now, since I'm not an appraiser, how would I know that? I just know it's probably from the 1940's & most likely costume jewelry.

I just want to get out from under all this clutter! I didn't care about making big bucks as I just wanted it all to go away, but it would have been nice to help pay some bills & additional repairs. We were also going to add quite a bit of our own stuff--like Noritake china, crystal, our leather furniture to help us pair down. And, some of the stuff really would be nice for someone else to use. I'd just hate to try & make a thousand trips to GoodWill. A garage sale is completely out of the question.

Does anyone else have any suggestions or experience with this kind of situation? Would an auction be an option? or try another Estate Sale company or just go with the buy-out guy & hope for the best? Or just get a huge dumpster & chuck it all?

I swear to God, that I will not do this to my son. I will NEVER put him through something like this. The caregiving was easy compared to this.

Thanks for letting me vent a little and ANY suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Comments (16)

minnie_tx
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
You could go thru with a roll of masking tape and a marker and just price stuff and sell it yourself. Marking the stuff gets easier after a while as long as you have someone help man the tables of stuff you should be able to do ok. give it a try and then what doesn't sell then donate it.

I'd hold off the litle stuff like jewelry until later and not let someone bamboozle you into letting it go cheap. a jeweler might be able to ive you an idea. DS has had a jeweler take out stones so he could sell as scrapgold on ebay.
kris_zone6
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Before you do anything try another Estate Sale company. Then if they don't want to do it, explore other options. You could offer all the stuff to a group that does garage sales for fundraising. I'll bet someone will help you out. Good luck.
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Frankie, as a former antique dealer who has done her share of sales, your timing on this coincides well with the basement we are cleaning out to have our ''Sale'' with! Your observations are right on. You know those things that were saved in boxes were probably family gifts the owner felt they couldn't give away. Broken or dirty stuff that's been neglected is just sad. Knowing how much work there is to selling off old stuff always makes me want to make it easier on myself. I helped my parents with their estate sale. Mom thought it was too overwhelming and she never dealt with the contents of her house until that point in time. She was a depression kid, and her stuff represented her life to her. Most of it wasn't particularly valuable, yet she had far more difficulty letting it go than she should have. She didn't have any practice at culling, and though she knew most of that old stuff wasn't worth much, it was physically painful for her to let it go. When we cleaned out our garage, to have a staging area for the basement stuff to sell, my DH wanted to save two windows that ''we might need if'' something happened to the others. I put my foot down. I'm allowing him to keep the bicycle he refuses to get rid of that has been hanging (out of the way) in the garage that he hasn't ridden since we've lived here. (It's a symbol of his youth, long before we met. Since we'll have been married 27 years soon, it's old and not particularly valuable...Only in his mind!) I figure it resides there as my bargaining chip, which I've used many, many times as a point of reference. Since it isn't taking space away from anything else, it's useful to me for that! I have an assortment of tablecloths too; you can bet I'm culling them for my sale. I have parts to pieces I've been looking for since we moved here 11 years ago. I hope to find them in the basement when we clean it out. If I don't, they're GOING. I'm trying to have a good attitude about this, knowing I'll find some treasures that were lost and found. It's going to be great to reclaim the basement real estate for a re-purpose, other than storage. The only problem I can see with this is that it may involve another remodel, but I'm not going there for a good, long while! In the meantime, there will be room to figure it out. I've had so much stuff come and go in my life I don't attach a lot of importance to it anymore. If it's useful or you love it, sure. Most doesn't fit in that category. Otherwise, you just have to deal with it at some point. When it's all said and done, it's only stuff. It's so refreshing to lighten the load!
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FlamingO in AR
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I would call around to a few places that might be interested in buying the bulk lot. You may not get a lot, but something is better than nothing. I would hang on to the really good stuff and have a sale somewhere, somehow, or sell it on Ebay or get a booth at an antiques mall or something, though.

When I cleaned out MIL's house, I got the biggest dumpster I could, and filled it. We donated tons to food kitchens and shelters. I sold a lot of stuff (cookware, furniture, etc) just out of the house to neighbors and their friends and then we had "the mother of all yard sales" to get rid of what ever good stuff we had left. Pulled in over $2K in one day on that deal. I ebayed the china.

Also, Goodwill MIGHT come and get your furniture and other nice things, you could ask. Good luck. I vowed to pare down too, after that fiasco.
lindyluwho
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I feel your pain. When my Dad died 5 1/2 years ago we got rid of soooo much stuff. Fortunately my DH enjoyed taking lot of it to the flea market. Then my Mom got rid of some of her stuff but not nearly enough. She has not lived in her house for 2 years and will never be able to go back but she wouldn't let me do anything with it. Now she has decided we can rent it to my best friend. We spent 8 hours there today and only packed up one room! Actually the room had stuff from other rooms from when we had some painting done 2 years ago. I just stuck a bunch of stuff in 2 bedrooms and never did anything about the mess. The other bedroom is worse than this one. We threw out lots of stuff and DH will take some the flea market. I will list the furniture on either a local online forum or Craigs list.

Good luck with getting rid of the "treasures".

Linda
okwriter
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Call an auction company. I'll bet they will do it.
lydia1959
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
You could take the nicer stuff to a consignment shop, the rest you could put into boxes marked $1.00 or $2.00 per box - the easy way to have a garage sale and the stuff will be GONE! I went to an estate sale like that once - got some great bargins and the lady had her lawn cleared of all of it within a couple hours.
donna37
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Not sure where you live here in Mo., but auctions go over big it seems. Try an auction company. Would save the jewelry and have a jeweler look at it and appraise it. Costume jewelry sells very well. You may have better stuff than you realize.

Usually people with flea market booths will buy lots of stuff. If it's in boxes let them just give you a bid on a pile. When I first started my thrift shop I would buy yardsale leftovers to stock my shop. If I had a place to store it and lived close enough I would buy it and it would be like Christmas for me. lol
shequit
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I am not a regular poster, Kat, but this struck home with me. If you think you have any "special" stuff, Google it and see what you come up with.
My concern for you is that, saying "depression", there may be some really valuable things. I am not an expert but look for labels, inscriptions, "made in" (expecially early China - best will not have the word, but some symbols), etc.
Wish I could help more. I have spent some time with things from my GiGi (great grand) and mother's family and I am happy to keep these treasures.
At least get a second opine. Actually if you know a realtor who is trustworthy, he/she could recommend someone. They have to do this regularly for clients.
jannie
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I watch the show "Cash in the Attic" which finds old unique items in people's homes and sells them at auction. One woman had an old (early 1900's ) jewelry box filled with her Grandmother's jewelry, some costume pieces, some real gold and silver. Guess what? She put the whole thing on auction and only got $100 for the box and jewelry. what a ripoff!
marilyn_c
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Vintage jewelry must be really big right now. The last two antique shows I went to, they had more booths for that than anything. Wasn't cheap either.

I know someone who had the same problem...and talked to a couple of auction houses and they both wanted $3500 up front for advertising, and I think it was 30% of what the items brought.

I'd have a couple of big yard sales. Place ads and put up good signs and mark things very reasonable. Don't put antique store prices on things and sell it. After you've had a couple of sales, donate the rest or give it away.
okwriter
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
It sounds like an overwhelming situation and you just want it GONE, and I can't blame you. I will again suggest calling an auction company.
donna37
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
See if you can find an auctioneer close to you that might do the job.

Here is a link that might be useful: missouri auctioneer listing
dilly_dally
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
"I just know it's probably from the 1940's & most likely costume jewelry."

You may be able to get big bucks for the stuff. Bakelite and Lucite vintage jewelry is quite collectible. Certain styles of the era are popular even it it is not true Bakelite. Google some of the places that sell it online and contact them.

I would try to get another estate sale company in to go through things and see if there are any items worth it to be put up for auction. Do not rely on just that one estate sale company to give you advice.

Way back when..........when my grandfather died, my mother did a bunch of rummage sales. It barely put a dent in the amount of stuff my grandfather had saved like a packrat. (Depression Era guy.) Then, my mom had someone come in to look at the stuff. This auction woman pawed through the stuff and found some valuable stuff that had gone unrecognized. For instance, my grandfather had a shoebox full of pens he had saved. My mom had put 50 cents on it for the rummage sales. No one bought it. The auction woman found a pen in there called *Big Red* from the late '20s and it sold at auction for a LOT of money. (This was before they reissued the reproductions) A little plastic box turned out to be an Art Deco celluloid cigarette holder. $$$$. A can opener was vintage Harley Davidson issue. It was sent to a store out East on consignment and fetched a pretty penny. I could go on and on. My point being that you could have treasure trove of collectibles. If you do not have the time or the knowledge of collectibles, have someone come in to look over the stuff again. There are places who will list things on eBay for you for a percentage of what it sells for.

One persons junk is another man's treasure. My one cousin is always on the lookout at sale for old rusty, vintage tools she uses for decoration. She just cringes when at estate sales she is told "Oh yeah, we had a lot of old tools. They were all rusty and beat up, so we threw them out before the sale."

Some things are only valuable to certain individuals. When my uncle died, there was an old, floor model radio in nice wood cabinet. My brother removed the guts from it and was going to use the nice Art Decor cabinet. Another cousin (who is into vintage radios) went ballistic finding this out, as it turns out the vacuum tubes that were tossed out and hauled away in the dumpster, were valuable to collectors who use them to recondition old radios, and worth waaaaay more that that crappy cabinet was.

BTW, if there is a lot of stuff Goodwill and similar organizations will come to your house to pick everything up. They will give you a receipt for taxes.
katclaws_mo
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the replys, suggestions, advice & mostly support! Thanks so much!

The reason I don't think a yard/garage sale won't work is because I babysit my two sweet granddaughters 3-4 days a week from 7:30am to 6:30pm sometimes later. One is 3 & the other is only 18 mos. I swore I would never want to take care of another living thing after my Mom & Dad, but my DS's company went under & now DDIL had to start working full-time. I just couldn't bear to see the little ones put into daycare, and right now daycare costs would be too high for them to cover, so I've become a GrannyNanny--LOL

Also, we are just a tad bit out of the way. Home lots here are approx. 3 acres so garage/subdivision sales have never gone over very big at all. No one wants to drive from one house to the next.

I might have to put the furniture pieces in our local newspaper. The only drawback to that is that I don't like to be alone when people come to look at stuff. My DH will be doing alot of traveling for his job Mon. thru Fri. especially Sept. thru end of year, so anything would have to be evenings or weekends when he is home. I have 3 indoor sweet kitty furbabies, but they are not much at protection except from mice. And, my one stray feral kitty just likes to attack my feet when I feed him--LOL Talk about biting the hand that feeds you--the little ingrate. ;)

And, Sadly, with so many people having to go thru foreclosures & selling their homes etc. moving sales are getting to be fairly common too.

Anyway, thanks again for the responses & all the shoulders to cry on. I will consider my options & look at the links too.
Blessings ~~ katclaws
marilyn_c
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I go to a lot of yard sales and I do not like to go to ones in subdivisions. For one thing, the newer houses have less stuff that I am interested in. However, I don't blame you for not wanting to have a yard sale. I won't have them either because I live out in the country and I don't want strangers coming to my house, especially since I am alone so much.

I'd call around and try to find someone to buy the whole lot of it.

If you do an auction, take it to a weekly auction type place, don't have one specifically for your stuff, or they will charge you a high price for advertising.
molly109
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Oh man - do I get that. We had to clean out my
Mom & Dad's place when they passed. I am guessing
they still had just about everything that they had ever
had.

I promised right then and there - I wasn't leaving that
kind of a mess for anyone. I have pared right down
to bare minimum and I have the most empty basement I
have ever had. Don't miss a single thing either.

Oh Great...Even the Estate Sale People Don't Want Our Stuff :(

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Oh Great...Even the Estate Sale People Don't Want Our Stuff :(

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