Epic Estate Sale - Part I
A friend who runs estate sales called and asked if I wanted a preview of an antique hoarder's house. What a silly question 😂. She's not going to have an actual estate sale because the place is so crammed with breakables and you can barely move in the very narrow spaces. She's making appointments for 3 people at a time, and she's there on Friday and Sunday. The woman who owns the house lives upstairs and sends more items down as space permits. We were in only half of the lower level and there are two more levels packed with antiques, so I'll be going back several times as they uncover more treasures. Here's some pics of the area I was picking on Friday. Stay tuned for Part II and what I bought.
 
 
28 comments
oncoyotemountainart
·8 months agoThe Tomatoes . . . shudder. My mother had questionable taste. She owned that tomato pitcher. It clashed horribly with everything in the house, but then everything in the house clashed. She bought it back in the 80's I think. Not sad to say it broke in the Northridge earthquake. I see things in that estate sale that I know friends still collect.
This whole discussion makes me glad I mostly stick to jewelry. I have no idea how I could store anything larger than a necklace.
And let us not discuss fountain pens . . . ever. I threw those suckers into lots and I can't wait to get their stained, leaking little butts out of my life.
1940fc
·8 months ago.......And let us not discuss fountain pens . . . ever. I threw those suckers into lots and I can't wait to get their stained, leaking little butts out of my life.
🤣🤣🤣
bat197
·8 months agoHilarious, I loved it!
evelyb30
·8 months agoI love fountain pens, as long as they're the modern ones that have cartridges. I"m a southpaw, and got sick of having ink all over my pinkie decades ago. The leaky bladder types I sell to a local antique dealer and let him mess with them.
evry1nositswindy
·8 months agoYeah, text me the address! I'm there!
gauntlettgems
·8 months agoSweet!! Happy hunting
evelyb30
·8 months agoPart of me goes LEMMEATIM', but part wonders what the heck i'd do with it if I had it. Proper antiques here are a tough sell and I gave up selling fragile items on line after the USPS killed one too many. I would hand the invite to a friend of mine who has a brick and mortar; he'd have a field day and I'd cheer him on and help dig out stuff.
dream*peddler
OP8 months ago1940fc
·8 months agoI can remember selling dish sets years back when I could pick them up for a song at thrift stores.
Only had 1 pc ever get broken..a small lunch plate in a complete set & it was smack dab in center of the box..go figure.
Ahhh..the good old days! Just keep finding & selling those purties, dream!
scifidaughter64
·8 months agoI don't mind shipping glass, I ship it all the time, it is just a pain to pack.
What I object to is the people asking for a lower shipping price because the item is "small". No, I can't lower the price for shipping, that means lowering the packing and it will get broken.
1940fc
·8 months agoLOL Good reply!
Lower shipping =less packing =broken item. Which do you prefer?
southernmermaid8
·8 months agoOooooh, aahhhhh 🤤 can’t wait to see your scores!
hotwheelsbum
·8 months agoThis is just a small portion of what my Shop used to look like, what I used to do on ebay.
You would have gone Nuts if you walked in to Source. 😂
I do not miss it. No I do not. 😉
tobaccocardyahoo
·8 months agoI see a lot of items I sold or would have sold back in the day.
Virtually none that I would buy to resell today.
All of the space I have for my own collection is full, so nothing there would be attractive enough to remove something I love and replace it.
If the owner of these items succeeds in clearing enough room to bring down more, I hope your friend who is running this sale is adequately rewarded.
Before the covid epidemic, I could have called many auctioneers to load up a truck and carry such merchandise away. Started getting checks within a week or two. Today, the auctioneers I know who remain in business are running less often, are pickier about what is consigned, and also run their sales on two or more online sites as well as live.
I have nightmares about many of the things I own which are not for sale on Ebay, and are not worth selling on Ebay.
kensgiftshop
·8 months agoSounds like a little shop here in town.
They have so much stuff crammed in there, you can't really tell what they have and you can't move around without bumping into something.
hotwheelsbum
·8 months agoWe had an Antique Mall / Thrift Shop over in Hurst that was the same way. 18,000 Sq Ft Retail Space. Used to be a Grocery Store back in the 70's. Almost 80% of the stuff was ONE Guys stuff, Ray, the owner. He'd been doing it for over 30 years. He had maybe a dozen dealers, friends he made over the years, with small booths selling at his shop, but Majority of it was all his stuff. 500,000, 1 Million maybe items minimum easy. Few aisles you had to walk through sideways. Items were broke daily. It was part of the experience for the Shoppers. Part of doing Business for him. He had sections where the Higher Dollar items would be safely displayed, but a lot of Thrift Store items he didn't care if a dollar or two or five dollar item got broken. I made it through his Shop over the years never breaking anything, but I had been there a couple of times when I'd hear something break, get broken 5 aisles over. 😄
krazzykats
·8 months agoHere are the issues I notice.
The items are gorgeous, but many will likely become long-tail sales, and some might never sell at all.
It’s sad that so many pieces just aren’t in demand anymore.
á“šá˜á—¢
dream*peddler
OP8 months agoI don't pay a lot of attention to keywords like "long tail." All that means is that some items might take a while to sell. That's true with anyone's inventory. Sure, I've had stuff sit for a while and then someone finally swoops in and buys it - or not. I'm not pressured to make sales, and at the age of 72, I have a pretty layback attitude about just about everything 😀.
mscurl
·8 months agoI think a few us here are in your mind set Dream. At least I am. We’re older, retired and sell here and/or elsewhere to make some extra money, and maybe even cull our collections to simplify our lives. The last thing I want to do is be packaging a bunch of items every single day - I’m good with a few a month. I can barely find the time to list a few items a month. Personally, I don’t care if it sells in a week or a year. All that being said, half the fun is the hunt, and estate sales like the one you went to are just so much fun and interesting.
dream*peddler
OP8 months agoThanks, mscurl. I enjoy my little side business and the fun of sourcing it.
scifidaughter64
·8 months agoI would love to go thru that sale. Depending on the price levels, I see a lot of stuff that I might pick up. List it and let it do its own thing has always been my tendency.
hotwheelsbum
·8 months agoNice stuff, Yes. A decade ago I had 3000-4000 Listings of this stuff up at all times. About 2000 Sq Ft of my 12,000 Sq Ft warehouse had shelving dedicated to my ebay sales. Estate Sales were HUGE all over the DFW area. Estate Sale companies were so backed up that they would call Guys like me to come do a Buy Out. I bought out a lot of Estates.
You've only sold 8 items so far this month. You sold 8 items in December. 34 Sales in November, but I highly suspect all 20 of those Sales on November 1st went to one Buyer. I've been out for over 4 years. Liquidated everything after my huge account got hacked. Have to ask, does this stuff even sell anymore? When I see only 16 sales over a 60 day time period for this stuff you're all excited about at THIS Estate Sale, it makes me wonder, did I get out at the right time?
I couldn't see doing this today. I just don't have it in me anymore. Good Find though. I did catch myself digging through those pictures LOOKING. 😄
dream*peddler
OP8 months agoYikes, sorry your account got hacked! That must have been awful 😫.
You and I are coming from 2 different sales perspectives. I'm 72 and sell to supplement my retirement. Your comment on my eBay performance did not include the other venues I sell on, so judging me just based on my ebay sales is lacking in your assessment. To your question, "does this stuff even sell anymore?" - I live midway between New York and Philadelphia and can say that the vintage market is alive and well. With me, I really and truly love the stuff and enjoy selling it as well. I don't aspire to grow a mega business. I'm just happy being surrounded by things I consider beautiful. Selling them to other people to make them happy is my business model.
You mentioned you've been out for 4 years and couldn't see doing this today, but I see you're selling. I'm confused since that seems to be a contradictory statement.
Anyway, I'm grateful and happy that I have something to do that I enjoy doing and am happy for others who feel the same way.
hotwheelsbum
·8 months agoNot contradictory, I just do not have it in me anymore to SCALE UP like I did. When the Account was hacked (That's a whole other story), I kind of looked at it as a blessing. A wake up call. I had already grown leery of ebay becoming more Buyer centric, Sellers were taking second place on ebay, and when packages were going out, we always kind of had a thought, IS this the one we're about to get F'ed On. Ebay Sellers today still have a 50/50 Chance at getting F'ed by ebay with every sale they make. But Selling TODAY is just side crap I've had personally for years. I am 100% Retired at 61. I had already Sold off all my Property in the DFW area. Closed my business. Relocated back to W Texas to take it easy until Retirement. Had started a business up out here. But 6 months back was when I had the Heart Attack. The operation, everything. So me selling TODAY is just crap I've had laying around.
I KNOW the Estate Sales in this area. I know every Thrift Store. I still go to the 4-5 Goodwill's regularly. Our BIN Goodwill over on 34th. I scan CL and MP. I just can't get it into me to GO SOURCE in bulk like I used to. I don't want to end up Dead in 5 years with the same amount of Crap I had before. That's behind me. I don't want to go down that road again. I have overcome. 😂
And here's something else I did for a while. I opened up a little Second Hand Shop in a 1400 Sq Ft space in a Strip Shopping Center separate, away from my 12,000 Sq Ft Warehouse, And 1 Block from the HUGE Mid Cities Antique Mall in Hurst. I made it like a HUGE Booth in an Antique Mall. A little Knick Knack Shop. Eclectic Furniture. Odd and Ends. Had a Girl running it Wednesday thru Sunday, and doing Social Media to draw people in. I put a lot of my ebay stuff over there to sell Retail. Did really really well. THEN, Covid hit. We were shut down for almost 6 months. When Lease was up, I just took everything back to my warehouse. I had fun doing it, but like Scaling Up on ebay, I wouldn't do it again.
dream*peddler
OP8 months agoI can understand that after the ebay fiasco and then Covid shuttering your business you would be soured on starting again. As long as you're in a good place now, that's all that matters.
I've always worked a full-time job for the security and sold on the side. Now that I no longer work full-time, I have to be careful to keep my selling at a manageable level and not go overboard sourcing merch.
vernon1959
·8 months agoOMG!!! I'm ready for a road trip, where is this????🤣😂🤣😂
biggymoe
·8 months agoOMG!!!!!!!
mscurl
·8 months agoAmazing! I would have lost my ever lovin mind. Happy for you.