Tough Reseller Decision
An owner of one of the estate companies here texed me last night and asked if I wanted to come pick a 20-room house (in a ritzy neighborhood) Monday before they open the sale up to everybody else on Tuesday. The problem is I have another obligation....
I hate cancelling my dentist appointment last minute, but no way am I passing this up. 😁
20 comments
gloryglorygifts
·4 months agoHeck, that's a no-brainer for me! Happy pickings.
sin-n-dex
·4 months agoWe went picking at a house nearby (a coin collection). Most of it was junk. If we go to their house, we usually take it all, but give a total price and don't mention we're not paying anything for the junk we don't want.
It was a few small boxes of world coins, I wasn't impressed. I have better stuff in my own collection and I collected for a few years on a student's budget. Got it back to the store and took a closer look and I found a few things I'd like to list. I was reminded by the shop owner we "didn't pay anything for those" so to feel free to pick whatever I want for eBay. Out of 500 coins, maybe I found 15-20 that were OK to list, many were only in the $5-10 ballpark.
My pick is being assessed this week and I can claim it next time I go into the shop with money for the previous week's sales. He needs to decide how much he's taking off the top for the trouble of going to the guy's house (keeping in mind that I cherry pick and take all the best stuff for eBay).
C.
luckythewinner
·4 months agoIt's unfortunate that some estate companies don't seem to operate in the best interest of the people who hired them. It worked out for you though!
pickapaper
·4 months ago@christworks
You got all that stuff you talked about for $200? That ES company must price things reasonably. Around here, there are always a lot of estate sales every week but some of the operators put prices higher than eBay on stuff, especially if it's a higher end sale. It's hard to buy for resale until the prices get reduced way down.
Funny about cameras. Not of particular interest to me and I didn't realize that they were becoming hot again. I went to an estate sale last week on discount day and there were a couple of Canons complete in their boxes. I had kind of been wanting another camera to use for taking my listing photos; I looked at the two there and chose the one that I thought would work best for me; it was a Canon Elph. The lady sold it to me for $5.00. I thought for $5.00, even if it didn't work, no big deal, not out that much money. Got home and looked it up and saw that those cameras are selling for nice money, but I'm going to keep this one; it works great and I've started using it. I'm just sorry I didn't know to buy the other camera too.
christworks
OP4 months agoVery good find! I wish you had bought both cameras.
I have found if you let people know what you do and you go to their sales regularly, estate sale companies will give you a discount. Especially when you are buying in bulk. They may not all let you name your price, as I was kind of ablet o do on some things yesterday, but normally they are happy to give a discount once they get to know you. You are doing them a favor by buying in bulk, because most people who go to an estate sale are there for just a few items. Otherwise they will have to take everything that does not sell to local thrift stores
pickapaper
·4 months ago@christworks
Yeah, I wish I had bought both cameras too, but as I said, I wasn't aware that cameras are a thing again and wasn't thinking about buying them for resale.
The city I live close to has a lot of estate sales every week all year long and it's been that way for as long as I can remember, decades. Usually there are about 10-12 sales a week but one week last summer there were 27! The city has only about 350K people, there are big houses but no big old mansions or anything like that around here. And to do all those estate sales, there are a lot of estate sale "companies". The last I counted, there were about 32 "companies" currently doing sales. Some are okay but some don't have a clue what they are doing which is really unfortunate for the people who hire them. Most of the older company operators that were around for years are now retired or no longer living.
I have no idea if the current companies let people in to shop before the sale or not. But the number of people who go to estate sales here is unbelievable. A lot of dealers so competition is very high. Sometimes it's almost pandemonium at some of the better sales with people grabbing stuff and long lines to pay.
christworks
OP4 months agoI wish we had more estate sales here. We have 6 companies. Two of them only do online autions. I don't do those. For one reason, they group things together that make no sense. If I want a camera, they might have it grouped with a coffee pot, a pair of shoes, and a side table! Instead of simply grouping cameras together or smaller electronic lots. It makes no sense. The other reason I do not like those estate auctions is that I need to buy low if I am not able to test out electronics. If something takes batteries, I need to look to see if the battery compartment is a mess. I don't mind taking a risk if I am paying a couple of dollars for it, but I'm not going to pay $10 or more, if it lumped in with other stuff I don't want.
Of the other 4 companies, only two do regular estate sales. Normally in or around my town there are a couple a month, except during the holiday/winter months. There isn't enough foot traffic during those months to hold them then.
I have worked hard to build relatinships with the people who run the sales. One of the women here who owns a company is in her early 80s. Her pricing is quite funny. I give her hard time about it. She will have a modern Swingline stapler priced at $6, but then something like a Canon Elph priced at .50¢. That is the thing. I almost never walk into an estate sale or into a thrift store for that matter and not find something to resell. People who price have no idea what stuff is worth, just like a lot of people on eBay who sell. Since I don't have a niche, I have to know about everything. I'm always learning. The more I expand my knowledge, the faster I can move through sales and pick up things. Like I said in my post yesterday, I'm not a golf person. I don't know the lingo, which can make it difficult to see what something is worth. Thank God for Google lens. I'm learning.
I always try to think about what type of person had an item. I went into a Goodwill a while back and found two totes of bike parts...derailers, break levers, etc. I was in the middle of nowhere with no internet signal. At the time I knew they were bike parts, but I could not have told you anything more than that. Goodwill wanted $5/tub. I bought both of them, because I thought about who would have all of those parts. Well, a person who worked on bikes would. That meant they were an "expert." If the parts were junk, they would have tossed them. So a bike expert saw value in these parts. That was my reason for buying them. Come to find out, they are all vintage 70s, 80s, and 90s parts. Some real good winners in the mix, along with a lot of $25-$40 parts. Gross value of everything is about $2,500. I listed a bunch. I still have a lot more to do. I got sick of listing derailers, so I switched to break levers. Then I got sick of those. I'll have to come back to them.
When you go to those sales, you have to find the stuff they don't know is valuable. I always look at the ends of closets, the bottom drawers of dressers and chests...any type of cabinet really. Rarely do they bother pricing that stuff because it is soo much work bending over and pull it all out.. A lot of times the will have a sign that says..anything not priced is $1 or $2. There is also normally a lot of good stuff in those areas, because people put stuff in the back of the closet or in bottom drawers and left it. It's aged like fine wine. Nobody goes to the sale, even the dealers, is really checking those areas either. Basements also have some of the better stuff.
sreu3058
·4 months agoTrue: My husband is not an EBay ‘seller’ per se, has an account, maybe sold 10 things over the years.
He listed a brand new golf club (and he had the box!) for $400. and it sold in 1 day!
Maybe it helped the ‘Masters Tournament’ was on this weekend.
Congrats on your new finds!
aigr-990
·4 months agoI think most of us on here would chose the same option! 😂
lakefor94
·4 months agoNothing like a good pick. I love it when I am 1st in when someone moves out of data center space.
christworks
OP4 months agoThank you all for the well wishes. Let me tell you, it was wild. I thought I'd share a little about my day.
I was overwhelmed at the amount of stuff and the size of the house, which was over 6,000 sq ft. These people had all types of money. I don't think I could have found a $10 valued item if I had tried. This was all ideal inventory. I don't think I've ever been in a house that didn't have at least one thing that came from Amazon. This house had nothing from Amazon. Even the 6 packages of shelf liner I bought for us, I discovered, sells for $25/roll. I think I will be lotting that stuff up and I'll pick us up the cheap stuff at Walmart. 😁
It took me a little over two hours to go through the first floor and the two upstairs. I got back downstairs, ready to total things up, and my estate sale lady said, "Did you go to the basement?" "There's a basement?" I asked.
I go down to the basement and holy moly. Like I said, these people had money. He was some bigwig for a major company and had worked at different locations across the globe. He was massively into golf. He had apparently played at courses all over the world, and he had everything you can imagine from all the clubs.
I don't play golf, I don't know much about it, but I've been learning.
For the first time, I picked up a few putters that have a good sell-through rate and should sell in that $70-$80 range. I want to get an idea if this is something I want to sell, how hard it is to pack, and how much time it takes me to pack. Plus, can I describe them accurately and not get an INAD? There were a few sets of clubs in the garage, then several loose clubs and putters, so that is where I picked up the putters.
I got down into the basement, and that is where I saw row after row of club sets and all of the bags. I counted 33 bags with clubs and another 50 loose clubs. This guy was buying a new set every year. If our Play It Again Sports was still open, I would have bought every set and taken them over there to sell. I would have needed to rent a truck to get all of that. I picked up several boxes of Titleist Pro V1 balls. Never used. Tons and tons of loose balls. They look like they were used once. He had them sorted in bags by the courses he used them on.
I picked up a 5-gallon tub of nothing but grips. They are new grips... I guess he had the money so he ordered a variety so he'd have them. There was another bin of nothing but new gloves. It also looked like he had gone to every Masters tournament the last 20 years as he had flags and spectator guides for all of them. I picked up all of that stuff. I couldn't tell you how many Masters hats I picked up. They look unworn. If he did wear them, it must have just been while he was at the tournament.
The other half of the basement was his entertaining area. He had a massive stereo system, record player, records, CDs, and cassettes. She wanted to sell the whole radio system together. That was too much for me to deal with. I did get some records and about 30 or so cassettes from 80s bands.
He had a whole bar area. Found some sterling decanter tags. Normally, the estate people grab that silver because they have a buyer who will pay up for it. I don't know if these slipped through or they thought they were silver-plated.
🤐 😜
Nevermind.
Anyhow, I have a lot of work to do. This is the best buyout I've had as far as quality inventory in a good while. If anything is left once everybody else goes through, I will probably go back and get anything that is shippable. I don't even care about looking it up. You can't pick up a bad item in that house.
This was much better than going to the dentist. 😁
adamcartwright
·4 months ago@christworks
Congrats on the loot.
Did you give yourself a budget in advance or just pick whatever you knew you could store and sell?
christworks
OP4 months agoI didn't go in with a budget. I had about $70 cash on me leftover from yardselling and a much smaller estate sale i hit up on Sunday. I stopped at the ATM and took out another $120 on my way this morning. I had not seen any pictures, so I didn't know what to expect. Anything I get that isn't priced, they just ask me what I want to pay for it. I already had in my mind I was good at $200 for everything. I got a Canon Elph camera that will pay for all I got. I will get my money back as soon as I list that camara, and everything else is pure profit, less fees, etc. My total was $210. She knocked it down to $200. I'll swing them a $10 bill by there one day this week or I'll catch them at the next sale.
I filled the car up. I didn't have room for anything else. lol
tobaccocardyahoo
·4 months agoI never thought I would say this. I AM SO GLAD IT WAS NOT ME.
I am too old and too lazy for a find like this.
I am no longer willing to learn the peculiarities of a new group of buyers for merchandise I have not sold before.
Enjoy it while you are able. And make a killing.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·4 months ago@christworks
Congrats! Sounds like you will do very well with this!
meme6253
·4 months agoHope you find some Great stuff that is worth your while.Keep brushing & flossing!
annadryl
·4 months agoI've put off dental visits for less-valid reasons...
This one though, at least has some teeth. 😬
inhawaii
·4 months agoHmmm have my teeth drilled and cotton stuffed in my mouth -or- go picking.
That's a tough one. 😉
pickapaper
·4 months ago@christworks
Glad you got your priorities straight. 🤔 😁
Hope you get lots of treasures.
mikhirs
·4 months agoHappy picking to you!