My father just died...and he has lots of stuff...please help

[saintpaulgolf]

My father just passed away and he has lots of toys, collectibles, etc. and my family and I were wondering if there are people who will take all your items, and picture them, list them, box them and ship them, for a percentage/fee. 

I am in St. Paul, MN. 55106. 

Does anyone know of anyone locally who does this sort of thing?? 

[threshold.sales.group]

+1 to the advice to seek out a reputable estate sale company. IMO, the main benefit for you and your siblings is that a good estate sale company will allow a third party / arms length sale to occur. That's worth it's weight in gold for relationships going forward.

Plus, I think most people are not aware that ebay of the old days simply doesn't exist.  The online garage sale has mostly gone away for a number of reasons, but the site is now almost entirely focused on new in the box goods that can be sold using a product catalog. 

[queenofthemoon]

yes   i do .  i live in mpls.    can you send me an email or ph number and we can discuss it.   

[sin-n-dex]

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@saintpaulgolf wrote:

My father just passed away and he has lots of toys, collectibles, etc. and my family and I were wondering if there are people who will take all your items, and picture them, list them, box them and ship them, for a percentage/fee. 

I am in St. Paul, MN. 55106. 

Does anyone know of anyone locally who does this sort of thing?? 

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My condolences for your loss.

I sell for other people, my biggest customer is a shop that is in the business of purchasing coins, tokens (and now stamps) when someone passes away. You might be able to find a shop like this locally who will buy your items outright, and then they will do the work with listing and selling (like my shop does). You will not get top dollar this way if you have intervention, as most payouts will be 10-25% of the item's value. 

You don't want to just hire someone to do this as they will not necessarily have a reputation and experience on eBay to list your items. Our shop has 100K in feedback and takes all the risk (but keeps the item and pays out up front, regardless of whether or not I can sell it). I'm an agent that sells on their behalf (as the person hired to manage some the items). The person selling will need to keep your item while it's listed (if it's a consignment deal), and they will likely have all sorts of disclaimers.

You could try this yourself at some point later if you're able to, you'd keep 100% of your sales, but might have more issues with returns and false damage claims and such, because you are new to selling. If you are going to sell them yourself, start with the lowest priced items first. Search them on eBay to see what they're worth, and list them at a fixed price.

Cheers, C.

[baantiques]

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@saintpaulgolf wrote:

My father just passed away and he has lots of toys, collectibles, etc. and my family and I were wondering if there are people who will take all your items, and picture them, list them, box them and ship them, for a percentage/fee. 

I am in St. Paul, MN. 55106. 

Does anyone know of anyone locally who does this sort of thing?? 

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Fahey is in Glencoe.  Not sure if they do estates, but they do have regular specialized consignment auctions.  I've also dealt with Grafe Auction in Spring Valley.

I just had to liquidate my dad's estate.  It's a big job and not something you can't do by yourself by listing on Ebay.  I ended up sending a lot of stuff to the thrift store.  Most of the big money things were assigned to a specific person so that was easy.  The rest of it I let family members pick, and any left over went to thrift stores.   If it's something specific (like my dad's match and medicine stamp collection) take it to a dealer/appraiser.

We spread his ashes at the family lake house, then had a fabulous steak dinner followed by beers and brandy manhattans until 4 am.  Dad would have loved the party.  Do something similar 🙂

[d-k_treasures]

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@lex-talon wrote:

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@divwido wrote:

Wouldn't a garage or Estate Sale Be faster and easier?

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That would be a good idea. I would prefer an Estate sale over a garage sale. My neighbor who lived two

house down from mine passed away a month ago. Most of the items were sold during the weekend.

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If there is a lot of stuff, have a house auction. That way, everything goes. If you have an estate sale, then you would still have to get rid of what doesn't sell.

[queenofthemoon]

call Brian Mays Estate sales in mtka. They have a website. he is fabulous . good luck to you I know how hard this is. take care

[saintpaulgolf]

I've actually been selling on eBay for almost two decades now. 

My family doesn't want to do it in my account, though. Though right now I have 900+ feedback and 100% positive feedbacks within the last year (and almost entirely positive feedback in all my time selling here). Not entirely sure about where they're coming from because my other siblings have spouses and they're all talking in my ear. 

I told them I want to talk to attorneys first and my father's financial adviser before we do almost anything related to selling any of my father's belongings. We will be sitting down with the attorneys who wrote my father's will on Wednesday. 

But I just wanted as many opinions as i could gather, here, to hear what people have to say about a situation like this. 

[bubbleman2010]

If your father collected toys from his childhood you are sitting on a goldmine if from the 80s - 90s not so much,but remember condition condition condition is the key to any items value... I'm 65 and being a professional picker my kids will be sitting on a 40 by 60 building full from front to back. They have no desire to own anything in the building,but will go into shock when its sold at auction....

[cherry*fizz]

Hi saintpaulgolf, 

I don't have any advice but I just wanted to add in my condolences for you. I can't imagine losing a parent and the fact that he was your best friend undoubtedly makes it that much harder. Remember to take care of yourself during this hard time. I wish you all the best and hope you find someone to help make the selling of his items easier. From one Twin-Citian to another, you are in my thoughts. 

[heidi4217]

I am so sorry for your loss. I just lost my Dad January 30th,  so I know how you feel.

It was by far the worst thing I have been through. We are a very close family.

Try Luther Auctions in St Paul they get the best money for things.  We have sold there

and did very well.  I think they will come out and look at your stuff. 

I hope that helps! 

[tiramisu41]

Hi @saintpaulgolf.  So sorry for your loss.  I know how you're feeling and what you are dealing with as both my mother and her sister who was a second mother to me passed recently.  Please accept my sincere sympathy and good wishes.

I have another suggestion for you:  http://www.caringtransitions.com/   

These people deal with helping seniors and their families deal with downsizing and relocating of elderly family members as well as disposing/liquidating their estates no matter the reason.  There are two Caring Transitions companies in the Twin Cities area.  Click on the "Locations" tab and do a quick search.

Since the company specializes in working with seniors and/or their families, they are very sensitive and tuned into the kinds of issues and concerns that are likely to arise. You might to give them a call and if you like what you hear, add them to your list of "options" as I agree with other posters -- I don't think your siblings realize what a huge job it would be to try liquidate your father's estate by marketing/selling/shipping on *any* online platform whether it be eBay or otherwise not to mention the disagreements/frustration that are pretty much inevitable.

Take care and good luck...

[rolenboy01]

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@penguins_dont_fly wrote:

There are too many fly-by-night resellers calling themselves "Estate Sale"  companies...make sure that they have a good reputation with their clients (not with local resellers) ...to be honest, you don't want the ones that eBay sellers like ...

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Definately don't want those types that over price all the "good" items so they can buy them later from themselves basically at whatever rate they want or steal them outright and claim they were "sold" during the estate sale, there are some estate companies like that around where I live where they use these tactics to load up their warehouse and then have their own sales there with all the best items they have scammed from various estates.

[surp1mpls]

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@saintpaulgolf wrote:

My father just passed away and he has lots of toys, collectibles, etc. and my family and I were wondering if there are people who will take all your items, and picture them, list them, box them and ship them, for a percentage/fee. 

I am in St. Paul, MN. 55106. 

Does anyone know of anyone locally who does this sort of thing?? 

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Hi, We are located in Burnsville and have been in yhe surplus business since 1938. I would not use eBay except for a few costly items. So far you are not getting the right names, you did get two great names but not for estate sales. Message me and I will give you the best two companies. I buy from them so I do not want to advertise their names but would be \happy to help you out. Peter

[n2knowledge]

I am sorry for your loss - I am not sure you understand the responsible that is brought by the

downsizing of a parent's home - especially if they were collectors. 

FOr the larger items you might consider furniture consignment at the local antique malls there.

And some of the antiques might be bought by the sellers at those malls - unless you decide to

"rent" a booth to sell the items locally (which eliminates the need to ship things out and most malls are ALL SALES FINAL to customers) - but you can move things there and pick your price on them.  Most of the time - each family member will only "take" what is meaningful to them.  THe problems arise when an item in the pile - is suddenly determined that it is VALUED at a higher price - and then the greed factor appears and now everything must sell at the max. price. - Only as you soon find out - saying an item is worth something (even on Ebay) and what it actually sells for by people who want it maybe a 180 degree difference.  My parents also downsized during their life - in my house - the sibling split everything up - if something was special to someone they took it.  that way - each member had to deal with a lot themselves and no one had responsibility to sell and divide.  The tough part is seeing the past through the "stuff".  They say time heals - and with the donation of clothes - it did help us wait over a year when the "stuff" had less meaning and it was easier to part with.  If you are living in the house with your dad's items - stuff does not need to be rid of fast.  But I can tell you it will become a full-time job for a while to determine what will go where. 

Good Luck

[moondogblues]

Not replying to n2k...just a general observation. A lot of families fracture forever because of greed and a sense that 'they' ( any of the heirs) are entitled to more than the others. This happened to my family. There were other reasons also, way too many to go into here, but just something the OP should be on the lookout for. Sometimes, the ones getting a 'trinket' for remembrance want the whole box of jewelry. And will smuggle it out, too.