What’s the difference between an Estate Sale and a Garage Sale?

Garage sales are generally small scale attempts by homeowners to clear out the clutter and get rid of unwanted household items. They are typically orchestrated over the weekends, in driveways and garages, and advertised on brightly colored poster boards, detailed in scribbly text. Garage sales, also called “yard sales” or “moving sales” are generally considered “successful” if they can attract between 25 to 100 people.

Estate Sales, on the other hand, are a way of liquidating the entirety of one’s estate at a sale – all their personal belongings – often after a major life change (death, moving out of country and the like). They consist of a sale at the home or premises for about three to four days, longer if necessary, and are often patronized by thousands of people over a weekend. Our sales are generally patronized by 4,000 to 6,000 people over the course of a 4 day sale – more if the sale runs longer.

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Do You Need An Estate Sale?

Estate sales are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. An estate sale cannot be held for a few pieces of furniture or collectibles, we need an entire house of goods to host a sale. If you’re interested in having a sale, we will be happy to come to your location and let you know if we can have a sale for you.

If you are interested in having an estate sale, please contact us with any questions you might have: (800)906-8450 or you can use the Contact page of our website.

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Why Should I Have An Estate Sale?

Dealing with the remnants of an estate can be difficult. Often times you have an entire house full of furniture, knick knacks even food to deal with. Rather than dealing with it alone, an estate sale allows you to have the help that you need during this emotional time. Our clients, collectors, neighbors and friends come in, find things they love and help move things through the estate for you…and they pay to do it!

Estate Sales always result in more money to the estate than other alternatives such as a buyout or donation. Often times estate sales can be concluded with a buyout or donation which will result in even more money to the estate. We will make sure to move as much of the estate as possible while getting as much money for the estate as we can.

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What Should I Do To Get Ready For An Estate Sale?

First off, DON’T THROW ANYTHING AWAY! We cannot stress this enough. What you may discard could potentially be a lot of money to your estate. This includes; spices in the cupboards, pots and pans, raw lumber or materials, empty bottles or used greeting cards. Believe it or not, these things will sell and can often make you hundreds of dollars. We will handle the sale from setup to teardown, just leave the house as it is.

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What Should I Expect From An Estate Sale?

You can expect a large crowd of customers to come to your house during the sale and to shop directly from the estate. If your home is for sale, you can often expect offers on your home during the course of the sale. You can also expect questions on selling just about everything in your home – light fixtures, drapery, appliances…even rocks in landscaping! We will cover all of this with you during our initial interview and evaluation of your estate sale.

On the negative side, estate sales do bring a considerable amount of traffic through the home, so please expect to clean your carpets – especially if your sales falls on a weekend with poor weather.

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Can I Price The Estate or The Items In The Estate?

We have been in the antique and used furniture business for nearly 42 years. It is our experience that while people may feel an object is worth a certain price, the market value is often far from the asking price. It is best to let us price the entire estate far you and handle the sale as best we can. If we ask too much for your estate items, they will not sell. We will quote you an estimated dollar range for your sale and as long as we hit between those marks, the prices we ask are irrelevant.

However, if there are certain items that you wish to place a reserve on, we can certainly make that happen. We prefer reserves be placed on very few select items in the estate and that those items be worthy of a reserve; silver sets, unique pieces, expensive jewelry etc. Ask us about these items during the evaluation.

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How Much Will The Estate Sale Cost Me?

The short answer to that is nothing. We charge a percentage of the complete sale and our percentage covers the following:

• Complete setup

  • We bring our own tables and supplies to display the estate items to sell.

  • We clean and shine everything we can to help it sell.

  • We move furniture around to display it for the sale.

• Advertising

  • We submit ads to all major newspapers; Post, Westword etc.

  • We submit ads to all online venues; Craigslist, EstateSales.net, etc.

  • We submit emails to our own dedicated customer base – over 3,500 strong now!

• Operating the Sale

  • We staff the estate sale with enough people to deter theft and damage to property.

  • We staff with enough people to help move sold furniture and over-sized items.

• Post-Estate Handling and Clean-up

  • The choices after an estate are left to the estate owners. We can either haul everything off (for donation or disposal), return the house and contents to the estate after the sale, or propose a lump-sum buyout of the remainder.

  • If you wish, we can discuss consigning unsold items – which is a rare occurrence at our sales – to our shop and continue to earn you money even after an estate sale.

Our percentages for sales vary and will be discussed during the evaluation with you. It is important for us to do a great job for you because our commission is percentage based…the more we make for you, the more we make for us!

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What if I have other Estate Sale Questions?

We can’t possibly list every single Estate Sale related question here, but we really do have a lot of answers (in our heads)! So if you still have questions about how these things work, feel free to Contact Us, and we’ll be happy to help! Hey, and while your waiting for our response, take a spin around our Blog and you might just find answers to questions you never knew you had!

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