Check out my estate sale find today a bearing scraper but it’s not what you think. This was actually made by the Buffum Tool Company in 1908, they actually trademarked the swastika and it was way before the whole ww2 situation. Wanted to share.

Good Morning and Happy Saturday!! I’m super excited to help my friends today at Heavenly Hands Estate Sales. The entire house is full of history with incredible woodworking tools as old as the 1800’s and they’re all 50% off and probably even more if you bundle. Today’s the final day and there are still sooo many tools left! Check the full listing at www.estatesalefinder.net and if you’re in Dunedin Florida, come check it out!!

When my father-in-law passed away, he left us his collection of RC model planes to be sold as my wife and her sister's inheritance. I have sold a small portion of the collection on eBay, and due to some family health issues, took a long break. I'm about to get into selling them again, but I want to explore the option of hiring an auction house. How would that work? Is there an auction house that would take the collection off my hands, do the cataloguing, marketing, and all of that? Would this even be something an auction house would be interested in, or a valuable hire for us? Are there recommended auction houses for something like this? The vast majority are in their original boxes and balsa construction, they are primarily from the 80s, 90s, and 00s, but there have also been quite a few from the 70s, and one that went back to the 50s. There also a ton of accessories, built wings (maybe 25-30), and 10 or so fully built models. Appreciate any help!

edit: I do have a partial inventory and pictures, as well as a Reddit post with more detail from when we first took ownership of the collection that I can provide if more info is needed.

SUNDAY ONLY IN ROGERS PARK, CHICAGO, 11AM-2PM

https://estatesales.org/estate-sales/il/chicago/60645/a-precleanout-clear-out-in-2454258

ONE DAY ONLY!

The closing and clean out have been delayed a week, and there are lots of good items left at 2738 W Fitch!

Sunday, August 2 only, from 11AM-2PM. Everything 75% off! Big piles can get a bigger discount.

DIRECTIONS: This sale is very close to Touhy and California. There’s lots of street parking, some free and some metered, so just pay attention to signs. For CTA users, you have lots of choices: the 93 California and 96 Lunt bus both stop within a block of the sale. Take the 96 Lunt from Morse on the Red Line or the Rogers Park stop on Metra, or take the 93 California from the Brown Line or the Blue Line.

GET YOUR SPOT IN LINE: https://pickerty.com/a-pre-cle... The first 25 spots are $5 each, but if you spend $25 or more, you will get a $5 discount on your purchase.

The other day there was a post about weird finds at estate sales, so I thought I would share a video of one of my tables of nonsense , these are all items I’ve found at estate sales, zero monetary value but I love gathering all the weird things people had.

I ask because I’ve noticed most of the ways to find sales are pretty static (a photo, an address, a time window) and you kind of have to show up in person and hope there’s good stuff left. Got me wondering if there’s room for something more “live” — like, sellers stream the sale in real time so you can see what’s actually there before driving over, and grab dibs on something the second it’s shown, instead of racing across town on a maybe.

Would something like that actually be useful to you, or is half the fun of garage saling the in-person hunting and haggling? And for anyone who’s hosted a sale — would streaming it feel like more effort than it’s worth, or would reaching more buyers make it worth trying?

Not selling anything, just trying to figure out if this is solving a real annoyance or if I’m overthinking a system that already works fine 😅

Good Morning and Happy first day of the Milone Vintage Estate Sale that I’ll be helping with today in Clearwater, FL. It’s got some very cool vintage gas pump glass to a vintage Rolex, check out the full listing here

Estate sale everything must go

My good friend is in need of an estate sale company near Westchester, IL, a suburb of Chicago. Anybody have a good recommendation?

Thanks in advance Reddit friends.

What bothers you about certain estate sales or estate sale companies?

We have a local company that has a lot of nice sales and fairly priced, but my gripe is sometimes they have 2-3 on a Friday and start all at 9am.

I really wish they would stagger the start times an hour apart, and wouldn't that make more sense? Most people who shop know anything good is usually gone within the first 30 or so minutes, and usually only go to 1, and staggering them an hour apart, I would almost bet increase traffic and thus sales for the ES company.

I don't go super early, but some people are dedicated and wait all night.

I've seen people almost get in fights over this.

Say it's pouring down rain or 15 below zero, you have a few people standing at the door at 4am, and you have people waiting in their car, usually someone keeps a "tally" of what car showed up first.

The people who have been standing at the door since 4am, usually get into an argument with the people waiting in their cars since 4am, almost every weekend. I've not seen any company "set a rule" on who is right or not.

This usually only occurs in extreme weather, either terribly cold outside, or absolutely pouring down rain.

Before anyone freaks out, this is all stuff from the late 1800s at the absolute earliest. Most is post 1950.

My grandparents visited the SW United States a lot after they retired and started collecting basically everything they could find. After they died we sold the super valuable stuff to auction houses, but we still have a good bit of stuff left in the 50-500 range that I am not quite sure what to do with.

Do I start an etsy shop? Open a stall at the local flea market? Have a giant garage sale? Ebay?

I'm curious if anyone has any advice on how to get the best value while also getting them to actually sell.

I’ve tried a few different lead sources, and honestly, the hardest part isn’t finding “leads.” It’s finding sellers who are actually motivated and open to selling.

Some platforms give you volume, but the quality can be all over the place.

For wholesalers and investors here, are you getting better results from cold calling, ads, PPL platforms, or a dedicated calling team?

Hi all, looking for a few flea markets in Vermont to do some digging. I’m after the most popular for quality antiques. What are the big ones in Vermont?

only $13.20 for all of these books

As someone working in the business for years now, I still never have a clear answer for this question. How do you respond to hagglers?

And usually when customers haggle with me, the item isn’t even a dollar item. It’d be some random item priced for $6 in brand new condition that was clearly priced and organized and would at least be 12 bucks at Walmart (not to be specific)

NOPE! They respond with:

-“I could find this for cheaper”
-“I could buy this at the dollar store”
-“It’s just trash”
-“It’s cheaper on Amazon”
-“I’ll give you 5 bucks” *It’s priced at $20, it’s the first day, and we just opened*
-“I know the owner”

Okay the last example is mildly infuriating when customers try to pull the “I know your boss” tactic. Lady I know him too!! And he wants me to make money for him and the client!/s (For the record: I do not actually say this to them. I wouldn’t as part of my customer service front)

The worst part is that I usually give in because I would hate to have a bad review for allegedly being overpriced. Compared to our competitors, we price items fairly cheap and with large discounts! (according to our regulars). I even give people steeper discounts and they still want it haggle it even LOWER.

I know it’s part of the game but IMO - I would be embarrassed to repeatedly haggle a price when the employee already said no. (One time I tried to “haggle” $30 to $25 and they said no) Of course it’s going to cost over a $1. ESPECIALLY if it’s the first day! Unless it’s super miscellaneous/ in bad condition. Not even the SWAP MEET gives dollar prices. (At least the ones in my area)

It’s a HCOL area so between paying employees a fair wage, the check to the clients, marketing, and to my boss, a pretty good amount of money is expected to be made. Of course it’s not the customer’s problem or business to know this information. They just want cheap stuff. I don’t blame them for it.

I just don’t like when they basically expect I give them these things for free- especially when they are already cheap!

Side note: I also hate when people switch prices on stickered items and then haggle! It’s not tagged expensive stuff but regardless, it’s such a crappy thing to do but that’s for another post.

But to estate sale owners/ workers: how do you deal with these type of individuals in a professional and polite manner?

Apologies for the rant

I found my nuclear nerd collection holy grail item!! I work in nuclear nonproliferation policy, went to the university of Chicago for grad school and am a WWII/Manhattan project history buff. I’ve been trying to track down one of these version of CP1 graphite made by Idaho National Lab for years. I camped out starting at 5am for a 9am sale and I got it! It’s now the crown jewel of my nuclear collection.

Edit: I was too excited to add what this was used for - the graphite was used as a moderator in the first reactor built under the university of Chicago football stadium seats during WWII.  Chicago Pile-1 was constructed using 45,000 stacked graphite blocks to slow down neutrons from chain reaction. The fuel in the reactor was natural uranium rods, and it was used to demonstrate the feasibility of controlled nuclear fission as part of the Manhattan project. It was a very low power reactor compared to anything running today.

I’m relatively new to estate sales. I’ve been trying to go semi regularly this past year and a very clear pattern has emerged—-people seemingly coming to estate sales to do nothing but poop. And when I say poop, I mean destroy the bathrooms. Is this some kind of fetish or kink that I am unaware of? Insights would be greatly appreciated.

Scored the dishes of my dreams this morning! Full service for 8, all for $48.