When I started viewing the estate sale photos earlier this week, my first impression was that it wasn’t a sale for me. While I can admire china, depression glass and collectible pottery, that’s not what I sell. It’s too much labor to package and transport. Besides, the times I’ve tried, it just ends up broken.
I looked at the photos again when other family members seemed interested in attending. I was glad I did because the added pictures also illustrated vintage books, a game room and some fun art on the wall. I decided to show up that morning with my sister.
When we got there an hour after numbers were assigned, we saw several dealers leaving empty handed. That wasn’t a good sign. We weren’t sure how to interpret it though, since it was still so early in the day. Until we stepped over the thresh hold that is. We both immediately found it to be overpriced. There was a lot of Roseville but it was priced at NYC collector prices. They were not going to resell for a profit in this area. All the other glassware and collectibles were equally overpriced.
I was ready to leave in minutes but my sister decided we should at least ‘check out the house’. She headed to the jewelry in the dining room and I went to look at the vintage books in the living room. The books were all tagged for the current market price. The only way they’d flip was if a collector happened to show up and be missing one of these volumes. I decided I was wasting my time and went to reclaim my sister. She’d given up on the jewelry and had gone outside to find out the urns on the front step were $50 each. She’ll spend money for quality but it still needed to be a fair resale price. She went into the backyard and asked about the antique pot. For $750 she had to keep walking. We decided to walk out via the garage.
That’s where we found our deals. She got some antique luggage and I got some framed art and stools. Being with the cars was a reminder that we didn’t have to pay sticker price. We bundled our items together and got what we finally considered a deal.
This auction house had made a lasting impression. We backed in the van, made them load the goods and we hadn’t broken the bank. Maybe this was the sale for me.
Ms Toy Whisperer 