The Great Estate Sale

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The story below is from our September/October 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you! 

Buying or selling, profit margin or sentimental value, monetary flow or strictly aesthetics: They are all part of the estate sale game. And, no, yard sales don’t count.

Don’t confuse a yard sale with an estate sale. They are as similar as grandpa’s fiddle and Nicola Benedetti’s Stradivarius. Plain vs. elegant. Good deal vs. rare find.

Sandy Murray, marketing director of Building Specialists, who haunts estate sales, says it thusly: “Ninety-five percent of estate sales have nothing of great value,” which basically makes them yard sales. The rest, one surmises, are worth your time and a good bit of your money.

Josh Holcomb of RoanokeEstateSales.com puts a finer point on it: “For the past 10 years or so I’ve mainly gone to estate sales looking for collections and rare items with high value that I can re-sell for profit online.”

Patrick Patterson of Pollard Street Pawn and Gun in Vinton adds a bit of color: “… The best part of buying collections in estates [is] hearing the stories of the people who loved these items before and are trying to find new folks to love them equally (or more).  If we make a few dollars in the process, all the better.”

Fincastle artist Ed Bordett has been “a habitual collector for quite a while, looking for early American objects made within our area. If you don’t go look, you’re not gonna find it. I try to look at photos [from the estate sales] to see if there’s a hint of the type of objects I might be looking for. You get to know people, so there is a social component to it. It’s like a treasure hunt. I have found great things.”

According to Nerdwallet.com, an estate sale is “a sale, liquidation or auction of someone’s personal property after the person dies or decides to downsize. The proceeds may cover debts, nursing home costs, burial fees or other expenses. If the owner has died, leftover proceeds or items may go to beneficiaries. People often put instructions in their wills about what to do with these leftover items and proceeds.” That’s pretty basic and doesn’t cover all the bases, especially if the base was slid into by Babe Ruth.

Sometimes these “leftover items” are a good bit more than that, and sometimes the person whose stuff is being sold doesn’t even know what she has … or had. And not a lot of dead people furnish estimated value. The professionals do that.

Say your grandpa has just died after a long illness and our poor, tired grandma has accepted the reality of a nursing home. She has 50 years’ worth of accumulated goods in a 2,500-square-foot house. You’re going to need help. An estate sale pro is a superhero in this instance, somebody like Suzanne Houck, who owns Houck Asset Verification in Roanoke.

She may even surprise herself, like she did that time she found that a 36-inch-by-24-inch mounted crossword puzzle was worth $52,000. She also knows that owners “can have unrealistic expectations.” Sentimental value, in short, has nothing to do with market value. She knows values and says that “if you do your own sale, it is likely to be more of a yard sale than an estate sale.”

Just look at a well-organized estate sale. You walk into an organized home that looks lived-in. The good pieces are easy to find, and the price is readily available (and often negotiable). Old, by itself, doesn’t equal value, she says. “We do our due diligence,” says the Southeby’s graduate. “We have access to a wide group of appraisers” and often they come back with surprises, both positive and negative, always honest.

Lisa Miller, a realtor and estate sale pro, says, “I do it differently than most people here. We help seniors downsize. … We have a yard sale for what we don’t want.” And when the junk is gone, “clients tend to make more” on what’s left. That’s when the sale begins to stretch out, lasting for days, shining the light on valuables, allowing price reductions as the sale progresses—with a bargain basement final day.

“I want to take time and do it right. Do it fast and there is less profit.”

Carole Gibson, who has been running estate sales for 25 years, takes time to know who’s buying what: “Young people want mid-century modern,” she says. “They want band T-shirts, vintage barware, art glass, furniture from Scandinavia. They’re not fussy about antiques. Pyrex is hot, so is Tupperware. And old toys, ’80s toys. They’ve breathed fresh air into the business.”

Prices? “Depends on the type of sale,” Gibson says. “Company-run will be higher, but you’ll get better research” and a better idea of what you have. You’re not likely to find valuables that are underpriced, either.

Google “estate sales” in your area and you’ll get a list of them, complete with photos and estimated prices. Then you go to work, stand in line for three hours on sale day, get to know the people who are buying and selling. “It’s an early-morning game,” says Gibson. Customers “rush into houses,” ready to buy like it’s Black Friday. If you’re buying, “you need to grab and go and look at the condition later.

“You can score these days with vintage Christmas items, mid-century kitsch, made-in-Japan ceramics.”

Sandy Murray’s attraction to estate sales doesn’t reach the level of obsessive, but “I love stepping into the lives of someone and seeing their treasures. I found that there was always some little something for sale that I needed at home. If it was a good price, I would grab it up. If it was more than I wanted to spend, I might show up the next day when prices have been reduced, to see if it was still unpurchased and get it then.”

“I love to look through the [online] listing prior to the weekend and scope out which sales I want to attend, make note of their times and addresses to set my plan of attack.” Murray continues. “There is nothing better than seeing something you really want in the listing, getting to the sale early, seeing it priced fairly and grabbing it. OK, there is something better: Coming back the next day and seeing it half price and it is still there.”

She admits that “it’s rare for me to come home with nothing from an estate sale hunt. There is always a little something I could use around the house. I have purchased measuring cups, spatulas, antique toys, screwdrivers, chairs, an MCM coffee table, teak outdoor furniture, oriental carpet, lamps, candle stands, artwork, so much. Now I am helping my son find things for his first apartment.”

And the next generation is hooked.

Sometimes—and not all that often—you score big, says Josh Holcomb. “There was a large estate of an antique dealer here in Roanoke about 10 years ago. This guy had it all and multiples of everything collectible that you could imagine. They were selling items by the box in some rooms, and I noticed a box of vintage and antique writing pens. The entire box of maybe 500 pens was priced $250. I jumped on the opportunity to buy and research these pens. Over 100 of the pens had 14 karat gold nibs and were manufactured by high-end companies. The box had three Mont Blanc pens worth about $500 each. There were two solid 18-karat gold pens and several Tiffany and Company sterling silver pens. This box of pens made a profit of over $5,000.”

That’s an estate sale day that almost certainly ended with a smile … at least for the buyer.

What Did You Buy?

We asked estate sale fans to tell us about their favorite buys and here’s what they came up with.

Artist Terry Lyon: A John Deere No. 1 horse-drawn sickle bar mower. Paid $40. It had been modified to be pulled by a tractor and I used it for several years, pulled by my tractor, to mow my field. Alas, it sat unused for a long time, and I traded it several years ago for some tree work.

Chef Stratton Wayne St Clair: I have a little turquoise bowl with what looks like gingko leaves pressed into it. Around the rim on one side is something that looks like a bee. On the other is this highly detailed dragon running around opposite the bee. No chips or cracks anywhere. It is a lovely piece made by someone who knew what they were doing.

Semi-retired John Michael Saunders Jr. of Fincastle: I bought a table at an estate sale for $400, which consists of the detritus end pieces of a massive dining room table, put together into a circle, since it is missing all the leaves. Reputedly from the DuPont estate in Martinsville, the carvings are damaged but nonetheless, exquisite. I took the circular table apart into two end tables which are used in different rooms. So, I figure these cost me $200 each.

Artist Gina Louthian: A wooden cigar box bought at an estate auction in Floyd. It was bitter as some woman really wanted that box as much as I did. She kept bidding. It was included with some other items as a package deal. I got it for $75. Worth it to me in 1986.

Consultant Claire English: An antique pull-down brass sink from a Pullman railway car. I was inspired to have it installed in a tiny half-bath but the installation costs involved convinced me to sell it at a great profit.

Business owner Lucy Buckner Tkachenko: Two paint by number large paintings from 1980s, $1 each.

Antiques dealer Carole Gibson: A civil war ambrotype. I bought it at a family run estate sale for $2 about 15 years ago. The photo was of a union soldier. I learned that it was more valuable because he was pictured holding his gun. He was a handsome young man. I was a novice reseller at this time. I was put in touch with a civil war collector who offered me $600 for it.

I sold it to a collector. As a newbie dealer I felt guilty about my profit, but veteran dealers congratulated me and told me these finds do not come along very often. Being a dealer has been an enjoyable and interesting way to supplement my income formerly as a social worker, and now as a one income retired person, I have also found many interesting things I have kept but am starting to sell.

Retired RN Susan Ostaseski: Bought antique goblets, probably from the mid-1800s. They are called pattern glass or possibly pressed glass. My mom had assorted antique goblets in different patterns, and they looked beautiful when she set the table for company. I’m sure that’s why I like them so much.

Vinton musician Bob Schmucker: My wife bought a 1963 Gibson SG electric guitar in original condition right down to the original strap and case for $25. Two days later I sold it for $4,000 cash.

The story above is from our September/October 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!