Estate Sale Business Flat

Man, where did they all go?!

Ever since the turn of the year, you look on estatesales.net and there is just nothing
Usually this area has several a week.


How's yalls areas doing with sales?

 

There are less estate sales near here as well. Many unfortunately have turned their in person sales into online auctions which I don't do. And some dropped out of doing estate sales for good.

I noted some sales coming up soon, but they didn't look great so I will pass. There is one in a few weeks that looks ok.

 

I see the same thing here in mid Missouri. I am wondering if it has anything to do with people staying put because they can not afford to move. Older people not downsizing. I noticed our auctioneers have been advertising to get business on facebook something i never saw before. Before they were just advertising a sale now they seem to be begging for things to sell.

 

Last summer when I went to an estate sale near me, the lady who I know for years was there running it and she told me that biz was really down for her and many people have stopped going to sales.

Many people I have known for 20 years of estate sale going have really cut back going to sales and many have just retired. I miss seeing many familiar faces. I sometimes don't know any one on line waiting to get in.
I think things will pick up more as we head into spring. Hope springs eternal.

 

Have noticed a lot less merchandise in the thrifts since the holidays. This is particularly true of furniture. People must just be hunkered down and waiting for Spring. Kind of odd since this has been a really mild Winter here.

 

It always dies down here in the winter then picks up in the spring

 

I am surprised we haven't had more yard sales around here lately since the weather turned out so nice. It is currently 59 degrees.

 

We normally don't see yard sales until April. If you check CL for my area, there are like four advertisements in the Garage Sale section - all for two different thrifts and an estate sale on the wrong side of Avon Mountain. I don't go over it for medical reasons. There aren't even any auctions on Estatesales.net, never mind live sales in the area. Estatesales.org has more auctions, but only a small number of live sales.

THe latter seem to be an endangered species. Some dealers I knew pre-Covid have quit the business or retired. One still in business, mostly in the Southeast corner of the state, is a scumbag I won't have anything to do with. Another deals mostly with moving sales. I'd go to hers, but recently they were all in Avon...see can't medically go there.

That too. The Ill will has lots of empty shelves. Even the glassware and dinnerware and coffee mugs. Never mind stuff for resale, stuff period. I could have bought a Tonala blue and white wall plate today, but ceramics designed to be hung...nah. The ReStore had more "stuff" but nothing for resale, except some severely overpriced "good things" that aren't as good as they think. Today I found a penny on the ground and figured I'd quit while I was ahead.

 

I haven't worked at the auction house or attended any of the auctions since the end of August 2021. In the beginning, it was because of things going on in my life that just took precedence. However, not going to a weekly auction & being tempted to buy something has allowed me to sell a lot of backlogged items that have been hanging around for too long which has been a very good thing.

I occasionally stop in for a visit during the week when I go somewhere where I can get some cardboard flats such as come with canned goods & soda cans. They use them to put together box lots & can go through quite a few in a single auction. I tease the auctioneer I am trying to stay in his good graces so that maybe I will still have a job in the future.

The last 2 times I stopped by I have been surprised at just how few things were set up for a Friday night sale only to find out the Friday night sale had been canceled because there just wasn't going to be enough stuff to do a sale. This was virtually unheard of in the past. The only time we did not have sales was over the Christmas holidays. Nine times out of ten it was an overabundance of stuff where things were piled in one of the buildings waiting for an auction to clear out enough stuff that things could be moved into place.

The auctioneer thinks it is at least partly due to a new nationwide franchise outfit called Blue Moon. You supposedly get a specific area of the state & there are 3 in South Carolina. One of the franchises is owned by a dealer who bought (mostly silver & jewelry) at the auction on a weekly basis.

https://www.bluemoonestatesales.com/franchising.html

I never did a lot of estate sales & will likely not start up any time soon but took a look at estatesale.net & saw nothing that would change my mind.

 

If I look on Auctionninja, a lot of the sales are run by the same companies. All auctions of course. Pickup is always advertised as being at a private home, so odds are the auction companies don't have a central location beyond a few offices and some computer equipment. They might be franchised. Blue Moon exists in my area too, but currently has no local sales.

I think the auction houses are getting starved out by the on-line only guys who have far less overhead.

 

That may be what finally does this auction house to close because he has only done an online sale once & that was many moons ago. He was selling 100+ civil war documents that were retrieved from the train platform by someone's ancestor.

Seems when word got out that Sherman was done with Georgia & heading for Columbia people started loading anything at the state house they could lay their hands on into boxes & transporting the boxes to a waiting train. Eventually, they ran out of time &/or room so boxes were left behind.

They convinced him to do it online as well as in person due to the interest from collectors north of the Mason-Dixon line. After it was over he announced he would never do another sale that included online bidding because online bidding slowed down the whole procedure & it drove him crazy.

 

The question is... did it speed profits up? If it doubles your take, it's worth the effort. For some items, the lines light up and phone bids come in and...zoom. Doesn't happen often, but when it does I'd bet on a happy auctioneer.

 

Terrible here, but summer is when they happen here.

 

I'm seeing estate sales every so often, but they're either at ungodly hours (7am start time... just no) or at crazy distances. (if I have to get on a highway or drive close to an hour, it's not happening) Yard sales don't restart until April really. Church sales are May/June. If they happen. The one I loved best was early July, but it hasn't happened since Covid.

 

The estate sales have been awful in my area. Can't believe that the proprietors can make money off of half of them since it is mostly junk. I think it is IKEAification of America where most households are full of cheap furniture and other low quality, low value items that don't hold up long term and have little resale value down the road.

I am looking forward to a few really good antique auctions in my area soon but they are sure few and far between these days.

 

There looks to be a good one on Friday in our area - but I can't go

 

A new one popped up here... and like all the rest is a good hour from me. Up hill and down dale. I'd be out $15 in gas just getting there and back, if not more.

 

I see one that may be decent for Saturday but they say it will be cold out. I have to see the physical address first before I decide what if anything to do.

 

I went to one once where I wore a down coat, heavy fleece, and had to sit in the car with the motor running. It was a good sale, so YMMV.

 

I have done that too Ruth, but now that I am really vintage, I don't think I have the energy for that anymore. Oy vey.