The Things People Actually Buy at Estate Sales Might Surprise You

FOR FAMILIES & CLIENTS

One of the things we hear surprisingly often during an estate sale consultation is some version of: “I just don't think there's much here anyone would want.”

Meanwhile, we're looking around thinking about the furniture, the artwork, the kitchen cabinets, the garage, the closets, the garden shed and that stack of flowerpots on the back porch.

Because here's the thing about an estate sale:

It's a whole household.

An estate sale isn't a particular type of merchandise. It's a way of selling the contents of a life. And lives contain expensive things and ordinary things, beautiful things and practical things, carefully collected things and things somebody bought at the grocery store last Tuesday.

You really never know what someone else will be happy to find.

Yes, There Can Be Really Good Stuff

Let's get this out of the way first, because estate sales sometimes get described as though they're just places to buy somebody else's old dishes.

They can be so much more than that.

Fine jewelry is common. Gold, silver, vintage jewelry, custom pieces and watches can all find their way into an estate sale.

We've seen homes with wonderful original paintings and other fine art, beautiful antiques, sterling silver, quality furniture, rare books and unusual decorative pieces. Designer closets can turn up luxury handbags, shoes, clothing and accessories from names like Hermès, Prada and Jimmy Choo.

Then there are the things that require a little more detective work.

An old box of military letters and photographs. An unusual book. A piece of pottery with a mark underneath. A painting with a signature that's difficult to read. A sculpture brought home from overseas decades ago.

We've handled some remarkable things over the years, including rare military material, significant original art and unusual pieces like mid-century carved marble Buddha figures.

Not everything old is valuable, of course. And not everything valuable looks valuable at first glance.

Sometimes you have to stop and look.

And Lord, the Collectibles

If humans have ever made a category of objects, there is a pretty good chance somebody has collected them.

Coins. Records. Vintage toys. Sports memorabilia. Comics. Advertising. Military items. Cameras. Pottery. Glassware. Christmas decorations. Figurines. Postcards. Maps. Books. Pens. Watches. Old photographs. Local history. Trading cards.

And those are just the obvious ones.

Collections are interesting because value can work in different ways. Sometimes there's one rare piece that deserves serious research. Sometimes nothing in the collection is enormously valuable by itself, but there are dozens or hundreds of pieces that individual shoppers are thrilled to find.

And sometimes we encounter a collection so specific that we think, Well, there really is a collector for everything.

There usually is.

Sometimes It's Parked in the Driveway

Not everything at an estate sale fits on a table.

Cars and trucks can be part of an estate. So can motorcycles, including Harley-Davidsons, boats, RVs, trailers, golf carts, tractors, riding mowers and other large equipment.

Garages and workshops can hold substantial tools, machinery and equipment. Backyards may have patio furniture, grills, garden equipment, sheds and outdoor materials that need to be considered too.

An estate sale really can stretch from the jewelry box in the bedroom all the way out to the boat in the yard.

Then There's the Regular Stuff

This is where families sometimes underestimate what they have.

Most estate sale shoppers aren't walking through the door expecting to discover a rare painting.

They're shopping.

They need a lamp. Or a baking dish. Or a garden shovel. Or a set of sheets for the guest room.

Everyday furniture, cookware, dishes, glasses, towels, linens, baskets, picture frames, books, small appliances, lamps, storage containers, office supplies, garden tools and basic household goods all have buyers.

None of those things needs to be extraordinary to be useful.

A college student setting up an apartment may be delighted to find an inexpensive colander, wastebasket and stack of towels.

A gardener sees the flowerpots you've stopped noticing.

A crafter sees fabric, yarn and supplies.

Someone moving into a first house sees the rake, extension cord and stepladder they don't own yet.

One person's completely ordinary household item can be exactly what another person needs.

And Yes, Sometimes We Mean Really Ordinary

Now we're getting to the fun part.

The spices in the cabinet.

Cleaning supplies.

Shampoo and usable personal-care products.

Laundry detergent. Hangers. Wrapping paper. Craft supplies. Garage rags. Extension cords. A coffee can full of screws. Scrap lumber. Half a bag of potting soil.

And yes, even that pile of firewood out back.

Of course, that doesn't mean every opened, expired, damaged or inappropriate item should be sold. There are things that simply need to be discarded, and an estate sale company can help make those calls.

But families are often surprised by how many perfectly usable things they've been mentally categorizing as “junk.”

Put yourself in the shopper's shoes.

If you need firewood and there's a pile of perfectly good firewood for sale, suddenly the woodpile is merchandise.

The Little Things Matter Too

A $3 item isn't going to change the outcome of an estate sale by itself.

But a house might contain hundreds of $3, $5, $10 and $20 items.

Together, they matter.

More importantly, those ordinary things are part of what makes estate sales useful. They're one of the few places where someone can walk into a real household and buy the kinds of things households actually need without buying everything new.

The person who buys the $2 kitchen utensil matters just as much as the person looking at the original painting.

They're both shopping the same house.

Sometimes the Valuable Thing Isn't the Obvious Thing

This is one reason we encourage families not to make too many decisions about value before an estate sale company has had a chance to look around.

The dining room furniture may look valuable and turn out to have fairly modest resale demand.

Meanwhile, an odd little object on a shelf, an old photograph, a piece of jewelry, a signed book or something tucked into a drawer may deserve a second look.

Experience helps. Research helps. Knowing when to stop and say, “Hang on, let's figure out what this is,” helps.

Nobody catches everything at a glance, and most household objects aren't hidden treasures.

But sometimes the thing worth researching isn't the thing anyone expected.

Please Don't Decide for the Shoppers

This is really the point.

When families begin preparing for an estate sale, there's a natural temptation to help by throwing away the things that don't seem valuable enough to sell.

We understand it.

You're looking at an old basket and thinking, Nobody wants this.

You're looking at the garage shelf and thinking, This is all just stuff.

You're looking under the bathroom sink thinking, Surely they don't mean this too.

Maybe we do. 😂

Take the things the family wants to keep. Set aside personal papers, medications and the things that obviously shouldn't be sold.

But before filling the dumpster, loading the donation truck or deciding what nobody else could possibly want, let us see what's there.

You don't have to know who is going to buy the painting, the Prada bag, the fishing tackle, the casserole dish, the shampoo, the coffee can full of screws or the pile of firewood.

You'd be amazed at what happens when hundreds of different people, with different homes, hobbies, collections, budgets and ideas about what constitutes a treasure, get a chance to decide for themselves.

An estate sale is a whole household.

And that's exactly what makes walking through one so interesting.

You never quite know what you're going to find.

Every home has a story. Every treasure gets a new beginning. ❤️