what is it worth | Crazy4Me - The Modern Bombshell Lifestyle by: Yasmina Greco

Estate sales are no longer solely being held by family members of the deceased to downsize and amicably split the estate. Many people rather hold an Estate Sale, as they are far more profitable than Garage Sales. If you are trying to decide weather you should have a Garage Sale or an Estate Sale, you need know if your items have –

Collector appeal
Decorative appeal, or
Re-useable appeal

If mostly re-useable appeal then your items probably will fit into the “Garage Sale” category as you most likely have old clothing, children’s toys, baby items, household goods, and tools, camping gear and pet beds, old magazines, old blankets etc..

If your items have collector appeal and decorative appeal then an Estate Sale may be just the sale for you especially if you have a pretty good inventory of these items. Antiques, vintage, glassware, pottery, fine china, furniture, porcelain, tea cups, tablecloths, paintings, Persian rugs, art deco, retro, rhinestone jewelry, Christmas decorations, vintage clothing, collector cars, old bicycles, dolls, actually collections of cookie jars, salt and pepper shakers, lunch boxes, Fiesta, Barbie dolls, carnival glass, depression glass, Waterford, etc.. are all just some of the fabulous Estate Sale items people will pay top $$ for.

Doing research to know exactly what it is you have and how much it is sellable for is key along with advertising. The bigger names your collector and decorative items have (Waterford, Meissen, Royal Doulton, Chanel, Gucci, Mercedes, Majolica etc.) the better to advertise your sale and draw many more people to your sale to buy. It is not always easy to know what your items are worth and it can pay big time to have a professional Estate Sale company do the sale for you even if you have to pay a commission. The Estate Sale company can advertise the sale for you and many times they will arrive with shelves, tables, and cabinets and setup for the sale.

Many times you can contact local appraisers or your local reputable antique shops for appraisals, fees may run $125+ an hour to appraise your items but you need to determine what your items are worth in order to price them for sale. Also, if you have several items you might consider packing up the “best” items and taking them to a local antiques/collector fair where many times you will be able to get an appraisal right there for $10-$20 per item.

Now is the time to start gearing up for an Estate Sale or Garage Sale as we are well into Spring and this is a prime time to be selling!!

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Even though the Internet has been around for many years and actually the concept was being worked on back in the 1960s and the project was called ARPANET, many people today think only about eBay when it comes to the antiques and collectibles market on the Internet. eBay is certainly a great resource for buying and selling items as well as a place to conduct research but it is not the only place as there are numerous other resources like collector’s clubs, online malls that specialize in items you are interested in, and antique and collectibles shops as many items are already identified and valued and a description of age and purpose can usually be found right on the item’s tag or label. Also, eBay is indeed a great place to sell your items but as you keep reading you will see that there are also many other options for selling your treasures too!

Identifying what you have
For many the first step to selling an item is figuring out what the heck it is. Is it a figurine or something that looks like it should be in a kitchen, or a piece of furniture? Perhaps it is a book or a collection of ephemera. What if it could possibly be some tools – but are they for a garage or kitchen? What if you have clothing, handbags, or jewelry? Yes, identifying the item is the very first step!

Step 1. How to identify what your have:
The first thing I do when I have a new item in my hand is to look on the bottom for any possible identifying makers marks, patent numbers, country where item was made stamp, tags or labels, and then I also look the item over to see if there are any signatures. Also, this is the time to check the item condition for damage, repairs, chips, cracks, crazing, dings, flea bites, tears, rips, holes, stains, smells, discoloration, etc….

If your item has any of the above identifiers then you are in some luck as you can now take the information and proceed with researching it. But, if your item has none of the above ways to identify it, then you will need to do even more research in the hopes of identifying it.

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