How to Price Household Items for an Estate Sale

What Sells at Estate Sales?

The types of items sold at an estate sale vary widely, ranging from automobiles to antique furniture. Generally, high-ticket items are things like furniture, collectibles, jewelry, automobiles, rugs, and artwork. It is typical for the items at an estate sale to reflect the diverse interests of their owner, such as sewing machines, baseball cards, gardening tools, fine art, and other collectibles.

Things That Sell Well at Estate Sales

• Certain antiques: Mid-century furniture has been hot for a number of years now and shows no signs of slowing down soon. There is always a market for interesting pieces and exotic furniture.
• Rugs: Many people look for handwoven and antique rugs at estate sales.
• Kitchen appliances: Kitchen appliances that are modern or in good working condition can be sold easily at an estate sale.
• Paintings: Many people who are in the market for paintings, photography, and other art shop at estate sales.
• Designer clothing: High-quality and well-kept designer clothing holds value and certain brands can be highly sought after for vintage pieces.
• Tapestry and sculpture: Price these similarly to how you would price art on canvas.
• Automobiles: Automobiles are always in demand, and classics or modern cars in good condition can catch prices very near fair market value.

Things That Don’t Sell Well at Estate Sales

• Old electronics and TVs: With the exception of a few things like IBM mechanical keyboards, which are highly sought after, old electronics don’t hold a lot of interest or value to many people these days.
• Pianos and organs: The market is pretty flooded with these large pieces (and they are hard to move).
• Brown furniture: Much of the high-quality, brown furniture that can be found in an estate sale just isn’t in style anymore. Today, people favor cheaply made, modern furniture from Ikea and the like.
• Collectible figurines: Though these can fetch excellent prices for the right buyer, they typically aren’t appreciated as much in the estate sale market. Things like Hummels or other porcelain figurines don’t typically suit the tastes of the current generations shopping at estate sales today.
• Books: Books can be difficult to sell at an estate sale, but there are a number of resellers that you can contact who deal only in books.
• China: Fine china also isn’t appreciated by today’s generations as it was decades ago. It may be better to sell it somewhere else, such as an antique shop, where it will find the market that appreciates it.
• China cabinets: Just as people’s collections of fine china used for special occasions are dwindling, the cabinets used to store these collections are no longer as popular.
• Decorative glassware: Vases and tchotkes and such aren’t extremely popular these days.

Estate Sale Companies Make Pricing Easy

A professional estate sale company can be an invaluable tool in helping you figure out how to price household items for an estate sale. Holding an estate sale is a heavy undertaking for an individual so you’ll get the most bang for your buck with an estate sale company. Beyond the emotional burden that often comes with the task, sorting through an entire house is physically demanding. Pricing items takes expertise and cataloging them requires thorough organization. Once everything has been priced and organized, the items should be staged in their best light, the sale marketed appropriately, and all permitting requirements handled. If you are thinking of having an estate sale, contact Estate Pros today to schedule a free consultation.