Estate Sale

Just don't let the excitment get ahold of you. Level heads prevail in these type events.

I've been trying estate sales for coins, swords, guns, etc for a long time and no luck at all. I've found in almost all instances of estate sales or moving sales, relatives and neighbors have already been there. I have had massive luck at garage/yard sales though. Not sure why but relatives and neighbors seldom search those. I suspect they are afraid people will think they are poor or something. Just not sure why but it's ok with me.

I've been to hundreds if not thousands of yard sales and rarely do I see coins. You have to ask. I ask a barrage of questions. I've got at least 3 Rolex's this way. If you don't ask, they won't volunteer the information. Most of the time, if they bring something out of the house, it's not for sale and they only want free information. You can't win them all.

Thanks for your input guys :)

Just Carl, that's an awesome score. I'm taking notes here. Hopefully I score big like that. Congrats!

I will be the executor of an estate of a collector. Very interesting experiences from members on the board. I might have to get enough posts so when the time comes, I can give people here the first opportunity to buy some items.

Mack

Just a comment on the above statement:

It has been my experience when searching for coins at yard sales that a buyer always has much better luck gaining access to look at the coins when the seller brings them out immediately at the time of the initial inquiry.

If a buyer states that he/she will call you when they have time, that opportunity should most likely be written off; the buyer's chances of ever seeing those coins have now dropped off to about 10% or less.

One suggestion to improve the buyer's chances of making an appointment in the future would be to ask the buyer the following question,

"Can we 'swap' names and phone numbers?"

This little trick has a greater tendency to result in the buyer obtaining contact information for making future attempts for a new coin estate evaluation appointment.

The term 'swap' is a psychological compromise for any seller who is normally skeptical about giving their personal contact information to any individual(essentially a stranger) after having met them just one time.

If a buyer smoothly poses this innocent question while simultaneously looking the seller in their eyes, 'swapping' anything with anyone seems to be a fair, reasonable, and non-threatening request since now the seller unknowingly has let down their normally-established preventative firewall.

Potential yard sale coin sellers only call back interested buyers less than 5% of the time: forgetfulness, low priority issue, distrust etc.

If one practices my above suggestion and is interested in learning more about tried and true sales techniques at yard sales that have served me well over many years, go to the following CCF thread (about half way down the page) entitled, 'need advice' that I responded to for a CCF neophyte who admittedly was new to collecting coins:

https://goccf.com/t/131041&SearchTerms=yard,sales

Happy hunting and remember that every rejection from a potential seller should be viewed as the insertion of another new structural building block in one's unstoppable and effective strategy structure built for the continual asking and setting up of the appointments essential for the purchase of coins at very reasonable rates:

the ultimate goal that 'WILL' be achieved if one NEVER GIVES UP.

IMHO,
mdpmedia

This is an excellent point w/r/t divulging one's 'personal' address.

In terms of one's name, address, and phone number that is the reason it is advisable for a coin buyer to prepare in advance business or hobby cards having only a P.O. Box address and a phone number both of which should never be linked to one's personal residential address.

In fact it may also prove useful to members to consider registering for a 'free' phone number that is never linked to any address whatsoever. Just never use one's actual name and accurate residential address when signing up.

These type of numbers are completely 'free', provide unlimited 'free' long distance minutes and are readily available in virtually any major city throughout the USA.

Using these type of phone numbers described above one may consider establishing both a 'free' and 'local' number in each of the cities where targeted potential coin sellers may contact a coin buyer by always dialing a 'local' number.

Potential coin sellers discovered at yard sales or wherever will always gravitate toward dialing a 'local' phone number as opposed to making a LD call.

Try visiting

https://support.google.com/voice/bi...nswer=115061

for a narrative describing the functionality and benefits of this service currently available only in the 50 states to the best of my knowledge.

Hopefully, I have not violated any CCF policies by posting the above URL.

I have had several of these free Google 'local' phone numbers established in multiple cities for several years.

All of these 'local' numbers can be set up to be hard forwarded back to one's personal cell phone number bringing in the caller I.D. of whatever seller that is calling from any Google-ready city.

By using this strategy discretion and privacy are 'better' preserved (never completely preserved) w/r/t one's personal address, name, and personal telephone numbers etc.

On another note keep in mind, however, that any phone conversation can be unknowingly recorded by a third party like Google or by any entity desiring vocal information etc.

This fact should not be a big surprise since other forms of communication like POP3 email can always be sniffed out unless encryption software is implemented etc.

IMHO,
mdpmedia