Going To Estate Sale Next Week, Any Tips?

You can pretty much be assured that the promoter of the estate sale has shown everything to a knowledgeable numismatist and the good stuff has been tagged appropriately or already sold off.

Do not get caught up in paying too much for this stuff.

Good luck!

Let us know how it goes! Thanks.

Don't be afraid to stay late. That's. when I get the biggest bargains. Many auctioneers try to space the good stuff out at multiple times over the auction. To keep people there. But after three or four hours of coins, people get tired, have other stuff to do, or realize they have already spent too much.

Hopefully the auction will provide a list of coins in the order they will sell them. Some like to mix it up and keep people guessing. If they have a list, jot down next to each lot you are interested in, what the max you want to spend. I pull up PCGS's Coinfacts app. If you haven't used it before, download it prior to the auction and familiarize yourself with it. They have current pricing for most US coins. I find them to be 5 to 10% inflated. And if you really intend to turn a profit, you will need to be paying 30-40% below what they list.

Biggest downside to turning a profit is where are you going to sell them. Most established outlets have some kind of fee structure.

Also make sure you ask what the auctioneers buyer fees are. Most don't have one, they make their money from the seller. But I have seen some that will charge 10-15%.

Don't jump on the first bid. Most auctioneers start high, to make the item appear more valuable. When nobody bids, they will come down to a more reasonable start.

Don't get too attached to any coin. No matter how much you like it, or how rare you think it is, it will come up at another auction later. I paid too much at some of my earlier auctions.

Thanks all,

@Lancek

I do have the PCGS app, I use it probably way too much but it's been a great educational tool.

Currently I'm just trying to get off the ground with a little ebay business, but it's purely for hobby. I'm already working full time and homeschooling two kids, so my plate is too full to do anything besides ebay right now. In conjunction with this forum, it's helping me learn about coins and the market, and it's a fun distraction. Any transaction, even if I pretty much break even, will still go towards helping my seller status.... so I'm not too concerned about large profits currently. Maybe in 10-15 years I'll be better at all this and can take it more seriously.

And true, I may see some cool old jars or toys or other collectibles. I'd like to focus my business on coins and bullion, but I may shift to collectibles as well... They mentioned a huge comic book collection, but I really don't care about comics.... Old baseball cards though, I'd jump on those.

T-Bop,

In my area, many, in fact most estate sales are auctions. Some at the house, some at a central area like the community center at the fairgrounds. Big hassle for the family to move the stuff. But much easier for buyers to find adequate parking. Some auctioneers have their own location. Throughout the year they might have some consignment sales and some estate sales. For smaller, less valuable estates, the auctioneer might combine 2 or 3 estates into one auction.

Every once in a while people will have what we call a "tag sale" for their estate. Where items at the house are marked a certain price. Some over multiple days. With a percentage discount each day. Maybe that's more what you think of as an estate sale.

Well next week I'll let you all know what it's like where I'm from.

This is put together by a promoter, I saw it listed on an estate sale website and they discuss the sellers as their clients. It didn't mention anything about an auction in the listing though. So we'll see what it's like.

My experiences with so called estate sales are not to good. Usually everything has been already picked over by friends or relatives. You see only remains of what was there originally. That is for real estate sales. The ones put on by professionals are just a joke too. Anything and everything is over priced. So good luck and let us know.

How did the estate sale go? Would love to hear the details.