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Don't throw anything away!
No, really!
You've heard the old adage "One
man's trash is another man's treasure"! This is never more true
than in the estate sale business! Let us worry about what is trash and
what is not.
We've had many clients tell us that they
"cleaned up a bit" before calling us. It's just like throwing away
money! Real "trash" can be thrown out later. Don't take a chance - let
the professionals decide what's trash and what is not.
People collect things for a variety of reasons
- or sometimes they're just looking to replace an old favorite of their
own or make a repair by finding a missing piece. Remember - if it's REALLY
trash, it can always be thrown away later. First, let's see how much
"trash" we can turn into "cash"!
Here's an incomplete list of a items that you may not realize
DO have (sometimes considerable!) value:
- old postcards
- old greeting cards
- old letters
- old photos
- old magazines, catalogs, books, pamphlets, manuals
- clothing - new or old
- linens (including tablecloths, doilies, crochet work or needlepoint
(even unfinished!), towels, sheets, bedding, etc)
- household items (matchbooks, pillows, swizzle sticks, pocket knives,
kitchen knives & flatware, pots & pans, candlesticks, salt & pepper
shakers, sewing items, old fabric, yarn (new or old), patterns (new &
old), thread, etc)
- old desk accoutrements (staplers, penknives, pens, pencils,
stationery, stamps)
- record albums & 8-track tapes and players for both
- Old food packaging (cereal boxes, cans, milk bottles, Hershey's
cocoa, etc)
- old appliances - working or not
- old ledgers, bills, documents
- old trophies
- old tools, planters, patio furniture, broken old furniture, dolls,
toys, you name it!
Something to keep in mind -- estate sale
professionals have seen it all before. Please do not worry about the
house being "a mess" - experience has taught us to look past that & see the
value in even the smallest, overlooked items. Estate sales are the ultimate
recycling project -- those well loved & oft used items in your home will go
on to provide someone else with use and/or beauty for many years to come.
We've found over the years that, although a
house full of antiques and fine art is NICE, in most homes it's the
cumulative value of hundreds of small items that make up much of the
estate - those .50c to $10 sales really add up! Heck - we've even sold
balls of rubber bands that the homeowner had accumulated over many years!
Almost everything has some value to someone out there.
And one last story to help you understand WHY
you should not throw anything away - at an estate sale conducted in 2006,
we were able to "rescue" approx 4 large black trash bags full of stuff
that the family had deemed "trash" & had sitting on the back porch ready
to toss in the trash bin. In these bags were hundreds of old photos,
postcards, letters, greeting cards, newspapers, stamps, historical papers
& even the very first program from Disneyland's opening day. We
estimated the total sold value of that "trash" to be approx $3400.
Don't make the same mistake,
DON'T THROW ANYTHING
AWAY!
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