Many consignment store owners do estate sales on the side, both so they can get first pick of potentially valuable items, but also as a way to make some extra money on the side. Even if you don’t decide to put on estate sales, they can be goldmine sources of new inventory for your store.
Because the term “estate sale” gets tossed around so easily, the first thing you should know is that a true estate sale happening when one member of a family has just died. If you are buying at the estate sale, that means you may be able to get stuff that would otherwise never have been offered.
But if you are selling at the estate sale (ie, managing the sale) you’ll need to be clear about what your responsibilities are. Do you want to be responsible for getting rid of the dozens of boxes of old memorabilia that may be worthless. Are you hoping to have dibs on a few documents worth $10,000 in a far corner of one of the boxes?
In fact, that’s ultimately the most noteworthy thing about running an estate sale. You’re going to need help, and a lot of it. It can take three to seven days just to get ready for the sale, and then when the sale happens, it will happen fast. You’ll need one person exclusively working the cash box and to write receipts, then you’ll need as much as one person per room in the house. There can be theft at estate sales, and you do not want already upset family members getting even more upset because something has been stolen. So do whatever it takes (hire friends, or smart and responsible teenagers) but make sure there are a lot of eyes on the scene. This also helps with sales, especially if your staff is even a little bit familiar with antiques and used goods.
Even if they dont steal, it is also quite common for estate sale visitors to switch price tags, so they can get an $80 vase for 50 cents. Doing a walk-through of all the items the day before the sale with your staff can help a lot with this, and also save your a couple hundred questions during the sale itself.
Another big difference with estate sales is advertising. You’ll need to do more than the usual pinned up sign at the nearest intersection. Buy ads in the local newspapers including the time, date, address and what’s going to be for sale. Then put up signs in a five mile radius, pointing people to where the estate sale is. Put a few extra signs up at major intersections as needed.
If the sale is large, or parking is going to be an issue, you may also need an extra person just to handle parking. They could also help a few people carry things to their cars.
With all this work and staff, you may wonder if you’ll earn any money at all. Well, consider that the usual cut for an estate sale operator is 10 to 30% of gross sales, and you may begin to see some hope. The real benefit to these sales, though, is that you aren’t wedged into an auctions price spikes and dives, and, above all, that you get to be the first eyes on the scene, so you can hand-pick what you want. As with any sale, and an item, expect some estate sales to be a headache that barely breaks even. But once in a while, ka-ching — you’ve found the mother lode.
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