Secondhand Shopping: Estate Sale Tips

You all know my love of a good thrift store. I’ve talked about thrifting for years, along with flea markets. I love a good deal, the thrill of the hunt, yada yada yada. But within the last year or two, I really have come to love estate sales as my secondhand shopping method of choice.

Estate sales are their own beast, and I have learned a few things while shopping that I wanted to share with you! An estate sale is typically done when an individual passes away and the family members hire a company to sell the items directly from the person’s home. This can sometimes happen if a family is moving and taking very little with them, they may choose to sell many of their belongings, but the passing of an elderly person seems to be most common. This means that a company has come in and gone through the items in the home (after family members have removed sentimental items) and organized them for a sale. What makes this better (in my opinion) than a garage sale is that everything was used by the individual in the home. It’s not just the junk they didn’t want anymore and decided to toss out. And as is the case with many elderly people, there may be items present that were in the home for 50+ years, so they are a great place to find vintage!

I love to go to walk through the house. You get a sense of how the home was decorated (though things will be moved around and set for the convenience of the sale), what types of things the inhabitants of the homes collected, they overall style. At a thrift store you don’t get to see how the drapes worked with the paint color, or what rug was paired with a certain piece of furniture, you only see items in isolation. Plus it’s fun just to walk through a house to admire its architectural details (surely I’m not the only one!).

So, now that I’ve convinced you to go to an estate sale, here’s the things I’ve actually learned.

First, browse online beforehand. This doesn’t always work, because not all companies list their sales, but I use estatesales.net as a search engine. You can sort by zipcode, and you’ll be able to see what company is putting on a sale near you, the dates, times, usually lots of photos, and any pertinent details about the sale.

Plan to go multiple times. This actually depends on your strategy and your pain price point, but there are advantages and disadvantages to going at the beginning of the sale as well as the end of the sale. If you go right when the sale opens, you have a better chance of scooping up a particular item you came for (if you saw something in the listing you liked). On the flip side, if you go later in the sale, you’re more likely to get a deal. I like to go early in the sale, and I may grab something if it’s something I truly wanted/needed/came specifically for it. Then I’ll go again if it’s nearby toward the end of the sale. Estate sales are generally several days long. While every company has their own policy, most will lower prices on most items incrementally down to 25, 50, even 75% off as the end of the sale gets closer to close. I like to find out when they’ll be lowering their prices, and then come again to see what’s left. You are of course risking losing out on something here, but it depends on what your price pain tolerance is.

Make a bid on something! This only works for higher price point items, and every company does it differently, but you can leave a bid on an item for below asking price, and if it’s still available at the end of the sale, you might be the lucky bidder! My strategy here is always to bid just under the lowest percentage off I know the sale will go to. For example, if an item is $100, and I know they will be going down to 75% off in the final hours, I may leave a bid for $20. If it’s still available at the end of the sale and didn’t sell for $25, they’re going to be a lot more likely to take my offer. It seems laughably low, but you never know! Some places will have a bid box where you can drop you information, others you will have to give your information and bid to someone directly.

Get friendly. If you start frequenting sales in the same area, chances are you’re going to come into contact with the same estate sale company time and time again. Be chatty, friendly, like them on Facebook, etc. Ask about upcoming sales in the area. You never know what inside scoop you might get with a little kindness!

Cash, cash, cash. Most people take car now, but either way, it’s always good to have some cash on hand if the wifi is down/card reader isn’t working, etc.

Are you an estate sale shopper? What tips do you have that I missed? I’d love to hear! That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!