The simple answer is "No".

The amount that you are charged in a commission is far from the most important factor in deciding who you choose to hold your sale.  Our normal rates average between 30 and 35% which is very typical in this area and nationwide.  If an estate is especially difficult to prepare because of the labor needed to clean and get thing ready for sale, a higher percentage may be charged.  This is also true if the sale is small and has little of value to attract buyers. 

There is always someone "out there" who will do it for less.  But it is like the old saying that you get what you pay for.  Normally, if someone is trying to sell their sevices based on being cheaper, it is because they don't have anything else to offer. 

We are proud of our services and what we offer.  People flock to our sales as a result of our email list (with over 3,100 buyers), our advertising, and our reputation of having the best sales around.  We use proven methods of displaying the merchandise and pricing that bring the very best results.  These methods are from handling nearly 400 estate sales and learning from every one of them.

If you choose a liquidator based on finding the lowest commission, you are not going to get the best results.  I guarantee it.  Nothing is more important than generating the most traffic, having things displayed to maximize the precieved value, scientific pricing methods, and creating an atmosphere inside the estate that ensures success.  The results realized from our estate sales with a 30% commission will far exceed the results from companies offering lower commissions.  For you to get 70% of a whole lot is much better than getting 80% of not near enough.

A garage sale is where people dispose of items that are either no longer needed or valued.  Most garage sale items are worn out or of poor quality.  They are items that many people just throw away.

Estate sales normally include the entire contents of a home and include the very best in the way of furniture, china, linens, antiques, collectibles, tools, etc.

I'm sorry but the answer is no.

It is a very common thing for some people who do estate sales to bring in their own items to sell.  That is wrong in so many different ways.

For one thing, advertising the sale as the estate sale of certain person and then adding items to it is fraud. People may come because they want something that belonged to that person. If they buy something that was added to the sale, they are being deceived.  That is more than just wrong; it is against the law.

Perhaps more importantly to you as a client is the fact that your estate sale specialist should be concerned with selling YOUR things, not their own.  There should be no conflict in whose items are the most important to sell. 

We NEVER add anything to a sale. Period.

We are a professional business and one of the things that clearly separate professional businesses from the amateur and part-timers is in what type of payments are accepted.

At our sales we accept cash, local checks, and credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover). 

Only accepting cash severely limits the total sales.  Few people run around with hundreds of dollars in their pockets and at estate sales, it is not uncommon to find a special treasure that you would really like to purchase.  If you don't at least accept checks you are likely to lose the sale, for not everyone is going to run to the bank for cash and come back.

With credit cards, there are some other strong incentives. Study after study has shown that businesses who accept credit cards can expect 15 to 25% higher sales.  That is a tremendous difference.

We want to ensure that we take every advantage to make it easy and convenient for people to make purchases at our sales.

Absolutely.  That is a cost of doing business. 

It is a rare event that anything of value is left when the sale ends.  Our sales generate a very high level of traffic and they usually scoop up everything in site.  Unless the family has asked for them, what few things that remain are taken to one of the local charities such as Goodwill.

Pricing is one of the most important aspects of an estate sale.  There are many considerations.  In general, we price based upon our experience of handling over 300 estate sales (Nearly 200 in the past 3 years).

For items of higher value or ones that we do not commonly see, we have a variety of methods to use including judicious use of current price guides, auction records, careful interpretation of information available on the internet, appraiser database information available to us as Certified Appraisers, and in some cases, we talk to other experts throughout the country.

Pricing for an estate sale is a science.  You cannot price items as you would in a retail environment.  An estate sale is a fast-paced liquidation.  That doesn't mean that you price them like you would a garage sale either.  All items should receive a fair price.  A properly prepared and managed estate sale presents the estate goods in such a way as to enhance its value and to bring the best price possible.  But you must always remember that most people shop an estate sale in search of bargains.  That is particularly true of the more common items.  With fine antiques and collectibles, prices will be commensurate with their value, but still cannot be the same as you would find in an antique shop.

There is nothing like experience in determining price.  We price one of two sales almost every week. No other estate sale anywhere in the country has that much hands on experience.

For pricing, we always tell our clients not to be concerned with pricing on individual items. Let us use our experience in determining the best sales price. The clients concern should be the bottom line for the entire sale. That is what is important.

Another important factor to be considered is that we are a business.  We are 100% dedicated to making the estate sale as easy for the client as possible and for bringing the greatest return for the family.  The more money we make for the family, the more money we make as well so we are very conscious of every penny that can be made with our pricing strategies.

There may be a few items in a sale that have either a special meaning or there is a desire to keep them unless they will bring a certain amount.  When that is the case, we can have a few items that have a reserve.  However, for the most part, we must be able to determine and set the values.  That expertise is usually part of the reason we were hired. 

Our experience has taught us not only how to determine actual value, but to know how to price the items for an estate sale. 

If you believe that you have to sell your items at the prices that you wish to determine, then you should probably hold your own sale.  We do offer a service that includes setting the sale up for you and then you can price as you please.  Sadly, though, without the real understanding and experience that we have with the marketplace and what the customers are likely to pay, you are not likely to have a successful sale.  You will likely either not make as much money because you priced too low or, as is usually the case, you will not make much money because you priced items higher than they should be.

We want the estate to make as much money as possible.  The bottom line is that the more money the estate makes, the more money that we make.

Pricing is a science and, if I can say (tongue in cheek) we are estate sales scientists as well as estate sale specialists. 

I rarely purchase anything at the sales.  My team members often do so, but we have strict rules that all team members must follow including myself.

Before any estate sale team members can make a purchase, our customers have to have had an opportunity to buy it first.

For example, say that one of the team members wants to buy a dining room table.  When we open on Friday (first day of the sale), all of the customers who are in line are allowed to come inside in the order that they arrived (we give out numbers).  The line of customers is given a chance to see everything offered including the dining room table.  If none of them purchase the table, then the team member can do so. 

The team member pays the same price as would any customer.

That holds true on every day of the sale including half-price day.  Our customers always get the first opportunity to make the purchase and team members always have to pay the same amount as the customer.

This policy is one of the reasons that we have the customer following that we have.  Our customers know that they get first pick of the items - not us.  Nor do we ever have a special sale the day before for dealers or friends.  That is another activity that although most estate sale companies follow, but one we feel is not appropriate.

We do have private sales.  But our private sales are for everyone on our mailing list (over 2,700 people as of August 2011) and anyone they want to bring along.  It is one of the incentives of being on our mailing list.  Of course, we advertise the private sales, too, so anyone can get on our mailing list and join in. 

We can.  In most cases, you will find that allowing us to handle the entire sale will generate more revenue for you even after paying our commission.  If you want to handle your own sale, we can help you with the pricing and or the setup. Contact us for more information.

We are a business and offer purchase options as any professional service does. 

At our sales we accept cash, local checks, and credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover). 

We want to ensure that we take every advantage to make it easy and convenient for people to make purchases at our sales.

A garage sale is where people dispose of items that are either no longer needed or valued.  Most garage sale items are worn out or of poor quality.  They are items that many people just throw away.

Estate sales normally include the entire contents of a home and include the very best in the way of furniture, china, linens, antiques, collectibles, tools, etc.

Estate sales usually have something for everyone.  That not only means fine furniture, antiques, china, silver, and collectible, but also everyday items like tupperware, pots and pans, glasses, tools, sheets, towels, clothing, and much more.

It is a rare event that anything of value is left when the sale ends.  Our sales generate a very high level of traffic and they usually scoop up everything in site.  Unless the family has asked for them, what few things that remain are taken to one of the local charities such as Goodwill.

Many bargains can be found at most estate sales.  Due to the nature of the sale, there are often many high quality items.  Prices are set to a fair value, but are usually far below retail.  If the price seems high for something you would like to purchase, come back on the final day of the sale when prices are normally reduced by 50%.  If you have any questions about the prices at estate sales being too high, take notice that the first people who get in line at estate sales are usually dealers.  They are there to take advantage of the quality merchandise and the great pricing that is available.  These professionals know they are getting a bargain.

Many estate sale services sell to dealers, friends, and even buy choice items themselves before offering anything to the public.  That does not happen at our sales.  We take pictures of the sale several days in advance and post them on the web site for all to see.  Except on rare occasion when the family may decide not to sell an item at the last minute, everything in every picture will be there for you to purchase when we open the door for the sale. (The only private sales we have are when we invite our Mailing List customers, Hot Line customers, and their friends to a Private Sale - in other words anyone who wants to come).  These sales are always listed here first, announced by email, on the Hot Line, and even in our ads.  So anyone who wants to join the Mailing List or call the Hot Line for the information are invited to attend.