The Value of "Stuff"

By Laurie Zook, President, Owner/Operator EstateMAX, Re-flea LLC Contact:301-332-5585

https://estatemax.net/2024/03/...

The Value of “Stuff”
I’ve had clients compare what they paid for their furniture, 10 to 40 years ago, to the prices we sell it for today.

Vintage, used personal property is not commensurate with increased value. I hear this: “But it’s OLD, it was my Uncle Bob’s in the ’20s. See my blog post: Would You Buy Your Mother’s Dirty Old Sofa? And Please leave the Steinway! Their thinking is skewed.
Estate Sellers are not retailers of used goods. We provide “liquidation” services, which we conduct en masse, in your home. After you have removed what you want to keep, or have hired us to help you do so, and have moved into your new home. We project-manage and offer several levels of on-site services, as well as selling. We bring professional project management, marketing, advertising, retail sales management, and customer service to our projects. We handle all of the details of the sale and clean out.
What this means is that your quality $5000 dining room set bought 12 years ago will probably be sold for between $400 and $2500, depending on brand, condition, style, market demand, time of year, sale location, advertising coverage, and buyers’ inclinations.
We sell everything in the sale inventory, your home the same way. It all adds up. Our job is to handle all of that for you, so our client can go forward and provide them with a positive financial return as a result.
So Why Have an On site Estate Sale?
One reason is because the buying public likes to shop in person, in the home. It is an active shopping experience vs. online buying. We have hundreds of shoppers at most of our sales. Because it’s a simpler, hassle-free way to dispose of the volume of used personal property.

The client has enjoyed living with their items; therefore has received the value of the item(s) by use over time.

The volumes of used personal property put up for sale at estate sales, find use in the homes and lives of smart, younger Americans. Those concerned with reuse, repurposing, and saving money buy at estate sales as well as those buying to resell.

We know how to price, negotiate, handle a crowd, etc. Selling the volume of the little stuff; the nuts and bolts, the linens, the garage and shed items, clothing, pantry items, along with the furniture and decor is possible in the context of the home. A lot of it is not going to produce a positive return when taking the time to sort, pack and remove and sell at online auction. Onsite is "as-is". We organize and price it making the home into a shopping zone over a period of days.

It all has to be “gotten rid of”. We take responsibility for that.

Furniture and other consumer property are “commodities.” There’s a glut of used personal property on the market. Because of the ripening of the population of Baby Boomers (retiring and downsizing) and older seniors moving to nursing care and eventual demise.

Estate sellers compete with Goodwill and other charities for the same public dollars. EstateMAX presents the goods in the best possible way, in the home, merchandised on our table tops, removed from cabinets, pulled out of closets, and unpacked out of boxes. We create a 3-day retail space, exhibiting items in the best possible light.

Overall sales results are relative- to what it is: presentation, quality, use, and style. Context. How the items look in place, and how it was used, help illustrate vintage, quality, and the care the original owners gave to their furnishings and decor. Collectibles included.

The loss of retail value on new furniture, just like vehicles, (which we also sell,) is a fact. But vehicles provide a service, on-going, if they’re running condition and even if they’re not. Furniture loses value through changes in style, wear and tear, etc.

We are upfront and transparent about the return value of used goods. If it’s collectible, hard to find, rare, and in style, which makes it of more interest to the buying public, the value is higher. Such defines less than 30% of goods in a home, typically.

70% of the return is in the cumulative sales and offsets the cost of final removal. Offsetting the cost of removal is the true point of selling the items.

What is not sold onsite, is then donated to charities (on behalf of our client, who get the tax benefits.) Our sales pricing is aggressive and has to compete with these charities. Online sales venues like Facebook Market place, lack the context, that we at EstateMAX bring to our sales. We handle the customer interaction, and customer service and make it easy for people to buy and remove their purchases safely from the home.

We ask our clients for a positive review following our work for them. Our results are not only measurable in dollars and cents, but also in our attention to detail, getting the job completed and ready for settlement, on on-time without hassles to the client.

CAVEAT: Presently, we do NOT buy outright, and we don’t remove items from your house to sell them for you. We’re not a method to supplement your income. (Anyone re-seller who says they can “promise you” a profit over your original cost on your household goods is "blowing smoke". The client should be realistic from the start.