Taking a step back, in order to move forward

[Jaxom]

ldychef2k,

can you offer more detail please? I was thinking more along the lines of a huge basement sale, only calling it an estate sale because, well, it's mom's entire estate, basically.

I remember mom saying about needing to check the lips. I was going to do this while washing them up. Keeping a box of bandages handy just incase! LOL

 

[Ldychef2k]

Well, grandma had things from the early 1900's. We knew that they were valuable, and I had a few antique and collectible books, as that is an interest of mine, so we looked them up and found out the insurance replacement value, which is always the highest value. The highest value items we put on a special table with a sheet of paper by each item for the invited dealers (three counties, sent 50 invites, most came) and to sign and bid. It created competition. We decided that the highest bid had to be 50% of the insurance replacement value. Lower bids were accepted on a case by case basis.

We had two more sales until all the things sold. Those were public. The regular stuff, not high end, I priced it because my mom was too emotionally attached. She went back and changed a lot of things because she didn't want to sell them at all, let alone for a dollar. She marked them down on day two. We sold probably 90% of our things.

The most important factor in the success of our sale was displaying or merchandising the items. Nothing was thrown in boxes to root through. We covered every table with a tablecloth, we shined the silver and dusted every single item. Fabric or paper items (ephemera) we put in zip lock bags. We basically treated the items as though they had a higher intrinsic value than they actually had, and people could see that we respected the items and thus they paid a bit more.

After the dealers only show, we set aside a few unsold high ticket items and sold them on Ebay, then had two public sales for the remainder.

When I was a collector, I went to literally hundreds of estate sales over 20-25 years, and the ones which are priced by professionals are basically retail. I used to collect a lot of china, old linens, open salts and salt spoons, etc. I knew a deal when I saw one, and I never saw one at a professional estate sale. They were just too pricey. That probably sounds great when you are a seller. Yet if you over price items, then you end up with a lot of them left at the end of the day.

We had three separate sales in 1991, and we made enough to redecorate my grandmother's house for sale. It was several thousand dollars. Can't remember exactly how much.

Three years ago last week, we had a yard sale for my good friend whose husband died of cancer at 50 and left her without insurance. He was well-loved and we had a lot of donations. We had 30 tables which were organized by category, and we had six king sized sheets on the ground for clothing, which was organized by gender and size. We made $9000. It was the organization and the categories AND the advertising that gave us the success. I had it on my corner lot, two major streets, and I put a 60' sign all along the length of the house, and had it up for a week ahead of time. We opened at 7 AM and had more than 50 people lined up along the street.

Sorry, I think I rambled.

 

[freemotion]

Another vote for keeping the canning stuff and crock. You will use it if you are creative, long before you have your own place. If you put the word out among gardeners, you can get lots of stuff that they don't want. People love that stuff is not wasted. I've gotten, for free, cukes, tomatoes, slightly overgrown green beans (my favorite are the overgrown ones, cooked a long time with lots of salt pork!), zuchinni by the ton it seems, and who knows how many herbs. I've canned meat that was a super price, and made lots of "convenience" foods that I canned up....chili, stews, soups, spaghetti and pizza sauces, cream of mushroom soup, cubed beef, pork, and turkey in broth for quick recipes, etc.

You can learn to ferment veggies with the jars, too, and can do a quart at a time rather than trying to fill a canner. Keep those jars!!! You won't regret it.

 

[miss_thenorth]

here's my two cents. if you plan on using them--keep them, cuz it will cost you much more to replace.

If you are not going to use them--sell them, as they wil just be clutter.

 

[Jaxom]

After reading comments and suggestions here, I've come to a few decisions about this canning equipment. First off, parts of this thread have diverged from my orignal question. This is partially my fault. I will open another thread in the finance forum re sales tips. As far as keeping or selling, I'm gonna go 50/50. I'll keep the crock, one canning pot and a few of the accessores, and roughly half the jars. Of course this is after I've gone through them and checked for any that have cracks or chips ect. I'm not interested in the pressure cooker at this time. And frankly don't think I ever will be. That could change in the distant future, but right now I REALLY need every dime I can get to get out of this place. And in all the years we've had the pressure cooker I think mom used it once and that was as a second canning pot.