New to collecting, need input on estate sale items

[DKott21]

I'm new to collecting. I will be going to my first estate sale Saturday. On the website it shows pictures of everything there and common sense tells me there are some nice collectibles and high valued items. I've tried researching and finding these items but was unsuccessful. If you happen to have some free time, I would appreciate it if you could skim through some of these pictures from the link given and tell me what you think.

http://www.estatesales.net/estate-sales/213069.aspx

[fancypants]

Welcome to the forum , DKott21 .

Perhaps you might give us an idea about what types (furn.,china,tools,glass, etc) of items that you're wanting to start collecting &/or buying from the sale ?

I began to go through images from your link , but the site froze up on me .... looked like a fair amount of vintage (& newer) stuff , as far as I got .....

[hudsonhacker]

Determine what interests you. It makes it easier to do the research!

List the items you are interested in and do as much research as possible prior to the auction. Sometimes you get things super cheap, and other times they go for double their market value. As a buyer, you need to know what you are bidding on or it can be an expensive learning process.

Do not get into an ego war. Winning the piece you want is important, but you need to win it at the right price!

Once you have a list of the pieces written down based on the photos and have done your research, get to the sale early enough to thoroughly inspect the items that you are interested in. A cell phone with internet access can be very helpful to get ball park values if things were not what you expected.

Have fun, and remember if prices get out of hand, it is really easy not to bid.

Just my 2cents

[DKott21]

I'm not necessarily collecting but more-so buying and reselling. There are no specific items I am looking for. Just anything I can make a decent profit off of. The problem is I'm so new to this I have no idea what many of these antique items are so I cannot research them. Same goes with the paintings. How would you looks up the value of a painting. Especially when there are no markings on it. I'm new to this so I'm only going off of basic knowledge and gut feelings but I believe I there is good marketing for Schlitz items which he has plenty of. I couldn't find them on the net though. I'm also very curious about the small gun on image 9 below the small clock. Also, I am not interested in is the jewelry and furniture.

[DKott21]

Here are few pictures to make it easier. Basically I was interested in most of these items. Too me, alot of these items look like they have some value. But I don't have enough knowledge to know for sure.

[hudsonhacker]

Just as an example. I checked the schlitz globe on EBAY. One that works is attracting bids of $30. There are BUY IT NOW pieces asking $70 with no bids. Figure if you want to resell it, you need to buy it for $15 or $20.


Do the same with every other item in that pictures. Takes about 30 seconds per item. Be realistic as to what it can be resold for. I can ask $5000 for something on EBAY, but if there are no  bids, it ain't worth that. Use the auctions only tab to get a feel to prices and level of interest.

[flablitz]

Looks like there is quite a few things that look like they would sell for the right price to the right person. As mentioned above, you have to get the stuff for the right price to make it profitable. Remember also it may take awhile to actually turn the profit to, so all depending on long you can have your money tied up in it also. Good luck on your venture btw!!!!

[mart]

Estate sales are usually way over the price that you need to buy at to show a profit !! I can go to a shop and get items at about the same price as estate sales here !!  Be very careful and know the range you need to buy at and if you can`t get it at that price,, pass on it !! Remember your sales are going to vary with market trends which could mean lower prices this week than last week !!