A Beginners Guide To Estate Sales
I feel like the vintage re-sellers are going to hate me for this one… but sacrifices must be made. Anytime we can encourage more people to shop second hand is a win! Throughout my journey into the second hand world, I've done almost everything: thrift stores, facebook marketplace, stooping, antique markets, the list goes on. But there is one thing I have never tried.
Estate sales are the next level, they've always intrigued me but I knew absolutely nothing about them, so I set out on a journey to find out all the information I could to share with you guys!
So the first question is …
Where do you find estate sales?
I reached out to you guys on Instagram for advice on where to track down estate sales. I've compiled your answers and here are the most common results:
Find them driving around with signs
Check the newspapers for listings of estate sales
Find listings for them posted on buy and sell sites
FaceBook Marketplace
Kijiji
Craigslist
Follow an estate sale company on their website
That all being said, the most popular answer was ONLINE Estate Sales! Here is a list of a couple of the most popular platforms to find these:
Another reoccurring piece of advice I got from the response to my IG story was “CHECK OUT XOMACENNA!!” We’ve been following MaCenna for a while now across various platforms and knew it was finally time to reach out to hop on a call and maybe snag some info from her in regards to in person estate sales.
Here is the info I collected from her and complied to help you:
MaCenna said she tends to go to estatesales.net to find all of the sales she goes to
It’s important to note that each sale varies, some have sign up sheets and some are first come first serve, so you gotta check before you go so you either can go early or get on that list!
Depending on how busy the sale is, purchasing can be pretty tough - so you have to divide and conquer. You will need to get someone running the sale to get a sold sticker to make sure no one takes the item from you!
It’s usually pretty obvious what’s for sale and what isn’t, but generally, everything is fair game because the previous owners will have already snagged everything they need before the sale.
You can haggle on the day to try and get a better price for an item, but make sure not to go too low or someone will try and steal it from you!