Of course I have been to many a garage sale, and I am a big fan. But until yesterday I had never been to a true estate sale where they sell the entire contents of a house. It was quite an adventure, and I can definitely see why people get hooked on the estate sale circuit.
My adventure began the day before the sale. A family friend had an extra ticket to attend and wondered if I might like to join her. (Did you know you have to wait in line the day before the sale to get a numbered ticket?) She managed to score tickets #1 and 2, and from the pictures it looked like there were a lot of little girl things I was told. Oh, and the estate was that of a famous singer turned actor — the one and only Joey Fatone! How exciting.
Having no idea what to expect, I knew I need a plan so I scoured the pictures deciding just what I needed to check out first. Since I am in the middle of a toy avalanche with another baby to enter the picture in the fall, the Pottery Barn Kids Cameron Cubby system was calling to me…
My guide for the day, Susan, is a regular at these events. She told me about how the sale would work, and we decided to meet bright and early to make sure we got good parking.
Yes, we were the first in the house… but it was a mad stampede to get in. We took a wrong turn when we first entered (looking for the stairs), and suddenly there were 15-20 people in front of us and more pushing their way through. It was INSANE!
I was fascinated by everything that was available for sale from couches and coffee tables to half used bottles of sunscreen. I kid you not. Half used! They were like $.25, but still… It was like he died and they just went through and put a price tag on everything. (Don’t worry, he isn’t dead. The rumor is that he is moving out to LA, and I guess he just wanted to unload. I mean you can’t really move everything from a 16,000 square foot home. HA!) BTW – I don’t know how you leave that pool… complete with a water slide.
After I got over the initial shock of people rushing around. I nabbed and grabbed ALMOST everything on my agenda. My husband called me 5 mins into the sale (doh), and I just missed getting the wall shelves I wanted for K’s room. And there were these kids’ end tables that I might should have picked up… but oh well. My big score was the PBK cubbies. I picked up two sets for about half what they retail for, and I got hot pink cloth buckets to contain everything in the cubbies for $10 each. It was a good score.
The only downside, I was only able to find one person to help me move the cubbies. The left 22-week-pregnant me carrying half the load down a flight of stairs — 4 times. I was so tired last night I could hardly move. Note to self, next estate sale bring big strong men!
Of course, I wouldn’t be happy with just half price. What makes my haul even better is that I spotted something in those pictures the night before that I happen to know sells well on eBay, and the day of the sale I was very pleased with the price. So, I picked up a few extra items for resale. If all goes as planned I will easily make up EVERYTHING I paid and possibly some overage… So my new storage system will be free, and I might make a bit of profit on top of that. Whooo hooo.
So, in addition to everything else… looks like the playroom is getting a makeover too. Now to get some more kid friendly art, maybe a vinyl decal.
I didn’t know much about estate sales either. Thanks for the info. By the way, I have the same house for my daughter, but we keep ours in the backyard. She loves it.
great story Jen. what a score you made, who needs retail when you can clean up like that at estate sales.