A few days ago someone reached out to me via Etsy asking about a vintage item that was once listed there. It’s been several years since I’ve run an online vintage store, but nothing really goes entirely away on the internet, and this person doing some online research happened upon a small metal tag that had been used by a plumber way back when. The plumber happened to be this person’s great-great-grandfather. Seeing that the item was no longer listed for sale they wondered if there was any chance it was still available, and if not could I let them know where I had found it.
Well, I had to break the news that alas this item had sold way back in 2016. Though I couldn’t remember the specifics of how I had wound up with that tag, my guess was that it was something I ended up picking up at an estate auction, more than likely in a box lot of one sort of another.
There was a time in my life when I spent many a Saturday hanging out at estate auctions. For me this was the perfect opportunity to pick up some treasures for my Etsy store at a great price. It wasn’t such a bad way to spend a Saturday, and I would often leave with a full car and an only slightly less full wallet.
The estate auctions I went to were generally held after an older homeowner had passed away, and the heirs now faced with a house full of stuff opted to use an auction company to sell off the home’s contents. You would come across all manner of goodies (and also, admittedly, lots of junk) at these sales.
Box lots were probably my favorite part of estate auctions. For the uninitiated, box lots were simply groupings of sometimes related, but often random items. Each auction company runs its sales differently, but the ones I went to would generally put together a group of box lots ask for bids and give the winning bidder their choice of one or more boxes from the grouping at their winning bid. There would be a few rounds of this, and then when bidding slowed down, the auctioneer would usually simply lump the remaining boxes together into one lot and auction the entirety of them off to the highest bidder. This is how on more than one occasion I ended up filling up my car with treasures (or junk depending on your view of things) for less than $20.
When I was in the business of buying and selling stuff, estate auctions were always a profitable venture for me. Garage sales and yard sales were hit or miss. Rummage sales could sometimes be a bust, but estate auctions never failed to deliver a decent profit, and they were entertaining. The auctioneers kept things moving along and made things fun, and it was always interesting to see the things that would spark bidding wars. It was almost as interesting to see which lots no one else seemed interested in. I remember at one estate auction being shocked that I was able to pick up a big bag filled with new old stock typewriter ribbon for a dollar. It seemed like such an easy flip, but apparently no one else was interested.
I haven’t been to an estate auction since shutting down my Etsy store, and while I don’t miss having to photograph, store and write listings for all that inventory, I do occasionally miss the thrill of discovering treasures among the piles of junk at estate auctions.
— Alissa
Weekly Inspiration
What I’m Reading: The Plains of Abraham by Stephen Parrish
What I’m Watching: Jackpot
What I’m Listening to: “Listen to Your Heart” – Roxette
Find out more about my books at alissagrosso.com
Find out more about my digital art at alissacarin.com
My apologies for the typos and such this post is almost certainly riddled with.
Creativity and Contentment 
11 responses to “Sold to the Highest Bidder”
I use to go to auctions and if I would win the bid, I would secretly fist pump , feeling like I was the big winner. Then I realized that it’s because no one else wanted it lol. Fast forward all these years to when my mom passed away a few years ago and I was left with that task of having to be the one to slough off the old uninterested items to those who are now rummaging to find those good buys on the antiques. It’s fun to see the shift in tide. Once we were the eager buyers , now we are the eager sellers
Kudos to those who want to collect those memorable items
So very true. For me it was having to pack up and move a few times, that finally got me to realize I didn’t need so much stuff!
A few years ago, out of the blue, Ben actually found my grandmother’s baby book being sold on Ebay!!! 😮 (We were able to buy it back)
Oh, I remember you posting about this on Facebook. So cool!
…. I always think that’s where all these trinkets will going .,,,,
You do know that you could be having an auction somewhere in the not so distant future, right?😘
Is this a dig at our over-crowded garage? Ha ha!
Or ours! Haha!
I often want to hold an estate sale to clear out my house, and I’m still alive!
Exactly why I like library book sales. I never end up losing money and some of the finds are amazing.
Oh, I do love a used book sale too, but you probably could have guessed that!