Plenty of times you hear stories of folks purchasing items inexpensively at an Estate Sale and selling those items for a nice profit. How do they do it? RESEARCH. It's easier than you think when you have the internet at your disposal. There are many research tools online that can really help you score big on your next purchase. Start here:
1. Finding estate sale companies online that post lots of pictures of items that will be for sale. Use www.estatesales.net, craiglist.org, gsalr.com,estatesales.org, Total Estate Solutions, or googling estate sales.
2. Look at those pictures with a fine tooth comb looking at items in the foreground and background make note of what you've found. If you don't know what you are looking at just type your best description in google and click on images in the top left hand part of the page. Hopefully you'll find out what you are looking for. Pay attention to the material for antiques.
3. Find out what the item would sell for at retail by using Terapeak, an ebay sellers tool that you can do research on to find out how much the item sold for and every other stat that you can think of. You can go back as far as 180 days. You have to pay for this service but it is well worth it if you sell on ebay or amazon or any other online retail store.
4. If you can get the ISBN # for books, use this ISBN TOOL to show you how much the book is selling for new and used. Store this link on your cell phone and use it everywhere you go. You could also use Amazon to look up books and other items that have an ISBN #, UPC code, or ASIN.
5. For artists, paintings use Find Art Info for information on how much a painting of a particular artist may have sold at. You can also google artist price lookup for more websites to use.
6. If you can't find anything about a particular item on the internet (virtually impossible) visit your local bookstore or library reference section for price guides. It's not recommended to use price guides as your guide to making the most profit on your purchase but to use as a guideline. Remember - AN ITEM IS WORTH ONLY WHAT SOMEONE IS WILLING TO PAY.
At all of Total Estate Solutions estate sales we allow PDA's, hand held devices, computers with wireless cards, phone a friend, or anything else that helps you find a piece of treasure in your hunt.
