Estate Sales Links for Surround Equipment

[Soundfield]

So what happens after an Estate Sale when there's a lot of stuff left no one wants? I assume that many (most?) such sales don't result in everything being sold. You've still got the problem of a house with a load of worthless tat in it, what do you do then? - hire a skip (dumpster) and send it all to landfill?

 

[Pontoneer]

Typically here when people pass away or go into a nursing home, the family liquidates all the possessions that they don't want. It is common to hire a local company to assist with pricing, staging and staffing the sale. In the past they were almost always done at the home, usually on the weekend. The prices are reduced on the second day. The family wants the stuff gone, so they're practically giving it away at closing time.

Recently the sales have moved more to an online auction, especially during Covid. I went to one in a nearby home earlier this year; the deceased was a rich audiophile and the house was jammed with people looking to pick up gear. In retrospect, it was quite risky!

Some states have inheritance taxes that have to be paid within a year, so the heirs are eager to liquidate. The sale establishes the market value for tax purposes.

Years ago I got a McIntosh 275 and C22 for $80; I sold them for $1450. I've been watching estates sales ever since!

When the time comes , I will want my children to benefit by getting the true value of my things .

I expect my son will want all my workshop and Garage equipment , and my daughter will have her choice of my film , photo and audio equipment .

Nonetheless , I will at some point draw up a list of my toys and 'real world' values of them so they get the proper value if they choose to sell .

Items like my Bolex cine cameras , or my Revox tape recorders are worth a lot more than most people would realise , and I want my children to get that value , not some 3rd party profiteer .

The above being said , it's not exactly true that we don't have such things here in the UK , we do , but they're unusual .

When I worked for a video production company some years ago , one of our clients were Christies , the auctioneers . Many of the auctions were of antique furniture and held in various auction rooms , but I do remember them conducting a house clearance just outside Dunblane , near Stirling .

The clearance was on behalf of Sir Archie Stirling , husband of Dame Diana Rigg and nephew of Col David Strling who was founder of the long range desert group , which became the SAS ; Col Stirling was a friend of Ian Fleming and said to be the real life character James Bond was based on ! Anyway , the ancestral home was being sold and amongst the countless items I had to take video clips of in lot order , then project up onto a large screen during the auction , were things like guns , Minox spy cameras , a set of autographed first edition Bond Novels ... That was an interesting one .

 

[Rhinojack]

I have a single friend who does estate sales every weekend. That is his highlight of the week. His garage is filled top to bottom, side to side with “bargains” and a bedroom the same way (and I am not exaggerating at all). Dishes, punch bowels, soup tureens, kitchenware, appliances, you name it. For him it’s all about the deal, not that he needs it. He will occasionally buy me something such as records or something I’ve mentioned that I need or want. Like the other poster mentioned, he could have a hell of a sale and make tens of thousands of dollars but he won’t cause he might need all this. He is not a hoarder, his home is immaculate and beautiful, just that back room and garage.

 

[par4ken]

So what happens after an Estate Sale when there's a lot of stuff left no one wants? I assume that many (most?) such sales don't result in everything being sold. You've still got the problem of a house with a load of worthless tat in it, what do you do then? - hire a skip (dumpster) and send it all to landfill?

Load it in your pickup truck (over here almost everyone has a pickup truck) and haul it to the dump yourself.

 

[FooBarFoo]

That seems strange to me, they are adding in an unnecessary middleman when using a House Clearance firm. The whole idea of a estate sale makes me sad that the diseased person's family didn't value that persons things and keep most of it amongst family members, or distribute amongst friends. The polar opposite of family vultures fighting over everything.

Right now, I think the reason for the rush to dump items is a function of stress and money- most people want an easy button and estate sales are that.

The US housing market has the lowest supply of available properties in 20 years, and houses in many markets are selling at a 15% increase in value this year alone. In most cases, whatever value the items in the house have, it's nothing compared to what can be made from selling the home in a hot market. Financial planners aren't stupid- they are focusing on the 401k, investments and real estate, stuff be damned. Its sad, but it is what it is.

Also, how many people would fight over power conditioners, dacs/decoders, and speakers? Who would know what an OPPO 205 is, and what its worth? (besides us, of course)

Back on topic... Marantz 4300 CD4 quadradial receiver. I'm sharing one of my favorite sites. Its usually not great, but sometimes its a jackpot.

https://ctbids.com/view-more-items/14213/item/1339970

 

[Sonik Wiz]

So what happens after an Estate Sale when there's a lot of stuff left no one wants? I assume that many (most?) such sales don't result in everything being sold. You've still got the problem of a house with a load of worthless tat in it, what do you do then? - hire a skip (dumpster) and send it all to landfill?

The couple of times I asked a sale mgr about that they say a lot of left overs will go to charities & thrift shops donations. I'm sure there's a tax break in there some where.

 

[halbroome]

That seems strange to me, they are adding in an unnecessary middleman when using a House Clearance firm. The whole idea of a estate sale makes me sad that the diseased person's family didn't value that persons things and keep most of it amongst family members, or distribute amongst friends. The polar opposite of family vultures fighting over everything.

Even sadder is seeing a dead person's family throwing away / selling old photo albums of personal pictures / awards / and other memorabilia!

 

[halbroome]

Right now, I think the reason for the rush to dump items is a function of stress and money- most people want an easy button and estate sales are that.

https://ctbids.com/view-more-items/14213/item/1339970

Amen! My father died recently, and suddenly being stuck with an expensive property tax (once the estate opens, we no longer have homestead exemption and the rates skyrocket), cost of utilities, prepping the house for market -- knowing interest rates are about to go up markedly this year, cooling the housing market, so we have to sell soon -- and so on, makes for a ton of stress! Especially if you've spent a lot of time with an ailing parent beforehand, and your own house needs some attention. We were lucky he had prepaid funeral expenses, but I bet most families are left with that sudden expense.

Estate sales here want about 30% of the proceeds, so you need enough stuff to justify things. I've had to haul over boxes of personal stuff gathered over the years and left in the attic, leaving my house looking like a warehouse of boxes that need to be unboxed and organized. Furniture I want from dad's house has to be moved over, and my old stuff thrown out, and so on. My family has pretty much picked over everything, leaving a bunch of mostly unwanted junk. We've got a House Clearance dude coming over to buy the remainder (not worth much), but we have to clear out all we want first. Throw in work and other personal time-consumers, and it is certainly a relief to unload things quickly!

 

[ubertrout]

How timely! This sale near Chicago has at least 4-channel receivers.

No affiliation. TAKE COVID PRECAUTIONS! Arrange a non-contact or minimum-contact sale if you can.
For online auctions, check buyer's premium and terms.

https://kraftauctions.hibid.com/cat...-audio-equipment-estate-auction--cedar-lake/?

That's about a 5 hour drive. Tempting but I'm not enough into analog quad to bother.

 

[Pontoneer]

Even sadder is seeing a dead person's family throwing away / selling old photo albums of personal pictures / awards / and other memorabilia!

While I would not expect my children to want all my stuff ; my son has inherited my interest in cars , and my daughter my interest in photography . Although I don't expect them to want all of my things , I'd hope they would each want something , and sell the rest for its monetary value .

I do have a collection of photos from both sides of my parents families , going back to the dawn of photography ( some prints are tin-types and fading now ; I have taken time to make good scans of as many as I can and have annotated in the file names who I think the subjects are , I can name most of them back to photos of my grandparents taken in the 1920s , but some go a generation or more further back and I simply don't know who they are ) . This work is incomplete due to the time involved , and I haven't even started on the many thousands of 35mm colour slides taken from the 1960s up to the 1990s , after which I began to shoot digital , before finally phasing out film shooting altogether . I'm sure I'm far from alone in having an interest in photography and having gathered together a photographic archive from my extended family . My daughter has already promised that she will keep it going .

I was shocked and taken aback after the passing of my ex father in law a few years ago , when i was still with his daughter . He had been in the Scots Guards and was very proud of his time in the regiment , always attending regimental events and even going to Balmoral to see Her Majesty ( she was always very gracious to her retired guardsmen , coming out to meet and greet them , and the regiment always put on a bash in the local barracks ) . In his home , there was a glass display cabinet with his various medals , photos , model soldiers and many other items . I attended his funeral in Aberdeen , where there was a fantastic representation by the regiment with upwards of 50 old soldiers turning up , some had travelled hundreds of miles ; but being back up at the family home a couple of weeks later , all the furniture had been changed , the display cabinet was gone , and when I enquired about the contents was told " oh , no one wanted all that stuff so it was thrown out " ; 'all that stuff' was the essence of his life and I just can't understand his wife of 50 or 60 years just throwing it all away !

I attached a few shots from the last time I was there , the guardsmen lined up along one side of the entrance to be greeted , and we family members stood behind the metal railings , from where I took these photos .

 

[Pontoneer]

Just to add a few of the old photos I have inherited .

This looks to be a family group taken around the turn of the 20th century , the young boy standing front left I'm fairly sure is my maternal grandfather

This next shot , I'm sure is also him as a young man , seated left , probably early in his career as an engineer , again early 20th century

Here are a couple of photos , I have no idea who they are , from the uniforms I guess from WW1

some early portraits , again no idea who , other than they are ancestors .

Finally , an early Falkirk Fire appliance , print quality alas was very poor , and Falkirk power station , at a time before the national grid , when each town had its own power station .

To me , these are a treasure trove of family history and completely irreplaceable ; how people could throw such items out is beyond me ; even if someone were to die with no living relatives , many museums would bite your hand off for such images .

 

[Soundfield]

To me , these are a treasure trove of family history and completely irreplaceable ; how people could throw such items out is beyond me ; even if someone were to die with no living relatives , many museums would bite your hand off for such images .

I agree that the family history is far more important than mere acquired consumer goods! I liked your photos above. I’ve a lot of family photos going back to the 1880’s which I’ve scanned and shared with the wider family so there’s less chance of them being lost when any one of us goes. Having several relatives who died in the trenches of WW1 their stories and photos are particularly poignant of course. My paternal grandfather survived that war and luckily I’ve not lost what you did – I found his cap badges and medals and had them framed. Together with his service record book from his time at the western front, these things are as carefully preserved as they can be.

This has all tied in with my research into the family tree. On my father’s side I am able to go back to 1600, beyond which things get a little flaky because, as often happened, the spelling of the family name became more variable. I’ve had much less success on my mother’s side not really getting much further back than the early 1800’s hampered largely by a proliferation of very common names leading to multiple dead ends (no pun intended).

It has all been a lot of work – but absolutely fascinating, revealing some extraordinary stories (some funny, some shocking). I'm always saddened by those who have little knowledge of, or no interest in their own past. I know several people who don't even know what their grandparents names were!

 

[GOS]

Just to add a few of the old photos I have inherited .

This looks to be a family group taken around the turn of the 20th century , the young boy standing front left I'm fairly sure is my maternal grandfather View attachment 76286

This next shot , I'm sure is also him as a young man , seated left , probably early in his career as an engineer , again early 20th century

View attachment 76287

Here are a couple of photos , I have no idea who they are , from the uniforms I guess from WW1

View attachment 76288View attachment 76289

some early portraits , again no idea who , other than they are ancestors .

View attachment 76290View attachment 76291

Finally , an early Falkirk Fire appliance , print quality alas was very poor , and Falkirk power station , at a time before the national grid , when each town had its own power station .

View attachment 76292View attachment 76293



To me , these are a treasure trove of family history and completely irreplaceable ; how people could throw such items out is beyond me ; even if someone were to die with no living relatives , many museums would bite your hand off for such images .

I certainly wouldn't think anyone would toss out family history such as what you posted. I mean, never, ever would I do that. Awesome pics by the way. My mom has a bunch of old photos like that, which I intend to take care of.

 

[par4ken]

I certainly wouldn't think anyone would toss out family history such as what you posted. I mean, never, ever would I do that. Awesome pics by the way. My mom has a bunch of old photos like that, which I intend to take care of.

I would like to think that no one would toss out family history but sadly people do. People that would do that have their priorities all screwed up IMHO. That reminds me of record labels (I think ABC) that tossed out their multichannel master tapes, or the BBC that destroyed all copies of Dr. Who and other TV shows!

 

[Pontoneer]

I agree that the family history is far more important than mere acquired consumer goods! I liked your photos above. I’ve a lot of family photos going back to the 1880’s which I’ve scanned and shared with the wider family so there’s less chance of them being lost when any one of us goes. Having several relatives who died in the trenches of WW1 their stories and photos are particularly poignant of course. My paternal grandfather survived that war and luckily I’ve not lost what you did – I found his cap badges and medals and had them framed. Together with his service record book from his time at the western front, these things are as carefully preserved as they can be.

This has all tied in with my research into the family tree. On my father’s side I am able to go back to 1600, beyond which things get a little flaky because, as often happened, the spelling of the family name became more variable. I’ve had much less success on my mother’s side not really getting much further back than the early 1800’s hampered largely by a proliferation of very common names leading to multiple dead ends (no pun intended).

It has all been a lot of work – but absolutely fascinating, revealing some extraordinary stories (some funny, some shocking). I'm always saddened by those who have little knowledge of, or no interest in their own past. I know several people who don't even know what their grandparents names were!

I do have my father's medals , wrist bracelet ( dog tag ) and numerous other mementoes from his time serving in the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders in WWII ; alas I never had the same claim over George's mementoes , being a mere son-in-law .

 

[MidiMagic]

I certainly wouldn't think anyone would toss out family history such as what you posted. I mean, never, ever would I do that. Awesome pics by the way. My mom has a bunch of old photos like that, which I intend to take care of.

What about people who have no family left?

 

[Bill B]

The number of pictures being taken has grown exponentially since the advent of digital photography and even more since everyone has smart phones. Do you realize the volume of family photos that will have accumulated in another 100 years? It helps that they are stored in digital form and not physical for both ease of viewing and retention (a great reason to digitize old photos), but who will have the desire and time to go through thousands and thousands of old pictures of people they never knew?
I spent a lot of time scanning some pre-1980 family photos and slides and have given my brother and sister each a flash drive. From what I have seen none of the next generation in the family have much desire to really view them. I suppose they may at some point want to check some of them out but the point is, very few people have such a desire and that the larger that trail of photos are, the less desire someone will have to wade through them. It becomes too much like work.
The only point I am making is that what we think is important to save for future generations may not matter to 99% of them in the long run.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Any of the TT's in this auction worth bidding on?
Pretty sure some outclass my old Pioneer PL-12D.

 

[Pontoneer]

Right now, I think the reason for the rush to dump items is a function of stress and money- most people want an easy button and estate sales are that.

The US housing market has the lowest supply of available properties in 20 years, and houses in many markets are selling at a 15% increase in value this year alone. In most cases, whatever value the items in the house have, it's nothing compared to what can be made from selling the home in a hot market. Financial planners aren't stupid- they are focusing on the 401k, investments and real estate, stuff be damned. Its sad, but it is what it is.

Also, how many people would fight over power conditioners, dacs/decoders, and speakers? Who would know what an OPPO 205 is, and what its worth? (besides us, of course)

Back on topic... Marantz 4300 CD4 quadradial receiver. I'm sharing one of my favorite sites. Its usually not great, but sometimes its a jackpot.

https://ctbids.com/view-more-items/14213/item/1339970

I just bought a house here in Scotland , and it is the same here .

Following my separation two years ago , I moved into my late mother's empty home ( she had passed six months prior and we had not got around to selling it ) . Alas that was January 2020 and I had only expected to be here a short time ; then the pandemic erupted and i ended up being here two years . Although we had not advertised this house for sale , we had an enquiry from a family friend who was searching for a house and we agreed the sale . I started looking for a house last November , but the market was very limited , until the start of this year ; I viewed a few properties , once I was on my way to view when I received a phone call that the house had been sold - it only went up that morning ! Another one I spotted newly listed on a Saturday morning , when i called to arrange viewing it had been sold - 3 hours after going up .

I did eventually secure a house , which I am happy with , but I had to pay £15,000 over the asking price and I don't get in until 19th April ; meantime I'm packing and need to be out of here by end of next week . Fortunately my daughter has a spare room in her flat , where I will be living for six or seven weeks !

 

[Pontoneer]

The number of pictures being taken has grown exponentially since the advent of digital photography and even more since everyone has smart phones. Do you realize the volume of family photos that will have accumulated in another 100 years? It helps that they are stored in digital form and not physical for both ease of viewing and retention (a great reason to digitize old photos), but who will have the desire and time to go through thousands and thousands of old pictures of people they never knew?
I spent a lot of time scanning some pre-1980 family photos and slides and have given my brother and sister each a flash drive. From what I have seen none of the next generation in the family have much desire to really view them. I suppose they may at some point want to check some of them out but the point is, very few people have such a desire and that the larger that trail of photos are, the less desire someone will have to wade through them. It becomes too much like work.
The only point I am making is that what we think is important to save for future generations may not matter to 99% of them in the long run.

I share that fear .

While these things seem important to me , I can only wonder whether my children will share the sentiments .