What Do Estate Sales Pickers Have to Say

When you are listening to other estate sale pickers and expert eBay sellers on YouTube, you learn something. Although you may have a small library of price guides, publications, magazines, books, paperbacks, etc. about antiques and collectibles, things worth selling, you’ll never know it all about where to hunt, how to price and all the places to sell.

I admit that I have a keen eye for finding and identifying quality things to sell, yet an expert is one of my go-to sources to learn something different and interesting to keep me on my toes and excited about finding hidden treasures to buy and sell. Those two skills became the foundation for my estate sale experience. Note: As an estate sale professional, I do not purchase from my sales.

When I have spare time, my favorite pastime is browsing through flea markets, but there are many places to hunt for valuable things on my list, as you’ll see below. Thrift stores used to be my favorite hunting place, but not so much these days. They just don’t seem to have the good stuff they used to have, which begs the question: Why not?

I think I was born with an eye for quality things because I am so aesthetic conscious. However, almost anyone can develop an “eye” for valuable things that are not just old, but unique, different, odd, pretty in an uncommon way, quality, flawless, expensive and rare. Having the ability to determine the rarity of an item requires years of extensive study of a particular item or category of items. No one person can know it all. That’s why collectors specialize in a specific area and collaborate with others.

Why Is It Important To Develop An Eye?

Earning substantially more profits is the obvious reason. Competition is next.

Have you ever noticed someone dogging your footsteps at a flea market, yard sale or estate sale and wondered why? For whatever reason these bird doggers zone in on someone who appears to have an eye, that’s picking up only nice things, turning them over to check for maker’s marks…. It doesn’t take these copycats long to invade your space either. That’s basically why people start fighting over things. I have literally seen this happen in Goodwill stores. Pickers or people with a keen eye often camp out where the picking is good for early Steiff bears, engraved sterling silver, etc. By the nature of collecting to buy, sell, and hold they are aggressive in the pursuit of what they want.

Hmm? Wonder if Lynn Dralle is like that? As I may not be in the same buying and selling category as the Queen of Auctions, I must admit that my “eye” is not dim and I am capable of turning a handsome profit on my finds. That being said, this article was written to help newbie pickers who want to become experts at buying and selling online, because the Internet is where the REAL money is.

What I want you to take away from this article is a set of simple rules to remember before you set out to start picking or buying at estate sales or anywhere to maximize your time and budget, find at least one treasure per hunt, and TAKE PROFIT!

Rule 1: Even if you possess a natural gift of spotting valuable things, you need to constantly review publications about what’s trending, old things as well as new, well-crafted, brand name furnishings, accessories, clothing, jewelry, etc.

Rule 2: Visit showrooms; buy House Beautiful, Veranda, Robb Report, Country, Southern Accents, Traditional Home…magazines to train your eyes and mind to recognize things of quality. In so doing, this new skill will influence your subconscious mind. As a result, you will start to desire a better quality of things for your personal use and home as well. What you are around, you will become influenced by.

Rule 3: If the shopping place isn’t busy, take your time browsing, but when you see something that fits the “eye for valuable things criteria,” put it in your basket. You can change your mind at the register, and don’t take your eyes off your basket. Things have a way of walking around other eagle eye pickers.

Rule 3: Set a budget or you can easily develop a bad habit of buying more than you can afford (believe me I’ve been there) or things that have no re-sale value, so buy smart. If you Need Money to Start or Grow Your eBay Business? We Can Help!

Rule 4: Understand this above all other rules; you “make a profit as soon as you buy an item.” For example, if you pay $2 for a piece of pottery in a thrift store knowing (or not knowing) that the potter is popular, deceased and his work is expensive and highly collectible, and you decide to ask $250 for it online, YOU HAVE ALREADY MADE A PROFIT. Remember: When you see something that fits the “eye for valuable things criteria,” and costs only a few bucks, put it in your basket!

Rule 5: Never examine items with a loupe or magnifying glass anywhere—if you can avoid it. Never brag about your expert eye. Never explain why you’re turning things over to examine them. Never act like an expert or you’ll be charged more. Always act dumb, snap up the item, pay for it, and move on. When that vendor starts to see you on a regular basis they will just think you are a regular buyer.

Follow these rules of developing an eye for finding valuable things at estate sales, garage sales, flea markets… and you will soon be picking and selling like Lynn Dralle, the Auction Queen, and me—whose hands are quicker than the eyes for the valuable stuff!

For the newbie estate sale picker, here is a list of relatively small items that are easy to buy, pack and ship to look for.

Art
Animal Things
Architectural Locks, Hinges…
Carpentry Tools
Art Nouveau & Art Deco
Brass
Books, Magazines, Newspapers, Catalogs
Banks
Boxes
Baskets
Blacksmith Items
Bottles
Bells
Baseball Cards
Bar Equipment
China & Glass
Copper
Clothing
Coins
Civil War Collectibles
Candles & Candle Supplies
Cloisonné
Carvings
Clocks
Chairs (Sell to local antique dealers)
Comic Books
Christmas
Country
Dolls
Depression Glass
Decoys & Shorebirds
Ephemera
Furniture
Picture Frames
Fireplace Equipment
Fishing Tackle
Folk Art
Fabrics
Buttons
Glass
Guns
Gambling Devices
Hardware
Handcrafts
Iron
Indian
Jewelry
Kitchen Items
Knives
Lighting
Limited Edition Books
Locks
Military
Miniatures
Musical
Movie Items
Needlework
Oriental
Postcards & Trade Cards
Prints
Photography
Small Paintings
Itinerant Artist Artwork
Photography
Pewter
Political
Printing
Portraits
Quilts
Railroad
Razors
Sterling Silver
Store Items
Stamps
Scrimshaw
Stained Glass
Sports
Smoking
Scientific Apparatus
Tools
Toys
Tin
Victorian
Golf

Tonza Borden’s Complete List Of Places & Things To Treasure Hunt

Estate Sales
Antique & Collectibles Clubs & Shows
Antique & Collectible Stores
Antique Dealers
Antique Malls
Pawn Shops
Antique Auctions
Government Auctions
Garage Sales
Flea Markets & Swap Meets
Thrift Stores
Private Collectors
Surplus Stores
Salvage Yards
Unclaimed Freight
Postal Auctions
Factories & Local Manufacturers
Book Fairs
Library Sales
Used Book Stores
Stamp Collectors
Magazines
Classifieds
Newspapers
Internet
Real Estate Clean Outs
Closeouts
Relatives, Friends, Neighbors
Churches
Donations

Buyer Beware: I have omitted storage units and lockers for a good reason. I am usually out front in the hunt for valuables so I have known about the sneaky tricks such as cutting the lock after non-payment of rent, owner’s removing things of value and “salting” the unit from other sources with a few attractive items placed in front to get bidders excited. I now know my own little sneaky ways to get the goods from these places that I’ll share with you, in another post.

Now that you’re getting good at finding valuable stuff, you don’t know how to price it, right? Start by comparing prices on WorthPoint or eBay. One of my insider tips is to price expensive foreign items according to eBay China, eBay Japan, eBay France, etc. If you decide to price according to these various eBay price points, reduce the prices from 30-60% so that your similar item sells fast. Caution: Just because an item looks identical to what’s shown online or in a magazine does not necessarily mean it is genuine or authentic. Seek the opinion of a qualified appraiser, whom you will have to pay.

An alternative is to shop your rare, expensive find to antique and collectibles connoisseurs. If one is interested in buying it, you will know that you have found a treasure. Never disclose how much you paid for it, and don’t get greedy. TAKE PROFIT! Not only did you make a sweet deal, but the antique dealer will also be interested in future finds of the same and better quality.

How to Get Rid of Carpenter Ants

Carpenter ants live in forested areas of the world. They make their nest in wood. Many people confuse carpenter ants with termites. Termites are insects which consume wood whereas carpenter ants just build their nests in dead and damp wood. Carpenter ants often attack wooden structures and can cause lot of costly damage.

How to get rid of carpenter ants

Carpenter ants hollow their dead tree limbs, timbers, woods in homes etc. to make their nest. They only chisel the wood and don’t actually eat it like termites. In a house many objects and furniture are made of wood. Carpenter ants can infest anywhere. They usually make their nests under the window, decks, porches, etc. They like to be in damp wood but even soft wood is comfortable for them. Let’s have a look at how to get rid of carpenter ants and how to control their population.

Sprays

Spraying pesticide will not be of much value as you will be killing only a fraction of the whole population. The major part of the ants would be sitting in the colony and you will be killing only the workers.

Treating the affected area

One should go for a treatment which targets the whole colony. First, locate the colony by seeing where the saw dust is coming from. Once you find the place, use a dust insecticide for use in wood. Apply it directly into the cavity. Use a tube to do this and not the hands. Fill a bottle full of the dust insecticide and inject the dust by squeezing and releasing the bottle. However, it will be better if you call a professional pest controller.

Baits

Some insects and animals can be fooled with bait, but not all. The carpenter ant feeds on much different stuff and thus bait might not be very successful.

Dust formulations- There are many dust formulations made for home use. Some of them are: Apicide, Deltadust, Drione. These are used by professionals and may not be given over the counter. These formulations are used to control bees and ants which get stuck in the wall. While using these, make sure it does not come into contact with humans or pets.
Liquid insecticides- These insecticides are smart and do not kill the infected insect immediately. Instead it works like a virus and infects other members of the colony as well. But these are very strong and can only be used twice a year. It cannot be used anytime you feel like it, as it is harmful for humans too. They are only to be used by licensed pesticide applicators.

• Always try to target the colony and apply the pesticide or dust.

• Sometimes you might have to use the sprays on a monthly basis.

To prevent more infestation, trim all the branches of trees which surround your house, so that the branches do not touch the house. Also paint exposed wood furniture and replace already infested wood and furniture.

What This Page Is About: Your Recovery

This page is written for several groups of people affected by serious auto accidents: those who have just been through an accident, their families, and their friends. All these people have their own reactions to the accident and want to help the people they love.
Above all, this page is about taking back your life and your personal power. That means helping you grab the tools within your reach. The “you” may be the survivor of a serious auto­mobile accident, a concerned family member, a friend, or a col­league. The tools are understanding, knowledge, example, and encouragement. More information here:
You had an accident, and you took your car to the body shop; now what do you do about the driver?
You can se the damage to your vehicle, but will you pay attention to the hidden impact on your self?
You may not want to talk about it, but if you’re now curi­ous to know about your stress reactions after the car accident, this page is for you.
Both sides of that reaction – wanting to get as far as pos­sible away from your reactions, yet being hungry for informa­tion to help put them to rest – are what make car accident stress frustrating, complicated. . . and solvable. That’s why I wrote the page and why you are reading it – to figure out some of these reactions and move on.

The impact of an auto accident sends waves of reactions through many people – the people in the accident itself, their families and friends, and the teams of police, firefighters, and EMTs (emergency medical technicians). When it involves a school bus, a carload of children, several cars, or a well-known family, the impact can profoundly touch a whole community. Even when it is a near miss, an accident has an impact on the people involved.
Everybody who has an accident will have some reactions. The reactions may last only a few hours, or even a few minutes in a near miss or a minor fender-bender. But if the accident was more serious, a process will be at work. The “Stress Bill” scale on page 20 enables you to quickly size up the accident you had in terms of its likely consequences.
These car accident stress reactions are normal and expectable. One reason they don’t feel normal is that you probably didn’t have them before the accident. But they are the normal indicators that your mind, heart, and body are adjusting to the new reality of the accident. If today is very different from the day before the accident, it is because the car accident stress recovery process is at work. Just as your body needs healing;’so does your mind.
This page is practical, straightforward, and filled with advice from others who have successfully coped with accidents and emerged stronger people.
Even if I could talk at length with each of you, I could never know exactly what it has been and still is like for you coping with your accident. The pain, the trauma is yours alone, and it’s impossible to fully share with anyone else. But in watching the relief that so many people have gotten from unburdening them­selves of their pain and reactions to others who have been through a similar trauma, I know that company truly helps. And I know that isolation does nothing to relieve the pain.

As you read Car Accident: A Practical Recovery Manual, keep these truths in mind:

The path you take through these actions is yours alone.
Some things may apply to you. Others may not.
You are the captain of your recovery. No expert has the answers; they lie within your heart.
If you are open, you will find wisdom in this page that will lend shape to what you have been through and illuminate the path ahead.
Each step on your journey will change your point of view.
Some things will make sense now; others may only be apparent later.
How you pace yourself, and the support you have and are willing to use, will determine your reactions and your outcome.

You are not alone. Your reactions and feelings are quite com­mon, and those feelings form a pattern that flows in stages.”In the following pages, earlier survivors have agreed to share ­ through their words, their pain, their courage, and their experi­ences – how they have dealt with the feelings you now have. And they want to show you some of what you may encounter on your Journe£

Everyone has response. Your choice is not whether you will have them but how you will handle them. This recovery is yours, and the option of how to handle it is yours. But you can rely on those who have made this journey before you to help you through.