News & Blog

A recently reported Oregon lawsuit raises an important question for homeowners: what should happen when an estate-sale company finds an item that may be unusual, culturally significant, signed, old, or difficult to identify? According to the report, a family alleges that Chinese scrolls and rubbings were sold at an Oregon estate sale for relatively low prices and that some may have been worth substantially more. Those claims have been made in a lawsuit and have not been prove

Understanding how pricing strategy affects the final outcome One of the most common assumptions families make when planning an estate sale is: “If we price everything low, it will all sell faster.” While that may sound logical on the surface, starting prices too low can sometimes work against the estate’s best interests. Professional estate sales are not just about clearing a house — they are about balancing sell-through with value protection. Understanding this distinction c

One of the most important lessons in estate liquidation is simple: What someone asks for an item online is not the same thing as what it sells for. This distinction matters because many families begin the estate process by scanning items online and seeing surprisingly high listings. But those numbers are often not market value. They are simply hopes . To understand real estate sale value, you have to look at one thing: sold results — not asking prices. Asking Price Is a Wish

Why We Don’t Offer Estate Sale Buyouts Families often ask us if we offer estate sale buyouts. It’s a reasonable question — especially when time, emotion, and logistics are pressing all at once. A buyout can sound appealing on the surface. One number. One decision. Everything handled quickly. For families navigating a transition, that simplicity feels comforting. But after decades of experience in estate liquidation, we’ve learned that buyouts often rely on speculation rather

How Professional Estate Sale Pricing Works (And Why Guessing Costs You Money) One of the biggest concerns homeowners have when planning an estate sale is simple: “How do you know what to price everything at?” A lot of pricing mistakes don’t come from bad intentions — they come from bad assumptions. We’ve listed the most common and expensive ones here: 15 Estate Sale Myths That Actually Cost Families Money . And that concern is justified. Pricing is the single

Why Professional Estate Sales Run Three Days — And How the Market Finds the True Value of Everything. Many people walk into an estate sale and wonder: “Why isn’t everything discounted on the first day?” Why does this take three days instead of one big blowout?” The answer is simple: A professionally run estate sale is not a clearance sale. It is a carefully designed market strategy meant to maximize value for the estate while still being fair to buyers. At Afternoon Estate S