Estate Sales Are the Most Exciting Way to Shop For Antiques—Here's How to Shop One
For those thrifters who are, shall we say, a bit bored with the predictable nature of their local vintage homewares store or even auction house, estate sales are the answer. “Estate sales are like real life treasure hunts,” says Lauren Caron, founding designer at Studio Laloc. “For every sale I’ve attended, I went for one thing, but also left with something completely unexpected!” So what are they, exactly? An estate sale is a sale in which all the items inside someone’s house are available for purchase. They might take place over the course of a few days or just be one day and done. And you might be able to see a few photos of the inside before you attend—at most. “What I like about estate sales is you never know what you’re gonna find,” says Rodney Lawrence, principal at Rodney Lawrence Inc. “I like the thrill of the hunt. Go without any expectations and sometimes you’ll go home with an unexpected treasure.”
Anyone can attend an estate sale. All you have to do is find out about it, show up, and make your purchases. Here’s how to go about it.
How do you find out about an estate sale?
A number of aggregate websites and apps have popped up to help homeowners market their sales and shoppers find them. “I use www.estatesales.net, which also has an app that will map out where estate sales are located. You can easily ‘favorite’ the sales for the weekend, which adds them to a map that makes it easy to sale hop,” says Lauren. “I’m also part of the email list for EstateSales.net, which sends weekly notifications about upcoming sales.” Lawrence is a fan of www.estatesales.com and www.estatesales.org, which allow you to “narrow your search by location,” and also checks in local newspapers to see if any are posted there. (You’ve probably also seen signs on streetposts advertising estate sales; that works too!) If you have a good relationship with any local antiques dealers, says Rodney, they might be willing to tip you off to the best upcoming sales before they’re advertised in listings.
In addition to these aggregates, there are companies that run the actual estate sales, hired by the family or individual selling all the items. (As estate sales typically take place shortly after the homeowner passes away or is moved to some sort of assisted living facility, it’s understandable that the family left behind often seeks some professional help organizing the sale.) “For my favorites, I’ll ask the hosts to add me to their private email list. Which often provides early access to the addresses and photos of the sales they’re hosting,” Lauren says.
What sorts of things will you find?
Quite a bit of intimate junk, most likely: closets full of the recently deceased’s clothes, photos, and personal trinkets. (The sort of stuff that makes for a good TikTok.) But also a whole house full of decorative pieces that were picked to go together! “Instant collections,” Lauren calls them. “At estate sales, the previous owners have already done the hard work. For example, one could purchase a set of sofas, collections of art, dinnerware, glassware, books, etc.” Lawrence keeps an eye out for “a property that has not changed hands for many years, or has been in the same family for generations” as those tend to be treasure-troves.
To get a sense of what will be at a particular sale, and if it’s even worth your time to attend, check the photos. “I often check the furniture art, and rugs in the listing photos first,” says Lauren. “If there are any distinguishable pieces, like antiques or particularly nice rugs, it’s highly likely that it’ll be a good sale. Also, I make sure to look at the type of sofas the home has. Nice lines, nice upholstery, or anything custom is a pretty good indication that the sale will be worth attending. I attended one sale that was in a home designed by Parish-Hadley! It was incredible. If there aren’t photos, which isn’t very often nowadays, I scan the listing for key words like antiques, Baker furniture, silver, antique rugs, etc.”
How do you get the good stuff?
“Get there as early as possible. The early bird definitely gets the worm in these situations,” says Rodney. Specifically, Lauren recommends arriving an hour before the doors open if you “must” have an item you’ve seen in the photos: “Otherwise arriving early on the first day provides the most opportunity to grab the best items, then attending towards the end of a sale is great for getting the best deals.” If you’re on an email list with one of the hosting companies like Lauren is, you might even be allowed to sign up via email in advance of the sale to secure a place in line.
Since prices for items in an estate sale are not posted in advance, you should do some research on any pieces you like in the photos to see how much they typically cost. Breuer chairs, the cane-and-chrome 50s staple by Marcel Breuer that have come back into vogue, are going nowadays for $300 on Etsy. So if you see some posted in an estate sale, you know what they’re worth—so that you definitely get a deal and don’t overspend.
Another trick from Lauren: “Some sales allow you to bid on items. So I always ask the host if they accept bids. If so, I will place a bid on an item that is out of my price range on the first day. On the second day, if it hasn’t sold, then I will ‘win’ the item.”
What’s the procedure once you’re inside?
If you’re planning to buy any specific items, beeline for them in order of preference. Small items should be fine to just pick right up and take to checkout to create a little pile. But for larger pieces, there will be a system. “The majority of sales I’ve attended recently will have tickets with the price on the items—specifically the larger pieces—that you take to the host to hold until you’re finished and ready to check out,” Lauren explains. That act of snagging the ticket (you got the piece! Yahoo!) and taking it to the host means it’s effectively sold: You HAVE to buy the item at that point. (Don’t expect to be allowed back in any of this hosts’s future sales if you decide to back out of a piece you tagged.)
Once you’re finished shopping, check out your “purchase pile,” as Lauren calls it, and any other tickets you’ve collected. While cash is usually preferred, any number of other transactional methods might be employable. “Especially today, with apps like Venmo or Zelle or Paypal, but you do have to pay for the items you want at the time of exiting the sale.” Bring your checkbook and a credit card in case. “Some sales offer credit card payments but they typically tack on a 3% fee,” Lauren says.
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