Dear Estate Sales Professionals,

I know you want the “Stuff” the Big Treasures - the “Finds.” But if you ever stop caring about the people who call you, and sort only for what they can do for you, and not what you can do for them – you will be missing the point of why clients call you in the first place.

They call because they need service.

They call because they are confused. They call because they have troubles. They call because they need your help.

The day you forget this, is the day that bells will toll the decline of your business.

Two Estate Sales Clients I saw this week:

The Gun Collector:

In a middle class suburb of San Francisco, my partner and I went to see a man, who we were told by his step daughter, had a collection of 800 antique Colt pistols.

We were very excited on the way there. We imagined that we were about to discover the mother load of antique firearms. Here is what we found instead: An interesting collection of 80 Colt Commemorative Black Powder pistols. They were nice. They had value, but they were not the mother load of Colt pistols we had been led to believe would be there – so big deal. It is what it is. Your clients have what they have, and at least for me that is OK.

Here is some back ground about this client.

A few months ago this client and a woman where driving on his motorcycle when a bee distracted him and he lost control of his motorcycle. He was severally injured and his passenger was killed.

The man we were talking too about his stuff was still bandaged, confused, and full of remorse. Because he was still confused, he tended to ramble a bit.

Estate Liquidators this is not the time to push for the consignment. This is not the time to try and buy. This is not the time to become impatient.

This is the time to listen and offer compassion.

What we found out was that this man was fascinating. Will we do business? I don’t know, we might; only time will tell.

The Caring Daughter:

In 1986 a woman for reasons not completely known to me put all of her things into a storage locker in a little place called Livermore Ca. She paid her monthly storage bill for 21 years. I got a call from her daughter about a week ago. The daughter told me that her plan was to ship her mother’s possessions to the old Alameda Naval Air Station which has now been converted to civilian purposes.

Her husband had a connection to one of the business’s there. She told me that her mom was a collector of glass, silver and antiques. She also told me that there had been an appraisal done before her mom had put everything into storage that stated the value of her possessions to be worth over $20,000.00. She wanted to know if I could help her find the best way to liquidate this property. I said that I could.

When I got there, what I saw were a lot of average household items and accessories.

My client was surrounded by half empty boxes and pieces of furniture. As a side note she had broken her wrist the day before, and searching through her mother’s boxes with this impairment was painful. Here is what she said at least three times in a row.

“I just don’t know what to do.”

I looked around at her boxes, the furniture, her mother’s lifetime of accumulations and I knew that there was not $20,000.00 worth of personal property there. I also knew that there was not much that I could do for her. The financial value wasn’t there. There was no real fee to be made.

My first advice to her was for her to donate her mom’s things and then go back to Los Angeles where she lived. Then I remembered a small regional auction house not far from the Alameda Air Station that would probably be happy to receive this consignment of property. So I gave her the name of the company and I even called them on her behalf.

Here is my point:

The treasures we seek as estate liquidators will come. We just don’t know when or where or from whom they might come. “Treasures” happen when we are consistently of service to our clients.

So begin today by accepting your first treasure – the gratitude from clients to whom you have given compassionate service.

My name is Martin Codina and I am an estate liquidator who loves my job.

Fine Estate Liquidation, Inc.

The Do it Yourself Estate Sales Guide

Our most recent estate sale was in the Richmond district of San Francisco. And I have to say it was a very exciting and an exceptionally diverse sale. Because we consign items from other estates, this two story house was packed with an array of eclectic treasures; Russian Icons, Taxco silver, Outsider Art, marble mantel clocks, antique Samovars, fine art, sterling silver, books, china, and much much more. This sale had what all estate sale customers want – something of interest for everyone.

Here are some of my personal favorites:

A box of ephemera dating back to the 1930′s and 40′s: vintage gas station maps; old AAA trip tiks, vintage Russian sheet music, postcards, old photos, letters. To make things easier for our staff and for the buying public we priced each of these items separately. When a local paper dealer spotted the ephemera he was in heaven and wanted to buy the entire box. I should also mention that our client saw no value in these “old papers and photos” and had placed them in a part of his basement that was his “to be thrown away corner.” So a word of caution to anybody who is cleaning out a loved ones estate – what you consider trash quite likely has value to someone. The above paper pile sold for in excess of $500.00.

A collection of vintage California license plates dating from 1928-1939 were really cool and in excellent condition, and it made an enthusiastic dealer really happy to find them.He also fell in love with a unique Russian sterling silver cigarette case which had a repousse dragon lid, and had a cabochon cut amethyst clasp. He didn’t really deal in silver, he just really liked this piece and decided to buy it for himself. He could have used his resale number, but as a testimate to his integrity he chose not to. He was more than willing to pay the tax. Touché for him.

On the last day, a woman arrived at our estate sale. I immediately saw a magical and delighted sparkle in her eyes as she looked at seventeen original hand-colored aquatint engravings by Samuel Howitt (1756-1822). These graced the walls leading up the staircase to the second level of the house. They were exotic drawings dramatically depicting a variety of African hunting scenes. She asked if this was our entire set, or had we sold a few. I explained that this was indeed our entire set, and although people had expressed an interest in buying just one or two, we chose not to break the set up. She told me that it was her birthday, and she had found the perfect gift for herself; a series of engravings by an artist she admired.

I just love seeing the excitement in dealers’ and collectors’ eyes when they find their much sought after treasures…. It’s magical.

My name is Valetta Ciarla. I work for Fine Estate Liquidation and I love the magic of my job.

The Do it Yourself Estate Sales Guide

Eduard Gaertner 1801- 1877

I would like to tell you a story…

About a year ago I got a call from a “little old lady” living in a small modest home in Antioch California. She had saved one of my mailings for several years, and was now ready to act with regards to her estate sales items.

She and her husband were getting on in years; they couldn’t take care of themselves as well as they had in the past, so they were “downsizing”. This accomplished, they were then going to move across the country to live near their daughter in North Carolina.

Let me back up a bit…

I have been in the estate liquidation business for 13 years. I have two central themes for how I interact with a client and their “stuff”.

1. From the time a client first calls me, to the conclusion of our business, I am there as an advocate for my client. I never let my desire for profits cloud my advice to them, even if that advice directs them away from my business.
2. I visit almost everyone who calls me because I am certain that a wonderful surprise awaits me. I know that I am in the surprise business. It is because of this philosophy that I have had many “Antique Road Show” style moments.

I arrived at her house mid-afternoon…

She, and her husband lived in a single story house surrounded by a proverbial picket fence. Nothing about the house or the neighborhood suggested wealth. I met this elderly couple at their front door, and they showed me into their dining room, where they had carefully laid out their “Treasures”, silver, china, some figurines, collectibles and a few small paintings.

I wish that I could tell you that I was excited by what I saw. I wish that I could say that I immediately saw a treasure. But I didn’t. What I thought I was looking at were some higher end items – things of value to be sure, but not treasures.

I looked at each item they had…

I didn’t see anything remarkable and I told them so. I advised them that they did not have enough for me to conduct an estate sale. My suggestion was that they either choose to have me do an estate Buy-Out, or to have me place their items in an auction, using my Auction Placement Service.

They chose to have my company Fine Estate Liquidation, Inc. place their items in an auction.

So after signing a consignment agreement…

I went to work researching their personal property. The silver and other collectibles turned out to have values that I expected, and they did nicely at auction.

It was one of the small paintings that was the big surprise.

It was by Eduard Gaertner.  After I did the research on the painting I realized that this couples’ painting had some value. The auction house where I placed the painting agreed, they attached a pre-auction estimate of $5,000 to $7,000 on it.

So imagine my surprise…

Several months later, I got a call from a representative of the auction house. He wanted to let me know how the painting had fared at the auction. Auction house’s usually send you a written statement. In all of my years in the estate liquidation business, I have never had an auction house call me with the results of an auction.

He informed me that this little painting (16 1/4″ x 11 1/4″) had sold the day before, for $240,000.00.

Incredible…!

When the auctioneer hammered this painting at the above price, he also set a record for a work by this artist, in its size range.

So here are some morals to the story:

1. Never assume that your “stuff” is just a bunch of “junk”
2. Hire Estate Sales professionals – they offer ways to make better informed decisions.
3. Treat everything like it could be a treasure until the marketplace proves otherwise.

My name is Martin Codina and I am an estate liquidator who loves his job.

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It was the first morning of an Estate Sale…

As with most first mornings, it was hectic. It had taken us four days to prepare this sale, and we had completed the process of pricing over a thousand items, but there were still a few special pieces left to be priced.

Our estate sale was opening in ten minutes…

It was crunch time. I hurried to a back bedroom, to price a full length mink coat: a short leather jacket with fur trim, and several mink shawls and stoles.

I then finished pricing some exquisitely designed Lalique vases and bowls. My personal favorite was one which was decorated with an array of finches. They appeared to be flying in formation around the bowl. It was truly an outstanding piece of Lalique. I heard the front door open and the first fifteen shoppers were let in and the sale began.

The Estate Sale was bustling along when a few hours later…

I relieved a fellow staffer who was working at our check out table. There were people in line with their baskets filled with treasures. My attention was focused on logging their sales into our computer. I looked up and saw a tall, sophisticated older woman, wearing the full length mink coat I had priced earlier, she was also holding the Lalique finch bowl that I had priced.

“Good Morning” I said ‘You’ve picked out some beautiful pieces.” She smiled and handed me the Lalique bowl. I turned it over to verify the price. There was a price sticker on it for $40.

So I asked myself, “Did we just have a 90% off sale that I wasn’t aware of?” I didn’t think so…

I nicely explained that there must be a mistake, and that I had personally priced that bowl at $575. “Well”, she said, “the price on it now says $40.” I informed her that while the both of us might not have any idea how the wrong price got affixed to this bowl, it in fact had the wrong price.

I showed her where I had earlier marked the price at $575 with an indelible marker. She shook her head with mocked surprise and somewhat indignantly said, “That’s too much.” She then took off the mink coat, and handed it to me. And then I noticed for the first time, that the price for the mink coat had also been changed. It now read $25.

Wow, only $25 for a full length designer mink coat! There must have been another 90% off sale that somehow I missed…

I looked out the window, watching this tall sophisticated lady get into her brand new Mercedes and drive off down the road. I wondered to myself, “Is she off to another estate sale?”

My name is Valetta Ciarla. I work for Fine Estate Liquidation, Inc. and there’s never a dull moment in my job, that’s why I love what I do, and tomorrow there will be more tales to tell.

The Do it Yourself Estate Sales Guide

Being a lover of orchids, I was in awe, when I saw one of the largest potted cymbidium orchids I had ever seen. This large Cymbidium had been planted in a wooden barrel and had over a hundred magnificent brown and golden flowers shimmering magnificently in the bright sun of the day.

I thought – “That if at the end of our sale this glorious orchid plant was still available for sale, I would buy it.”

But, on the morning of the first day of this sale, two gentlemen came in and said they wanted to buy the orchid plant. Bummer I thought. They then proceeded to tell me an endearing story about the friendship their Mother had had with her neighbor next door. They had been friends for fifty years and although his Mother no longer lived next door, she still thought from time to time (somewhat enviously) about the cymbidiums still growing in her old friend’s backyard. Her son said, “This cymbidium has huge sentimental value to my Mom”. She had stated to her son; “that of all the stuff in her old friend’s house, the one thing she wanted, and the only thing she wanted was the cymbidium.

This story brought tears to my eyes and I was thrilled that this cymbidium was going to a friend of the estate, who had a very special attachment to it. I must admit I was also relieved that I didn’t have to figure a way to get this extremely heavy potted cymbidium home.

This woman’s son and his friend labored for over two hours transporting this huge orchid from the backyard, down a narrow path, and into the back of their truck; the planter fell apart; there was dirt everywhere, but they managed this task with good cheer and accomplishment. It was a true labor of love. They then came back and kindly swept up all the dirt and with brilliant smiles on their faces, they said

“Thank you, so very much”

This is one of the many highlights of my job; when people are so kind and so honoring of a loved one. Bye glorious orchid, I know you’ll enjoy your new home.

My name is Valetta Ciarla. I work for Fine Estate Liquidation, Inc. and I love my job

415-235-7238

http://www.finesf.com/

The Do it Yourself Estate Sales Guide