Featured The golden age of estate sales

Estate Sales Are Hot: Millennials, Gen Z Buy Dead Baby Boomers Stuff - Business Insider

Thought it was an interesting read.

 

I'm a bit too old to qualify as a Boomer...but the BI article is spot-on about the tsunami of stuff about to flood the streets. I've got grandkids that are nuts about MCM furniture, UV reactive glassware, manually operated kitchen gadgets, & etc, etc...one of 'em still shopping in goodwill an' other 'thrift' shops (which aren't very thrifty, judging by some of the price tags I've seen).
I've given lots of my stuff away an' will increase that trend within the family radically in the next couple years...if I live long enough to manage it myself.
After that, it's someone else's problem. What? Me...Worry?

 

I saw that article already today. I'm leading edge GenX but have more stuff than space too. The sterling drug dealers... yup. They got that part right!

 

Didn't read it
Estate sales have been bad for five years
Those dying now do not have the stuff their predecessors did
Those selling have google lens expectations for pricing

I used to attend 5-10 estate sales per week. Rare to see one worth the effort now.

 

I can't even find one a month here; they're all on line auctions and local pickup only. Worst of both worlds.

 

I see many of the estate sales are now online.
I think some were really hurt during the snow and bad weather here, so they shifted to online auctions.

Personally, I like to hold the object before I would buy it.

 

some interesting points but overall..... nothing new , and maybe more of a microcosm of her area.....and not a good take on the over all complexity of the 2nd hand market !!!!
What she writes , it's not basically what we're all seeing.

 

She is right that there is soooo much stuff out there right now. Unfortunately, a lot of it belongs in an either a thrift store or a landfill. I see people all the time at the antique malls with carts full of stuff that you couldn't pay me to take.

 

I still love going to estate sales. They have certainly gone up in prices, but there are still a few companies here that I can afford. I do wait in line for hours and am the first in with the resellers. If you wait there is nothing worth getting left in my opinion. I usually get at least one thing I like every week or couple of weeks. This week was fantastic for me. I got gold, Native American jewelry and mid century and uranium glass. That’s all the stuff I kept. I sold a pendant, necklace, and ring to make back all the money I spent.

 

I haven't seen one here within my physical reach all Winter. I bid on a few on line, but if it has to be shipped I have to figure that into the price I'm willing to pay...and was routinely outbid by those who could pick up in person. Prices are up at the physical sales too, if you can find one. I haven't seen the likes of a really good digger sale in a while, and the only one where I really made out wasn't advertised as such. A guy I know who does cleanouts held one at a house he was working on, but the only way to find out was to go to his physical store and be told by his sister.

 

Let's go!

 

I am the same age as some US Boomers, but don't qualify as that overhere. Europe has its own Lost Generation, 1955-65, who came of age during the economic crises of the 70s-80s. As teens we were told we would never be employed, so many of us set up small businesses to try and have an income. Of course many have 2nd hand (and home made) furniture, some of which is of interest to later generations.
The sad/stupid thing is that many younger people have never heard of the European Lost Generation and call us Boomers. No kids, our lives were very different from that of the Baby Boomers.

 

Basically the same in my area. Most of the companies that had decent sales by me are all online now. I'm not in the habit of competing with collectors, or low profit margin buyers with soft close auctions.

A lot of the newer companies that have traditional sales by me are cookie-cutter types. Everything is staged (and they take pictures of ridiculous items just because they're older. i.e., a cheap vintage duplex bulb receptacle), most items are priced at asking prices online, and going to their sales is just not worth my effort.

Sad state of affairs by me...

 

Thanks, Potts...I've captured your offering!

 

If you say Lost Generation here, it means people who became adults right after the first World War. Americans, who aren't the best at History, and even those like me would have to think about it each time. We're so hard-wired to think of Lost Generation as the era of F Scott Fitzgerald and the Great Gatsby that switching reference points gets... interesting. The other problem is the "Boom" is related to the sharp increase in babies born at that time, and little to do with the economy.

 

I thought the lost generation was considered earlier?

I imagine life was far different in Europe than life in North America after the war

 

Far different, indeed! Hard to imagine, for most of us Boomers.
My sweet Hilde was born in 1946 near Hamburg to a woman who had been a nurse on the Eastern Front in ~'42-'43. One story Mutti tells is about hand knitted heavy an' course woolen underclothing; another is about American Care Package foodstuffs...peanut butter was initially thought to be for waterproofing footwear, an' corn was seen as cattle feed, not fit for human consumption!

 

The term was coined by Gertrude Stein, to Hemingway. She also said, of Ezra Pound, that he was "A village explainer. Good if you were a village. If not, not." Ouch! She was funny.

 

Yes, the North American Lost Generation is post WW1. Which is why I said that Europe has its own Lost Generation, so different from the North American one.

Socio-economics evolve differently in different parts of the world. For instance, Australia suffered more from the Great Depression of the 1930s than any other Western nation, a little known fact. Also pretty unknown is how hard Europe was hit by the economic crises of the 70s and 80s, resulting in the doom scenario told to us teens, and our determination to try and make it anyway.

As far as the baby boom goes, here in NL the generation of my parents, born in the 1920s, was the largest by far. That was our real baby boom, not the 1945-55(-65) generation.

There has been a panic here over the last few years that the baby boomers will hit retirement age soon and their health issues will be a strain on the system (why anticipate, right?). Turns out the first ones became pensioners in 2000 (early retirement was popular at the time), and recent figures show that they have not put an extra strain on the health system. Healthy living works.
Besides, the bad news actually came and went, the strain the 1920s baby boom generation put on the health system. After they put a lot of money into it in the first place. And guess what, the country survived.

 

Interesting article and germane as Ive been thinking very seriously about what I might do in the future should mother's health take a turn for the worst. Im for sure selling the house as I dont need or want to clean a 4 bedroom in my dotage. Thanks to me every single room,closet and cupboard is packed to the gills. I think a lot of my things will be of interest but Im equally sure some wont. Believe it or not mother wasnt one for knic knacs and the like so theres not a huge amount from her. I take after my grandmother in that regard,I love clutter ! I did just recently take a bunch of nondescript silver to the shop I use. Bits and pieces and i was a little shocked when it was $600 ! The rest i have they can pry out of my cold dead hands . Ive also decided my nieces and nephews have gotten all they will from me. Ive given all of them some very nice things over the years . What doesnt sell I will donate to a domestic violence shelter ,Hoodwill can kiss my grits ! Then Im off to a nice tiny little one bedroom or even a studio depending . I think my days of dragging in stuff are coming to a close. Its too depressing now. Prices and rude people and most of all re-sellers have made it unpleasant now.