EstateSales.NET Blog

The thought of useful items going into a landfill makes me very sad. That's one of the reasons I love shopping estate sales . I know I'm extending the life of every item I buy. And what a good feeling that is. There are those items that are not so attractive, though, and require a little extra creativity. Picture frames are sometimes one of those things. I've come across many framed photos that, for the life of me, I can't imagine why anyone would have ever enjoyed that hanging on their wall for decades. It's hard to look past that and see the glorious frame that beholds this unpleasant photo. I hope to help you with that today. There are a million and one things you could do with these frames. I'm going to share just a few ideas with you. All of these projects are very simple and cost less than $25 for the frame and supplies. Just a side note: if you don't yet own a staple gun, get one! It's essential for almost all of these DIYs and most craft projects. They're inexpensive and pretty simple to use. Remember, though, safety first...

Merry Christmas from all of us at EstateSales.NET! We want to wish all of our companies and subscribers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Thank you for another wonderful year of estate sales. We couldn't be the website we are without all of you! We had a blast making this year's Christmas Video "The Estate Sale Before Christmas." Give it a watch, and be sure to share it with your friends! Warm Wishes, The EstateSales.NET Team Searching For a Company Looking for a company to conduct your sale? Go to our Hire a Company page to find a company in your area. Find a Company Get Notified Sign up to receive free email notifications of estate sales in your area! Subscribe Now...

Kids these days have it too easy. With their new-fangled Snapchats and their Instagrams, they can take all the pictures they want, and add all sorts of filters, and the result is… A photo that looks like it was taken in the 1950s. Oh, youths... Okay, maybe I’m a little crotchety. But the fact of the matter is, vintage technology—the kind that naturally makes images with sepia hues and solar flares and the like—still exists. And it can be found at estate sales! I’ve always had a soft spot for film cameras . I am a photographer only in the sense that I know how to push a button and hope for the best. Focus, composition, and all the technical bits about shutter speed and whatnot are foreign to me. But that doesn’t stop me from coveting every estate sale camera I find. So, mainly as an excuse to purchase multiple cameras, we decided to test out a few estate sale camera, and give them a shot. That pun was not intended, but I feel I should apologize anyway...

Bust out your best skinny tie and touch up your Flock of Seagulls haircut—it's quiz time! Searching For a Company Looking for a company to conduct your sale? Go to our Hire a Company page to find a company in your area. Find a Company Get Notified Sign up to receive free email notifications of estate sales in your area! Subscribe Now...

I need a bike. More importantly, my kid needs a bike. We’re getting ready to move to a very bikable town, and I failed as a parent by letting her go too long before learning how to ride. She’s getting the hang of it now, on a bike we bought at a big-box store a few years ago. It’s now too small and falling apart, despite the fact that it’s barely been ridden. Something has to be done. But the idea of buying one bike is daunting, let alone two. I don’t know anything about bicycles, except how to ride one. (Assuming the adage is true, that one never forgets how to ride elephants and bicycles...that's how it goes, right?) And when we do have the bikes, will we actually ride them, or will they ultimately end up collecting dust in our basement? This is a distinct possibility. I know. It’s happened before So my hope is to find our bikes at nearby estate sales . With a little patience, I’m sure I’ll come across a couple that will suit our needs: something inexpensive and not lame...

It seems like the 1970s were only 40 years ago, doesn't it? Take our quiz and test your memory. Searching For a Company Looking for a company to conduct your sale? Go to our Hire a Company page to find a company in your area. Find a Company Get Notified Sign up to receive free email notifications of estate sales in your area! Subscribe Now...

You guys? I got a rain lamp. This won’t mean much to some of you. But those who appreciate the glory that is a vintage rain lamp understand what an accomplishment this is. What made the whole experience even more magical is that it appeared at an estate sale down the street from the EstateSales.NET office, but was not featured in any of the pictures on our site. So it was a surprise to me, and to all those who saw me walking around with it at the sale beaming with pride. They were clearly jealous of my discovery. And rightfully so. Look at it! Did it work? I didn’t know. But it was only $10, so it was a chance I was willing to take. It was grimy. It was missing two strings. It was comically heavy. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I brought it back to the office and immediately plugged it in to see if I could hear the motor. I couldn’t. But the lightbulb worked, so at least there was that. I scrubbed it quickly with soap and water. I had to be gentle, because a firm hand resulted in the removal of the original gold paint...

Here at EstateSales.NET, we love collections. Many of us have our own collections—from Paul’s pipes to Rachel’s Pyrex to Matt’s Pop Vinyls...and even some that start with other letters of the alphabet. Over on Facebook , we asked you to share some of your own collections. And you did not disappoint! There was an awesome Holt Howard collection. You showed us an army of floral frogs (Did you know a group of frogs is called an army? I didn’t!) as well as an army of toy soldiers...mushrooms, pottery, political memorabilia...you name it, someone collects it. In case you’re not following us (which is something we need to have a talk about, frankly) or you just happened to miss the great discussion we had, here are a few of the collections that were shared. Feel free to add yours to the conversation on Facebook! I only wish we could have included them all here. Beverly Mausbach, Lakewood, CA Beverly Mausbach’s beautiful glass bird collection started innocently enough, after she inherited a pair of cobalt blue birds from her mother...

Take our quiz to find out. Searching For a Company Looking for a company to conduct your sale? Go to our Hire a Company page to find a company in your area. Find a Company Get Notified Sign up to receive free email notifications of estate sales in your area! Subscribe Now

As you know, EstateSales.NET is going through a series of updates. After all, we’re always looking for ways to better the way you interact with our site. Phase one had some subtle changes aimed at making it easier to find sales or companies within a specific city or metro area. Phase two will be a bit more obvious. Our goal is to make it easier to find sales in your area. So we’re prompting you up front to search by city or ZIP code. Though the map is no longer front-and-center, you still have the option of searching by state, and you can still easily search for specific items, if that’s how you prefer to use our site. In fact, finding specific items is about to become even easier! When you are looking through sales in a metro area, you will have the option of performing a keyword search within that area. So if you’re looking for an Arne Jacobsen egg chair, you can search the entire site, or you can limit your search to a specific radius...