FAQ
You have questions, we have answers
Planning and managing an estate sale can be overwhelming and tedious, let us help. Listed are some of the most frequently asked questions about estate sales we get from our clients. Please contact us for any additional information, we would be happy to answer your questions.
Cataloging and photography
Cataloging is the process of photographing and describing each item that you wish to sell.
South Point Estate Sales is the only service to use a professional photographer to capture your items, resulting in higher sales! We will only use properly lit and in focus photos to promote your items.
Once your items have been photographed, described & uploaded to the site, the catalogue will typically be sent to you for review within two business days. The cataloguing process depends on the size of the auction. Larger auctions could require more time for editing & uploading.
Currently the dates need to be set a full 48 hrs prior to the open. Example, a catalog that is completed & locked in on a Mon, the first available day to open will be Wed. It is also necessary to have 48 hrs between the closing date & the first pickup day. This is to allow the buyers time to complete the new signup process and for selecting the time they will arrive on-site on pickup day.
With your direct deposit you will also be provided with a full report of every item, how much it sold for, & any commission taken. Taxes are collected/processed by the auction house.
Promoting
As soon as the auction goes online the advertising does a couple of things that are divided into 2 big buckets; Static ads and Dynamic Ads are created.
Static ads, the way most other sale-of-goods providers do, on lots of websites: Facebook, twitter, estatesales .net, auctionzip, craigslist, kijiji, pinterest & many other aggregate sites. These ads help notify buyers when a sale is active in their area. Some of these include online classifieds, paid Facebook ads, other social media platforms, estate sale websites, & more.
Dynamic ads are the big ones, and give us our competitive edge; these are targeted ads for people looking for certain things.
Local buy and sell groups are also promoted to.
Item Pricing
All items/lots have a starting bid of $1. There is no way to predict what an item will sell for. Professional photography will show off your items for best results. What an item sells for can be influenced by a variety of factors including:
- Rarity
- Condition
- If items are collectible
- If certificate of authenticity is provided
Full tracking and reporting
Enjoy full view of the estate sale from start-to-finish.
Pricing
Our team does the professional photography, cataloging of items, & supervises pickup. This is everything including cataloging, professional photography, marketing & billing, packing materials, boxes, credit card fees, doing the on-site work, personnel, as well as manage advertising, buyer communication, tech & payment collection, tidying up/light cleaning. As well as market your items & notify site buyers (who are collectors, antique dealers, resellers and people looking for things to buy).
There is an initial fee based on the size of the estate, which would be determined after our consultation and meeting, as well as a percentage of sales.
The process takes appropriately 2 weeks from start to finish, depending on the size of the estate, to efficiently sell nearly 100% of items listed.