Estate Sales- Oh the rush!

I love any excuse to go shopping! When I was growing up, I loved any opportunity to go shopping at the mall. Now take into consideration when I say shopping that meant “window shopping.” There was no buying at the mall. The purchasing venues while growing up included Montgomery Ward, Wal-Mart, and Goodwill. I thought Montgomery Ward was a major treat! One of the things I love about shopping is the thrill of the hunt, the thrill of a great bargain, the find of a serious smart deal- that gets my blood rushing! That is part of the reason I never minded shopping at Goodwill or the random garage sale. You never knew what treasure may be just waiting for you to snatch it up! Now, the thrill is in shopping estate sales.

I hit estate sales on a weekly basis. You never know what rusty gold you may find. Sometimes I am shopping for a client on a décor project, sometimes I find some cool items for myself, but most often lately it is for supplies for Dee Dee Style items. I hit a couple of pretty good ones this week. I have not been playing this game long enough to tell you tons of tips, but here are a few.

Check out your local newspaper for weekly postings (example, Craigs List)
Sign up with Estate Sale companies for their weekly newsletters to find out when their next sale will be (this is probably one of the BEST resources! On a side note, these are also not always the ones with the best deals because these companies do this for a living, day in and day out and they know what they have.) Here is a great one for the Dallas area, Help Me Ronda Estate Sales and one for East Texas is Crawford Estate Liquidation.
The best rusty gold is where you least expect it- aka the boonies of east Texas!! The further from the city you get, the better the deals and the finds. Lots of good old junk collecting dust out in the piney woods!
Cash is King
THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM! Go early to get the best picks and if you see something, snatch it up, because it may not be there while you think about it. Estate sale companies usually start their sales on Thursday (full price day), and run through the weekend, marking down a % each day and then 50% on the last day.