What do I do with all this stuff? Inherited possessions

[ReadingInTheRain583]

Hello!

I am the last surviving member of one side of my family. As each relative has died, their stuff has been passed from one to the next and now I'm the proud owner of an entire garage full of....stuff. Non sentimental things I don't want to keep, but equally not just charity shop worthy - some collectable items etc.

I've been whittling it down over the last year or so, some things have been kept, others have been valued and sold, but I'm left with a lot of things that I don't know what to do with. I've been looking at auctions and things but am clueless.

As examples, there is...

Boxes of Poole Pottery. Probably 25-30 pieces.
Stamp collections
An Adam Binder sculpture
Stuff that would be considered vintage now(!) - Old cameras, an original subbuteo set, an ancient yard o' led pencil
And then just random stuff - multiple ornamental knives, model cars (boxed), other random pottery and things.

What the hell do I do with it all? The Adam Binder sculpture almost ended up in the charity shop pile - thankfully I googled first!

Help!
(Please and thank you 😊)

Stamps and Poole Pottery etc on eBay?

I got rid of quite a bit of Mum's stuff through Freecycle/Freegle.

Personally unless you are a keen eBay seller, I would contact your local auction house to sell them. They would take most of the items you have listed.

Pick one that has an internet presence to get a better sale price.

I was going to suggest that. Or a local clearance company who may sell them

Thank you, I desperately need the storage space back but sorting it all out just feels so overwhelming (I have ADHD which doesn't help). I think an auction house would be a good idea, some of it is potentially worth money but I just don't have the time (or energy!) to sort through everything individually. I have sold some stuff on Ebay but just a few things although they did fetch prices far higher than I anticipated (£150 for a collectable pin badge - something else that could easily have ended up in the charity shop pile!)

Auction house every time. They know exactly what items are worth. They will do the research on specific items if needed. Yes you will pay a percentage of the sale price, but they take the hard work out of it for you.
we did this with the contents of MILs house. If they hadn’t have come we would have given/thrown away a lot of valuable stuff.

An auction house is the easiest option, I think, because you can just group things in lots rather than having to price everything individually. And the auctioneer can advise on pricing.

Did you have any up front fees? I don't mind paying a % because right now its sitting there doing nothing

No upfront fees at all. They came , they valued, they took away everything (even the stuff worth nothing). Once it was sold they gave us a cheque (minus their fees). Would definatly use them again.

We did the same as above for grandparents stuff we didn't want / had no space for. Auction house was great and the cheque sent back once all sold.

We sent my in laws belongings to a local auction, kept some of it obv, sentimental stuff. The auction sold it and took a percentage before transferring the money to us, no upfront fees.

If you're on facebook, ask a local group for recommendations as some aren't particularly scrupulous!

Yes to auction. I was in a similar position but with not quite so much stuff but I took it to a local auction house and they were brilliant.
They know their stuff. You will pay a seller's premium of possibly between 17.5% and 20% but there are no upfront fees. You can put a reserve on anything if you don't want it to go too low
I didn't, and everything made either a reasonable price or really more than I expected
Look at thesaleroom.com which lists just about all the auction houses in the country. You can follow your items being auctioned live online if you get that far!

Not to frighten you but think about how some stuff in the garage may be affected by extreme temperatures. It would be sad if it gets spoiled. An incentive to crack on!

Sorry to jump on your thread OP but what about piles of old clothes that "might be worth something"... Wrangler jeans, vintage dresses etc. My mum has loads from my grandma and doesn't know what to do with it, I think selling on Ebay would be beyond her (I can offer to help if that's the best option).

The "garage" is actually converted to an extension and is my home office, hence needing the space back ASAP! No idea where most of this has been stored over the years though, it's moved from one family member to another after each death for about the last 15 years but there doesn't seem to have been any casualties.

Do auction houses do more specialist stuff? Concorde memorabilia anyone?!

I've used Vintage Cash Cow https://www.vintagecashcow.co.uk/ and been very satisfied.

And by the way Vintage Cash Cow don't only take antiques, eg they seem particularly keen on costume jewellery.

When I sold my uncles flat after he passed the estate agent put me in contact with a lady who did house clearance - she went through everything and sorted it for rubbish/charity shop/auction etc and sent it to the best places - I got an itemised list of everything and how much it sold for - could you find somebody similar to sort it for you?

Yes to specialist stuff! I think they may not all get sold together - the aviation stuff will go in the next aviation themed sale, the ceramics in a ceramics one etc.

This is a well respected auction house in Yorkshire but there are loads of others nationwide, but just to see the sort of categories they have: https://www.tennants.co.uk/departments/

If I were you I'd just google best auction house + your county and send a few emails.

I've just done a bit of local Facebook group searching and found some recommended places, one place seems to have a huge variety of specialist valuers and a big online presence. Looked at some past auctions and there's a lot of things very similar to the kind of stuff I have. They have a weekly open valuation day where all the experts are present so suggested that I pop some things along to them at one of those sessions as a starting point. I guess I'd better get sorting

Yes. 'My' auction House does. All it means is that they will save it for the auction that specialises in that sort of thing so you might have to wait a couple of months

I still have a lot of my parents' Concorde stuff!

Auction, eBay or garage sale. When you've exhausted those possibilities, don't hesitate to get a skip. Stuff can take over your life and you are not morally obliged to hang onto it just because it is technically saleable.

Concorde stuff will sell well! I worked for an airline years ago and after I left sold off some branded odds and ends I had been given. Even things like pens and lanyards made a surprising amount on EBay!

I had an elderly relative who would only travel to destinations that concorde went to so I have boxes of the stuff! I think she was also engaged to a concorde pilot but he died (plane crash ironically...) before they married

I also sold lots of books, dvds, games etc on one of those 'we buy any' type places, downloaded the app, sent it all off. Made a fair bit of money. Anything left over went to charity shop. Auction house for anything you/ they feel is valuable. It's actually quite amazing what people want. And will pay for!