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 😊)

You really do need an Auction house to do it- the Collectors will spot anything worth having.
However, auction charges are prohibitive - they charge buyers and sellers premiums, and charges for their catalogues, but with my house, whoever clears it- there are some 'valuable' things that could look like nothing to the uninitiated.

Brother's GF's family had a ''brass'' bell on their dresser for years, inherited.

It sold for over £80,000

A Chinese Temple Bell. {Like this but not this exact one}

We had to clear two houses for deceased relatives in different parts of the country. We used local Auction companies. One came and sorted and took away the stuff.

We did go to one and see just how their auction worked before we used them. Both companies have the sales on line and there is an archive of historic sales so you can understand what your items might fetch.
We had some Poole pottery and much of that is now of low value.
There was a specialist dealer in Poole, on Tower Park area.
I worked on the idea of £20 as a base value. Any more is worthwhile any less be generous to a charity.

I agree. Too much hassle selling bulky stuff on eBay.

When DP's parents died we got an auction house in and they separated the valuable stuff and then did job lots for the remainder.
We photographed the open boxes and emailed them so they knew what they were looking at. All we had to then do was deliver the boxes to their warehouse and they did the rest - we did have to hire a rather large van! They were excellent as they saved the rarer, more valuable things for specialist auctions in order to get the best prices. The whole sale process took about 18 months and they sent us the funds as soon as each auction took place. It was quite fun as we'd watch the auctions live online and guess how much things would go for based on the estimate - and there were some lovely surprises. We did have an excellent auctioneers though so the fees were worth it and it saved us so much hassle of selling the stuff ourselves.
Failing that, if you're not bothered by having the money, a charity like the BHF may collect it all from you - particularly if you agree to Gift Aid it.

Local auction house?

You definitely need an auction house or a clearance company with a professional valuer that can tell you how much things are worth. I have a friend who does this and some things like pin badges and original board games can be worth a fortune. You need professional advice if you are not keeping it.

Interested to know what is the best way to sell stamp collections - DH has inherited some I want to encourage him to clear!

Auction again. My auction house dorst stamps at an auction they hold every 3 months

I put a few books I had into one of those to see, if you have mass market paperbacks it's probably alright - £1-2 a pop. But I tried it with a few £100+ books to see what it said and it offered...£3-4. Which makes me distrust it because it DID know they were worth more, it was just trying to see if I was gullible.

Do it now before winter sets in and damp spoils your collection.