Inherited furniture etc, auction question

[moveblues]

Hi all
I'm selling a load of furniture I've inherited via auction as it's a bit out of date and no space here!
The auctioneer mentioned they are wholesale auctioneers. Is this the best way? Most items are in good nick bar one military chest which needs repair.
There are paintings, a Welsh dresser, cut glass decanters, clocks, a royal Doulton dinner service, all sorts!
Just wondering if this is the best route to sell as I am clueless!

it's a bit out of date and no space here!
The trouble is that a lot of other people are inheriting similar from their babyboomer parents. It's out of fashion and the market is awash with it.

You could try Chinasearch for the Doulton.
Pine is always popular, dark-wood not so much at the moment. I think that the upcycling trend seems to have died.
Don't forget to figure in the inconvenience and cost of getting things to the auctioneers, especially the large/heavy or breakable pieces. And the cost of retreiving it when it doesn't sell.

Oh God, I'm in the same boat.

Can I interest you in 300 Victorian jelly moulds?
Dark Victorian furniture or a 17th century fire cradle?
Auction house photo valuations are coming back as worthless but unfortunately my co executor sister seems to think everything is worth a fortune.

Same situation here! I have discovered that the estimates given to get you to consign are always too high and items have sold at or less than minimum estimate. With the marketing fee / commission etc, you get about half the hammer price. It may once have been worth a fortune (the Queen Anne walnut kneehole desk she paid £6k for and told me it was my inheritance? £300. I am obviously keeping it!). Americans still live the stuff and have houses large enough for it so some clever person is buying for pennies at auction here and sending containers of it west and no doubt doing very nicely out of the transaction. Of course if you could store it in good condo for 25 years, I’m sure it willl come back into fashion… are there any items that can be modernised by painting etc? There’s a lady near me who makes amazing drinks cabinets out of old pieces like this

I suggest looking on ebay for sold prices and selling it yourself on FB marketplace or Gumtree.

where are you all located lol!! i love love love old furniture and currently have very little as ive just moved!

Some auction houses post information online from previous sales, so you can get a good idea of what sells and prices paid.

Have a look for similar items on Saleroom. Lots of auction houses list on there and you can also see some sold prices as well as estimates.

What's a wholesale auctioneer? Do they normally sell old furniture?

Dark brown not wanted....a chap is buying up tons of the stuff and shoving it in a warehouse in essex....waiting for fashion to change...!!...anyone around 30 age wants light wood and beige....they all into it....some 50 and 60 stuff sells well....i have a lot of stuff away when clearing a house...not even charity wanted it.

We’ve inherited the most beautiful dark wood bureau with glass cabinet above which is apparently worth nothing despite being immaculate and more than 100 years old. It’s depressing how much of a throw away society we’ve become. It’s now in my living room and I love it but mn tells me dark wood will make my house look dated… I still love it. Sorry that’s C not much help. When we emptied my grandmother’s home most of the stuff sorted by the clearance company was chucked on the tip. My mum couldn’t watch it was just too upsetting.

I think a lot of elderly relatives think we’ll be sorted selling their furniture as they except it to have gone up in value, not realising we get less for it than you can buy new MDF in IKEA! Plus the guilt of do so/not having your house a shrine to them.

I think it as good a way as any - other wise as others have said - you are going to have to sell individually. Sadly many loved and cherished things in a family just aren't worth that much to anyone else or they just don't
have a downton size house to stick them in.

Re china - what most china resellers want are some pieces which people can replace broken items with - IME not so interested in a big dinner service .

It's sad & is why I have been getting rid of stuff so come the day DS won't have to deal with it all. I dealt with DH's parent's house clearance - all the DCs took the few things they wanted and what was worth anything either was sold - ( much less than I thought) or went to charity ( & they nowadays will take less than you think - or it went to the tip / recycling - most of it. ) That experience really made me keen on decluttering. Or get rid of it myself.

Sorry not to be more cheerful - but for what it is worth - take what you like and you have room for and reminds you of the person you have inherited it from & just get what you can for the rest whilst making allowance for some of it just must be given to house clearance people and even then they will probably change you for taking it away - unless it is worth anything in which case you might as well have taken it to auction yourself.

But all the best - it's a bugger of a job.

Elderly relative constantly shows specific trinkets promising they worth hundreds , quick search on eBay / similar usually shows they've for £10. Or maybe £30.

100 trinkets x £10 is good but a lot of hassle. Car boot sale more likely to yield 50 p each I suspect....

@Embracelife - I know exactly what you mean DMIL took me to one side to show me a collection of things she thought should be be "worth a bit" - when it came to it each thing I could find on eBay at less than £3. Bless her - they gave her joy & it doesn't matter they ended up a fraction of what she paid - but yes - I do think often people put more value on things because they are precious to them or old or whatever.

We used a house clearance firm when we sold an inherited home last year. We had taken anything of value to us (not necessarily monetary), it saved us having to go to the top and the firm supplied a charity that passed on furniture to low income families. Anything they didn’t dispose of was profit if they could sell it. We paid for them to completely empty and clean the house.
It was so much easier than trying to sell the years of accumulated “junk” via eBay or at auction, and far less emotional.

If anyone has any g-plan, I'll take it off your hands. In particular a sideboard or shelving unit.

Mid century stuff is very popular on eBay etc. You're quids in if you've got any Ercol!

"Brown furniture" is coming back in though - auction houses are reportedly full of young couples snapping up beautiful Victorian chests of drawers etc. Instagram is awash with the grandmillenial look, all antique furniture and furbelows that would have made Margo Leadbetter blush.

The problem is that a lot of stuff people actually have in their (parents') homes doesn't fall into the trendy Victoriana bracket, my own DM's things included! She too has a Queen Anne desk...

I have noticed prices for brown pieces creeping up on eBay too where I have been half-arsedly trying to buy a chest of drawers for ages, but presumably the sheer amount of time it would take to sort through the mass of a houseful of possessions just makes it unfeasible. I am dreading the day I faced with this situation. Good luck OP.

Same. When I flung real fur coats and stoles with fox teeth and claws 🤮🤮 you just have to let go and not hoard - ‘just in case’ - back in fashion now 🙈

@Angrymum22

We used a house clearance firm when we sold an inherited home last year. We had taken anything of value to us (not necessarily monetary), it saved us having to go to the top and the firm supplied a charity that passed on furniture to low income families. Anything they didn’t dispose of was profit if they could sell it. We paid for them to completely empty and clean the house. It was so much easier than trying to sell the years of accumulated “junk” via eBay or at auction, and far less emotional.

Absofuckinglutley

You could always get in touch with insta (shitebagg) beggars to help you restore it??!!! But also if it has no sentimental value you then ‘LET IT GO’ just a thought

Sorry, my idiot pal, who doesn’t have a granny/inheritance etc . Just had a face off! I’m Nicolas cage 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️

@NeedAHoliday2021

We’ve inherited the most beautiful dark wood bureau with glass cabinet above which is apparently worth nothing despite being immaculate and more than 100 years old. It’s depressing how much of a throw away society we’ve become. It’s now in my living room and I love it but mn tells me dark wood will make my house look dated… I still love it. Sorry that’s C not much help. When we emptied my grandmother’s home most of the stuff sorted by the clearance company was chucked on the tip. My mum couldn’t watch it was just too upsetting.

We have a bureau like that. I take the view that if you like it, stuff fashion- we enjoy it, as you do. I have it in a room with some other dark furniture, and keep my most valuable small books in it, and plan to add a dark wood bookcase or two, if I can find them. With plain walls (a grey green and a light green) and a few good pictures nicely framed and a Persian rug it looks great. The room still feels light and airy. In due course we plan to put in a parquet floor. And I have a cunning plan for some Morris pattern curtains, when I can afford them, and find the design I want.

Its such a sad situation for many people now - my grandparents (and parents to some extent) really thought they were leaving their descendants a vast fortune in paintings, furniture and figurines whilst in reality, times have changed and no one wants them. When my parents depart this mortal coil (hopefully not for another 20 years or so as they are only mid 70s) they have a big house with furniture including massive (beautiful oak) dining table, massive and beautiful dark oak display cabinet, baby grand piano, huge comfy sofas, edwardian desks, loads of pictures, figurines etc etc. My house is tiny so can't fit anything in but I wish I could fit the piano - it used to be my grandmothers and I spent many happy hours playing it with her and for her when I was a child/teenager.

My brother buys for his secondhand/curio business from small local auctions. He says the market for brown furniture is OK, but no one wants large amounts of it, just individual nice pieces. I live in a modern house but we have a nice rosewood desk and a table shaped like an elephant that we inherited, it all fits in well.