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How has the estate sale industry changed and how is it evolving?
drafting tables, warehouse carts, and typewriter tables are also all good reselling options. For most knowledgeable resellers on the hunt for industrial items, one piece of fur- niture stands just a little taller than the rest. The economy downturn has had a huge impact on the estate sale industry in both positive and negative ways. On the negative side we have seen falling values in antiques, collectables and glassware as many people focus on the financial necessities rather than adding to their collections. We speak with clients on a regular basis who are dismayed that their collections purchased over the course of their lifetime are now worth less than what they purchased them for. Every- thing in the economy seems to run in cycles, and I am sure that some time in the future true collectables and antiques will again climb in value. On a positive note it seems that many more people are open to pur- chasing second hand and we have seen an increase in sale attendance. Some customers are focused on the environmental impact of reusing and repurposing. Other customers shop estate sales for the financial savings, and they appreciate being able to purchase quality goods and furniture at a fraction of the cost of retail. With an aging population in the United States, estate sales will be with us, in one form or another, for a long time to come.
I would attribute a large portion of the significant amount of change we’ve seen in the estate sale industry in the last 15 years to the advent of the Inter- net, smartphones, and eBay. The Internet has allowed companies to reach a wider audience interested in what they have to sell. It used to be that companies had signs on the street and they paid to advertise in the newspaper. Now they use tools online like estate- sales.net and Craigslist to reach thou- sands of viewers for little-to-no cost. Smartphones have given shoppers a significant advantage. In the past, if you were looking at the price of an item, you either had to be familiar enough with its value, or trust the es- tate sale company priced it fairly. Now any shopper can whip out their phone and see what a fair market value is of any item at any given sale. eBay has changed the estate sale industry from pretty much every angle. Companies now have the ability to find comparable prices from recently sold items to help them price at current market value. Shoppers who resell now have hundreds of millions of potential buyers they couldn’t reach before. It’s the one that you are always hoping that you will find at a garage sale with a $25 price tag on it: The Toledo Drafting Stool.Broth- ers Clement and Joe Uhl founded the Toledo Metal Furniture Company in 1893. Over the
next several decades they collectively designed a large number of furniture pieces, including their drafting stool, that are now associated with the vintage or industrial look. The stool was one of their earlier designs, patented in 1905 and first produced in two models: with a bentwood support and without any back rest. Manufactured during the early decades of the 1900s these stools have a fully adjustable seat, back height and a rotating base, and were purposefully produced with heavy wood and steel materials to withstand lots of use. The original price: $4.50. Today the older versions sell between $150-$400. With the spotlight now shining on the indus- trial aesthetic, we wish you happy picking as you look for that old wood, brushed metal, exposed tubing thing for your home or shop. ^ Michael and James Fry are brothers and the owners of Brown Button Estate Sales. Find them at brownbutton.com and facebook.com/ brownbutton.
VintageKC / Winter 2012 9
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