If you have inherited an estate or been tasked with dispersing an estate, then you will soon find yourself planning an estate sale. This is a great way to unload the items you do not need or want and to earn some money for them. But how do you maximize your earnings at an estate sale? Take a look.

Have potentially valuable items appraised by experts.

There are probably plenty of items in the estate that are only worth a few dollars. But there are probably also some items that you're pretty sure are valuable. Antique furniture, fine china, and jewelry are three types of items that typically fall into this category. It's a good idea to have these potentially valuable items appraised by experts before the sale. This way, you will have a better idea of how to price them. Looks can be deceiving. A piece of furniture may look old and worn out, but if it is made by a certain brand, it could still be worth thousands. This is why you should let experts price these items rather than relying on your own intuition.

Plan a three-day sale.

You want to schedule your sale so that as many people as possible will have time to attend. Often, the best way to do this is to have the sale open on one weekday and two weekend days. This way, anyone who works weekends has the option of visiting during the week. Stay open well into the evening (until 8 or 9 pm) on at least one of the days, too, so that people who work in the day can stop by the sale on their way home. 

Mark your prices down at the end.

You don't want to discount prices and give people too good of a deal early on; you're just giving away profit at this point. However, when there are only a few hours left in the sale, the items you have left are the ones that very well might not sell. This is when you can lower your prices. If you let something go for $2 that otherwise would not have sold at all, that's still $2 more than you had before. Don't let your shoppers know you'll be doing this. You don't want them setting items aside and only coming back to buy them later when they're marked down.

If you have items appraised, mark your prices down at the end, and stay open for three days, you can earn more when running an estate sale.

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