The most profitable sale I have ever had (just last month) was an Estate Sale we staged in a vacant house.  I have had this idea for quite a while, and the venue finally became available.  I have another guy that I partner up with buying units occasionally, so we bought a few good "antique" units together and staged this house with some really good stuff, no junk!

We hauled approximately five trailer loads of stuff to this vacant house.  We pulled the cabinet doors off all the cabinets in the kitchen and we pulled the pins and removed every interior door (except the hall bathroom) in the house and stacked them all in the master bathroom.  We strategically placed boxes and newspaper for wrapping stuff in the master bath and right outside the garage.  We had a bunch of nice bags (found in a storage unit of course!)with rope handles to bag up customers sales. 

We set up a number of tents outside, and filled the garage with tools.  We set up our cashier right outside the garage door and set up a heater and some of the smaller items so the cashier could keep an eye on them.  We then proceeded to stage the entire house (approx. 1800 sq. ft.).

We set up one bedroom with an antique bed, sewing machine, writers desk, antique carved chest, etc.  We set up the living room with some really nice furniture and throw rugs, lamps, tables, etc.  We set up a table full of nothing but crystal, and had little nik naks spread throughout.  We put a really nice table in the dining room and a bunch of nice china in front of the sliding glass door.   We filled up the Kitchen cabinets with Coca Cola stuff and various glassware.  We had a bunch of large cookie jars we set up around the top of the cabinets and on the counters.  We had the pantry full of corningware and small kitchen appliances.

We set up the office with a desk, chair, computer, and printer.  We also had a nice oak shelf unit and some Ikea cabinets.  We then stuck around 400 DVD's in the oak shelf.  We had folding tables set up all throughout the house.  The master bedroom had a couple of headboard and frame set ups and a bunch of tables and about 800 CD's on a table.  The laundry room had a bunch of ammo, and in the garage we had a bunch of golf stuff, a few firearms, a bunch of tools and camping gear, and various other stuff.  Outside we put some cheaper stuff under a couple of tents, and we both had our trailers there with the doors open and some stuff inside them for sale.

I spent the money to run an ad in the major local newspaper, and of course all over craigslist.  I also had a friend of mine that makes signs make me up a bunch of 18" x 24" Estate Sale signs.  The advertising worked well.......we had customers showing up at 6:45 for an 8 am start time!  When we finally let people in at 7:38, we had a large crowd gathered.  When my partner said "Okay!", it was like being at Wal-Mart on Black Friday! 

To make an already too long story short, we did 5700 on Thursday alone! (Here's a hint for you guys that like to have garage sales.......start them on Thursday, it is typically a VERY good day because not too many people do them on Thursday and you'll be one of the few).  Between Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, we grossed 11K! 

We had three helpers the first day and one on the second and third, plus we paid the guy to spend the night there so we didn't have to worry about theft in an empty house.  I paid for the signs, the newspaper ads, and we bought a few lunches for the helpers.  After it was all said and done, we netted about 4900.00 each.  It was a lot of work, but I would (and AM!) do it again in a heartbeat!

And, just to clarify why Estate Sale and not a Garage Sale?  First, it's cold and rainy, and pretty much, garage sale season is over until spring.  Second, I go to a lot of garage and estate sales myself.  I have noticed from a lot of the sales I go to and sales I have had, that people really want stuff super cheap at garage sales, but for some reason they expect to pay more at an estate sale, and tend to not bargain as hard.  I do (and will continue to do so) hold many garage sales, but when the opportunity presents itself again, I will definitely do another estate sale. 

Any questions?  Comments?  Feel free to ask anything.  Thanks for reading this long post!

Seems like they just keep growing and growing! I can't find an auction with less than 15 people there. What are the crowds like at auctions in your area?

Thanks. I think this is a great site. There is a lot of people in the business that dont want to share or give you tips because they think that they are helping the competition. I think there is enough bread on the table for evrybody.

Please note I'm talking about things that 100% must be thrown away.  I've asked around online and people always tell me donate it or there, recycle this and that etc.  I'm talking about things that have 0 hope of being used in any way.

I'm located near Pineville, NC...I don't live close to any landfill as far as I know.  I've googlemapped around and the closest thing I saw was about 30 miles away.  I really do not want to drive that far to dump trash.

Are there any companies that will come pick up just about everything I could possibly throw away?  I'm just looking for a cheap and convenient solution.  I also can't have a dumpster sitting in my yard or in the street, some people have suggested this to me but in my neighborhood that won't fly.

My main question is exactly how do you determine shipping on items and how exactly do you go about getting them insured.

Do you go to the UPS store and have everything weighed and priced before you put them up or is there an easier way?

I'm going to read up on it, but I'm sure some people here know the best way to do things like this.