Drop your asking price. It is only worth what people are willing to pay. If it is a special item and you don't have the venue to sell it for it's highest potential then you just need to sell it to someone who can.

I went to a local auction house that I have been doing business with for the last three years, before I started doing storage auctions. I typically take them antique furniture, lower end pieces, and little nick-nack pieces of furniture that are not worth the hassle to sell on Craigslist (i.e. small storage racks, baker's racks, odd chairs, computer desks, small tables, end tables, etc.)

Well I took a load to them so they could sell it while I was on vacation, and when they looked at what I had (the usual stuff I bring) they said they could'nt take it, it wasn't worth enough! The guy I was talking to said sales are continueing to decline and they are having financial difficulties. He walked me around the showroom and showed the prices the furniture sold for at the last auction. Some of it I was amazed at how cheap it sold for, others I thought to myself well yea, it's ugly as chit and nobody will buy it, so as a re-seller why buy it! It sounds like more and more of thier client base is re-sellers and not retail customers. They have been in business for 30+ years so I trust they know what they are doing.

Anyway, I had to sweeten the deal with some nicer furniture for them to take the whole lot. If this is going to be the case from here on out, I am definitely going to have to back off on bidding on lower end units that typically have these odd, lower quality furniture pieces. At gas over $3 a gallon I am not going to run back and forth to try to sell $5-$10 computer tables, and bookshelves to Craigslist buyers.

$825 for x-mas decorations. Good Grief. 

Those totes and boxes can get you.

Glad you got to get out and see and be seen. 

dunt, dunt, dunt, dunt, another one bites the dust!, and another one gone!, and another one gone!.....

I have noticed that calls and emails about items I have for sell have dropped tremendously since this time last year. At first I was concerned until I started thinking about the nature of the calls and emails. The emails 70% of the time were scams and they still are about 50% of the time now, but the major change is with the calls. Last year probably 70% or more of the calls were from "tire kickers" "bargain hunters" or "pickers". I would say only about 25% of the calls I get now are from those types. In fact so few people are calling with the tired "Whats the least you will take" or "Whats your bottom dollar" lines, that I have been able to chase those callers and emailers off and not try to deal with them like I was last year. Although the phone has been quiet, when it does ring it tends to be a serious customer.

Have you all noticed any changes on Craigslist?

I haven't done any estate sales lately, but digging through the stuff that is supposedly unwanted or has no value is my bread and butter. It also depends on the company that runs the estate sale. I know of two estate sale companies in my area that if you bring bags full of stuff to the table to buy, they ring up the larger more expensive items and "ghost" the little things, basically free-bee them as they ring up and bag. Other estate sales it takes three supervisors to get a dollar knocked off a 5 dollar item, so you just have to know your area.

I remember one time I was at an estate sale about a two years ago and lots of people were checking out the fancy kitchenware & fine china & tables and chairs, many lementing how expensive the prices were, well I looked in the kitchen cabinets and they were filled with food! Cans, & boxes mostly unopened. I asked an employee how much for the food, she looked at me funny and said I don't know, 25 cents each? Well I started loading up bags and bags of dry food, canned food, spices, etc. Everybody was looking at me like I was crazy and several people snickered as the walked by. Well I ran out of bags and went to the truck to gat some more and don't you know when I got back to the kitchen it was elbows and a$$es everywhere digging through the cabinets. Luckily, I had already grabbed the really good chit, so I picked up my bags and off to the check out table. I probably paid $25 for about $400 in food!

I'm waiting to get back from vacation because of Ebays lovely new policies for recieving discounts and high ratings we have to offer 14 day return and I don't want to take the chance of something returned sitting at my door for a couple of weeks and get negative feedback from the buyer. 

By-the-way; How can you tell the difference between a "gay" unit and a "metrosexual" unit from the door? and what in the world does an "Albino" unit look like??

We don't have a diverse enough community to really stereotype by race, nationality, or other characteristics; although I do notice I tend to win the obviously African-American units. Not so much cause I go after them, but rather the rest of the crowd won't bid to high on them so I and up winning those type disproportionally. I actually stereotype facilities instread. Facilities that are in/near nicer parts of town and have higher rental rates I tend to pay more attention to. The facilities that have cheaper rents and $1 move in specials I tend not to gamble as much.