Buying At Estate Sales – Keeping Up With Technology, Credit, Cash, or Check
Estate liquidators are continuously having to keep up with market conditions and changing technology such as social media and now with the ability to use credit cards to further assist and provide even more services for their clients and customers.
Up until 5 years ago most estate sale companies accepted either cash or in some areas checks too. The technology to accept charge cards at a private residence was mostly unavailable and was not able to be accepted by most liquidators. Today that has changed. A vast number of estate liquidators now accept credit cards.
Recently Estate Sales News asked 700 plus estate sale companies about how they accept credit card payment.
We gleaned much from their answers and the input they provided.
The number one provider from the responses we received is Square. This can be used by iPhone or Android and depending on the companys’ choice of reader they can either swipe or read a chip from a credit card.
The number two choice was PayPal. A triangular reader that can work with iPhone, iPad or Android along with their app.
Intuit QuickBooks Go Payments also works with iPhone, iPad and Android.
Other companies that are used by estate liquidators are Amazon, First Data, Merchant Warehouse, SharkPay by Capitol One, Bank of America and EPN Resellers.
There was discussion among the estate sale companies that responded as to why they chose the company they use and one fact stood out more than any other. They have researched and done their due diligence.
In today’s fast paced world of estate liquidation keeping informed and providing additional services such as credit card acceptance is key to helping be a successful estate sale company.
** Consumers please note that when you use a credit card at an estate sale simply disliking the product you received isn’t grounds for a chargeback – as the National Consumer Law Center notes in it’s guide to credit card rights “You cannot raise a complaint about the quality of merchandise or services you bought with a credit card in the form of a billing dispute”. While being disappointed with the quality of your purchase it will usually be covered under the retailer’s (estate sale companys’) return policy, which can be hand written or printed on receipts as All Sales Final, No Returns, No Refunds or Exchanges, All Sales As Is. This is an alert to let you know that if you try to receive a credit back on your charge card, it probably won’t happen. It’s not grounds for getting your bank involved. This information was derived from www.dailyfinance.com
Estate Sale Finds – Know What You Are Looking At – French Tole Planter
On estate sales Friday, we thought we would share one of our estate sale finds from years ago that we collect.
This is a signed French tole planter. The feet and support are brass. One side of the piece has horses pulling a chariot and the other side has a staff swirled in ribbons holding trumpets with botanicals.
The base metal is strictly a gold tone planter an the painting is done in dark browns and black.
A most unusual piece of tole.
It’s estate sale Friday – happy shopping.
ThrowBack Thursday – Turkey Platters & China
ThrowBack Thursday on Estate Sales News we visit the days of when you sat down to Thanksgiving dinner you had turkey platter.
Here are a few for sale this weekend at #estatesales across the US. To find these and more check out EstateSales.NET, EstateSales.org, Estatesale.com & Estatesale.company and others.
Do you have vintage or antique turkey themed items?
Advertising Estate Sales At The Holidays!
With the two biggest holidays of the year rapidly approaching and involving family and friends if you are an estate sale company and conducting estate sales or events during this period, it is very important to have your advertising thought out and ready.
If you are conducting an estate sale starting on what retail calls Black Friday, you should have started advertising already. Tweeting daily about your upcoming Black Friday sale. Provide them with interesting snippets about the sale and what will be in it. Break it down to tweet out 4 or or 5 days every week. Also use Facebook to start showing items that would make good gifts. Especially if it is a designer or vintage item.
Google+ (if you have a gmail account) is another great place to start letting the public know about your sale.
Now is the time to create your Pinterest Board for Black Friday. In fact you may want to title it Black Friday Estate Sale (with your company name or sale location) included.
Keep your website updated. If you don’t keep your website updated it is usually interpreted as a laissez-faire attitude and that can reflect about your business in general. Some estate sale companies have said “I’m too busy” or “I don’t have time”. If you don’t have the ability to invest your time in your business consider revamping your business plan, hire someone to help you, ask a staff member to assist or think about a business that requires less of your time. Owning an estate liquidation company is not a Monday to Friday job and doesn’t work on a 9 to 5 clock. It is a dedication as an entrepreneur to probably working 6 days a week starting very early in the morning until as late in the evening. The early and late times are your computer and social media time leaving normal business hours for answering and returning telephone calls. It is all about the work that goes on behind each sale and keeping your company in the forefront that takes place other than at the estate sale location.
Advertising should also be ready and thought out for Christmas. Lead in time in advertising is the key to success. Be creative too. Look at things included in your sale and talk about some creative suggestions to your audience.
Estate Sales News has started a Pinterest Board for estate sales that will be working on Black Friday and will continue.
Estate Sale Frustrations – A Buyers Etiquette Review
Wanting to help people liquidate the contents of estates is a profession and can provide a good income. It can also require a lot of asprin and at times a desire to scream.
The majority of estate sale liquidators are professional full time people that work 5-7 days a week and for many they can work up to 30 to 40 days straight.
They require a strong constitution and a strong back. Sorting, (sometimes cleaning and polishing) staging etc. requires muscle.
Knowledge of the items they are selling, how to market the sale require experience and intelligence.
Buyers, a liquidators’ most difficult task is having patience with the few that don’t understand buyer etiquette. Here is a review.
We said it before, but in case you missed it do not tell an estate sale liquidator what something is worth. You are there to buy and here are your choices; buy it now at the price stated, ask if they are taking bids to be reviewed towards the end of the sale or ask if they may discount the item as the sale progresses. Don’t expect them to “give it to you”. It isn’t theirs and if you are that much of an expert, work for an estate liquidator. Please be considerate and don’t say “I’ll give you”. You don’t do that in Macy’s, Nordstrom, Sears, Dillards, Sax, etc. You either pay the price or not. If you have read somewhere about haggling you are not in an overseas market place where haggling is acceptable and anyone that writes about estate sales and encourages this is not correct. More than likely, they have never been an estate liquidator either. You are usually in a privately owned property where the estate sale company is working for the seller. They pay them. If you are rude, a nuisance, or just obnoxious the estate liquidator may ask you to leave AND may bar you from attending any of their sales.
Please remember to bring your manners and best behavior to an estate sale. Courtesy is so important and estate sale companies have so many considerations, that dealing with discourteous people is just too time consuming and you don’t want to lose out on a good buying opportunity. Please and thank you go along way.
For the buyer that is thinking of stealing this may result in you not only being expelled from the sale, but legal authorities being called. If you try to change a price tag – buyer beware you are putting your future buying at risk and estate sale companies will share information about individuals that are security risks.
Happy Veterans Day
To all the men and women who have or are serving Estate Sales News thanks you for your service. Providing all of us with yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Thanksgiving And Christmas Are Weeks Away, Estate Sales Can Help
With less than three weeks before Thanksgiving do you have everything you need? Extra linens, china, glass and stemware, flatware, pots, pans, etc.? Now is the time to be shopping and saving at estate sales. Let’s see what’s out there for this coming weekend.
Need supplies for you family or friends Thanksgiving dinner?
At an estate sale you’ll find a enormous collection of Haviland China China.
How about a dining room set?
Need some kitchen supplies, flatware, or linens?
Whatever you may need check out the estate sales near you this weekend. Saving $$$ and being green.
Estate Sales Friday!
A friend sent us an article from Steven Kurutz of the New York Times published November 5, 2014. On this estate sale Friday we wanted to share this article and pose the following question – do you see possibilities in this?
Let’s go shopping – less than 3 weeks to Thanksgiving!
Less than 7 weeks to Christmas!
Are you ready?
Throwback Thursday Great Mid-Century Bar and Stools
ThrowBack Thursday on Estate Sales News shows off a great Mid-Century bar and stools and vintage bar ware. This set along with many other pieces will be sold at a tag sale November 8th by Briarbrook Auctions in Cranston, Rhode Island. Corlorful!!
Estate and Inheritance Tax Information State by State
Here is a list compiled by Estate Sales News of the 50 states and the District of Columbia about estate and inheritance tax. We have tried to include telephone numbers for you where possible. This information is what we could find. We have tried to provide telephone numbers for you to call. We make no guarantees on the information provided here by Estate Sales News.
Alabama – No estate or inheritance tax 334-242-1572
Alaska – No inheritance or estate tax 907-465-2300
Arizona – No inheritance estate tax after 1/1/2006 602-255-3381
Arkansas – No inheritance tax, estate tax repealed 1/1/2005 501-682-7751
California – No inheritance tax, limited estate tax 800-400-7115
Colorado – No inheritance tax, not estate tax after 1/1/05 303-866-2371
Connecticut – Estate tax 860-297-5962
Delaware – Estate Tax 7/1/2009-7/1/2013 302-577-8200
District of Columbia – No inheritance tax, limited estate tax 800-352-3671
Florida – No inheritance tax, limited estate tax 800-352-3671
Georgia – No inheritance tax, limited estate tax 404-417-4477
Hawaii – Estate Tax 800-222-3229
Idaho – No estate or inheritance tax 208-334-7660
Illinois – Estate tax repealed 11/1/10 reinstated 2011 800-732-8866
Indiana – Inheritance tax 317-232-2240
Kansas – Estate tax repealed subject to “sunset” provisions 2017-2020 785-368-8222
Kentucky – Inheritance tax and possible estate tax 502-564-4581
Louisiana – Estate Tax, possible inheritance tax 225-219-7462
Maine – No inheritance tax, possible estate tax 207-626-8475
Maryland – Inheritance tax, 410-260-7980
Massachusetts – No inheritance tax, limited estate tax 617-887-6367
Michigan – No inheritance tax, limited estate tax 800-487-7000
Minnesota – Estate tax, no inheritance tax 651-556-3000
Mississippi – No inheritance tax, some estate tax 601-923-7000
Missouri – No estate tax 573-751-3505
Montana – No inheritance or estate tax 406-444-2511
Nebraska – Inheritance tax 800-742-7474
Nevada – No inheritance tax, limited estate tax 866-962-3707
New Hampshire – No inheritance or estate tax 603-271-2318
New Jersey – Inheritance and estate tax 609-292-5033
New Mexico – No inheritance tax, possible estate tax 505-827-0700
New York – No inheritance tax, possible estate tax 518-457-5181
North Carolina- Estate taxes 877-252-4052
North Dakota – No inheritance tax, some estate tax 701-328-3657
Ohio – No inheritance or estate tax 800-282-1780
Oklahoma – No inheritance tax, some estate tax 405-521-3160
Oregon – Does have a tax 503-378-4988
Pennsylvania – Check tax laws 717-787-8201
Rhode Island – No inheritance tax, other tax laws 401-222-1111
South Carolina – No inheritance or estate tax 800-762-1295
South Dakota – No inheritance, limited estate tax 800-829-9188
Tennessee – Inheritance tax 615-741-2837
Texas – No inheritance or estate tax 800-252-5555
Utah – No inheritance and limited estate tax 800-662-4335
Vermont – No inheritance tax, has estate tax 802-828-2865
Virginia – No inheritance tax, estate tax repealed for deaths after 7/1/2007 804-367-8031
Washington – Estate tax 800-647-7706
West Virginia – No inheritance or estate tax 304-558-3333
Wisconsin – No inheritance, has estate tax 608-266-2772
Wyoming – No inheritance or estate tax 307-777-5287
Copyright. Unless otherwise indicated, all content on this site, including text, graphics, images, and logos, is the property of ESTATE SALES NEWS or its content suppliers and is protected by United States and international copyright laws and regulations. In addition, ESTATE SALES NEWS owns a copyright on this site as a collective work or compilation, and in the selection, coordination, enhancement, and arrangement of the site’s content. Except as expressly provided herein, ESTATE SALES NEWS does not grant any express or implied right to you. ESTATE SALES NEWS actively and aggressively enforces its intellectual property rights to the fullest extent of the law. The contents of this site are Copyright© ESTATE SALES NEWS, Inc. All rights reserved.
Please visit our Use and Privacy page for our full disclaimer.
