A potential client called and said he needed our Takoma Park estate liquidation service. He explained that he had inherited items of great value.
Many people who tell us that they have valuable antiques, collectibles and other treasures often prove to be wrong. Giving people bad news is an unfortunate task that comes with our industry.
This client, however, was not wrong!
The estate he inherited included a massive stash of silver, a few pieces of fine art, some antiques, general household items, and a hefty amount of trash. We provided a free consultation at his deceased relative’s home, gave him a verbal overview of how we would approach the project, and then sent him a detailed written proposal. The labor charge for liquidating and clearing the home would be only $5,000, plus trash disposal costs. The fee represented less than 1 percent of the home’s value.
We explained a Takoma Park estate sale would be ill-advised. No good would come from publicizing that so much value was sitting in a home — even if he had rightly removed the silver and gold for safekeeping until the appropriate time. Then we got to work!
We sold the silver and gold in a private sale to our most trusted silver and gold dealer.
The largest collection of silver we’ve ever seen included silver bars, silver bullion, silver coins and sterling silver. The precious metals from the Takoma Park estate liquidation
project also included a small amount of gold. We brought in our most trusted silver and gold dealer and helped facilitate the transaction. The dealer decreased his own profit margin percentage in exchange for buying the entire silver and gold inventory. He then issued a wire transfer directly into the client’s bank account.
The total? $125,000!
Quick aside: Another client recently pointed to a jar of what looked to him like regular dimes, quarters, half-dollar and dollar coins and asked if he should just dump them in a coin machine. “Absolutely not!” we said. Like many people, he didn’t realize that those coins, made before 1965, contain silver. They’re worth much more than their face value. We promptly paid him $5,000 for coins he nearly dropped into a grocery store coin sorter. That would have been a mistake costing him more than $4,700!
We brought the fine art to a national auction house.
Orion’s Attic works with local and national auction houses across the country. We connect our clients’ fine art, rare autographs (historical, political, entertainers/actors) and other items with the sales venue best suited for each item. No cookie cutter approach here. We coordinated with a New York-based auction house to sell several pieces of fine art, then delivered the art to a local office.
The auction house sold the fine art and sent our client a check for more than $10,000!
We sold antique furniture and other items through a local auction house.
The estate contained a number of pieces of wood-carved Asian furniture. It wasn’t a style that is particularly popular today, but it still managed to land the heir another $2,500. A collection of finely carved stone figures from the same region added $2,500 more. Demand and value for many antiques is at an all-time low. This is especially true for furniture. (“If it’s big and brown, the value is going to let you down,” we tell clients all the time. Certain genuine Asian antiques and Asian decorative arts, though, are experiencing increasing demand as collectors are buying them in the U.S. and sending them back to Asia.
We donated non-sellable items to worthy charities.
Items not worth enough money to warrant selling but still in excellent shape went to charities that get them to people in need. The key here is “excellent” condition. Many
clients don’t understand why we can’t donate even their heavily worn or broken items to charity. We tell them what the good people at A Wider Circle taught us: poor people don’t need to be reminded that they’re poor. Many charities are able to obtain furniture and other items that are in great shape, so there’s no reason for them to make people in need feel worse about their lives.
We hauled away the trash, leaving the home broom clean.
There aren’t many homes, even high-dollar houses, that don’t have trash hiding all over the place. We find it in closets, “junk drawers,” attics, basements, sheds and more. Our service always includes junk hauling. But we don’t head straight to landfills. We recycle and upcycle, and we take household chemicals like paint to the Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station. We’re proud participants in the Montgomery County ECOWISE Program. Sweeping the floors on our way out the door is the last step toward leaving a house broom clean so that heirs, executors, downsizers and other homeowners can put their houses on the market. It’s also the last obstacle standing between them and being able to go back to their lives.
Our Takoma Park estate liquidation project client was thrilled with the results we produced. He told us that we took an enormous stress off of his shoulders. He appreciated the extensive research we put into finding the right partners to handle everything in the estate. The client also greatly appreciated our discretion.
And the $5,000 he spent to generate $140,000 of revenue may have been the best money he ever spent!
Want to learn more about how to liquidate an estate the right way?
Contact us today! Orion’s Attic is a full-service estate liquidation, downsizing and home cleanout company based in Silver Spring, Maryland. We also buy antiques and collectibles. We serve the greater Washington, D.C./Maryland/Northern Virginia region. Our service area includes Montgomery County (Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Olney, Potomac, Rockville, Silver Spring, Wheaton, Takoma Park, etc.), Frederick County, Howard County (Columbia, Ellicott City), Prince George’s County (College Park, Greenbelt, Hyattsville) plus DC and Northern Virginia.
Learn more about liquidating estates in our Estate Liquidation and Downsizing Guide.
Learn more about selling all kinds of collectibles in Sell Us Your Stuff.
Find out more about why we’re the environmentally responsible choice for your estate liquidation in Green Choice.
Where can I sell my silver? Orion’s Attic, of course.
