It pleases me us that we have such a following.  We explained to a potential client that we feel lucky every day that we have a sale and people line up to get in.  We appreciate the support of all of our friends and the estate sale community!

This sale was particularly grueling and here is why.  We went to one consultation in a great neighborhood (shown) and they had very little stuff.  Later in the day we went on another consultation and they had tons of stuff but NO PARKING at all.  So, not being afraid to work, we asked client #1 if we could add client #2's treasures to theirs.  He said sure!  We packed up the house and moved it, staged it, researched it and priced it!  In concept a great idea, but we will probably not do that again, it was a TON of work.  But in the end, both clients were appreciative and happy.  Mission Accomplished and the head is above water!

Wow, what a past few weeks, Estate Sale Consults and ebay listings galore!  I have been trying to learn as much as I can about ebay Cassini search engines.  I laugh at some of the comments from the ebay veterans.  "I have been selling on ebay for 14 years and I quit because ebay changed their search criteria."  Blah Blah Blah, things change, adapt, roll with the punches or get left behind.  My plan is to learn as much as I can and manipulate the algorithm to sell as much as I can.  What are you doing?

The needs of the client

GC5 Estate Services had an estate consult this week with a potential client.  We were excited about the referral because it came from a new estate attorney.  Driving up to the home we were happy to see that there was plenty of parking and the home looked clean an nice in a quiet safe neighborhood.  Inside the home was beautiful.  The client walked us through the home that she staged beautifully.  When we sat she explained that she threw away and donated about half of the items, including 95 vintage handbags.  Amanda and I felt like crying.  If you hire us or any other company, please do not throw anything away, we can sell anything.

In between estate sales with GC5 Estate Services, we list on ebay and craigslist.  My wife and I are both ebay Education Specialists and teach people how to get started selling on ebay.  If you are in the Raleigh area, contact us and we can set up a time to teach you in our studio or at your location. 

So today we listed 30 items for sale on ebay and shipped 6 packages.  We also did a phone consult with a potential client for an estate sale.  

Like I mentioned yesterday, we have the "sickness" and I wanted to share a story about aquiring inventory for sale.  We received a call that someone needed some old appliances moved out of a house that they are renovating, washer, dryer, freezer, refridgerator and a stove, smelly and dirty but guess what, made of metal and totally scrappable.  We drove 15 minutes, loaded up the smelly goods and went to the scrap metal yard and got 96.00 for the items, getting rich....no, but add it to the stream of "sickness" income and you can keep your head above water.  So, while waiting on line to get weighed at the scrap yard, I noticed a lady carrying a large aluminum tri-pod.  I know it would scrap for about 3.00 and thought I could sell it on ebay for way more.  I offered her 5.00 and she said she wanted to see what they would give her for it.  It weighed out at 2.50 and she took my 5.00 and was happy she doubled her money.  I will list it today on ebay for 99.99 with free shipping.  I will let you know how it goes.

I also have some items that I will list on craigslist. 

Is there a map?

Making a six figure income and working 50-60 hours a week seemed like where I would sit for the rest of my life.  In my 40's, I was the VP of Sales at a technology company and started to notice some strange accounting and business practices happening at our corporate headquarters.  When these discrepancies were questioned I was accused of "hostile backtalk" and suddenly found myself questioning my 8 year investment in this company.  I forged ahead for a couple of months and witnessed mass employee exodus and continued hostility from the one guy above me and his "investors".  I was offered a "package" of sorts and It was mutually decided that it was time for me to go.  It was time to reinvent myself.

The sensible core of me networked and sent out resumes and scoured job boards, headhunters and existing industry contacts.  Admittedly, the effort was a halfhearted attempt because I really wanted to buy and sell other people crap and turn a profit.  I always had the "sickness" (more on that later).  I wanted to wear shorts, spend time with my wife and kids and be in 100% control of my income.  So, together with my wife we jumped off the cliff to see if we could fly.  My wife Amanda, a licensed auctioneer with a background in estate liquidation gleefully was my partner in business, life and thankfully also had the "sickness".

We owned and operated a cool little place called GC5 Vintage & Gifts, we specialized in vintage items from the 1950's and 1960's.  We would sell some items on ebay but mostly they would be offered for sale in our retail store.  We would buy the contents of homes and also buy at auctions and sell at the store.  Some folks would want us to buy the contents of the home but it was just too much stuff to pack up and move, so we started doing onsite Estate Sales.  We made more money on that estate sale that we made at the store in 6 months.  Don't get me wrong, retail is fun, it becomes a second home, it was more fun than profitable and we enjoyed it.  Here is what we found to be the #1 problem, a great sales weekend resulted in a busy week of hunting down merchandise to fill the holes.  Buy a table for $100.00, sell it for $200.00, dance, celebrate and then realize you need to get another table for the spot on the sales floor, so you take the 100.00 profit and search for a table, you find your table and it is 60.00, so your profit is now 40.00, but you spend 1/2 a day getting it and had to drive to get it, so at the end of the day you made 1.87.  We realized that the best way to make money with a retail store was to close it and have an auction and not replace the merchandise. So that is what we did.  We decided to focus on ebay and estate sales and evolved GC5 Vintage into GC5 Estate Services.

Oh yeah, the "sickness", this does not relate to health at all.  The sickness is when you cannot look at something without thinking about who will give you dollars for it.  It has nothing to do with hoarding, because someone with the sickness does not want to keep it for more than 10 minutes, buy it, and make a few dollars on it fast.  When it accumulates, get rid of it.  This is a very broad GC5 interpretation of "the sickness".

So if you are interested in catching the sickness or have the sickness and want to share your "ailments", come back, visit and Enjoy!