My Mother's QVC Estate

I would have an eBay selling company handle all the jewelry.

I live next door to a couple who own an antiques store and also do estate sales. They have been very helpful to me since I love going to estate sales and getting "treasures".

They always recommend eBay or other on line sites for items that collectors might want. Instead of selling to the people who come to your estate sale, your marketplace is literally the WORLD. These items are small - easy to ship too!

Joan Rivers and KJL jewelry are hot collectibles right now...just check out eBay and see what some of the bees are selling for! If you don't want the hassle of handling the sales yourself, it's worth paying a commission to an eBay expert.

Re: the overall estate sale - I strongly recommend you hire professionals and STAY AWAY on the days of the sale. I had to do this for one of my aunts. I had already told my cousins if they wanted anything, they could go to the estate sale and buy what they wanted. The estate was divided 6 ways, so they would get some of the proceeds back to them. This aunt had a lot of Waterford crystal and Early American antiques. I went to purchase some items myself and saw firsthand why it is best to leave it up to the pros. People were laughing over some of her most beloved items - she had a 200 year old spinning wheel, for example. People were calling some of her stuff "outdated junk." They were haggling and laughing...I ended up going in the bathroom & crying my eyes out!

It's too traumatic to see your mom's life laid out on tables with people trying to get a bargain or making rude comments about her taste! Leave it to the pros!!!!!

I've been to sales where people had their parents' yearbooks, bowling trophies and other personal stuff up for sale too. I think that is insensitive. Who wants to go to a TGIF Friday and see dad's hockey photo and jersey from 1936 up on the wall for entertainment purposes????

Terrier - this was such a thoughtful reply . . great advice, and I'll try to remember it. So sorry you had to go through that experience, but it's really cool that you brought it to our attention - times like these are tough enough as it is and it's nice when someone takes the time to help.

MomsQVCestate - so sorry for your loss, and well-wishes with your selling endeavors.

MomsQVCEstate, I have great luck selling items on eBay. There is also Etsy. If the pieces of jewelry that your mother had are now "retired," be sure to use that word in the title of the piece you are selling if you use eBay.

terrier, what an awful experience for you to go through! I would have cried also. Those people who were laughing were probably ignorant about antiques.

I agree about letting professional estate sale people handle an estate sale.

Joan Rivers items - especially now- are selling well on ebay.

On 9/14/2014 terrier3 said:

I would have an eBay selling company handle all the jewelry.

I live next door to a couple who own an antiques store and also do estate sales. They have been very helpful to me since I love going to estate sales and getting "treasures".

They always recommend eBay or other on line sites for items that collectors might want. Instead of selling to the people who come to your estate sale, your marketplace is literally the WORLD. These items are small - easy to ship too!

Joan Rivers and KJL jewelry are hot collectibles right now...just check out eBay and see what some of the bees are selling for! If you don't want the hassle of handling the sales yourself, it's worth paying a commission to an eBay expert.

Re: the overall estate sale - I strongly recommend you hire professionals and STAY AWAY on the days of the sale. I had to do this for one of my aunts. I had already told my cousins if they wanted anything, they could go to the estate sale and buy what they wanted. The estate was divided 6 ways, so they would get some of the proceeds back to them. This aunt had a lot of Waterford crystal and Early American antiques. I went to purchase some items myself and saw firsthand why it is best to leave it up to the pros. People were laughing over some of her most beloved items - she had a 200 year old spinning wheel, for example. People were calling some of her stuff "outdated junk." They were haggling and laughing...I ended up going in the bathroom & crying my eyes out!

It's too traumatic to see your mom's life laid out on tables with people trying to get a bargain or making rude comments about her taste! Leave it to the pros!!!!!

I've been to sales where people had their parents' yearbooks, bowling trophies and other personal stuff up for sale too. I think that is insensitive. Who wants to go to a TGIF Friday and see dad's hockey photo and jersey from 1936 up on the wall for entertainment purposes????

It's better to get money for it--I would bet that's what the passed on relatives would say--than throw it away. You can't be a museum to the past, you can't keep all of this stuff.

TAKE WHAT YOU WANT and walk away. I saw this from having cleaned out four houses for deceased relatives and now faced with getting rid of stuff I should never have kept so I can live with MY stuff.

Been there and done that, and am not sentimental over much of anything any more.

The estate sale company that I used when my mother passed away also had a store. The husband handled the estate sales, the wife handled the B&M store. My mom had some really nice gold pieces. After my daughter & I took what we wanted, I consigned the rest to the store. They sold the gold pieces for a nice sum, to a gentleman from FL, who purchased everything. I'm guessing he either had a wife/girlfriend he purchased the goodies for, he owned a jewelry store, or he planned to sell the items on eBay.

Thanks for the kind replies to my post, ladies!

When my favorite aunt, my godmother died, I was the executor of the estate and her heir. She had no children of her own and my uncle had already passed.

She collected a lot of things and didn't want them to be thrown out, if possible.

A single guy in his 50s bought her house after 3 days on the market. He needed everything, so bought the house and all the contents we wished to leave behind...all the furniture - most of it was custom Danish modern from the 60s, created for the dimensions of the house.

The first thing I did was have a "party" for all my cousins. I have at least 80 cousins on her side of the family - she was one of 15 children...my mom's baby sister.

My cousins came from near and far...I laid out all the items they could share (I kept, as per her wishes, some better jewelry pieces she wanted me to have - and her grammar school & high school rings). About 25 cousins came - they took what they liked and shared stories about everything. All the great times we had at my aunt's summer picnics - one cousin took the 1950s chip and dip set. The Christmas parties - another cousin took the holly glasses with the matching plastic holders. There was gold, sterling, household items...tons of stuff. I just told them to hold on to them and remember our auntie. One cousin brought a truck and came from 10 hours away. When she was little, my aunt and my cousin used to go through her cedar trunk and look at all the items she had bought for when she married. She got the trunk as a Sweet 16 present and my cousin never forgot all the fun they had going thru the items. So she got the trunk! She collected music boxes and listed on the bottom when she got the box & who gave it to her...so many people got their gifts back. She had a huge collection of Disney music boxes - I gave one to every person there as they left. It was a fun way to remember a great lady and share good times with relatives.

terrier3, that must have been a fun party to honor your aunt/godmother. Well done good and faithful servant.