@jazzed - I have lots of experience with this. It is a big undertaking.
My mom died in 2011. Between then and when my dad passed away in July, 2016, I liquidated a ton of China, crystal and sterling silver.
Crystal- we had a ton of it. I was selling my mom's, mine and my sister had me sell hers. All Waterford, all the same pattern. What I did first was look up the retail price on Macy's for the different pieces. Most of mine and my sister's was brand new. Still had the little Waterford stickers on the pieces. I took the retail price and decided to try to sell them for 50% of the retail price. I sold quite a bit of it on a Facebook yard sale page. Through Facebook, it all sold really really quickly. I'd list them and they would sell within a day or two at most.
On the used pieces, we have a great consignment store in the area, multiple locations. I took the used pieces to them. They did the pricing. Obviously much less than the 50% I sold the new at. But it all sold very quickly. Week or two at most. Of course, the consignment store took their portion.
On the china, I had several sets to sell. Two that my sister and I had inherited from our grandmother and then we had my mom's to sell. I didn't even try Facebook yard sale. I'd seen others try to sell china and people literally wanted to pay next to nothing. I tried the consignment store. They wouldn't take the sets. I tried another consignment store, well known in the area. They said they had an entire room filled with china that people brought in and never came back and got when it didn't sell. They wouldn't even look at what I had. The sets we had were really ornate. My great aunt had bought them in Europe in the 40's or 50's. So.....I contacted Replacements Ltd. and got a price list from them for two of the sets to start with. They're a 6 1/2 hour drive from my house. My husband and I drove the two sets up there. Up and back in one really long day. But it was worth it because they gave us a good price. Not anywhere remotely what it's cost but it was much much better than the $0 I was getting at home.
After my dad died, as we drove up north to bury both of my parents remains, we stopped again at Replacements and sold my mom's set.
We were really fortunate to be able to sell to them. If that had not been possible, I would have donated them to Goodwill and walked away. I'd had enough of them. Selling to Replacements and mailing the things to them is just out of the question. Too expensive.
For the silver plated serving pieces, I sold most of them on Facebook yard sale. The ones that were in rough shape went to Goodwill.
For the sterling flatware, two sets, I took it to my local jeweler and sold it for scrap. The pieces were monogrammed so I didn't see many options for that.
Why is it, when I have a 50/50 guess at something, I'm always 100% wrong?
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