Posted: 5/24/2026 8:38:22 PM EDT
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Tools and supplies... I was contacted by acquaintances widow. Unfortunately she lost her husband to cancer. Unfortunately he did not have any life insurance and she for some reason can not collect on his pension. Anyway she has to liquidate things and has to sell the house. I am not sure all together how much stuff is there or what is there. I know one time I was at his place and he was turning custome wood pens. Had a bunch of wood blanks for inventory. She said he has a lot of stuff and she has no idea on any values. Unfortunately when she starts to go through things emotion takes over and she breaks down So my question is "what's a good place to sell this stuff". Also where to find the value of this stuff. I will be meeting with her during this week to see if I can get a list and some pictures. |
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I've been to a handful of estate auctions that had collections like this. As for finding values I have no idea. Contact an estate auction house and roll the dice on who shows up. Most of these auctions are run online now to expand the buyers pool. Not collecting the pension is not a surprise. Many are single life annuities. Others can be set up as Joint and Survivor the monthly payment is generally reduced to 50% or 75% of the single life amount. |
| Estate sale. Usually someone local can help set price. We cleared out my FIL’s shop in a weekend after the heirs went through it and got a piece or two. We set the prices ourselves, but everything was fairly reasonable and negotiable. Big seller was lumber. It went fast. |
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
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I told her to contact a couple action company's. Her issue is she is emotional attachment and fear of strangers coming to her house. She also wants to get as much as possible but within reason. She said if something is worth $100 and she gets about $70, she is good with it. She does not want to deal with low ball offers. So I said again a auction would be best. See what happens. I also told her if people want to come to look at something to call me. We can set up a appointment and meet somewhere besides her house. I will go with her to make sure she is safe. |
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Originally Posted By Snert: I told her to contact a couple action company's. Her issue is she is emotional attachment and fear of strangers coming to her house. She also wants to get as much as possible but within reason. She said if something is worth $100 and she gets about $70, she is good with it. She does not want to deal with low ball offers. So I said again a auction would be best. See what happens. I also told her if people want to come to look at something to call me. We can set up a appointment and meet somewhere besides her house. I will go with her to make sure she is safe. What's likely best in this situation is to turn over everything to an auction company because they will sort and prep every item for sale. Probably best if she is not at the house on auction day for her emotional wellbeing. Strangers bidding on items her husband was attached to may send her over the edge. Maybe she could appoint you to represent her on sale day and she goes somewhere else. 70% of value on the dollar is likely way out of range of what's reasonable in this situation. Most auction houses are going to have 20% commission unless there is a lot of value there like collector cars. They have a lot of work to do. If she got 50% of the items worth she would be doing well. This is a forced liquidation the time to be demanding top dollar was back when her husband was alive with him knowing the value of every item and selling them off individually through the best channels he knows about because it was his passion. At the end of the day the property will be cleared out ready to prep for real estate sale and whatever items had no bid can be put into a 30 yard garbage bin and hauled to a landfill. She will get a check from the auction house. Probably less than she thinks is "fair'. Ive seen widows sobbing at farm auctions being consoled by family when her husbands favorite tractor that he was going to "restore someday" gets sold near scrap price because its a rusted hulk and there are few buyers. |
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Originally Posted By JQ66: What kind of tools are you talking about? Power tools? Hand tools (planes, saws, chisels)? Not 100% sure. I know he did some woodworking, turned custom wood pens. Im sure he has some type of lathe for making the pens. I know he had I believe a powermatic 66 cabinet saw. It was a mustard/gold color older saw with a cast iron table. He also did Duracoat finish on firearms, lazer engraving and holsters. He had a FFL, all that stuff is going as well. |