Anyone have any experience with Antique "stuff?" By stuff, I mean useless stuff like the following.

OLD Magazines, IE Apollo Launch LIFE Mag.
Old Candy Bar Box, Butterfinger with Natalie Wood and Carl Mauldin on it.
Old Shot gun Shells
OLD FIRST AID KIT, Complete
OLD CANNING JARS
Old Glasses and frames

The list goes on......cleaning my in laws home and just cant throw this stuff away but would love to sell it to a collector?

PM me please with ideas.....I can send pics. Internet junkies have already pissed me off.

I don�t know about you but I found most of the stuff in my grandmothers house was worthless except to me. A couple of 100+ year old rifles and my grandfathers porn mags from the 50-60s, plus really cool zippos from the 30-40s. All of these things to me are priceless. The mags are worth a few hundred. I do have ginger from Gillian�s Island, man she�s no joke. I keep them with my parents newspaper announcements of their graduation. Oddly I keep all this in a big Snap-On toolbox that was my dads. The difference is my tool box is in my house.

As to your stuff see if any of it�s relevant to your wife. If not the dumpster or giving away is easier than a few hundred after dealing with people. It�s not worth it.

Take what your wife and any other heirs want to keep, then call a local estate sale company. They have the expertise, and they do all of the work of disposing of the trash and selling what is saleable. They also have lists of every collector in the area that will get a notice when the sale takes place.

Remove the items of sentimental value, then hire an estate sales firm, pay them the 30% commission, and be done with it. When they are done, call a charity and have them pick up what is left and leave you a gift receipt for taxes. We've been through this now several times, and if you try to sell on your own it can turn into a HUGE investment of time with very little pay-off. The estate folks are professionals who know how to price and promote.

One of the things we have learned is collectibles are very difficult to sell. Our grandparents, parents, and some of our generation were huge collectors - but the interest has fallen off while at the same time the market has been flooded as these older generations pass and their heirs want to cash in by selling what were once very pricey collections. We have been very frustrated with the collections we inherited. To nice to throw away, no interest in keeping, and no buyers.

Before picking an estate sale operator spend some time getting to know the various estate sale operators in your area. Spend a few weekends going to some of their sales to watch the buyers, Are they just looking or buying? Does the operator have the sale organized, or is it a "cluster"? Are tools set together or mixed in with the rest of the stuff? Are the kitchen gadgets in one place or just scattered through out the tables?

Most of the buyers are also semi professionals, they are there to buy for their own collection and/or to buy for resale and make a profit. The estate sale operator makes his money on a commission off of the sales, he wants it to sell at the highest price he thinks he can get, and a good one knows what his customers are willing to pay. He also knows how to promote the sale to get maximum gross receipts.

The estate sell operators are kind of like lawyers, you kind of hate them until you need one, then you love to have them.

If the old canning jars are colored, I usually pay a couple dollars each for them, I fill them with my metal detecting finds. IF they are Red or another rare color, they are worth more. The old first aid kits are worth very much, If they are boyscout kits they sell ok. Depending on how old the eye glasses are, most really old frames where gold filled and are worth selling. Some really funky frames from the 50's-70's are worth selling, the rest are not. Your old candy bar box is probably $5-10 if in decent condition. Old magazines are a hard sell and sometimes its worth removing pages to sell if they have old advertisements featuring big athletes or popular cars. Old shotgun shells can have good value depending on which ones they are and if they come with the boxes. Boxes with good graphics are worth the most.

All valuable info.....thanks to everyone who took the time. Most of the stuff was sold to a few collectors, family and I kept the rest and the Society for the Blind brought a truck.....done-ski. I appreciate you guys. Really makes me want to evaluate all the CRAPOLA I have collected over the years.

Find an antique mall that will sell on consignment

Good to see ya posting Mr Clean! Lemme know if I can help ya put

Out

Take it to Dallas Auction Gallery. I did. May the 8th DAG sold a gawdy-looking turn-of-the-century “commode” for me that the child bride told me to give to a thrift shop. The final bid was $11,000 (yes, eleven grand). She agreed to let me have whatever it brought at auction.After a 15% auction fee I got $9,350 cash in my pocket and all she could do was pout about it.

If any of the shot shells are brass please PM me.