Shopping at an estate sale

Have you ever shopped at an estate sale? Do you want to? Estate sales are a nice way for the mass affluent to obtain classic artwork or classic antique furniiture. Just do some homework before you drive the van an hour hoping to load up on bargain luxury goods.

For sale listings, look at newspaper classifieds and sites like EstateSales.net. But you can also type your city and "estate sale services" or "estate sale liquidation" into a search engine to find local firms. At these companies' websites you'll find info on coming events and may be able to sign up for e-mail alerts.

I've found that Craigslist also occasionally has the skinny on an estate sale. The N.Y. Estate Sales homepage has links to estate and tag sale directories. Scroll to "Search for estate & tag sales throughout the entire United States".

If the estate sale is held on a weekend, the best bargains will be had at the very end of Saturday and Sunday. You risk missing out on some pieces if you wait until the end though.