What We Do
Your Choice
for Estate Sale Management
Trusted Transitions can provide you with the experience, knowledge, and attention necessary to conduct your estate sale and achieve the greatest amount for your items.
Trusted Transitions will keep your family's best interests at heart by acting as your onsite advocate, coordinating the liquidation of your loved one's estate. We carefully manage the items in the home, treating them like our own, to ensure they're sold or liquidated in a timely manner. As your family's trusted partner, we manage the process efficiently and maximize returns. We give families peace of mind by minimizing the stress of estate sale planning.
Because of television shows like 'Antiques Roadshow' people have come to expect that their basements and attics contain valuable treasures. They might; indeed, but they might not… Trusted Transitions has a licensed appraiser on staff, and the team uses years of experience and a database of thousands of antique catalogs, guides and auction websites and sales guides to research the value of your estate. We will be happy to explain the value cycles of collectibles that families may have been amassing and cherishing for years - even if we can't always share good news.
As a child, my mother used to drag me into antique stores and exclaim, "Oh, look at that <table>! That's the same as the one we have at home!" Then after looking at the price listed on the item for sale, she would get even more excited, "Look, it's worth $5000!
Not necessarily… That table (or any other item) can be priced at any value you want, but that does not mean it will sell at that price (I think that table was still in that shop about ten years later – so it wasn’t worth $5000 – that’s just what they wanted for it). Many factors determine the value of antiques and collectibles:
Rarity
Just because an item is old doesn't mean that it is valuable. It's only if something is rare or has some unique quality that it is likely worth a great deal of money.
You can purchase ancient Greek and Roman coins – real ones – at a very low cost. These coins are thousands of years old, but they aren't rare. The Greeks and Romans produced many millions of them, and since they were made out of very sturdy metals, every time a sunken ship with a cargo hold full of coins is discovered, the value of the coins goes down.
Condition
It goes without saying that something in excellent condition is worth more than something that is in poor condition. However, other aspects of an item can also affect its value.
Provenance
Who painted it or made it may be less important than who owned it. Having documentation or proof of a piece's history is key to its being more valuable.
Interest
An item does not necessarily have to have an intrinsic value for it to be valuable. Many parents from the 1930s threw away their kids' comic books without any thought of value. It is because they did so (a rarity) and some children kept those comics secured (condition) that there are a few very valuable issues of comics today. However, just as with stocks and bonds, interest in any antiques and collectibles ebbs and flows with the years. What is valuable today may not be as valuable tomorrow, and vice versa. That's why it is important to find a good, reliable estate sale company such as Trusted Transitions, who will thoroughly research your possessions and give you recommendations before you liquidate something on the low end.