The Ins and Outs of Estate Sales with Cash & Cari's Cari Cucksey - Part Two

Cari Cucksey will tell you she basically grew up inside a Sears Roebuck 1908 catalog with a mother who would drag her to wherever an antique could be found. Selling and trading at 12-years-old and armed with a little information on a lot of stuff, becoming a liquidator seemed like a no-brainer. Besides, she's a big sap -- you have to be when you're helping a family sell the belongings of a recently deceased loved one. "You're wearing multiple hats when you're doing this. You're a psychologist, you're a salesperson you're a friend, you're helping people out and I enjoy it."

This is why she started RePurpose Estate Services just outside of Detroit. It's a full service company that handles all your estate sale needs, from research and pricing to setup and clean up. She'll either buy out your entire stock and sell it at her store or sell the former possessions garage sale style and you can see it all on her TV series Cash & Cari on the W Network. Of course, with over ten years experience in the liquidation business you learn a thing or two, which is why we sat down to chat about what it takes to run an estate sale and how someone like her can help you out when the time comes. Part one of our interview covered how to arrange an estate sale and now in part two, Cari discusses how to market an estate sale and how to preserve those rare high dollar items.If people believe they have a rare high-dollar item, what should they do before you arrive to make your investigation of the piece easier?

"What makes an item more valuable is the provenance, which is having a letter, certificate of authenticity or a written story with the piece. We typically go to experts in that field, meaning people who specialize in those items. Don't clean it! Don't touch it! Don't try to fix it, just leave it alone! No matter what it is, just leave it as is because so many times there are things people have cleaned, wiped down or stored improperly. Obviously, you want to store high value items in a place with humidity control. You don't want to store a beautiful antique out in your garage. The right temperature is very important, but leave it until you get that expert opinion and we will arrange the experts for you."

What are some of negotiating strategies you use to either set the price or sell the item?

"When we price things right off the bat, it's always fair market value pricing from what we found during our research. Then, the first day is always typically, 'prices as marked' and then on the second and third days you can negotiate. If it's an item that we know 100% has a lot of value and there's a lot of people out there who will get out online or in the store, then the price will stay firm with just a little bit of wiggle room. If it's something that's pretty common, then of course we'll negotiate, but we won't take someone's ridiculous offer."

What marketing strategies do you use to attract the hardcore buyers?

"We use EstateSales.net. They are a wonderful company. You can upload all your photos and put even more details as to what you have and some people put pricing on there. You can send e-mail notifications from the site for free. We have a list of about 2500 people and growing that goes out every week alerting people of our sales. But, if there's a special item, like Coca-cola memorabilia, we will notify the collector clubs and go that extra mile to get those big collectors out there."

What happens to the items you can't sell during the estate sell period?

"We take the higher value items on consignment and the family usually decides how they want to do it. There have been times when family members say, 'I really wanted to keep that anyway,' so it was meant for them. Household goods and items that can be donated, we will handle the donations."

Have you ever kept an item for yourself?

"Of course, being in this business you have to be a collector. I'm a collector. I love art pottery, art deco and arts and crafts, so absolutely. It's usually a trinket or two from many estate sales that I just couldn't pass up. You walk a fine line, but I am extremely fair and most of the time overpay for things that I want and love. We're in this business because we love to collect."