Trash to Treasures

There is an old quote by Yotam Ottoleghi “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. First, I would like to update this quote to: “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure”!

I have been a certified personal property appraiser for 22+ years and have been buying and selling household contents for 30+ years. One thing I have learnt time and time again is that many items that people think are valuable have little value and many items that people think are trash do indeed have a least some monetary value.

Approximately 60-70% of my business is estate related appraising household contents for probate, distribution, donation and to sell.

I cannot count how many times people thought there was little to no value of their parents or relatives household items. Often, I arrive to appraise the items the family feels has value and there is a large metal garbage bin in the driveway or yard. I always have a quick peak before I go into the house. My estimation is that in roughly 90% of the time there are items in the bins that look like trash but are indeed treasures.

Basement, Garage, Attic

From my 30+ years of experience the hidden treasures are usually not in plain site. Usually, the treasures are located in the basements, garages, attics, crawl spaces and sometimes tucked away under stairs. Often stored in unmarked boxes or bins.

Online Auction

Last summer I managed an online auction downsizing sale. There were several boxes and items located in the basement that were organized by my client beforehand to go to the trash and for donation. I convinced my client to let me put these items in the online auction.

There were several 1980’s toys, 1990’s video game systems & games plus a Commodore 64 personal computer system. I turned this trash into over $2000.

This is only one instance of many where an experience professional certified appraiser has turned trash into thousand of dollars.

Contact an Appraiser

If you are an executor of an estate or downsizing yourself or a loved one, before you throw anything out, my advice is to have a certified appraiser come and visit. This will help give direction on which items have value, which items to keep, which items to donate and which items to throw out. Just the piece of mind of knowing that items worth hundreds and even thousands of dollars did not end up in a landfill is worth the few hundred dollars to hire a certified appraiser!