Modern day treasure hunting, via estate sales and auctions

At first glance, estate sales and auctions attract two groups who would seem to be diametrically opposed.

There are the bargain hunters looking to find something amazing for a fraction of its cost, and opposite them are the auctioneers and former owners hoping to sell items for at least as much as the appraised value. Despite that opposition, buyers and sellers need the other.

Also needing the sellers and auctioneer’s services is a steady stream of people downsizing as they enter retirement or who have inherited a house full of items they have nowhere to store. According to a survey conducted by Estatesales.net, 46% of estate sales were held by people downsizing or moving while 49% were conducted following a death.

In the latter category, author and noted estate seller Julie Hall notes in her book “The Boomer Burden” that 4,800 baby-boomers are expected to inherit their parent’s estates every day. As a whole, those born between roughly 1946 and 1964 stand to inherit assets worth up to $41 trillion.

While that inheritance will not be distributed evenly among the more than 70 million people considered “boomers,” in 2021 the Estatesales.net data showed an average gross estate sale value of $19,584. That is up from $18,029 in 2020, and in line with values before the start of the pandemic. The auctioneers or organizers of the sale often take 30% to 35% of the gross sale, and roughly half of the respondents to the EstateSales.net survey said the business is their primary source of income.

Despite buying and selling pieces of the past, the industry has proven adaptable, according to Grant Panarese, who cofounded both Black Rock Galleries, headquartered in Fairfield, and the online auction platform Auction Ninja with his wife Christie Spooner.

“If you go back 20 years ago there was no internet bidding, barely any phone bidding, and you had an auctioneer calling in auction with 300 people in front of you,” Panarese said. “The internet was barely relevant and then around 2002 eBay took off with a live action platform and we were able to upload items and grab international bidders for the first time. It was a whole different ball game.”

“It decimated our auction room,” Panarese added sadly. “We went from having 300 people to those 300 people saying ‘Well, this kind of sucks. We’re getting outbid for all the stuff we really want and the next thing you know you’ve got like 10 people left in your audience.”

However, Panarese realized that there were certain things about the auction and estate sale experience that eBay couldn’t replicate. The millions of listings from around the world were great for those seeking a single specific item or looking to complete a collection but were for the diehards lacking something crucial.

“If you collect Mickey Mantles and you want a 1963 Tops with a PSA rating of eight, that’s a great place to go for it,” he said. “But if you’re just out there for a hunt and the fun of it it’s not the right place to be.”

By launching Auction Ninja, Panarese explained, the couple hoped to provide a platform for those moments of serendipity for people who want to attend events but are unable.

“It’s for a husband and wife who would go to flea markets or antique shows not because they were looking for a particular painting but because they enjoyed spending their time together looking at artwork and they would go for something that would catch their eye and become an impulse buy,” he said.

Auction Ninja provides estate sellers and auctioneers across the country with a platform where they can list their lots together, meaning that individual estate sales can be scrolled through without relying on filtering techniques that would prevent a surprising find from popping up.

Panarese did not share exact figures about the business’ performance, but he said that many in the estate sale industry had found themselves turning down high volumes of work during the Covid pandemic, particularly in Fairfield County where it caused a flurry of moves and downsizing. The current pace of sales is more sustainable, he observed, particularly in Fairfield County where a waterside home in Greenwich could have contents worth very little but a “$400,000 house could have a couple million dollars’ worth of stuff in it.”

As an alternative to expanding sales into the digital, many organizers of estate sales and others who trade in vintage goods turn to collective spaces. Monger’s Market, which has been located in a reclaimed Bridgeport factory, is home to more than 90 independent vendors who fill the 127,000 square foot space with booths and crowds of customers on Sundays, the one day of the week the space is open to the public.

“We have a collection of independent vendors that bring goods from all over the place, including estate sales,” said Mary Karl, the Monger Market’s manager. She noted that when the market opened in 2018 a large percentage of the floor was devoted to goods sold by founder John Hiden, but that as his collection cleared out he began renting space to “mongers” of all sorts, selling everything from vintage collectibles and consignment items left over from auctions to architectural salvage rescued from demolition.

“Each customer you ask will have a different reason they come,” Karl said. “That’s why it’s fun. Some people it is the thrill of the hunt, hoping for some specific thing, others are looking for bargains, and some just come to be inspired by what they see and think of new ways to use old things. There’s also those who find a nostalgia piece, where they see something their grandfather had or they remember from their childhood. There’s every type of reason known to man.”

Before establishing Monger’s Market in Bridgeport, Hiden ran an antique center in Stamford, which for a time had a reputation as an antiques mecca. He switched to the current business model, charging browsers a $3 entry fee and vendors for renting the space, despite still having some of his own collection on sale.

According to Karl, this comes in part from a certain spirit that many in the industry as both buyers and sellers share.

“It’s an eclectic group of people that are called to it. It’s not one formula, like being good at math leads to being an accountant,” she said. “Whatever part of a spirit or upbringing connects you with old things is the biggest part, and they are all very independent.”

Panarese also shared in that definition of spirit within this realm.

“Good, friendly competitors are always welcome,” he said. “If they’re good auctioneers and they’re honest people, they’re an asset to me and I’m an asset to them.”