「经济学人」Good stuff

Is it easier to get people to buy old junk in person?

In a house on a cul-de-sac in Arlington Heights, a nondescript suburb of modest 1950s homes north-west of Chicago, Deborah Fossett is counting hundred-dollar bills. Holding each one up to the light, she examines nine in total. Satisfied, she writes out a receipt, and hands it to the customer, who picks up his purchase—an antique set of silver Tiffany cutlery. Similar sets online sell for thousands of dollars, she tells him. But this one is missing several pieces, and in any case, everything in the house must go, and it is past two o’clock, so $900 is enough. He eyes his bargain again and quickly leaves.

Ms Fossett runs Chicago Estate Advisors, a firm which will sell everything in your house for you. Typically the clients are the relatives of recently deceased former occupants, though sometimes they are people who are merely downsizing or decluttering. Almost all of this activity happens in person, offline. Most of the firms doing it are small, like Ms Fossett’s.

Even as the sale of goods on websites like eBay has stagnated, estate sales are booming. Marika Clemow of EstateSales.net, where such sales are advertised, says the number has grown almost continuously for the 20 years the site has operated, with over 120,000 of them posted last year (up from 102,000 in 2019). It is a lesson in how offline commerce can still sometimes beat online stuff. But the boom is also evidence of how an ageing population, and higher rates of death, are creating an almighty problem: when people die, what to do with all of their stuff?

Estate sales are generally held over two or three days, usually at weekends. Advertisements are placed both online and physically, around a neighbourhood. At a popular one, on the first day crowds will queue up before it opens. At an appointed hour, they are allowed in en masse to hunt for things they want and make offers. Prices drop quickly as the sale progresses. Things often sell cheaply because speed is of the essence.

Clients turn to estate sellers because they need cash to cover funeral costs, or nursing-home costs, or they need to get a home in order for sale quickly. Compared with previous generations, the baby-boomers own an awful lot of stuff. And often their children or grandchildren lack the space or the inclination to keep much of it.

During the covid-19 pandemic most such sales went purely online. But, says Ms Clemow, a large majority have returned to in-person operations. Inviting buyers to rummage around a house is a lot less effort than photographing and describing every item to sell online. Buyers tend to like the chance to see things physically, and to find something they were not looking for. And they get to take it away immediately.

“There’s a competitive element to it, which I think younger people are not scared of,” says Virginia Chamlee, the author of “Big Thrift Energy”, a guide book for bargain-hunters. Social media are full of guides (some of them made by Ms Chamlee) about how to get the best deals. Sellers are increasingly present there too.

Can the boom last? The supply of old stuff is seemingly endless. The trouble is, not everybody has vintage Tiffany cutlery to sell. Ordinary bric-a-brac is harder to get rid of. Much of what fails to sell ends up in the tip. In 2018, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, 37m tonnes of durable goods went into landfill. It will take a lot more bargain-hunting to reduce that figure.(May 7th 2024)

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