we've just moved my grandmother from her home of 60 years and the stuff she has accumulated is amazing.  she has so many items that were given as gifts and never opened, she worked for wedgewood so she has a ton of beautiful wedgewood.  she has alot of my dad's maple leaf memorabilia that you can no longer get and was purchased thru bradford exchange, etc. (expensive).  the furniture she had was french provincial, custom made, in top notch condition.  then we have boxes and boxes of slightly used things, older things and it is all sitting in my house.  we were thinking about putting it through an estate sale.  does anyone have any experience with estate sales?  is an estate sale the same as an auction?  if i could hear your feedback i would really appreciate it.  thanks.

Wedgewood is desirable. Auction here takes 15% and then some. Try usedvictoria.com or other area where you are living and Craigslist. I take my items to consignment household stores. Here in Victoria, I use Good Things. I have made a lot of money doing this. If you decide to have a garage sale...make sure to have lots of friends helping you. People will go into your house and go into rooms not intended for sale. This happened to my friend in Northbay, Ontario when they advertised an estate sale in paper. Lots of items missing and presumed stolen.

Tscowan,

No experience with estate sales. My grandpa passed in October 2006 and grandma in February 2008, and my dad / aunt / myself decided it best to share her items with her circle of friends. We allowed them to select items of hers that they would like to cherish and stuff we also suggested they receive as they had long been appreciative of her varied china and decorative items. As for the larger items such as furniture and so on ... we donated a bunch of items to a local warehouse which offered items for people in need / families that were in transition / people that had lost their belongings in house fires, etc. That was a really good feeling as we were able to pass along older television sets, antiques, dressers, sofas, chairs, a dining room table, etc. The place was about 10 mins away by car so it made it very convenient, as we made a number of trips there with my dad's truck and were on good terms with the manager there who was very appreciative.

My husband's mother passed away in May. There were three sons who each took some little thing that they remembered when they were growing up. To transport furniture etc is not always financially wise as two live out of town. We donated to Habitat.

There is an online Auction that has started up in eastern On. Where they will come and divide your stuff into lots, photograph and put them into your online auction. They look after everything from start to finish. The web site is "youbidlocal.com" You could look them up as they are looking to expand big time.