THRIFT YOUR WAY
Online auctions
Everything in a home is photographed and sold online, and you collect what you win at a set time.
Before you go
- Good for
- Whole households: furniture, art, kitchen, tools
- When to go
- Lots close on a set evening; pickup a day or two later
- Paying
- Card online, with a buyer’s premium added
How it works
- Each item, or group of items, is listed as a lot with photos.
- Bidding runs for several days. At the end, lots close one after another.
- A buyer’s premium, often 10 to 25%, is added to your winning bid.
- You pick up your lots at the home or a warehouse at a set time. Most don’t ship.
How to do well
- Decide your top price with the premium included, then bid near the end.
- Check the pickup day, time and place before you bid. Missing pickup usually means losing the lot and the money.
- Zoom into every photo for chips, cracks and marks, and ask the seller before bidding closes.
- Look at the mixed lots, like a box of frames or kitchen odds and ends. They often go cheap and hide the best value.
What to bring
Where to find them
HiBid
Local auctioneers’ online sales. Search with your zip and the miles you’d drive.
Go to HiBid (opens in a new tab)AuctionNinja
Online estate auctions from estate companies, picked up locally.
Go to AuctionNinja (opens in a new tab)
How Thriftcraft helps
Your assistant
Get a second opinion on which lots are worth a bid, and what one might be worth before you set your top price.
- Open the find and tap ChatGPT, Claude or Muse under Ask about this find. It opens with a question about the find already written.
- Send a detail photo of any mark when it asks. Ask it to save the answer and its sources with the find.
- Saved research keeps its own words and sources. It changes the find’s details only when you approve the change.
More ways Thriftcraft can help
Scan
Keep what you win as a find, with its photo and what you paid.
- Open Scan and take a photo of the find.
- Open the find to keep its price and notes together. Keep extra photos of marks and damage with it.
- If a snap is waiting offline, leave Thriftcraft open when you reconnect and check that it uploads before signing out.
The sites here belong to other companies. None of them pays to be listed.