We walk through the house with you.
We agree what's for sale and write down what the family is keeping. You sign that list before we tag anything. You can add to it later.
An estate sale company empties your house in one weekend. To sell that fast, they mark everything 50-70% off, then keep up to 40% of the money. We go slower. We list every item in your home, sell each one to the person who actually wants it, and pay you 75% of what it makes, every two weeks. Nothing leaves your house until it's sold.
Need the house empty by Sunday? Hire the estate sale company. Want what your things are really worth? Keep reading. — Martyn O'Neill
Say you have items to sell, worth about each, and about of them are furniture or big things a local buyer would pick up.
+$0 more for you.
We agree what's for sale and write down what the family is keeping. You sign that list before we tag anything. You can add to it later.
Each item gets a photo, measurements, a number, and a price based on what the same thing just sold for. You get the full list as a spreadsheet you can open any time.
Small things go on eBay to buyers across the country, from an eBay account in your name that we run for you. Furniture sells locally for pickup. Prices drop on a schedule you approve, never below a floor you set.
Every line shows the item, what it sold for, the fees, and your share, with the eBay link next to it so you can check it yourself.
Keep it, donate it with receipts for your taxes, or hand the rest to an estate liquidation company. We take nothing on donations.
Flick the top card away, or click it, to see the next step. Or jump to one:
That's our whole fee, and we only earn it when something sells. We take 25% of what's left after eBay's fees and the cost of the box and label. On local pickup sales there are no fees at all, so it's 25% of the price.
On the right, two lines from the statement you'd get. Every sale looks like this.
I'm Martyn O'Neill. I'm originally from the UK, I sell on eBay for a living, and my wife and I run these sales together. The work is mostly knowing what things really sell for, photographing them well, and packing them so they arrive in one piece. We enjoy it. We started doing this for families because watching a house full of good things go for a tenth of their value in one weekend seemed like a bad deal for everyone except the company running it. We hate seeing people get ripped off.
We're based in Newbury Park / Thousand Oaks. We work in your home, on days we agree, and we write everything down. If something should go to auction instead of eBay, we'll say so and take a smaller cut. If an estate sale is actually the right call for you, we'll say that too.
We cover Los Angeles County and Ventura County, Malibu to Ojai. More about how we work →
An estate sale only reaches whoever drives by that weekend. So prices are set to empty the house fast, usually 50-70% off, with a half-price day at the end. Then the company keeps 35 to 50% of that. On a $100 item, you might see $15 to $25. Selling item by item to buyers across the country usually gets two to three times more for collectibles and designer things. The trade-off is time: a few months instead of a weekend. If you need the house empty next week, an estate sale is the right choice, and we'll tell you so.
No. Items stay in one room of your home until they sell. We pack and ship from your house, and local buyers pick up at the garage or front door with you or a family member there. After every visit you get a signed sheet of what left, and we photograph the room once a week.
You do. Sales run through an eBay account in your name, not ours. If you don't have one, we help you set it up, and you do the ID and bank steps yourself. We never see your Social Security number or bank login. eBay pays you directly. You can log in any time and see every listing, message and sale. Every two weeks you get a statement and pay us our share.
We look at what the same thing actually sold for recently, not what people are asking. We list at about 80% of that, which sells without giving it away, and only lower it if it sits. You approve the price on anything expensive, and you can set a "don't sell below" price on any item.
Before we tag anything, the family writes down what it's keeping and signs the list. You can add to it any time. Nothing on that list gets photographed or sold.
Anything that's illegal or against eBay's rules: ivory and some other animal products (illegal to sell in California, even antiques), guns, alcohol, recalled products, and fake designer goods. We'll tell you why and suggest what to do with it.
Up to three weeks to list everything, then steady selling. A house with 300 to 500 items usually takes 2-4 months. If you have a deadline, tell us and we'll plan the price drops around it.
Tell us roughly what you have and where the house is. We'll come out, walk through it with you, and give you a written estimate. No commitment.
hello@oneillestatesales.com