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Originally Posted by Prism99
(Post 6397985)
$25 for 2 to 3 yards of fabric is way too high. My guess is that estate sale yardage probably goes for around 2$/yd.
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A few years ago I came upon an ad for a warehouse full of fabric, notions, sewing machines (at least 5 probably more), a long arm machine, batting, and more. The entire lot sold for $4200.00. I am guessing, but I think I am still seeing lots of the fabric on eBay still today. If the lady herself was pricing the stash, it would be very reasonable, but the family doesn't know how to price it. $25.00 is way too high for fabric that may not even be 100% cotton. Many years ago we used anything for quilting even double knits. I would be worried about making the sellers mad by offering a low price. I also wouldn't mention the possibility of bugs. Even if that is the case, the family would be insulted, at least I would be. Back to the auction that I was talking about--it was a former shop and the owner didn't want to move everything. Let us know what happens. Good luck
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Perhaps you could get an idea of the weight of the fabric. A yard of regular flat cotton weigh approx. 5 oz. If you knew what you wanted to pay for the fabric, ie: $XX per pound, you could decide about how much you would be paying per yard. Also, if you end up getting fabric that you just won't use, you can give it to your local senior citizens home (and possibly write it off your taxes), where they will probably put those fabrics to great use in community service projects.
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I often buy fabric at auctions. Some goes way too high, others go cheap. I have bought out a few people's stashes. I always go through it and wind up throwing away a good portion of it. I always have things that are not 100% cotton, too cut up to salvage much, ect. I made an offer on an estate that had several totes of Wal-Mart pattern of the month with all the material to make the quilts plus backing. I estimated how many quilt, average yardage per quilt, and multiplied that by 2.5. It came close to $3,000, and I offered $3,500 to take it all. They refused and they still have it 3 years later and are trying to piece it out. I just bought all that would stuff in a mini-van (including passenger seat) for $700. Again, I threw away a good bit. I still came out ok, and they were happy. Use your judgment, try to get them to set the price first. If not, offer a price and if they don't like it, have them do a come back. Measuring that much fabric is unrealistic. I find I share my stash with my quilting friends and we all win-win.
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fabric by pound
Originally Posted by willferg
(Post 6398920)
I have been to a couple of stash sales where the fabric was sold by the pound, like $5 or $6 a pound. You can try that yourself to see how many yards add up to a pound for a price per yard.
I would say that your friends need to throw the current fabric prices out the window. No one is going to pay current full price for something at an estate sale. Further, and I know this from personal experience, when you get older fabric, sometimes over the years it accumulates a smell, so you are not dealing with prime merchandise. Even if you know for a fact that the sewist bought only LQS quality fabric, it's still dated and aged, which brings the price down considerably, especially if you can't pick and choose. I had a woman donate her mother's stash to us, and after talking to her on the phone, I was really excited. Her mom had been sewing for 30 years, had batting (which said to me she was a quilter), and lived in a really expensive area. Well, when she brought me the fabric, it was 30 years OLD, not LQS (actually Joanns), smelled really bad, wasn't all cotton, and the batting had disintegrated. She was hoping to write it off at the full current retail value. I tossed half of it away and gave the rest of a thrift shop after warning them about it. So I guess if you are going to take the risk, you need to negotiate a good price. Hope that helps! |
Well, they can ask what they want but in a rural area, and with the competition of the internet, there still has to be a buyer. If they are going to auction at estate sale, I would wait until then and you may get it all a whole lot less than what you would have offered for it. One can investigate and find out how much something is worth but there still has to be a willing buyer. In today's economy the odds of one showing up to pay the premium price is slim. If it was me, I would offer a flat fee for "pickens privileges". to go through and pick out what you want to fill a box or bag. I would only take what I would use.
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Originally Posted by southernmema
(Post 6399227)
I sooo agree with Wintersewer!!! If this is the mom of a good friend who passed, I would not touch that stuff with a ten foot pole! Nor would I attempt to advise them on how much it's worth. So not worth it. Let the family find out without your involvement how much/little they can get for the fabric. After a while of trying to sell it at an unrealistic price, they may even offer some to you. This advice comes from many, many years of experience!
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A 17x20x5 inch drawer - if stuffed - would hold close to 30 yards of regularquilting fabric.
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Do let us know what you end up doing.
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some people are just unrealistic and will try forever to sell old stuff because of how much was spent originally. We have someone on Craigslist that is trying to sell his mother's leftovers (after several garage sales) for $1,000. Not worth even $200.
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