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Have you ever gone into your attic or storage rooms to toss unnecessary items but couldn’t get started because it overwhelmed you? Just picking up a box of photos and going through them can be an emotional few hours. Should you save the photos because someone in the family might want them, or do you put them back where you found them and shut the door?

So many people do the latter, but there are professionals in the Little Rock market who can help. Maybe it’s adult children whose parents have died or have moved to an assisted living center or a nursing home. Or maybe it’s a baby boomer who has a large home used by the adult children and grandchildren about once or twice a year who wants to downsize and needs less than half of what the home holds. No matter the situation, an estate sale professional can help.

Roy Dudley started his business officially in 1998 after leaving a corporate job with Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Four of his employees have worked with him since that time. “We are proud to have become Arkansas’ premier estate services company,” Dudley said in a recent e-mail interview. “Four members of my staff, including me, are certified appraisers. We all have different areas of expertise but overlap, too, in some instances, which is an added advantage when pricing a large and multifaceted estate.”

Dudley grew up in the business. “My mother conducted estate sales in the Fayetteville area and I spent many hours as a child at farm auctions where I would purchase box lots (contents) of items. Starting when I was about 8 years old, my Aunt Hazel (queen of the perpetual yard sale) taught me economics early. She would say, ‘So you paid $4 for this box? Well, let’s see.’ She would rummage through the box and remark, ‘OK, this item is worth $4; now, when this item sells, your box is paid for. Now tag everything in that box with an R, put it in the yard sale, and let’s see how much you make. By the way, I’m charging you 20 percent of your sales because I’m the boss and I have the yard sale.’ Typically, my $4 box would sell for about $20; Aunt Hazel got $4, I got a $12 profit after accounting for my box, and the monster was born!

“I love my job. I work with very interesting clients, and I am able to provide a service that is both profitable and rewarding. As we assist in estate mediations, appraisals and varied estate liquidations, we feel fortunate to be in the rare position of being able to make a sometimes emotional and uncomfortable transition easier for both individuals and families alike. As a company, we have the opportunity to offer great items to collectors, make great friends and learn something new every day. Our clients are very loyal and we have worked with many of them multiple times. I would not trade my job for anything!”

Dudley’s experience may help you.

“The first step we suggest when a client calls is to have an on-site walk-through so I can assess the estate’s needs,” he said. “I can then recommend that there be an on-site tagged estate sale, a move to an off-site location for a tag sale, an auction, an appraisal, a donation, or a combination of a few of the above. One of my business’ strengths is determining the needs of each individual seller; we want the estate to generate the most money possible, even if that means recommending another solution or company. Once we have determined there will be a sale, we put our game plan together.”

What should one look for in an estate sale company?

A professional company will have a built-in clientele of collectors, antiques dealers, designers and other industry professionals who are not the usual yard sale shoppers, according to Dudley. “A professional company will have access to cleaning services, charities for pickup, more advertising resources, experience in evaluating and pricing items as well as getting the items to the people who will pay top dollar,” he said. “Your sale will be exposed to a much larger market and the merchandise will be accurately priced. A professional company will not have any emotional ties to the merchandise or the family. It is a no-brainer to use a professional estate sale company for your sale — the commission charges are quickly recouped with the additional money made by an experienced company with a knowledgeable staff. Why do all the work yourself?

“We recently conducted an off-site sale for an old Little Rock family that had to move their mother out of the house she had lived in for decades. We were able to assess the needs of the extended family, assist them in selecting specialty movers to ship precious items to three different states, and provided an appraisal and documents for a substantial donation to a local charity,” he said. “In a nutshell, the family asked our advice and then they stepped back and let us do our job! We removed the items to our site, cleaned the house, sold the items and paid the family far more money than they expected! It was very rewarding to provide our services to this family. They were able to focus on providing the assistance their mother needed and let us handle everything else.

“In this economy each sale is a new world!” he said. “Traditionally, art, silver, jewelry, guns and rare and one-of-a-kind items always sell well. We are seeing a great increase in the desire for durable goods — items people will use in their homes daily. Collectibles prices are down, down, down; eBay and the Internet have really shaken up the collectibles market.”

Despite the market, while working recently with a local family, Dudley said a sharp-eyed and knowledgeable employee discovered a rare 1960s novelty doll which garnered little interest at the estate sale, but sold easily online for $600. “We like to offer the more unique items to our shoppers at sales, but sometimes we have to reach out to a bigger audience to realize the true value of an item for our clients.”