Auctions on Main

Offering a variety of quality contemporary, vintage and antique treasures, the auctions are also quite entertaining, from the most personable, professional and friendly folks in the business. Just go! :)

Good people.
Selection is all over the place.
Toilet paper? Yep
Oak dresser? Yep
Staff is friendly and helpful
Be sure that the auction you are enjoying isn’t «as-​is» and they will accept a return before 14 days with your receipt
«As-​is» means if it doesn’t work, you are taking the risk.
But they are clear with what the auctions are

This is a bit of a difficult review to write — but I felt it was important for others to share and understand what they are in for when you use an Auction House — in this specific case — to liquidate belongings from a deceased family member.
My brother and I were at a loss as to what to do with a lot of the belongings of our Mother after she passed away this past summer. After we had decided what we wanted to keep, and what we wanted to donate, and what to recycle and/​or throw out — there was still a lot of stuff left.
We found out about Auctions on Main from a friend. When you contract with them — they are going to come and load up their truck, transport the items to their location in Purcellville, VA — and then they will be auctioned off live and online. It took three weekends of Auctions for all of our Mother’s stuff to sell. We contracted with another service to come and box everything up so that it was all ready to go for Auctions on Main. It was was to stressful at the time to do this ourselves. We just wanted to get it done and move on.
The day the truck arrived to pick everything up — two guys came in, and tagged every box and item with little stickers with numbers on then, then they photographed each box or item focusing on the sticker. Then the loading began. The whole process took about 4 hours.
Auctions on Main charges a $ 400 fee to load and transport everything (for one truck load), plus they will keep 40% of the gross on the auctioned items. If anything is left that was unsold — and needs to be disposed of — they charge you a fee for transport to the dump. When all is completed — they will mail you a report with an accounting, along with a check (minus their fees).
This was not a fun process. But in hindsight, I recognize the need and value for someone to do this.
A final note — everyone who goes through this process — you should be prepared — emotionally and psychologically — that you are not going to receive a lot of money for your items that go to Auction. For us it was about clearing everything out and moving on.