How to Start an Estate Sales Business and Make Up to $5k in a Weekend

What if you could make money this weekend helping people clear out their homes without buying a single thing yourself?

Estate sales have been around for decades, but a newer, fully online version of this business makes it faster, safer, and more efficient for everyone involved. And it’s wide open for someone willing to learn the ropes.

Sue Antinoro has spent the last 10-20 years in consignment, eBay, estate sales, and auction sales.

Today she runs AuctionMastery.com, where she’s built a flexible side hustle turning other people’s belongings into cash — and helping families get through one of the most overwhelming transitions in life.

Her most recent auction? A two-part sale for a house packed floor to ceiling with items. The total gross: $17,000. Her cut: around $8,000 for a couple weekends’ worth of work.

Tune in to Episode 739 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

how the online estate auction model works and why it beats traditional in-person sales
step-by-step how to photograph, catalog, and list items to maximize bids
how to find clients and build referral partnerships in your area

Table of Contents show

How This Model Differs from Traditional Estate Sales

Traditional estate sales mean strangers walking through a home, handling belongings, and occasionally walking out with more than they paid for. The online auction model Sue uses is different — and that difference is usually the whole pitch.

Sue comes in and photographs everything in a single day. Listings go online within about 2 days. The auction runs for a week.

At the end, only the winning bidders come by to pick up their items — usually in a 4-hour window. The house goes from packed to empty with minimal disruption and no strangers wandering through.

The pitch practically writes itself: it’s hands-free, it’s private, and it works. Competitors in the space tend to be selective — they only take on houses with high-value items. Sue’s willingness to take on almost any house is a genuine differentiator. As she puts it, most clients just want it gone.

How the Online Auction Works

The platform Sue uses is AuctionNinja, a third-party site built specifically for this type of sale. Everything starts at $1. The auction runs for a week and closes in a rolling format — lot number one closes first, then each subsequent lot closes every 20 seconds.

If someone bids in the final five minutes, the timer resets to another five minutes. This prevents last-second sniping and keeps competitive items alive longer.

Sue once watched a Bose stereo system she’d listed climb from $50 to $350 over three hours of back-and-forth bidding between two buyers.

Clients can request reserves on up to five items, but Sue generally advises against it.

The AuctionNinja buyer base doesn’t like reserves — she’s seen furniture with high reserves sit unsold through two auctions, then sell strong once the reserve was lifted.

The audience loves to bid. All it takes is two people who really want the same thing.

Pricing and What to Expect

The standard split is 50% to Sue’s team and 50% to the homeowner or estate executor.

For silver and gold items, the split shifts: Sue’s side takes 35% on those.

To make the time investment worthwhile, Sue targets a minimum gross sale of $5,000. That threshold is usually easy to reach — houses in this situation tend to have more sellable items than their owners realize.

Almost everything sells, because starting bids begin at a dollar and the AuctionNinja audience is motivated.

How Sue Got Her First Clients

The first clients came from local Facebook moms’ groups. Sue would post, chat, and let people get to know her.

Word of mouth in that kind of community travels fast. From there, it snowballed.

If you’re starting out, the same approach still works. A post in a neighborhood group during spring cleaning season, or around a community garage sale, is an easy low-risk way to get your first consignment or auction client and start building a track record.

What Sells Well on AuctionNinja

Knowing what to prioritize and what to bundle makes a real difference in your results.

High-Value Singles

These categories consistently perform well and deserve their own individual listings:

Sterling silverware — Sue has sold 4 or 5 sets in a single month, each going for at least $4,000
Signed and limited-edition artwork — e.g., a framed, Ringo Starr-signed Beatles record
Mid-century modern pieces — unique items people can’t find anymore
Jewelry — including costume jewelry, which has a strong and enthusiastic buyer base
Power tools, generators, and ride-on lawn mowers — all expensive to buy new, so demand is high

The Nostalgia Factor

Nostalgia always sells.

Older toys (particularly pre-1980 Fisher Price) do well. So do vintage items that people remember from their childhoods.

Someone who grew up with a certain toy or household item will often pay a surprising amount to own it again.

Know Your Buyers

About 40% of AuctionNinja buyers are resellers — people who run small shops or flip items on eBay.

The rest are collectors and everyday shoppers.

Most buyers are local and pick up in person; roughly 10% of items end up shipping.

Buyers pay their own shipping costs.

Photography: The Most Important Skill

Photography takes up the most time in this business, and it’s where the results are made or lost. Everything is shot in the house — no need to transport items to a studio.

Bird's Nest Auctions — Photo from: https://www.auctionninja.com/birds-nest-auctions/

Sue’s team brings foam boards to create clean backgrounds: black for light-colored items, white for dark ones.

Lighting matters too. Items are photographed room by room, and each gets a pre-printed numbered label from AuctionNinja so everything can be tracked back to its location.

Use tags that don’t leave residue — a sticky label on a vintage or antique item can cause real damage.

For identifying unfamiliar pieces, Google Lens is a fast, reliable tool. Right-click the photo, run the search, and copy the title directly into your listing.

A few things every listing photo should include:

Multiple angles, including the bottom for maker marks
A close-up of any chips, cracks, or defects — full disclosure prevents refund requests
Measurements
Something for scale, like a hand or a person holding the item, so buyers know the actual size

Before the auction goes live, reorder the first 20 listings so your strongest items lead. That’s what appears in the preview and draws people into the full catalog.

AuctionNinja also has a “Pick 5” feature where you highlight five favorite lots — use it to put your best items front and center.

Tools/Tech

AuctionNinja — the auction platform for listing, managing, and closing sales
Google Lens — for identifying unfamiliar items quickly during cataloging

Marketing and Partnerships That Work

The best referral sources are people who are already working with homeowners in transition.

These relationships bring in a steady flow of clients without any cold outreach:

Real estate agents, who field questions from clients trying to clear a house before listing it
Staff at assisted living communities, who work with older adults selling their homes to move in
House stagers, who need a home emptied before they can do their job
Clean-out companies, which regularly encounter valuable items their clients don’t want thrown away

Each of these is a natural referral partner because you’re solving a problem they already encounter. A house stager can’t stage a house full of stuff.

A real estate agent wants the home show-ready. You make their job easier.

The Different Revenue Streams

The core business is the estate auction: go into a home, photograph everything, run the auction, take a percentage of the gross. But not every client has a full house to sell.

That’s where consignment comes in. Some clients have 10 to 50 items — not enough to justify a full estate auction, but plenty to add to an ongoing consignment sale. If you have a garage or storage space, you can run regular auctions on a consignment basis without ever going into someone’s home.

One note: you want at least 100 items in an auction to attract meaningful attention. A handful of listings won’t generate the eyeballs needed to drive competitive bidding.

Mistakes and Surprises

One early lesson: be careful with sticker labels. A tag that leaves residue can damage a vintage or antique item — and that’s a problem you can’t undo. Now Sue is deliberate about using labels that come off cleanly.

The biggest surprise is what people are willing to spend money on. A vintage bugle from the 1800s sparked a hours-long bidding war and sold for almost $5,000.

An antique children’s book sold for $5,000. The market will always surprise you.

What’s Next for Sue?

Sue is working on a YouTube channel and possibly a book to teach others how to run their own online estate auction business. You can follow along at AuctionMastery.com.

Sue’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“It’s all about the photos. Give a sense of scale.”

Episode Links

Looking for More Side Hustle Help?

Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.