The Best Days & Times to Shop an Estate Sale
Timing matters at an estate sale.
Show up at the right time and you have access to everything. Wait too long and your options narrow fast.
It’s not complicated - but understanding how the days work gives you a real advantage. Here’s what you need to know.
FIRST - UNDERSTAND HOW ESTATE SALES ARE STRUCTURED
Estate sales can run two, or even three days depending on the volume of contents in the home. At Crossroads, most of our sales are two days. When a home has a significant amount of items, we’ll run a three-day sale to give everything the time and attention it deserves.
Here’s how our pricing typically breaks down:
Two-day sale:
Day 1 - Full price
Day 2 - 50% off everything
Three-day sale:
Day 1 - Full price
Day 2 - 25% off
Day 3 - 50% off
We’ll occasionally do things a little differently depending on the specific sale - so always check our listings for the details before you come. But that’s the general framework.
DAY 1: THE CASE FOR GOING FIRST
Day 1 means full inventory. Everything we sorted, organized, and displayed throughout the home is available. Every room. Every shelf. Every drawer emptied and laid out so you can see exactly what’s there.
Nothing has been picked through yet. Nothing is gone. You’re working with the full picture.
Prices are firm on Day 1 - but what you get in return is access to everything.
Come on Day 1 if you saw something specific in the preview photos, if you collect particular items, or if you simply don’t want to take chances on availability.
DAY 2 AND BEYOND: THE CASE FOR WAITING
The discount days are real. Everything that didn’t sell carries forward at the posted discount.
If you’re flexible about what you find and the price matters more than the selection, the later days can be genuinely rewarding. Plenty of great things get missed on Day 1. Items get overlooked. People walk past things that were right in front of them. The discount days have their own version of the good find - it just looks a little different.
The one thing people consistently get wrong about discount days is thinking they’re casual. That they can arrive whenever and still find what’s worth finding. The discount days reward early arrivals just as much as Day 1 does. If you want the best of what’s left - be there when the doors open.
THE POWER MOVE: SHOP MULTIPLE DAYS
The shoppers who get the most out of estate sales often come back more than once.
They come on Day 1 to see everything and buy what matters most to them. They take note of what’s left - things they liked but couldn’t justify at full price. Then they come back early on the discount day and pick those up for less.
It takes more time. It also tends to produce the best results.
If a sale has things you’re genuinely excited about - treat it like a multi-day event.
WHAT ABOUT TIME OF DAY?
Before opening is when the serious shoppers show up. We hand out numbers starting at 8am on Day 1 - and those numbers determine your place in line. If first access matters to you, arriving at opening means you’re already behind the people who planned ahead. Come early. Get your number. Know where you stand.
Day 2 and Day 3 don’t use a number system - doors open and it’s first come, first served. The same principle applies though. Early arrival on any day of a sale puts you ahead of the people who sleep in.
Mid-morning to early afternoon is when things settle into a comfortable rhythm. The initial rush has passed and you can move through the home at your own pace. Plenty of good things are still available - just not all of them.
Later in the day you’re working with whatever remains. Sometimes a late arrival finds something everyone else walked past. It happens more than you’d think. But it’s not a strategy - it’s a bonus.
THE BOTTOM LINE
It really comes down to what you’re after.
Want the full selection? Come on Day 1, early. Want the discount? Come on the final day, early. Want both? Come more than once.
Every sale is different. Every shopper is different. But the one thing that’s consistent across all of it - the people who show up ready tend to leave with the best stuff.
Want to be the first to know when our next sale opens? Get on our email list and you’ll have the information before anyone else.