Going Live On Whatnot

by Brigid McAlpin August 3, 2025

I am back after a week off from the blog - we did not have any estate sales scheduled last weekend so there was no need to create a newsletter. I made the decision to "quit talking about it" as Kuochun says and actually schedule a couple of Whatnot live sales. Our next two estate sales in the Sauganash neighborhood of Chicago and Mount Prospect are both great candidates for live sales as they both have lots of shippable collectibles. I scheduled two pre-sales for next week in Mount Prospect - Vintage Toys & Train Memorabilia on Tuesday and Vintage Barbie & Friends on Wednesday, each sale starting at 6:00 PM. I took some time to resurrect the Brie's Estate Sales Whatnot account I created a couple of years ago and set it up for selling. I wanted to do this a long time ago but taking care of Mother took priority.

Whatnot is a 24/7 live auction platform and social marketplace where items of all sorts can be found. Search for us at briesestatesales, give us a follow and bookmark the sales you are interested in to receive a reminder when they start.

New to Whatnot? Click on the image below, follow the instructions and Whatnot will credit you $15!

I enjoy Whatnot as a buyer and have been watching live selling since Home Shopping Network in the '80s. Mother used to tease me that I was watching because one of the hosts, Hans Burt was cute but I was fascinated by the process. Back in those days, shoppers had to call the 1-800 number to place an order and they could only order the product currently being showcased. I inherited this trait from Dad - he loved infomercials and "As Seen On TV" products and purchased many over the years. He liked Ron Popeil's products - I remember the Pocket Fisherman and food dehydrator among others. Dad would have really enjoyed seeing how far live selling has now come. Mother was not into it as much but her very favorite product was something she called the "Ginsu knife," a large serrated knife with an orange handle with a cutout in it to grip it with four fingers. She had two of those knives and used them for absolutely anything and everything in the household including trimming tree branches. I am sure it was a kitchen knife! I still have one of them in the kitchen drawer in Scottsdale. That knife will outlive all of us.

With the help of ChatGPT, I created a couple of thumbnails for the Whatnot shows. We have lots of boxed Barbies from the '80s and '90s so I asked ChatGPT to give the Barbie thumbnail a period flair. I decided to present the toys and trains first to work out the kinks and then post Barbie after that. The sales will be hosted at the estate location. I put together a team of three and the plan is to get experience under our belt before Kuochun and I head back to Scottsdale. If all goes well, we will be ready for the holiday season!

I am sorry to report that I failed miserably at the listing goal I set for myself in July. Kuochun and I are working on a special project that I will be talking about soon and it took up all of my spare time. I have not been able to post any new items these past two weeks. I will challenge myself and set a listing goal for August but will make it more reasonable at 50 items.

I did sell four items during this time period, three on Etsy and one on eBay. Finally, someone was not able to resist this adorable owl bank and it is on its way to Wisconsin.

Interestingly, two of the other sold items were costume jewelry including this beautiful necklace by Heidi Daus. I left the costume jewelry in Scottsdale because I could not bring it all home but my priority when we return there in the fall will be to get the rest of the Heidi Daus pieces posted.

I also sold this Royston turquoise nugget necklace. It is one of the very first items I posted using Vendoo, back in 2023. I am not sure why it took so long to sell, the stones are high-quality and absolutely beautiful. I hope the new owner will enjoy this necklace!

That is about all of the news for now, next week I will report on our live sales and let you know how they went - the good, the bad and the ugly!