I BUSINESS
Thelate Recycling
Detroit's estate sale
industry is booming.
SUSAN KNOPPOW
Special to The Jewish News
I
Above right, Ruth
Levi's bumper
sticker.
Below,
prospective
buyers rush
through the
kitchen.
58
FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 1992
ris Kaufman spends
weekends behind a cash
table, and she will sell
anything that is not nailed
down.
A tough businesswoman,
she's not much different from
her colleagues in the estate
sale industry. For two or three
days, over a weekend, people
like Ms. Kaufman of Estate
Sales by Iris, Andy Adelson of
Everything Goes and Frank
Kaszynski of Edmund Frank
and Co. can empty an entire
house. "People will buy any-
thing," Ms. Kaufman says.
"We sell everything from
games in the basement to
cars and airplanes!"
"People are becoming more
and more aware of the fact
that they can generate some
capital by selling pieces that
are useless to them," says Ms.
Kaufman, who has been run-
ning estate sales for 30 years.
Linda Adelson works with
her husband, Andy, and she
can't believe some of the
things people will buy.
On the morning of a sale,
"we can have a line of a hun-
dred people (waiting for the
doors to open)," she says.
Mrs. Adelson is familiar
with the regulars who search
estate sales for priceless an-
tiques, contemporary fur-
niture and rare art. But she
also describes "people who
are there to buy the canned
goods out of the cupboard!'
"I got a guy for books, I got
a guy for records, I got a guy
for paintings," Mrs. Adelson
says. "Anything in anyone's
house -- there is someone in
line for it. And that's what's
so amazing!'
Not only will people buy
anything, but more and more
people are getting into the act
and holding estate sales.
Frank Kaszynski, a partner
in Edmund Frank and Co.,
remembers the thrill of week-
end mornings spent waiting
with his parents for the doors
to open at the fanciest lake-
shore homes in the Grosse
Pointes. "Twenty-five to 30
years ago it was strictly the
domain of the upper class," he
recalls. "We would stand in
front of these houses with the
anticipation that in there, I
knew there was something
good. I was like a voyeur. I'd
experience these lifestyles
that would never be available
to me!'
Today, he says, estate sales
are held in Southfield and
Oak Park as well as Bloom-
field Hills and along Lake-
shore Drive. Edmund Frank
and Co. will answer calls for
sales "everywhere and any-
where, because you never
know what treasures are go-
ing to be in these houses."
Ruth Levi is an accomplish-
ed estate sale shopper, and
she has noticed the trend as
well.
"People say, 'Oh, you go in-
to the wealthy neighborhoods
and you'll find better things.'
I've found that to be untrue.
I found my best bargains in
Oak Park and in Southfield;
not at all in Birmingham and
Bloomfield Hills."
In addition to wealthy peo-
ple liquidating their parents'
or other family members'
assets following a death, Mr.
Kaszynski says his company
serves "upwardly mobile peo-
ple who are leaving their cur-
rent lifestyle, leaving every-
thing in it. They leave their
jewelry, their clothing, their
furs. They take their newest
clothing, and they take their
best luggage, and leave every-
thing else."
Ms. Kaufman says 30 years
ago, few people knew about
estate sales, but that today
"there's more business. Peo-