Real professionals when it comes to estates sales and product knowledge. I would recommend anyone to stop by if this company is hosting.

Dan May came to our home and looked through the items I had organized for him. He concentrated on a big silver collection I had. He is extremely smart about distinguishing what is silver plate and pure silver. He gave me way more money than I expected for it. The following day he called me to tell me he was outside my door with another check because he determined that something was actually pure rather than plated. I would never have known. He is well educated in his field and willing to share his extensive knowledge. He is also one of the most ethical people I have ever met. He was truly a joy to work with. read more

Dan is an hard worker. He arranges all of the furniture, moves everything for the best display and prices the items. He spends days to weeks doing all the things that most homeowner dread doing. Then he works many hours a day to sell it and get the maximum amount of money for you. He is smart, interesting, and ethical. It is hard to get better. read more

I was talking to a prospective realtor and she suggested Dan May Estates as a super company to Buyout/Cleanout my Aunt's house in Oakland. She emphasized how honest Dan and his partner Rachael are. My aunt had lived in her house for 90 years and it was filled with stuff and dust. Dan and Rachel were fantastic to work with. They thoroughly searched for valuables we were not able to locate and got the house completely cleared out in 4 days. What a relief! They really helped our family get our family house ready for the market amazingly quick. Dan and Rachael love what they do. They enjoy helping people and love searching for treasure. They know how to minimize stuff ending up in landfill. Dan is a powerhouse doing the heavy lifting. He loves the hard work and thinks of it as his daily exercise. I give Dan May Estates my highest recommendation. read more

Dan May Estates - Rachael and Dan the "Dream Team" - Used, Vintage & Consignment Near Me

Dan sold me a wonderful Amish cabinet. He provided good photos and dimensions and delivered (and placed) it expertly and at a very reasonable price. Highly recommend. read more

Dan and Rachel are amazing. I had to do an unexpected move and Dan's kindness, calm, and guidance really helped to get me through. Dan and Rachel gave me a fair (even generous) payment for the items in the estate sale that they could sell, and were a life-saver liquidating items and furniture that I did not want to take with me to my new home. Perhaps their "secret sauce" is that they were genuinely interested in the treasures in my family that I was finally ready to part with and recognized the emotional value, even if they had to gently tell me that resale was not going to be very much. Highly recommend. read more

I have known Dan and Rachel for about 10 years just by going to their sales. I always found their sales organized and fun. I became a realtor and met a client who needed help with a pretty large home. Dan and she spoke and they agreed to do the sale. It went very well. They sold stuff that I thought would not sell. They have a big mailing list and their sales attract crowds. They are very nice people and try to help with customers needs. They also can sometimes move you purchases. They definitely can help you get things to the your car or truck. read more

Dan has been a pleasure to work with. Extremely conscientious and straightforward. He was very respectful of the deceased owner's home and belongings. We highly recommend this company and read more

Unusually helpful! I had stuff (and a situation - I'm in an apartment building which can't be used for an on-site estate sale) that wasn't really suited for Dan's approach. He took the time to provide referrals and advice for dealing with various kinds of accumulated stuff. read more

Dan and Rachel were kind, helpful, generous with their time, attention, information resources and overall wonderful and easy to work with. Dan was super flexible with meeting times and scheduling our sale date, and then bent over backwards to comply with the HOA rules for the estate sale. All I did was hand over the key to my dad's place and he did the rest. I was grateful to confidently cross this huge task off my list without additional effort on my part. The days of the sale, Dan called to keep me updated and was great about keeping the lines of communication open to complete our transaction afterwards. I so appreciate how easy he made this heart-heavy task for me. read more

If you are planning an estate sale, before you do anything - throw out things or take them to a charity - call Dan May. We called Dan on a Friday, we met three days later on a Monday, and his team conducted an amazing sale the following week! They do it all - pricing, staging, selling, and cleaning up after. They can also help make arrangements for any unsold items. Easy to work with, excellent at their job, and very dependable. Highly recommended. read more

I visited one of Dan May's estate sales in Palo Alto this weekend, and it confirmed various concerns I have had about this company's estate sales in the past: 1) This company typically values contents of estates above retail and therefore is unable to clear estates by selling to the public. 2) This company "packs" estates by bringing in items from other estates (and Dan May's own artwork) and does not advertise that it is combining estates. This is **fraudulent** in the state of California. Re 1), the estate sale this weekend was located in an Eichler in Palo Alto and was packed with mid-century items. Given how hot this stuff is right now, I expected most items to be gone when I showed up at 3:30 on a Saturday given that the sale had opened at 10AM the Friday before. However, the estate was still packed to the brim. The house was filled with people, but no one bought anything because the prices were excessive and Dan May and Co. were unwilling to negotiate. I suspect that this was intentional: Dan May does not wish to sell items to individuals at estate sales so that he may pay the owner of the estate pennies on the dollar for everything remaining in the estate by close of the sale and then sell the items at full retail price in his own shop. This is fraudulent and dishonest. What this means for the executor of an estate is that you should find another company to host an estate sale for you; what this means for estate sale-ers is that you should not waste you time attending a Dan May estate sale. Re 2), Dan May fancies himself an artist, and he brings his artwork to estate sales that he hosts and hangs his pieces on the walls in place of the original artwork in the home. In effect, he is using someone else's home during an estate sale paid for by someone else as a gallery for his artwork. I take issue with this, particularly insofar as he does not advertise that these pieces are his own or even that they originated from outside of the estate. Because of this, most individuals assume that these pieces are original to the estate and assign some value to this pieces based on other items in the estate. Though implied rather than explicit, a sale under these conditions is a form of fraud. read more

I go to a lot of Estate sales looking for Vinyl records. I usually start looking on Craigslist Tuesday or wednesday to plan out my Friday morning, and usually the more professional and well known companies list starting wednesday with an address then posted Thursday night. So I was kinda stunned to have this company sneak up a sale with less than 12 hours notice....that isn't good for the buyers ( except the lucky ones) and it's DEFINITELY not good for the Estate being sold off. I decide even though it was really close to my house that I've read about it too late. The good Records usually go within the first few minutes. An hour or so later I'm driving by and the lure of an estate sale is too strong and I stop in. It's the first day and there's a very small meager sign sheet out side from when the sale opened compared to other companies.( they usually have 25+ people this one had 8 or 9).The sale has been going an hour or two and There's not a lot of people inside. Of course, any decent records-if there were any- have been long since pilfered, and while the sale does have interesting 1960's and 1970's stuff...there's really nothing to buy. I eventually find a four kinda cute rolls of half used Vintage christmas wrapping paper and two old pamphlets on Hawaiian travel for my wife, figuring they'll maybe be a few bucks. None are in excellent shape. I ask a guy and he's like "eight dollars for everything" Great. Oh. crucial error of Yard Saling. I have No Cash on Me. Can I charge it? "Yeah, but then you have to deal with HER and she's going to want a lot more money for everything." I take these half used items that have minimal re-sale value up to HER and she goes "I've never seen these before ( well, I 've never seen 75% of what it's the house before, doesn't mean it's all collectible) ..... TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS for everything". Lady, even If I WAS a reseller of half-used christmas Wrapping paper, there's no room in that for me. while I get it, you're trying to make money.....what it betrayed was a total and complete lack of knowledge of what actually commands collectible prices...or at least at what venue you can command them ( Sell to an international audience and ship to direct to homes worldwide? different price) . I try to work a price somewhere inbetween, which would still even be way out of whack and there's no room to budge with HER. So I just decide to buy nothing but twenty five minutes of wasted time and leave. I can always come back at the end of the sale and pick up these items at a fraction of what I was just willing to pay, because the high probability is that they'll still be sitting there. What this also displayed was a total lack of skill at sales , negotiation and judging out what the market will bear. START at $25, give me a break at $15, it's still way too high, but then everyone feels better. Now You, the person thinking of having this company handle your families estate sale want a couple skills: 1) an understanding of collectibles , fair market value for the avenue you've chosen to sell them at. Want online prices? sell online...... with all it's headaches and hassles. 2) an ability to negotiate to get a fair price for your items 3) an ability to properly advertise your sale and get the best results-( In addition to failing on Craigslist, they also didn't have a sale preview up on their website which most companies always do) 4) a culmination of these skills that allows for the best sales results without having to resort to rock bottom prices in the last few hours of the sale to clean the place out. None of That seemed to be happening here. And while I don't really want to be one to growse about Sale prices -it's easy come, easy go as far as that goes, this was one of the least pro Estate sale company Set ups I've seen yet in years of going to sales around the bay. There are far more organized and upfront companies ( Yes co, Baslow,Sweet Home) that get huge crowds, have prices fairly stated and while I've knocked heads with all of them on prices, I've never experienced a total "are you crazy?" pricing scheme like this sale. Feel sorry for the family, this was Week #2...which also says a lot about this companies ability to make and conduct a sale. Que Sera.......but next time RULE #1: bring cash! read more

Just driving around I saw a sign for 'Estate Sale', so I drive to the house and looked for anything I could find of my interest. Found some interesting books and dvds. The best part was Dan was extremely helpful in not only giving me a great price on the items, but helped me look for missing dvds to complete a set. He was very courteous and helpful. I highly recommend Dan to anyone needing to hold an Estate Sale. read more