An auction of personal property from a deceased person's estate or a household being liquidated. Estate auctions typically include furniture, jewelry, collectibles, artwork, tools, household items, and other personal property, with average lot counts ranging from 200 to 700+ items.
How It Works in Practice
Estate auctions differ from estate sales in format: auctions use competitive bidding (live, online, or hybrid) rather than fixed pricing. This typically yields higher prices for valuable items but requires more preparation — every lot needs to be photographed, described, and cataloged. The cataloging workload is the primary bottleneck: if each lot takes 3–5 minutes to describe by hand, 200–700 lots means 10–60 hours of writing. AI cataloging tools address this directly: the auctioneer reviews drafts instead of writing each one.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to prepare an estate auction?
What is the difference between an estate auction and an estate sale?
Catalog Faster with AI
Gavelist generates professional lot descriptions from your photos — across every auction category, at any volume.