FAQ – Estate Fresh Austin

Hopefully These Questions Will Answer Any You Might Have, if You Have Any After Reading These Please Reach Out!!

How do I use your Wishlist if I do not want to just put so much stuff in my cart?

Go to the item you are interested in
Click on the black box "Add to Wishlist"
Please make sure to register an account with us so this will be saved for later.
From a PC, yes some people use PC's, I do...go to the green box on top center MY WISHLIST/FAVORITES
From a phone, click on the three lines on the top left to open the menu, towards the bottom you will see MY WISHLIST/FAVORITES
Again, please do not forget to register an account or login as none of your info will be saved. I have dealt with this many times now andI want everything to run smoothly for all of us. I want you to have more time to shop rather than looking for the same things over and over. Please!?

How do I make sure that the items I save in my cart or wishlist are still here when I come back?

Go to the top right, just to the left of the cart ico and click on the Person icon. Then follow the instructions to either login or create an account. I am not trying to harvest your top secret info, but we need some sort of info to create an account.

Do you accept offers or give discounts for large quantity purchases?

We deal with everything on a case, by case basis. Typically it would depend on the qty and potential frequency of the order. We do not price our items with the intention of marking them down, but absolutely love customers that buy in bulk and will show it. I understand that not everyone can buy in bulk, especially if it isn't for resale. If you are a repeat customer we will take care of you without you needing to ask, it really means a lot to us when people go out of their way to shop with us here.

What is the best way to contact you? I tried calling and nobody answered, how can I trust you?

Email is Best, we really are a "Mom and Pop" operation, and I'm the only one with good English for now. We do incredible volume at very slim margins, basically we work for free and can't find anyone else to join us in that endeavor. Plus we have a 2.5 year old who is really the boss and typically has my phone or was the last one to see it. I am at a computer most of the day multi-tasking in comfortable shorts with no pockets for a phone. Any texting I do is from a PC. I really am so happy to talk to and connect with customers, but just a 10 min warning would give me time to find my phone. Please feel free to try calling, but if that doesn't work please don't give up or think we are a scam business because we pay more than most high end galleries but sell for half as much therefore can't afford magazine ads, a "Brick and Mortar", or people to sit by the phone 24/7.

Do you guarantee the items you sell on this website, would I be better off buying them from you on another platform such as Ebay or Etsy if you offer them there?

I do absolutely guarantee everything I sell to be what I call it for life, and I'm not just guessing or hoping for the best. I err on the side of caution. If I say it's a certain age, it's going to be really close. If I say it's a certain metal content, it's going to be spot on. When in question I have access to x-ray flourescence, I've been acid testing metals most of my life. If I say it's made by a certain culture, I'm sure before I say that. If I say any of those things it's an absolute guarantee. I am in this business for life, I've already been in it for life. I am not some fly by nighter. I build customer relationships, my guarantees last for life and if you continue to be a customer, even on items that are exactly what I called them I'll be happy to buy it back or trade you out of it without the need for a serious win on my end if you get tired of it. I cannot offer that on Items bought through third platforms as there are typically significant fees involved with those transactions.

What is the deal on sales Tax? Why do you only collect for Texas?

Each state that collects sales tax has what's called a Nexus. If a business does not have a physical location in that state then in order for them to need to collect sales tax in that state they need to conduct over 200 transactions or 100k-200k depending on the state. We do not sell enough through this website in any state to meet those thresholds as of 3/21/2025. So it is a legitimate extra savings unless you live in Texas. We are in Texas so have to collect Texas sales tax unless you are buying for resale and have a valid resale certificate on file with us.

How do I check out if I wish to pay by Check, Venmo, Zelle, Cashapp, or some other prearranged payment method that I have already discussed with you?

USING THIS METHOD YOU DO NOT ACTUALLY PAY UPON CHECKOUT, BUT IT TAKES THE ITEMS OUT OF STOCK. IT IS A METHOD THAT I TYPICALLY USE FOR BULK/WHOLESALE ORDERS OF 20+ ITEMS. But if you want to pay me via Venmo/Zelle for a smaller order, I welcome you to checkout this way.
Go to your cart on the top right
View Cart (green button) to make sure it's ok
Hit the CHECKOUT black button
Scroll to bottom and "Checkout as Guest" (if you don't have any payment info registered you maybe can skip that)
Scroll down until you are right above the pictures of the item(s) you are purchasing and click the BANK DEPOSIT check box.
It will give you my info, you can either screenshot or if we are doing a check just scroll down and click COMPLETE ORDER
PLEASE, DO NOT FORGET TO COMPLETE ORDER, ESPECIALLY IF IT'S A LARGE QTY ORDER AS IF YOU DO NOT COMPLETE ORDER ALL MAY BE LOST AND THE ITEMS WILL NOT COME OUT OF STOCK, ETC.

How long do you take to ship?

We ship 5 days a week, Mon-Fri, same day when possible (if the order is placed before 4:30pm central time), always by next day 99% of the time. You will receive an automated shipping confirmation with tracking info when the item is shipped. If you have any special requests, please state these as quickly as possible after the order. I tend to use USPS for smaller items but have no problem using a different service if requested. We ship a few thousand orders a year with an average order value over $400, so everything is secure and discreet.

What type of packing material do you keep on hand and use?

We keep about 50 different size boxes, enough for most sized paintings. We use layers of foam, bubble wrap, then peanuts, and often double or even triple boxes on each item.

How can you do free international shipping?

We have a lot of experience packing/shipping fragile items internationally. Often large multi-item orders. At this point we aren't sure it's a good idea but we are comitted to giving it a try. For the most part if we advertise internationally it is just jewelry which is relatively inexpensive to ship. We value our international customers immensely and consider them an extremely important part of our business.

How can I be sure that you are going to ship my items and ship them quickly?

Well it's actually a much bigger deal on this website than it is with major platforms such as eBay for us at least. We actually have Google monitoring how long our packages take to get to various destinations and that relates to how they rate us in search. The quicker we ship/deliver, the higher we show in search. Which is everything of course.

Who is responsible for the item before it is delivered to me, is there insurance?

We are 100% responsible to get your order to you intact. We believe in doing a perfect job as insurance. We know that shipping companies throw packages and we prepare for it with tons of padding and thought. I personally blame the packer every time when things are damaged as they should understand how things are handled by shipping companies and prepare for it. We self insure everything. In the event of something disappearing or getting damaged you will recieve a full refund.

How can I track my order after it is placed?

After you place an order, you should receive an order confirmation email. This email will contain a link or button to track your order. Click on the tracking link within the email. You will also recieve an email with tracking info at the time the label is purchased.

Are your descriptions accurate, did you handle these items and take these pictures?

As of 2/9/2024 Every item on this website was listed by me Ian Lawler, and photographed by either me or my wife Thanh. Hopefully someday we can get some help, but if we do they will work closely supervised for a long time as we take every step of this business very seriously.

Ebay, Etsy, Amazon, etc. has convinced me that Sellers "Happily Accept Returns" do you?

No, yes I accept returns, on average I lose about $50 on a return due to lost productivity! But of course I would rather take a return than stick a customer with something they hated, but reality is there are people who return and people who don't. I don't return unless the product was seriously misrepresented ever, not even from Amazon. I have customers who have purchased 20-100's of items from me over several years and I have never had to discuss a return with them. I've had new customers show up and order two items and return them both. Returns are the equivalent of an hourly wage worker's boss just deciding that instead of paying them for the day that they will charge them for the pleasure of working. I love what I do, but looking for things that sold, packing them, then opening up a return package after paying shipping both ways isn't my favorite part. Plus if I had spare time I would go do some volunteer work or take my kid to the park. Some businesses build the high cost of returns into their prices, I absolutely do not and have an extremely low return rate when dealing with customers that take the time to look at my pictures and read my descriptions. And I do realize that my customer's time is very valuable, that is the main reason we try to keep the descriptions short and try to have fewer high quality photos rather than 20 bad photos that you need to squint at. We are not trying to hide or omit anything, it's just everything boils down to time on both mine and the potential customers end for us. In the extremely rare event that I omit a flaw or misrepresent an item, I absolutely offer free returns for life. I'm always grateful for an exchange over a cash return as I cannot recover processing fees when doing a refund. If it's a return based on somebody just not taking the time to know their size or changing their mind I will still refund with a 5% restocking fee or do an exchange with no restocking fee.

If you are a regular customer and whether it's something you bought for resale that you cannot sell or something you just decided you do not love anymore then please reach out and we will work something out. Just please keep it to a small percentage of total purchase. Also please realize that if you are a wholesale customer, chances are that if you have spent 100k with me that you have made 100k profit, while I likely made 10-20k profit on what was likely several transactions and hundreds of items fulfilled. So while I know it's human nature to focus on just those few items that didn't sell or that you can't make your dream margin on, I beg you to look at the "big picture" and realize that overall you will win doing business with me and a high return rate (over 5%) will absolutely eat up any profit I would have made through us doing business due to lost productivity and the time it takes to fulfill those items then put them back into our inventory. Reality is most of the refunds I end up having to give due to not being able to fulfill an order is from an item that was returned then misplaced after it was returned due to time limitations. I also have my "official" return policy at the bottom of each page.

What sets you apart from other "Resellers", "Estate Sellers", and the rest that are faking their way through this business.

I started buying and selling antiques at collectibles at age 10
I had 3 Aunts and uncles that owned/operated an antique mall in Tennessee in the mid 80's that taught me more about collectibles by the time I was 12 than 99.92% of the people I meet in the business these days.
By age 16 I owned at least 100 books on antiques/collectibles, by 18 a complete wall full of books/auction catalogs
When I was 17 I moved to PA to be a full time Antique dealer. I did shows/markets all over PA, Georgetown, DC, went to auction 7 days a week on average for the next 10 years.
When I was 21 I moved to TN and from there worked the entire east coast Auction/Show circuit. Still going to Flea markets/Auctions 7 days a week, doing big shows several times a month including Scotts in Atlanta. All the big once a year shows in the Southeast.
In my Early to mid 20's I would regularly go on buying trips to PA, Shipshewana, IN, and really all over the east coast.
Im 49 now, at this point I can pretty much date/appraise anything from across the room. I specialize in "tricky", always have. I'm not looking for marks on porcelain, glass, ceramics, etc. I'm looking for quality, I'm an expert in quality and that transfers to everything.
I just absolutely love this stuff, to me it doesn't matter if it's fine porcelain, Native American Jewelry, Arts and Crafts pottery...If it's great, I want to buy it. I pay more than just about anyone consistently will in all good categories and sell for way less than any specialty dealer because my main goal is just to keep going. I have to be ready for the next collection. This is such an exciting time in this business to have the opportunity to buy complete lifetime collections of things that I would see in books and dream of owning just one piece of when I was a teenager. (yes I know I was a weird teenager)
Here is the typical cycle of stuff these days, with me that is avoided. Estate seller who really knows absolutely nothing about anything even though they have been doing this 30 years gets really good estate (typically a very charming person). The deal is nobody I know of in the Estate sale business is in it because they were just master antique dealers, they got in it because they had no other good options in life, and you do not get better at this by selling other peoples stuff to people that do not let you know your mistakes. Lets say it could have potentially been a 200k estate, Instead maybe they give away what could have been 60k of it at auction, auction does a bad job and charges about 50% total 22% commission, 28% buyers premium, so maybe they get 20k out of the best 60k worth, or what the estate seller thought was the best. The rest they price to people that are willing to get up 4 hours early and wait on these sales, people that for the most part are just counting on luck and getting lucky plenty because the estate sellers are just so dumb. So basically 200k/stuff grosses about 40k then the estate seller that was unqualified in the first place charges you 50% so you end up with 20k. This is very realistic.
When I was in my upper teens and lower 20's I had some of the top dealer's on the east coast take me under their wings. My uncles were some of the top dealer's in Chattanooga. My uncle Eddie used to regularly beat me out of stuff then brag to me as soon as he sold it. So I had the pleasure of having most of my mistakes rubbed in my face. The ones my uncle didn't catch, I used to spend all evening pouring through antique books at that age. I would always find out when I made a mistake. I used to carry about 20 books in my cars when I went to auction in the early to mid 90's before there was really any information available online, but the library was at home. This business was really action packed back then, I found some amazing things and was really good at finding the amazing markets to sell them in pre-internet.

Under what circumstances do you not ship the next day?

Under the rare circumstance that a special crate needs to be made, typically this would only be with very large sculptures, or for paintings over 36" in one direction. We keep boxes/packing material on hand for just about everything we sell.

Are your products good?

Yes, they are very good!