Everything But The House (EBTH), an online estate sale marketplace, has pulled in $30 million in new funding to help people who are downsizing sell their stuff to bargain hunters and collectors around the world.
Greenspring Associates led the Series B round, with participation from previous investors Greycroft Partners and Spark Capital, which brings the company’s funding total to $43 million raised in a ten-month span.
For anyone who needs to liquidate their assets, whether that’s a recently widowed spouse or a couple of empty nesters looking to downsize, EBTH takes the hassle out of the estate sale by moving the majority of the process online.
After a property owner signs up, EBTH sends out an operations team to search through the home, photograph and catalogue items, and haul away junk.
Items deemed valuable enough are listed in an online auction that runs for seven days, and when it closes, EBTH collects payments and coordinates deliveries to buyers across all 50 states and 50 countries worldwide.
“We’re selling everything from coins to cars, and no matter how valuable anything is, it starts at zero dollars with the minimum bid being $1,” explains EBTH President and CEO Andy Nielsen.
Estate sales in the Hamptons have been known to attract massive (and occasionally unruly) crowds of people who line up outside in the wee hours of the morning to get a good deal on centuries-old furniture, Rembrandt paintings, or exotic taxidermied birds, among other collectables.
By holding these auctions online, in front of an audience of 750,000 unique monthly EBTH visitors, the company is able to maximize a seller’s proceeds.
EBTH is currently operating more than 150 sales per month in 14 different cities, for estates ranging from $30,000 worth of content to millions worth of content.
“As a buyer you can discover unique items that have flown under the radar, sure,” says Nielsen. “But for the seller we mitigate that risk because certain things sell way above their market value due to the very competitive bidding experience.”
Nielsen says that the most expensive item ever sold on the site is a 2004 Boston Red Sox World Series ring that went for $89,000, although he’s also seen items sell for as low as five bucks.
Launched in Cincinnati in 2008, EBTH has set up shop in Los Angeles, D.C., Dallas, and five other metro areas over the last eight months. Nielsen says the company will open a New York office in the coming months, with the goal of expanding to the top 50 U.S. cities as quickly as possible.
“We’re at this inflection point where we’ve gone from a midwestern brand to a national player,” Nielsen says. “Now we’re setting our sights on being the leading provider in this space across the world.”