Berenice Denton Estate Sales and Appraisals

"Their professionalism, genuine care for us as clients, and expertise in staging, pricing, and selling made the process smooth and successful. The results of the sale exceeded our expectations, and it is clear that was due to the team's efforts. Knowing that our belongings found new homes with appreciative buyers was also very rewarding. I would not hesitate to use Berenice Denton Estate Sales again!"

"I have attended one of Berenice Denton's sales. I found everything was well organized and marked. I was there the third day and was surprised the discount on the merchandise was so low. However, my experience with estate sales companies that also own a retail store is not good. Often I find the things that I saw in the estate sale ends up at their retail store."

"If you're using her to sell an estate be warned. We used her and found her lack of experience and knowledge is very limited and on the third day she calls all of her friends when she has marked everything down to 25%. Would of been better to have just sold everything ourselves after this experience."

"We used Berenice Denton herself to conduct appraisals of artwork, antiques, and antiquities in our home several years ago. Perhaps, if you're only dealing in old china or Civil War memorabilia, or even old silver settings, she's fine. However, she had an absurd lack of knowledge in other areas, and she didn't bring in anyone else more knowledgeable. Signed books? autographed photos by famous European stars? No. Her knowledge is extremely limited. For instance, she looked at a fake Russian WW II hip flask we'd bought from Archie McPhee and said "Oh, that's really really rare - we can get a lot for that, it's a genuine war antique!" Then, she saw a custom Dupont gold and lacquered lighter and tossed it back on the table, saying "These things are a dime a dozen, we won't be able to sell it." The lighter was, at that time, going on line for $850 to $1,500. We have various antiquities from Greece and China, with provenance, but she not only couldn't appraise them properly, she didn't care about researching them. She should not be allowed to do "estate sales". Perhaps her old-time following likes sales with nothing but tiny cups and saucers, but our Limoges pieces, including a few rare ones, were likewise tossed aside by her. Ditto our Webb goblets. In short, if you have anything at all out of the ordinary for the Nashville of 50 years ago, this is not a good person for you."

"We used Bernice Denton recently. My advice--don't allow unsupervised PRE-SALES if you book her for an estate sale. At our sale, there were several questionable transactions on the more valuable items for sale. Video surveillance supports this contention. Also, during the sale, much to my surprise, there was no electronic credit card device used. The cashier WROTE DOWN all account information. This slowed the check out process and also put customers at risk with their credit card information being written down. MOST of the employees were professional and great to work with."