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Name: Dusty Old Bags

Type of business: Estate sales, liquidation, and moving sales

Address: Somerset

Telephone: (732) 236-3377 and (732) 742-6437

Web site: www.dustyoldbags.com

Number of employees: Four

Founded: 1999

Top officers: Co-owner partners Lin Bush and Rose Korobanov

How would you describe the business?

"We conduct estate sales where we organize and display the household contents for sale. We also provide tables and locking cases for valuables," said owner-partner Rose Korobanov.

"Estate sales are different from garage sales where the owner chooses to sell unwanted and unused items. Estate sales are out of necessity for reasons of the owner's illness or death. We also conduct sales for seniors who are leaving their home of 30-40 years and are downsizing. We go into a home and we organize everything, clean it up and run a sale for two or three days depending on the amount of items in the house. On the last day of the sale we will cut price in half. And when the sale is over, we can recommend people to do the cleanouts and give the owner two or three people they can call because we consider if we were to do cleanouts it would be a conflict of interest.

"People who are moving to another location but are still living in their homes also use our services. We rope off family areas from the public and hold the sale. We also handle New Jersey home sales for people who currently live out of state or even out of the country.

"We go into the home and work as a team," said Lin Bush. There are four of us, both of us (Rose and Lin) and our husbands. We work until it's done. Sometimes we can do [the preparation for the sale] in a day. We'll take a house and work on it from 8 a.m. till midnight especially if the home is further away not wanting to spend time going back and forth. We work quickly.

"We also research, inspect, and evaluate before pricing each item in the estate. At the sale, we use a number system limiting the number of customers entering the home sale to 10 at one time. Our sales attract a lot of people who will be at the door at 7:30 a.m. We will give them tickets and they will wait outside until we open at 9 a.m. when only the first 10 ticket holders will be let in. The rest will wait until their time to come in."

What makes your business special?

"Our initial consultation is free. We are fast. We don't ask for cash upfront -- our commission comes out of proceeds. We try to sell everything and will take on all offers. We sell everything including the food and toiletries that remain in the home. A lot of estate companies won't take a home if it doesn't have antiques. And we will not put anything away for 'special customers.' We have a network of loyal buyers) but we will not pre-sell or put something away for anyone."

What goals do you have for the business?

"Our goal is to treat the people and their items with respect. Our policy is to show kindness and caring compassion for the families because this can be a very emotional time. Some people want to be at the sale and when it's an estate sale, they'll cry and we will cry with them," said Lin Bush.

"We want to provide the best customer service possible and generate the highest possible volume of people at the sales," said Korobanov.

How has your business changed?

"For years, we used to go to garage sales and buy and sell to different shops in southern New Jersey and Pennsylvania," Bush said. "And that is where we learned a lot of our information. One day one of Rose's neighbor's asked us to conduct a sale for them. We gave it a shot and from that time we gave up our buying and selling, sold all the merchandise we had acquired through garage sales. We began conducting people's sales on the weekend.

"When we first started, everything (for the sale) had to be just-so. For instance we washed the dishes. We did one sale a month and we were tired," said Bush. "If there were two sales a month we'd be really tired," added Korobanov. "But after doing a few, we realized we didn't have time to do it the way we had when we started. But we've gotten better and more organized in what we are doing. Our number of house sales has gone up (we've even had three on one weekend) and our following has grown as well. We send out emails to 1,200 private addresses for every sale beside the 4,000 listed on the state Web site. Many of our customers come from out of state -- Pennsylvania and Long Island. They tell us they come to us and no one else's because we are reasonably priced and fair. People know they are getting a bargain. We try to work for the homeowner and our customers. We don't cater to our friends."

What was your most important deal?

"The Internet," Korobanov said. "I think our business exploded once we went on the Internet. We work with realtors and attorneys. People who have been to our sales refer people who need our services."

What changes do you expect in the next 10 years?

"We're old. We aren't named Dusty Old Bags for nothing. This makes me feel younger than we are. We'll try to keep doing this for the next 10 years."

What's the most important thing you've learned in your business?

"To be fair to the homeowners and your customers," said Bush. "We are dealing with people who are very emotional. We feel for these people. Some are in foreclosure or have lost a loved one or need to go to an assisted living center. It's a big move. The kids of these people also need to be handled carefully and with sensitivity. We're not over when the sale is. We keep in touch with those who have lost loved ones, and they will come to our sales and say hello and we become friends."

What advice would you give to someone considering your line of work?

"This is something that doesn't come overnight. A lot of research is involved. You get that experience from working with an estate company as a helper. You have to learn to be knowledgeable in what they sell."

Is there anything else you would rather be doing?

"No. I wouldn't want to be doing anything else," both said.