With fur coats, cheap cutlery, vintage furniture and everything in between, estate sales are well-known territory to a weekend bargain hunter. But they're still the Wild, Wild West of personal property sales.

Estate sales, also known in Pennsylvania as tag sales, make up a profitable industry for liquidators who are hired to price tax-free merchandise, conduct sales and empty houses of personal property when the inhabitants either pass away or choose to downsize. Though liquidators routinely handle estates valued at thousands of dollars -- charging fees of 25 to 40 percent -- no organization regulates these professionals, nor are there any requirements to join the trade.

"It's problematic in the sense that there are thousands and thousands of people who do this across the United States," said August Fetcko, a retired professor at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania who used to teach a weeklong summer workshop on estate sales. "It's totally unrestricted."

Without any form of oversight for estate sale liquidators, there is no easy way to sort out the reputable from the untrustworthy. While liquidators are quick to deny that they would do anything unethical and say most operators are above board, they seem equally quick to concede that less scrupulous people in the industry are not uncommon.

The same crowd of shoppers tends to drift among local estate sales. They occasionally stop to chat with one another and can be overheard comparing purchases, sharing tips on who has the best prices and items that day and exclaiming how jealous a friend would be of their latest bargain. By 9 a.m. on a weekend morning, seasoned estate sale shoppers already have frequented two or three sales, if not more.

Customers admired an elegant French morbier clock at one sale in Pleasant Hills on June 25, while people packed into another house several blocks down and wove gingerly among an overwhelming assortment of musty books, animal figurines, colorful clothing and worn but functional household items.

Though liquidators say the real money is in the sale of the house itself, the merchandise runs the gamut and estate sales draw people seeking everything from furniture to antiques and trinkets. The cheapest items sell for mere cents, while big-ticket items frequently carry price tags of several hundred dollars.

Despite the cash flowing through the thriving estate sale business, there is no standard regulation for liquidators in Pennsylvania -- a conspicuous difference between them and their closely regulated cousins, auctioneers.

Auctioneering is a multibillion-dollar industry in the United States. According to the latest figures available, it was valued at nearly $270 billion in 2008, a figure that doesn't include the several billions done in sales on eBay, National Auctioneers Association spokesman Chris Longly said.

The estate sale industry, by contrast, has neither available sales statistics nor a way of tracking the data, Mr. Longly said.

"Because they are unregulated, there's no professional organization out there, and there's no one really monitoring that business at all," he said.

That lack of regulation has led to accusations of underhanded transactions within the estate sale industry.

North East, Erie County, resident Mr. Fetcko encountered what many consider a classic estate sale scam -- cheaply pricing and pre-selling items to friends -- shortly after buying his house more than 20 years ago.

Mr. Fetcko recalled how his real estate agent had invited him on a Friday evening to preview an estate sale she had organized for a relative. When he got there, Mr. Fetcko said he saw antiques worth several hundred dollars tagged for less than $20. The agent had also invited another friend, Mr. Fetcko said, specifically so the friend could purchase the underpriced goods before the sale officially began Saturday morning.

Though he has encountered nothing like that since, Mr. Fetcko said it set him on guard about the estate sale industry.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, overpricing also can be a problem among liquidators with compromised business interests, said Marc Dlugos, who owns a Carnegie-based estate liquidation services company. If a liquidator also owns an antique shop, for example, Mr. Dlugos said that he or she may deliberately overprice items so that valuable pieces remain unsold and can be taken by the liquidator for sale at his or her business.

While Mr. Dlugos said in an email that he typically disliked government oversight, he said the rules overseeing auctioneers exist for good reason and that it would make sense to hold liquidators to similar standards.

"I'm one who believes that the government unfortunately has bigger fish to fry at this moment," Mr. Dlugos said. "That's why they're not worried about the rules governing liquidators."

While liquidators need no license to operate, auctioneers must acquire and biannually renew a license from the State Board of Auctioneer Examiners, an organization with the mission of guarding the public against "misrepresentation, incompetency, bad faith and dishonesty."

The Board of Auctioneer Examiners provides customers with a place to bring complaints, but estate sale clients have only the legal system for recourse, board member Sherman Hostetter said. When the average estate sale is worth no more than $15,000 dollars, Mr. Hostetter said the money involved usually does not justify pursuing a complaint in court.

Estate sales can fall under consumer protection law when they involve private customers purchasing services from a business, attorney general spokesman Nils Frederiksen said. But that protection only provides clients with another potential place to report complaints, and still cannot help address the absence of oversight for estate sale liquidators.

So has lack of regulation filled the estate sale industry with fly-by-nighters, poised to take advantage of clients made vulnerable by personal loss?

Pittsburgh-area liquidators largely say "no," pointing out that those who stand the test of time have built credible reputations because they do not hold pre-sales, price items unfairly or conduct underhanded business.

Many of the dozen or so estate sale liquidators around Pittsburgh have garnered devoted followings. After 31 years in the business, Rosemary Dingle said she has more sales than she knows what to do with, even though she doesn't advertise for clients. She cultivated her interest in antiques growing up in England, owns dozens of books about collectables and prides herself on being knowledgeable about the pieces she sells.

"We follow Rosemary wherever she goes," said Pat Cooper, a Crafton resident who was in Pleasant Hills perusing one of Ms. Dingle's estate sales shortly after 8 a.m. June 25. "You know you can trust her, and she has the most interesting things."

Without regulation or licensing to prove their credibility, local liquidators also have tried to distinguish their services by earning other credentials.

Terri Hohmann, president of Western PA Estate Liquidators, is insured and bonded, as well as a member of the American Society of Estate Liquidators. Pat Golden, owner of Golden Estate Sales, is accredited with the International Society of Appraisers and said 95 percent of her business comes from referrals.

"I think the majority of them [who] have been around for years are pretty honest because you can't really do that -- you can't be a hit-and-run artist," Mr. Fetcko said. "People who do that can't stick around because their reputation is tainted."

Indeed, liquidators' reputations and customer relations are particularly important when their clients are often weathering rough stretches of life after the death of a relative or friend.

"It's not just about what you do and how you do it; it's also about things like handling a client," said Julie Hall, director of the American Society of Estate Liquidators, based in Charlotte, N.C. "How you handle a client is very important because we're working with people who are emotional and grieving."

Liquidators and two attorneys who handle estate matters said the most important thing a potential client could do in selecting a liquidator is ask for recommendations, interview candidates and visit actual sales.

Beyond that, there is no foolproof method for distinguishing between the good and the bad, said Charles Avalli, an attorney with Pittsburgh family law firm Gentile Horoho & Avalli.

"As things stand now, you're at the mercy of the market and what you can learn on your own," Mr. Avalli said. "It seems like it's kind of an empty area of the law that needs some attention."

First Published: July 10, 2011, 8:00 a.m.