A woman called “the estate sale queen of Dallas” will put on one of the best shows of her 40-year career starting Friday morning.
“This is amazing. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and you’ll never see this stuff again,” said Janelle Stone, the president of Janelle Stone Estate Services.
She and her team are in Graham, about a two hour drive northwest of Dallas.
The lavish sale is so big, the staging and pricing crew has been on site for more than five weeks.
Everything in the sale is the best of the best – and much of it with a designer name attached to it.
Jewelry, shoes, handbags, clothes, scarves.
There’s also china, crystal and art.
A 7-carat diamond engagement ring and a nearly 5-carat ruby ring are on the list, too.
With so many items, Stone says’s there’s an item and a price for everyone – ranging from 50 cents to $200,000.
Stone and her son Wen gave NBC5 a sneak peak at some of the luxury items during a virtual interview.
“So right in between us is Chanel, Louis Vuitton,” described Wen Stone. “Todd’s, Hermes, Nancy Gonzalez, Jimmy Choo,” added Janelle Stone. “There’s Elizabeth Locke, Eizabeth Gauge, Henry Denay. Jean Mahie, Charles Turi, Bulgari, Tiffany Van Cleef… There’s one of everything,” said Janelle Stone.
Stone got into the estate liquidation business at the age of 24 and earned a reputation among the city’s wealthiest families. An article in The New Yorker last year called her “the estate-sale queen of Dallas.”
“This was a year ago, June. We were in a house in Beverly Drive, the air conditioning went out all couture clothing. This girl came up and tapped me on the shoulder. Hi, I’m from the New Yorker and I like to do an article and I mean, we were sweat and bullets and I was like, sure you are. And she called me back and said, hi, I’m that girl who said I was from the New Yorker,” Janelle Stone recalled. “She really was and she wasn’t kidding. And she came to an enormous sale.”
With four decades of experience, the liquidation of an estate in Graham is one of the Top 10 in her career. And, she’s doing it with son Wen at her side. He joined her almost six years ago.
“I learn how to have a good work ethic from her. I’m trying to have even close to her work ethic. I mean, it’s just, she’s nonstop all the time,” Wen Stone said.
And, it’s been a nonstop effort to organize and tag the thousands of items that will be sold this weekend.
“Y’all come to Graham. This is amazing,” said Janelle Stone. “It’ll make a good story and then you’ll buy something from here and then someone will ask you about it when they go into your house and then you have this long story and you know they’re gonna want to get in on it with you too and you can say you traveled for a sale,” added Wen Stone. “It’ll always be a story.”
For security reasons, the address of the estate sale in Graham will not be released until 6pm Thursday. Janelle Stone expects the line will start at 6:01 with people camping out for couture for a sale that starts at 9 a.m. Friday. It will go on for two days with prices cut in half by late Saturday afternoon. Credit cards and cash will be accepted.
You can get information about the location and hours here. A gallery of items is here.