About HiddenWorth Group
HiddenWorth Group is an Erie-based estate sale and appraisal company serving clients throughout northwest Pennsylvania. The father-son team specializes in estate sale planning and execution as well as appraisals and liquidation services. With over 35 years of estate sale experience HiddenWorth provides friendly, timely, and confidential estate sale services. Lead appraiser, August R. Fetcko, has published many books and guides on the subject of antiques and estate sales, as well as spoken at esteemed institutions such as The Chautauqua Institute. The team are also featured columnists and industry writers.
What started off as a fun hobby side job for my Dad, August, over 40 years ago has turned into a full-time business for myself. He was a “picker” back in the 70’s before it was a word. His day job was that of a high school teacher and later in his career a professor up until his retirement, but he always enjoyed the liquidation side job on the weekends and in the Summers and eventually received his PA auctioneer license, becoming the first person to take the ” PA standardized auctioneer exam” in the early 80’s. Merging his teaching background and love for antiques and collectibles, August created seminars around the country devoted to the antiques and collectibles industry, attracting over 10,000 individuals, while still teaching during the day. The author of five books, learning programs and numerous articles on antiques and collectibles, he is a consultant to various media companies who consult him with questions germane to estate sales, auctions and the antiques business as a whole. His work in the antiques field has been featured in numerous articles in both local and national publications.
Fast forward about 30 years and many auctions/liquidations later, I helped reinvent the business as he was starting to wind down, changing the name to Hiddenworth in 2011. I also had a day job in management for many years, and treated the estate liquidation business as a weekend side job. After taking an entrepreneurial class at Gannon as part of the MBA program, the professor of the class encouraged me to develop a business plan for Hiddenworth. After evaluating the plan, he made me realize that there is a considerable demand for these kinds of services and will only increase over the next 30-40 years. It turns out he was right. After conducing many estate sales over the last 10 years under Hiddenworth, we feel estate sales are a fantastic and unique way of buying/selling and have thoroughly enjoyed the relationships that we’ve developed with our clients and customers over the years.
