You, the executor have the legal responsibility to ensure that proceeds of any sale attracts the most amount possible. Yet the estranged guardian (not the not-of-age beneficiaries) insisted on a fire sale/garage sale approach.
As executor, offering to acquire all assets for a sum of cash is considered legally precarious. And any profit from those proceeds of that could be considered challenge-able by the benefactors at some later date.
I agree. I don't know that the OP is considering that but if I were the executor I would be VERY cautious about buying any items from the estate. That opens up a huge possible conflict of interest. All it would take is for any one of the beneficiaries to look at Ebay prices (particularly the ridiculous ASKING prices) for something like an HP 34401 and then complain that the executor cheated them out of that price.
In this state and probably most, if not all, states in the US the executor is allowed to charge a reasonable fee for their work and more importantly the estate has to pay them for any reasonable expenses that they incur. Long story short, the executor can hire an auctioneer or an Estate Sale company or packers or movers to help them sell the items and the executor is entitled to be fully reimbursed out of the estate proceeds. That should include E-bay and PayPal fees, boxes and packing costs, etc for sales on Ebay (or elsewhere) as well. You just need to keep receipts and records of everything. In theory, although they are reimbursed for their expenses, the executor makes nothing from handling someone's estate and so they should not incur any kind of tax liability.
I've been through this three times in two states in about the last five years.
" Yet the estranged guardian (not the not-of-age beneficiaries) insisted on a fire sale/garage sale approach."
Hmm. I'm not sure if the guardian's WISHES or their authority overrides that of the
appointed/designated estate
executor but I don't think that it does. At least not in the US states where I've been involved. Ask your lawyer. A lawyers fee is another expense that the estate should pay. (Been there done that.)
Being an estate executor sucks. For a lot of reasons. And you're never going to make everyone happy.