The part about awareness of a digital conversion made me LOL Doug, nice sarcasm. It might be fun to act totally unaware, and just say something like "TV won't work after 2009? Hahaha, that's crazytalk!" Let them think they're part of the in-crowd.
Also have to agree on the green-carpet theory. Those houses are always on my go-to lists. Often times, I'll go simply because they are in a city that I know has lots of 50s/60s ranch homes with older residents. I'm sure you've felt the disappointment of walking into one of those homes, only to find the walls are painted dark red, and the only furniture is a bunch of modern assemble-it-yourself shit from IKEA. Obviously somebody's 2000 era rehab, and it's not really an "estate sale", just an "I'm-being-foreclosed-on-so-I'm-trying-to sell-all-this-crap-sale". If I wanted silver-box television sets and futons, I could find all I wanted at the curb.
As morbid as it sounds, only the actual death-sales are worth going to. Even though 90% of them don't have worthwhile TVs, I still get a lot of good deals on unused cleaning chemicals/supplies to use at my rental homes... Full bottles of 1985 Windex for $.50, push brooms for a $1, etc.
By contrast, yuppie estate sales aren't worth the gas to get there... Modern people don't know which end of a screwdriver to use, and as such the men who live in the homes have the same mechanical ability as my 93-year-old grandmother.
At the green-carpet estate sales, you'll find tools, major appliances, good-quality furniture, car parts, small engines, guns, technical books, cement tools, ladders, file cabinets, desks, and all sorts of other stuff that I've purchased. I even picked up a sweet Kojack-style London Fog winter coat that looks like brand new. You can tell the prior owners had some knowledge and skill.
A non-death sale gives me a great deal on outdated videogames, college-themed throw pillows, particle board furniture, broken Chinese appliances, gaudy "summer" rims for an import, and a whole bunch of other non-durable goods best hauled in a 3-yard dumpster. You can tell whoever lived in the house barely knew how to add fuel to the $99 lawnmower.
Sigh.
