trdhrdr007
Bronze Member
- Nov 1, 2009
- 1,427
- 1,332
I have an in with the local estate sale people, & sometimes give them a hand. In return I get a small hourly rate & first crack at any items in the estate I'm interested in. I'm also their go to guy for buying precious metals....a spot I earned by consistently offering more than the competition.
Over the last few weeks they have been preparing a semi-private sale. The heirs got first pick with the cost of the items being totalled to count as part of their inheritance. Anything left over was to be sold to the public. This is a fairly well off family with a lot of nice items. I wasn't holding my breath, but there was over $8000 worth of gold jewelry & sterling items. I stood to make a fairly decent amount depending on what was left over. Today was family day & when everything was said & done I was able to spend $1400 at the aftersale. I'll make a pretty tidy profit for the day.
I have to vent a little bit though. There were 13 people between the age of 40-65 that were eligible to pick. A couple didn't have any interest besides getting a keepsake & a few didn't even show. One of the ones that didn't show sent his 2 kids who were in their early 20's. After everyone took turns picking what they wanted there was around $4500 worth of gold/silver items left. At that point we started helping people load their items. Meanwhile the 2 kids are walking around picking up gold/silver items to add to their pile....saying things like "this is a really nice item, someone should get it", " I probably won't ever take this out of my jewelry box but it's too nice to leave".
Long story short, between the 2 of them they took an additional $3000 worth of stuff that they didn't really want. I guess they either didn't realize or didn't care that the price of the items they took would be deducted from the amount of cash they would inherit. In a situation like this you want the family to take everything they want, but it is aggravating to watch people take stuff with no sentimental value that you know will end up in a box on a shelf.
Over the last few weeks they have been preparing a semi-private sale. The heirs got first pick with the cost of the items being totalled to count as part of their inheritance. Anything left over was to be sold to the public. This is a fairly well off family with a lot of nice items. I wasn't holding my breath, but there was over $8000 worth of gold jewelry & sterling items. I stood to make a fairly decent amount depending on what was left over. Today was family day & when everything was said & done I was able to spend $1400 at the aftersale. I'll make a pretty tidy profit for the day.
I have to vent a little bit though. There were 13 people between the age of 40-65 that were eligible to pick. A couple didn't have any interest besides getting a keepsake & a few didn't even show. One of the ones that didn't show sent his 2 kids who were in their early 20's. After everyone took turns picking what they wanted there was around $4500 worth of gold/silver items left. At that point we started helping people load their items. Meanwhile the 2 kids are walking around picking up gold/silver items to add to their pile....saying things like "this is a really nice item, someone should get it", " I probably won't ever take this out of my jewelry box but it's too nice to leave".
Long story short, between the 2 of them they took an additional $3000 worth of stuff that they didn't really want. I guess they either didn't realize or didn't care that the price of the items they took would be deducted from the amount of cash they would inherit. In a situation like this you want the family to take everything they want, but it is aggravating to watch people take stuff with no sentimental value that you know will end up in a box on a shelf.
