Hit shady estate sale this weekend.

[Nickleanddime]

Went over to a community sale in another town and seen a sign for a Estate sale that was ending Friday, so it was the last day. So after the community sale went over in the last hour of the sale and figured we would hit some good deal, you know close out prices. HA!!! didn't even look like ANYTHING was sold. The prices were triple what they should have been. But hey no big deal leaves money in my pocket ya know. Well I had been to another sale the same people were running and the prices were high there also. Got to talking to them and find out they run a 10 stall spot at the local flea market.

Anyways the guy with me seen 3 metal Tonka trucks on a shelf at $25 a piece and was drooling at the mouth. But figured the guy wouldn't budge on them. So he's dragging feet on the and finally works up the nerve to make a offer. Offered the guy running it $40 for all three cash right then. The guy shakes his hand and says "No I'll just take them over to my stall at the market and see what I can get". HA he didn't see the clients that just walked in. The owners of all the stuff go how are you going to sell it at the flea market when its not yours! Man im rolling on the floor laughing now at this idiots big mouth. So the owner is chewing the guy out for how much stuff is left and says now I know why there is so much stuff left, you have the prices set way to high. Come to find out the guy only sold $175 worth of stuff in a 5 day sale. Told him to forget about his fee and might as well forget about getting any of the items left from the sale. Told him you were working for me to sell my items not to get a good deal so you could make my money.

But heres the best part, the guy looks at my buddy and said " here son you can have all 3 for $5.00's". I wish I had a camera to take a pic of the guys face when he said that. Just goes to show that greed doesn't pay off.

 

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[nathan104]

Lots of shady folks out there. Glad that family found out before it was to late.

 

[war-digs-it]

There's some companies in my area that do exactly the same garbage. They want the stuff not to sell so they can charge to haul it out and get a load of items for their shops. It's a horrible scam on their clients. Maybe I have no clue on how it works but hearing what their percentage of items sold is plus the hourly wage to remove what doesn't sell and then the profitability of those items that were overpriced at the sale they later sell at their shops...I'm in the wrong business!

 

[dumpsterdiver]

I can't believe he was dumb enough to say it out loud. But thats terrible thing to do to someone.

 

[Beachkid23]

We have seen this with coins and jewelry often. You know it's through the roof with the prices. One guy was telling us that it is a great investment by now because in a couple years it won't matter what you paid for it because it will be worth so much more! I told him no really how that works is if you buy it now, a couple years from now you will forget what you paid for it! And then you won't care. One place had silver Eagles for $60 apiece, that was this year!

I sell for people to but when I run across the jewelry and coins I tell them I collect it and I want to buy them for my collection. Have no problem selling the rest of the stuff though. But that is my first thought when I walk into a place and prices are so high that they are planning on buying everything themselves.

 

[silverdollarbill]

One guy was telling us that it is a great investment by now because in a couple years it won't matter what you paid for it because it will be worth so much more! I told him no really how that works is if you buy it now, a couple years from now you will forget what you paid for it!

Haha...this made me laugh outloud

 

[diggummup]

This is too funny. I love it! I was just this minute questioning what some of these companies do with all the stuff that is left over that they don't sell because it's all overpriced. So we know this guy wanted to get it all for the flea market. That's one example.

 

[Henry2]

This is extremely common and one reason I never go to estate sales, I did work for a girl who's relative died and I was hired to do some work outside and inside the house. All the belongings were still there, so as the picker I am I made some very reasonable offers on some items but the girl refused because they hired a company to do the estate sale and afterwards toss out what didn't sell. That right there through up the red flags in my head, while doing my work I noticed huge boxes packed with jewelry in the attic and I mean packed, had to be thousands of pieces of different jewelry items. So the day comes for the estate sale and I noticed only 2 small tables set up with the jewelry and all were what appeared to be the cheap beaded crap. I asked the girl what happened to the rest and she said she thought that was all of it, I told her what was in the attic and she didn't want to make a issue out of it. After going around looking at the items they had marked you can clearly tell what they were doing, the prices were outrageous. Well later on I talked to the girl and asked her how things went and sure enough she didn't make much and the company took almost everything and never came back to finish cleaning out the junk items, the good stuff was gone.

 

[Rodbuster209]

Common occurance here where I live also, the biggest estate sale co. here has a thrift/consignment store and warehouse where most of the stuff ends up. The other 3 or 4 outfits sell at nearby flea markets. The prices are so high at the sales I refuse to go, unfortunately they are busy every weekend!

 

[releventchair]

Good timing!

 

[twiasp]

There's some companies in my area that do exactly the same garbage. They want the stuff not to sell so they can charge to haul it out and get a load of items for their shops. It's a horrible scam on their clients. Maybe I have no clue on how it works but hearing what their percentage of items sold is plus the hourly wage to remove what doesn't sell and then the profitability of those items that were overpriced at the sale they later sell at their shops...I'm in the wrong business!

In Oklahoma I see advertisements for companies that will clean out or Garage/Attics for "cheap", and they keep whatever they take out. Sadly a lot of people think it's a good deal =(

 

[diggummup]

This is all common thievery as far as i'm concerned. These people should have criminal charges brought against them and then they should be locked up for a few years. Let them think about what they've been doing for a while. Pure scum of the earth imho.

 

[trdhrdr007]

In my area there are 3 local estate sale companies. I work part time for one of them. There should be 2 goals for an estate sale company. Maximize profit & get rid of everything. The one I work with almost never has more than a small pick up truck load left at the end of half price day.....& before anything is donated to a local thrift the heirs have to approve it. One of the other ones is about the same.

The last one has prices that are way too high. On half price day most items are still too high. The owner of that company takes the small high value items to the next sale......& prices them exactly the same. Everything else is donated. Absolutely no idea why people continue to hire this woman.

 

[Mr. Silver Stash]

Anyone have any ideas on how to break into the Estate Sale company field? I would like to start my own estate sale business.

 

[diggummup]

Anyone have any ideas on how to break into the Estate Sale company field? I would like to start my own estate sale business.

Put an ad in the local paper/s and CL and wherever else you can think of, then you are officially an estate sale company, lol. At least that's how they do it down here. Most of them aren't even "legal" businesses. There are no regulations down here so any idiot can start up. It's wide open. If I were to start my own, I would make sure I was bonded and legal to start with. That is something a potential client would want, even if they don't know or don't ask about it. A professionally drawn legal contract would also help.

Several of the estate sale "companies" around here are also real estate agents. I think that is how these particular companies get most of their leads. These are usually the high dollar companies too. Now that I think about it, they are probably the biggest thieves too.

My favorite estate sale companies are the smaller ones that have a following in a particular neighborhood or development. They started ground up by word of mouth many of them live in the area or neighborhood. I know one lady who doesn't even use the computer, no email or anything, she puts her ad in the local newspaper when she holds a sale. My area is kind of unique though, it's a large metropolitan and major retirement area. There are approx. 1 million people over the age of 65 in the tri county area. So there are many estate sale "companies" around.

 

[dejapooh]

There is one company out here that asks full new retail for everything, fortunately, they are open for offers... VERY open. I usually offer 1/8th of the asking price and get it. I am known by most of the big locals and they usually quote me asking price without their commission on Sterling (usually a bit over melt, so I usually don't buy it).

 

[2ndisbest]

I have picked a few family friends estates and done some selling for them on the side. There are a few companies I would recommend if they asked. But if you wanted to liquidate an estate, you should do it yourself. Yes it is a lot of work, but if you want to hire a company, you might as well donate everything to goodwill and save yourself the hassle. But what you do run into a lot is the kids or relatives don't live close so they want to be hands off as much as possible. And they let the company run everything, and if they are not honest, you won't see much return.

 

[Nickleanddime]

Wow seems like a common thing all over. I cant see how these people feel right about doing this to ones they trust. But hey I guess that's capitalism in its finest right there. Look at the industrial boom after the civil war, those guys were brutal in their business tactics.

 

[inspectorgadget]

If you want to be even shadier than some of the smaller auction houses then become an estate sale company! But it can be a very good business to get into & if you do it right (the honest way) you will probably have some good success after a while. Honest & estate sale company just doesn't belong in the same sentence together 99% of the time and a lot of people know it. The baby boom generation is getting older & a lot of their stuff will need to go somewhere soon.

 

[billjustbill]

What makes that bad feeling in my gut and on the back of my neck is when I see "professional companies" charge Sales Tax. I just get the feeling that's a crooked way to up their profits by 8.25% !!!