So here you are
at an estate sale looking over the collected goods of a person either A. less
fortunate than us to have been put in a nursing home, and be humiliated for
eternity by a guy who probably wouldn’t have a problem tying down his own
grandmother to her bed and stealing her candy bars, while forcing her to watch
the latest episode of “Swamp People”. B. Has decided to move to Florida for the
rest of their natural life you know, golf, voting, and the occasional trip to
see the grand kiddos. All the while complaining that Reagan would have cleaned
up this economy given the chance a lot sooner than Obama!! Or C. Has passed
away to eternal bliss to join Harold in the great beyond, only to leave her
daughter betty behind to deal with fluffy (her cat), her laundry list of bills,
or the wealth of her estate, which brings me to the good ol’ cliché', One man’s
junk is another man’s treasure.” I like to think of B as a general practice
when entering an estate sale.
Here you have to be careful of a
few things. Upon asking yourself if the set of Pyrex bowls neatly displayed on
the counter is worth the $39.75 price assigned to it. Really $39.75? really?
Now this would lead you to think that wow, these people really know what they
are doing! Eh hem, skuse me. I would
like to point out that I generally find that the prices right of the bat are
usually inflated a bit. Gotta give everyone their cut. Right? You have the
bills to pay, perhaps the funeral expense. Then you have to pay the company who
is actually selling the estate. And boy let me tell you, they are not here for
pleasure. They are here to make as much money off unsuspecting customers as
they can. Then there is the family. And after a couple episodes of "Antiques road show", they are
convinced that granny was hording a fortune comparable to that of fort Knox!
So
back to the bowls. Now then if
you can afford to pay full price and can’t live without them, than by all means
buy them! But there is a way to
possibly a way to get a better deal. Now I like to go to an estate sale every
day that it is running. First I go early on the first day to check out the
goods. Perhaps I just have to have something, also to get a good look at who is
running the show. Usually they are goods at what they do. That is that they are
good at price gouging. I make mental tabs on items that I think will sell fast
and one’s that I think will take a little while. On the second day I will go to
see how things are moving. Sometimes this is also the last day. And that
usually means HALF PRICE!! Yay, you caught a break! But I recommend going in the afternoon, say 2pm. that’s just
before closing, and they have seen hundreds of people of every shape and size
comes through that house. That is when I will scrutinize the tables of afghans
and teacups looking for those odds and ends that I probably will never use but
just in case Items. And furniture…Oh how I love the half price day. They just
want to get rid of this stuff and that is when I will swoop in for the kill.
Now they have a table let’s say that they were originally asking lets say $300.
It’s nice hard wood and would look good in the living room. So now it’s half
price right? Well maybe if you make an offer to buy the table will they throw
in the lamp and the chair with it? It doesn’t hurt to ask. And why you’re at
it, offer $75 instead of $150! Now you have haggled them as if they were
selling leather goods in Tijuana. Doesn’t always work that way but you’d be
surprised when it does. So remember that if you can’t live without it then buy
it right away! And happy thrifting!
-THT
