The Estate Sale is Over- Thank God
OMG
We held the estate sale Thursday/Friday/Saturday, which was during spring break (as I suggested).
So, a little, or a lot of whining about my sister. Sorry, but I use this blog to vent.
She has been going to our Mom's house almost every day for the last 2 months.
Most people would have had everything sorted and ready to be priced for sale by then, but of course, not her. She had not even touched the garage, or the 2 outbuildings, claiming that was for our brother's to do. My brother's came last week and moved out all the furniture, cleaned out most of the outbuildings, but didn't really have time to sort through everything in the garage.
So my brother who lives in town came over on Monday and started cleaning out the garage. I was telling him what to do, then my sister thought we had to have tables in the garage, so pulled him away from sorting to make tables, which wasted an entire afternoon.
By the time the sale came, we had tables, but everything was still on the floor in a big pile. I was at my Mom's until 9:30 the night before the sale, just trying to get some stuff out on the table. The next day I set up a 5 cent box in the garage, and started throwing bits and pieces into it. One guy sat through there and sifted out all kinds of things. Of course, who knows if it came out of the 5 cent box, or the 25 cent table, but honestly, I was just trying to get stuff out of the house, so we wouldn't have to haul it off or deal with it later.
We did have a dealer come through, who found a very old small wrench. I could have been a jerk and told him it wasn't for sale, but I hate to do that, so gave it to him for 25 cents. He got a good deal, and it was the last day of the sale and we had a snow storm (first day of spring), so at least he got something for his troubles.
Although a lot of things went out of the house way too cheaply, since my sister thinks she doesn't have the time to try and sell anything on Ebay, that's the way it goes.
However, the good news is, after 3 days of sorting though things, realizing I didn't know what they were worth, but thought things might have some value, I started carting things home. My sister said "if someone else wants to take the time to sell things on Ebay, they can keep the money", so that's what I plan to do.
My sister didn't price anything in the house, because she doesn't go to garage or estate sales, or resale shops. That's fair enough. I told her if she got everything organized I would go around and price it, but all she got organized were the books, tapes, toys.
Anyway, we survived. My sister's friend came and helped. She was great. Such a work horse. I don't know what we would have done without her. Every night and morning she and I would go around reorganizing, and I would get prices on more things. If you don't have a price on it, or at least a sign above saying the price of stuff on that table, many people (including me) won't take the time to ask for a price. We had 4 old phones sitting out, but no prices, and I finally noticed that about 2 hours before the end of the sale, priced them for a couple of bucks each, and they were gone.
At least the people who came the last day of the sale had some things to buy.
And, I did call 2 of my friends, and sold them things over the phone. One was a fireplace tool set, which apparently I had bought for my parents. My friend is planning to do an outdoor fireplace, so she can use them. She got them for $10.00, as I had marked them at 20.00, but the last day we were selling everything at 50% off.
We did have issues with a couple of collectors, but that's for another posting.
It's amazing how much we got rid of, but I was sure pricing it to move. And, a lot of people were happy to get the bargains.
So, my Mom's stuff has made a lot of people happy, and people got to know the provenance of some items, and that's always fun.
As I said when I sold all my stuff from my house 7 years ago "I set my stuff free, to make other people happy".
And over the next few days, there will be lots of people saying "I got a great deal at an estate sale", and it will be with a smile on their face when they utter those words.
Mother would be proud.
We held the estate sale Thursday/Friday/Saturday, which was during spring break (as I suggested).
So, a little, or a lot of whining about my sister. Sorry, but I use this blog to vent.
She has been going to our Mom's house almost every day for the last 2 months.
Most people would have had everything sorted and ready to be priced for sale by then, but of course, not her. She had not even touched the garage, or the 2 outbuildings, claiming that was for our brother's to do. My brother's came last week and moved out all the furniture, cleaned out most of the outbuildings, but didn't really have time to sort through everything in the garage.
So my brother who lives in town came over on Monday and started cleaning out the garage. I was telling him what to do, then my sister thought we had to have tables in the garage, so pulled him away from sorting to make tables, which wasted an entire afternoon.
By the time the sale came, we had tables, but everything was still on the floor in a big pile. I was at my Mom's until 9:30 the night before the sale, just trying to get some stuff out on the table. The next day I set up a 5 cent box in the garage, and started throwing bits and pieces into it. One guy sat through there and sifted out all kinds of things. Of course, who knows if it came out of the 5 cent box, or the 25 cent table, but honestly, I was just trying to get stuff out of the house, so we wouldn't have to haul it off or deal with it later.
We did have a dealer come through, who found a very old small wrench. I could have been a jerk and told him it wasn't for sale, but I hate to do that, so gave it to him for 25 cents. He got a good deal, and it was the last day of the sale and we had a snow storm (first day of spring), so at least he got something for his troubles.
Although a lot of things went out of the house way too cheaply, since my sister thinks she doesn't have the time to try and sell anything on Ebay, that's the way it goes.
However, the good news is, after 3 days of sorting though things, realizing I didn't know what they were worth, but thought things might have some value, I started carting things home. My sister said "if someone else wants to take the time to sell things on Ebay, they can keep the money", so that's what I plan to do.
My sister didn't price anything in the house, because she doesn't go to garage or estate sales, or resale shops. That's fair enough. I told her if she got everything organized I would go around and price it, but all she got organized were the books, tapes, toys.
Anyway, we survived. My sister's friend came and helped. She was great. Such a work horse. I don't know what we would have done without her. Every night and morning she and I would go around reorganizing, and I would get prices on more things. If you don't have a price on it, or at least a sign above saying the price of stuff on that table, many people (including me) won't take the time to ask for a price. We had 4 old phones sitting out, but no prices, and I finally noticed that about 2 hours before the end of the sale, priced them for a couple of bucks each, and they were gone.
At least the people who came the last day of the sale had some things to buy.
And, I did call 2 of my friends, and sold them things over the phone. One was a fireplace tool set, which apparently I had bought for my parents. My friend is planning to do an outdoor fireplace, so she can use them. She got them for $10.00, as I had marked them at 20.00, but the last day we were selling everything at 50% off.
We did have issues with a couple of collectors, but that's for another posting.
It's amazing how much we got rid of, but I was sure pricing it to move. And, a lot of people were happy to get the bargains.
So, my Mom's stuff has made a lot of people happy, and people got to know the provenance of some items, and that's always fun.
As I said when I sold all my stuff from my house 7 years ago "I set my stuff free, to make other people happy".
And over the next few days, there will be lots of people saying "I got a great deal at an estate sale", and it will be with a smile on their face when they utter those words.
Mother would be proud.
Labels: estate sale
posted by Confessions of a Caregiver at
10:15 AM
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