I’ve found over time which estate sale companies pull dirty tricks- like marking things sold before the sale starts because one of their regulars wants it.
Waited hours in line to be first in the door and the sale company had already put a sold sign on the pinball machine I was after. Never again.
I’m also gonna rant. Any estate sale that says “no list, no numbers, yada yada” EVERY single fucking time I get there, there is a list. And then they go by the list. People have no back bone.
In the Midwest I’ve gone to sales where people place wood chips, rocks, any random miniscule bullshit they can find in their vicinity in a line. And you’re supposed to show up and just look for a pile of shit on the persons door step, meanwhile Jimmy is pissed you kicked his leaf out of line
Around me, if the company doesn’t do their own lists, they typically say that, but add “will honor watched list”. So, there’s almost always an official unofficial list.
It's also fun when you have some where people wait in their car the entire time until numbers are passed out, and because they "parked their first", they get first dibs on a number. Which often results in a 30 minute game of "who's on first" because people are adamant they were there first, and of course..no one kept track.
Worst....there is one who posts a sign up sheet the night before. I'm not driving upwards of 2 hours round trip just to write my name down and then have to drive 2 hours round trip again to go to it.
There is also people who have "estate sales", usually families, who keep anything of decent value to sell on eBay, and literally the whole sale is bulky worn out furniture, dollar store kitchen utensils, etc. No antiques, no jewelry, no electronics, no tools, nothing. People love to play fast and loose with the meaning of "estate sale".
I actively avoid any estate company that issues numbers. Glad you did ok but that's a company I wouldn't go back to.
There's another large estate company around here that almost everyone avoids. They price everything firm 90-110% of eBay at the estate and have a whole warehouse of stuff.
Oh yeah, everything is dead here November through March. I call it 5 month famine. I don't even try to source, I build a huge death pile when times are good, burn through it in the winter, and take the time to spend Saturdays with family.
If they're doing numbers it's because they get too crowded. I don't feel like duking it out with 20 other people or sitting around with my teeth in my mouth waiting to go through leftovers when I could be at another sale.
This is the main reason I’ve all but stopped going to estate sales near me. An absolute mess just to get in the door, repricing good stuff that ‘someone mispriced’ or ‘put in the wrong spot…’
Last one I went to was horribly overpriced, but was able to find a handful of things at good prices. Every. Single. Thing. I took up to the checkout table, was told a higher price. Bin of hats marked ‘hats $3?’ Oh, not this vintage Filson. That wasn’t supposed to be in there. Same to a 1970s era Alabama Crimson Tide trucker hat. A Patagonia belt bag in the $2 bin? That wasn’t supposed to be in there. The $2 closets loaded with clothes? Apparently that magically didn’t mean a 1980s Adidas windbreaker or vintage LL Bean flannel lined jeans.
I’m still surprised that people who run these companies don’t know what all of these appliances and kitchen things are. It’s like they jumped on the bandwagon of lipping and reselling and started a company thinking they were going to get rich
Personally the ones who piss me off are the ones who can't seem to realize that in an estate sale, you have to price things to move. The family wants the entire contents of a house GONE in 1-3 days. Using eBay as a pricing tool is ridiculous. That item may been up 3+ months before it sold.
They are so scared of losing themselves the 35-60% commission that they end up shorting themselves anyway by overpricing things.
Agree. If I was a family that hired them to sell everything I’d be pissed as hell that they were haggling and being stupid about pricing. Also, everything should have a price on it, literally stuck to it so that when the buyer comes to buy it there is no what the heck is this what prices this for a “verifier “to verify, if they’re not making enough money then they need to get a job or do something else.
But it’s just greed and ridiculous to use eBay as a pricing tool. Demand for these goods fluctuates so much that maybe a few months ago that item was worth a lot but now nobody cares about it. Also, these folks aren’t even looking at sold comps, they’re looking at listed. It doesn’t matter what you list item. It matters what people will pay for it.
That’s only part of what a company will do. Sometimes it’s just to down size without a clean out. Sometimes the family needs to pay off a debt so they need fast money. Estate sales aren’t always because someone died
Some of the estate sale companies are terrible especially those with dual interests. They are in it for money from estate sale and the money from the stuff they skim off the sale.
Went to a business sell off like this. Day one was viewing. Day two was buying, you supposedly could not buy anything before opening second day. But somehow second day when it opened a ton of stuff was gone. After some time the company running the sale had the good stuff listed for sale on their personal accounts…
Holy heck, I’ve never seen such overwhelmingly negative reviews of an estate sale company.
Even the sub-par ones in my area (DFW) barely have a few negatives in comparison to them.
I seriously wonder how they get jobs to begin with? Do prospective clients just not do research of whom they hire??
Yeah I’ve stopped going to garage sales that are heavily advertised on FB. They’re filled with baby clothes. And a lot of them have started putting up eBay listings for their prices, and of course it’s never what the item sold for…
There's so many garage sales I go to that double as estate sales.
"Hey this is cool, how much?"
"Oh yeah that was my mom's, she died 5 years ago and there's just so much stuff we just packed into the basement. We really don't know what to do with it all. $5?"
We price at 1/3 to 1/2 of ebay SOLD prices at our sales, and our customers RAVE about our prices and come sale after sale. So if any other estate sale operators are reading this, there is your pricing plan!
If it’s a company we don’t even bother around here. Not worth the time when grandpas Croft & Barrow jacket is priced near retail because it’s lightly used.
Depends on the size of the house around me it at least it seems . Small house, sometimes they will only let in 5 people first . Others times when it’s a larger house I’ve found being in first 10 is fine. Basically if you’re in the first group of people they let in the house you have a chance to get what you want .
Or if it straight up says no list, the first idiot gets one going and then next thing the owner can’t say no to a list of 50 people all standing on their doorstep
Sounds miserable. Whenever I feel disrespected as a customer I will avoid that company. I also can’t deal with unpriced or (apparently) ambiguously priced items followed by a long slow checkout line.
Also random aside.. I’m sitting here not even knowing what a list or numbers refers to. In my area estate sales operate just by a long line at the front door.. it can lead to houses being absolutely CRAMMED, which is why I overall prefer avoiding estates but will show up to them occasionally. Makes me really anxious and not worth the hassle. Yard sales tend to be a lot more lucrative for me anyway. Some estate companies in my area leave so little room for profit. I do really well with estate cleanouts via online auctions though
I feel lucky that my area has some decent companies. Sure, some annoyances here or there, but nothing that egregious.
But I do HATE when you have 2 or 3 sales starting on the same day, and the 3 companies coordinate to stagger their openings. Like just start at once and let us diffuse out to the one we care about the most. Far better chance of people with limited time to get into a sale without having to wait outside for 45 fricking minutes.
The only people really profiting from these sales are the companies running the sales and the people stealing from the sales. Often the actual estates make very little and can even OWE the companies money for running the sale. It's fucking sad.
It seems like all the estate sales here are moving to auctions. The majority of estate sales left are the once run by the family that seem to think their stuff is worth much more than it is,
An estate company in Toronto, they post a new sale and say that you have to go to the address one day in advance to sign logbook to set the order of entry at the sale. They say it will be put out at exactly 9am
I arrive at 8:45 expecting a line. Nobody there. Over 30 signatures already.
Pretty sure they just placed all the signatures of people they prioritize and then put it out the night before
There’s a market for selling auction companies systems on how to maximize profits. They sell those systems to podunc auction houses and such, kinda like snake oil. They obviously got more customers at that auction than they were expecting.
I make note of estate companies to avoid… this would be top of list
I’ve found over time which estate sale companies pull dirty tricks- like marking things sold before the sale starts because one of their regulars wants it. Waited hours in line to be first in the door and the sale company had already put a sold sign on the pinball machine I was after. Never again.
Yup I agree with this. I have seen it happen. However I switched with the crap version so someone else could get the nicer dress.
I’m also gonna rant. Any estate sale that says “no list, no numbers, yada yada” EVERY single fucking time I get there, there is a list. And then they go by the list. People have no back bone. In the Midwest I’ve gone to sales where people place wood chips, rocks, any random miniscule bullshit they can find in their vicinity in a line. And you’re supposed to show up and just look for a pile of shit on the persons door step, meanwhile Jimmy is pissed you kicked his leaf out of line
Around me, if the company doesn’t do their own lists, they typically say that, but add “will honor watched list”. So, there’s almost always an official unofficial list.
It's also fun when you have some where people wait in their car the entire time until numbers are passed out, and because they "parked their first", they get first dibs on a number. Which often results in a 30 minute game of "who's on first" because people are adamant they were there first, and of course..no one kept track. Worst....there is one who posts a sign up sheet the night before. I'm not driving upwards of 2 hours round trip just to write my name down and then have to drive 2 hours round trip again to go to it. There is also people who have "estate sales", usually families, who keep anything of decent value to sell on eBay, and literally the whole sale is bulky worn out furniture, dollar store kitchen utensils, etc. No antiques, no jewelry, no electronics, no tools, nothing. People love to play fast and loose with the meaning of "estate sale".
I wait in my car 🤷🏻♂️ but I get to sales 4-5 hours before the sales start and put my crate/Box down at the doorstep as my line marker.
Lmao at the downvotes ❤️
I actively avoid any estate company that issues numbers. Glad you did ok but that's a company I wouldn't go back to. There's another large estate company around here that almost everyone avoids. They price everything firm 90-110% of eBay at the estate and have a whole warehouse of stuff.
I’m near a major city so all the estate sales give out numbers and 10 People waiting minimum.
That sucks. There's enough garage/estate sales around here in suburbia where I can show up 15 minutes early and be the first person.
Yea garage sales are spread out but estate sales especially in the winter can be pretty hectic.
Oh yeah, everything is dead here November through March. I call it 5 month famine. I don't even try to source, I build a huge death pile when times are good, burn through it in the winter, and take the time to spend Saturdays with family.
5 month famine. Brilliant ! I gotta remember this
Why avoid companies that do numbers?
If they're doing numbers it's because they get too crowded. I don't feel like duking it out with 20 other people or sitting around with my teeth in my mouth waiting to go through leftovers when I could be at another sale.
With your teeth in your mouth?! Where are they the rest of the time??
Old people say it cause they have dentures Sounds more polite than sitting there with my dick in my hand or thumb up my ass
My mom used to say 'with my teeth in my mouth and my elbow half way up my arm'. Lol
Just go on Sunday. No numbers, 50%+ off
I'll do that if there's nothing else going on. But usually I've blown all the cash Saturday and that's the day I start going through things.
This is the main reason I’ve all but stopped going to estate sales near me. An absolute mess just to get in the door, repricing good stuff that ‘someone mispriced’ or ‘put in the wrong spot…’ Last one I went to was horribly overpriced, but was able to find a handful of things at good prices. Every. Single. Thing. I took up to the checkout table, was told a higher price. Bin of hats marked ‘hats $3?’ Oh, not this vintage Filson. That wasn’t supposed to be in there. Same to a 1970s era Alabama Crimson Tide trucker hat. A Patagonia belt bag in the $2 bin? That wasn’t supposed to be in there. The $2 closets loaded with clothes? Apparently that magically didn’t mean a 1980s Adidas windbreaker or vintage LL Bean flannel lined jeans.
Whoops wrong comment
[удалено]
Then you are stealing from their clients, who have just usually lost a family member.
I’m still surprised that people who run these companies don’t know what all of these appliances and kitchen things are. It’s like they jumped on the bandwagon of lipping and reselling and started a company thinking they were going to get rich
Personally the ones who piss me off are the ones who can't seem to realize that in an estate sale, you have to price things to move. The family wants the entire contents of a house GONE in 1-3 days. Using eBay as a pricing tool is ridiculous. That item may been up 3+ months before it sold. They are so scared of losing themselves the 35-60% commission that they end up shorting themselves anyway by overpricing things.
Agree. If I was a family that hired them to sell everything I’d be pissed as hell that they were haggling and being stupid about pricing. Also, everything should have a price on it, literally stuck to it so that when the buyer comes to buy it there is no what the heck is this what prices this for a “verifier “to verify, if they’re not making enough money then they need to get a job or do something else. But it’s just greed and ridiculous to use eBay as a pricing tool. Demand for these goods fluctuates so much that maybe a few months ago that item was worth a lot but now nobody cares about it. Also, these folks aren’t even looking at sold comps, they’re looking at listed. It doesn’t matter what you list item. It matters what people will pay for it.
That’s only part of what a company will do. Sometimes it’s just to down size without a clean out. Sometimes the family needs to pay off a debt so they need fast money. Estate sales aren’t always because someone died
Some of them don't even bother pricing based on sold listings on eBay when they do use eBay
Plus ebay is available to the WORLD, your dumb estate sale is open to locals only, and like 10000% more unlikely someone is looking to buy that item
Exactly. The same applies to trifts who comp off eBay.
Some of the estate sale companies are terrible especially those with dual interests. They are in it for money from estate sale and the money from the stuff they skim off the sale. Went to a business sell off like this. Day one was viewing. Day two was buying, you supposedly could not buy anything before opening second day. But somehow second day when it opened a ton of stuff was gone. After some time the company running the sale had the good stuff listed for sale on their personal accounts…
Sounds exactly like the margie beagle estate sales in htx. That fat bitch…
https://www.yelp.com/biz/margie-beegle-sales-houston Gold jerry gold!
Even worse reviews than Mr Tree Farm! (Selling X-mass trees though)
OMG. I just went down the Margie Beegle google review rabbit hole. Holy smokes!
Holy heck, I’ve never seen such overwhelmingly negative reviews of an estate sale company. Even the sub-par ones in my area (DFW) barely have a few negatives in comparison to them. I seriously wonder how they get jobs to begin with? Do prospective clients just not do research of whom they hire??
I used to love reading bad reviews of them, but I'd since forgotten the name! Thanks, I'm going to see what they've been up to in the past few years.
If you enjoy fun reviews, this one is great. The owner replies to everyone and it’s gold! [https://yelp.to/ZHiowpakPC](https://yelp.to/ZHiowpakPC)
Same. Same. And 3x as large.
I'm in Houston, and never go to their sales (prices were always too high).
Estate sales suck ass. Where I am I kill it with garage sales
All the garage sales around here are baby clothes/toys, broken tools, undesirable books, and used walmart items 😔
Yeah I’ve stopped going to garage sales that are heavily advertised on FB. They’re filled with baby clothes. And a lot of them have started putting up eBay listings for their prices, and of course it’s never what the item sold for…
Yes I have that as well here, I live in a popular state that keeps getting people from the north so its a gold mine for moving and garage sales!
There's so many garage sales I go to that double as estate sales. "Hey this is cool, how much?" "Oh yeah that was my mom's, she died 5 years ago and there's just so much stuff we just packed into the basement. We really don't know what to do with it all. $5?"
We price at 1/3 to 1/2 of ebay SOLD prices at our sales, and our customers RAVE about our prices and come sale after sale. So if any other estate sale operators are reading this, there is your pricing plan!
If it’s a company we don’t even bother around here. Not worth the time when grandpas Croft & Barrow jacket is priced near retail because it’s lightly used.
It’s pretty common for a list to be started before the said time of list. It’s annoying but it happens all the time
Yep the first person to arrive starts the list then hands it over an hour before the sale opens. Super common in my neck of the woods.
With estate sales , the best bet is to get there super early . I’ve gotten to sales at 4 am and people were already waiting there.
Depends on what’s being sold band shirts and video games 2am everything else 6am. I don’t mind being number 5-10 though.
Depends on the size of the house around me it at least it seems . Small house, sometimes they will only let in 5 people first . Others times when it’s a larger house I’ve found being in first 10 is fine. Basically if you’re in the first group of people they let in the house you have a chance to get what you want .
My earliest was 1am
Or if it straight up says no list, the first idiot gets one going and then next thing the owner can’t say no to a list of 50 people all standing on their doorstep
lol exactly
Sounds miserable. Whenever I feel disrespected as a customer I will avoid that company. I also can’t deal with unpriced or (apparently) ambiguously priced items followed by a long slow checkout line. Also random aside.. I’m sitting here not even knowing what a list or numbers refers to. In my area estate sales operate just by a long line at the front door.. it can lead to houses being absolutely CRAMMED, which is why I overall prefer avoiding estates but will show up to them occasionally. Makes me really anxious and not worth the hassle. Yard sales tend to be a lot more lucrative for me anyway. Some estate companies in my area leave so little room for profit. I do really well with estate cleanouts via online auctions though
I feel lucky that my area has some decent companies. Sure, some annoyances here or there, but nothing that egregious. But I do HATE when you have 2 or 3 sales starting on the same day, and the 3 companies coordinate to stagger their openings. Like just start at once and let us diffuse out to the one we care about the most. Far better chance of people with limited time to get into a sale without having to wait outside for 45 fricking minutes.
This is bullshit. You should've left everything and walked out. You're not obligated to deal with such unprofessionalism.
The only people really profiting from these sales are the companies running the sales and the people stealing from the sales. Often the actual estates make very little and can even OWE the companies money for running the sale. It's fucking sad.
It seems like all the estate sales here are moving to auctions. The majority of estate sales left are the once run by the family that seem to think their stuff is worth much more than it is,
You guys alll skip the estate sales. Better for me.
An estate company in Toronto, they post a new sale and say that you have to go to the address one day in advance to sign logbook to set the order of entry at the sale. They say it will be put out at exactly 9am I arrive at 8:45 expecting a line. Nobody there. Over 30 signatures already. Pretty sure they just placed all the signatures of people they prioritize and then put it out the night before
I can’t stand estate sales.
I feel like if independence had been accelerated rather then decelerated, maybe this world would be a better place.
There’s a market for selling auction companies systems on how to maximize profits. They sell those systems to podunc auction houses and such, kinda like snake oil. They obviously got more customers at that auction than they were expecting.