The Tale of The $2,000 Piano: When Estate Sales Go Terribly Wrong

What we didn’t know ~ but probably should have ~ is that estate sale listings are something like real estate listings.  We all know that ‘adorable fixer upper’ really means is ‘not horrible from the front, but the ceiling is falling down, its painted violent purple on the inside, and raccoons have nested in the kitchen’.  So ‘too many items for us to be able to tag it all’ and ‘you pick the item and we will give you a price’ should have clued us in.  It didn’t.  We’re still new to this and still wearing slightly rosy glasses, though they are fading slightly.

Because it was listed in an upscale area where many people have vacation homes we decided to take a chance.  Good Grief.  OK, when we pulled up there were clues ~ piles of … junk scattered around the side yard, the questionable stability of the front porch and the absolute filth of the front door. 

We sat in the car and discussed whether or not to go in. The Middle One is brave, very brave. She suggested we just give it a chance “you never know”.  Uh huh.  

So in we went

Once in door, I couldn’t move. Just stood there rooted to the spot fighting the urge to turn and run. The Middle One was in about the same state, she looked at me and whispered 'I'm sorry'. I would say we took a deep breath, but we didn’t. We did however stand up straighter, fold our arms and move forward.  To our left was the kitchen ~ I use that term loosely ~ then a staircase going up one floor. Being unsure of the structural integrity of the building, we elected not to venture up.  So we chose to turn right, down a dimly lit, slightly questionable hallway and into a bedroom.  We knew that because on one side of the room was a bed that looked as if someone, who had had a very restless night, just got out of it. Stacked around the outside walls were some piles of stuff, junk really. 

But there, in one corner, sat a huge, ornate, beautiful piano.  That’s right a quality antique piece, with a $2000 price tag. Astounding Had we been in the market for a piano, this would have been a beautiful find. I’m sure there was some haggle room. Where did the piano come from? What was the story of this stunning instrument? We know there had to be a story.

We left the room, (there was a smell) and ventured back down the hall and out the backdoor and straight into more adventure.  More piles on the ground, smelling faintly of decomposition – which we prayed was garbage. A couple of outbuildings for tools long gone to rust.  A white storage box, half opened, filled with old Christmas ornaments and months, if not years worth of rain water, oxidized to a rusty brown color.  I exclaimed ‘oh no’, the Middle One looked inside and proclaimed ‘that’s a box of Christmas tragedy’.

Now lest you think we were the only shoppers, no no. There were probably 30 people there. And people were going through those piles, despite their smell. And people were going through the outbuildings. We don't have enough experience to know what they were finding. We're not sure we want that much experience. 

By now we were done, we skirted the piles of smelly junk, picked our way across the rough yard, got back in the Jeep and after a moment of silence, just laughed at ourselves. Then teared up a little wondering about the story and the piano.

The lessons of the $2000 piano?

1.   Read between the lines on the sale listings

2.   Don’t pin your hopes on a sale because of an area, neighborhood or zip code
3.  Never assume you know a story, there are a million untold stories out there

4.   You never know where you’ll find a $2000 piano