Oh, The Weather Outside Is Frightful.... So sign up early!

Do you have any idea how cold 43F is, at 8:40am, on a Thursday morning, outside, with the wind blowing??

 It’s very cold. 

It’s “why are we standing out here?” cold. 

It’s “do we really want go to an estate sale….ever again?” cold.

 Now remember, the ladies are in Texas ~ South Central Texas at that.

The sale was scheduled for 9:00, and if we had paid any attention, we might have made it in the door near that time. But it was time for the ladies to learn another lesson. 

There really should be an easier way.

Let’s discuss sign up lists.  Many estate sales have them, especially on the first day. If you aren’t sure, here’s what to do: get your lazy self out of your warm car, walk up to the porch and check.  Alternately, you can send your partner. (Work with what you have, I pled age and family position. After all, I am the mother). This simple act would have saved us a lot of discomfort.  But NO ~ We had to learn by signing up at 12 minutes til, and waiting until 9:35 to get in the door. Oh, if you are wondering, the Middle One secured us numbers 41 & 42, each person has to have their own number. People were taken in three to five at a time. And by the way, they police that door. In fact, at this sale they closed it … in the face of the next person in line.  

A few sales have sign up lists online.  That’s quite nice, but if you put your name on the list, a word of advice. Be there when the doors open. Not being present does not entitle you to stroll up to the porch 40 minutes after opening, nod to those you know, and nonchalantly enter ahead of the patiently waiting crowd. That buyer found the door closed, and when the next group was allowed in, he was informed he should sign in... at the bottom of the list.  

The Ladies can learn from the mistakes of others, too!

As to the reason for sign up lists ~ the first day of the sale can be extremely busy. The dealers, especially, are trying to beat each other to the very best items.  Not the things you bargain for, the treasures that are more rare, more valuable, more sellable. Frequently the estate sale management companies have a limited number of attendants. It's their job to assist either in each room or on each floor... sometimes both. Controlling the initial flow in the door keeps them from being overwhelmed. And no, in general you do not want them to bring more people.  'Estate' is a funny word. In this case it does not refer to a large manor-like property, but more often to a small house filled to the brim with nick-nacks and the bric-a-brac of someone's daily life.  There's not enough space for all the shoppers and a hoard of attendants. The fewer attendants = more shoppers = less time standing in the cold (or heat, as the case may be)  Everyone involved should practice patience...let me repeat that;

Everyone involved should practice patience!

We also learned how to dress for the weather. Granted, we should have known this ahead of time. I did raise the girls better.  My cute unstructured cardigan over a long sleeve v-neck shirt was quite stylish, however, it was not warm. Not even with one of my beloved pashmina's around my neck (more on those another time).  The Middle One was much closer to the right idea, but could also have used another layer. 

But at least, when we ventured out at 8:40 on Saturday morning to hit the last day of that sale, and it was only 40F and raining, we were prepared. Not only that, we were successful at the sale. If nothing else, the ladies are teachable!

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