Friday, February 15, 2013

Why Bother Going To A Store When You Can Go To An Estate Sale And Pay More Than Retail



This is by far the CRAZIEST estate sale I have ever been too (and you know, I've been bitching for a while how expensive they have gotten)! Expected there to be tons of people/dealers attending and prices to be high (not insane though). Arrived an hour after opening and still had to wait 45 minutes, surprisingly I was only #54. People might have decided to pass on the sale guessing crowds and inflated prices.

While standing in line, Mr. Dealer (I see him everywhere even at my thrift stores) walked out with tons of boxes - he must have bought everything as his truck was crammed to busting.

My photo below is what was left of the Dansk Kobenstyle (the CathrineHolm, Finel and others sold) - the red Paella pan is $85, the aqua $125, red square $75 and the brown stockpot over $100.


For a good laugh check out the prices on everything. Crap was priced higher than retail.

Anyway, the owner bought everything from estates and thrifts (saw Unique Thrift grease pencil on a Dansk bowl). He has at least 8 thrift stores in the area. I'm guessing he started 20 years ago seeing all the unsold Russel Wright (including furniture) in the apartment.

Passed on the Arabia pitcher for $45, as I was in no mood to give my bills to this rip-off sale.





The above photo is the estate priced $1200 George Nelson bench made by Herman Miller. Brand new/retail this very same bench is $999 at DWR and Room & Board. Is it a first issue or something?

All the nice Scandinavian glass was gone. Almost everything left was chippy or just to cray-cray expensive.

What's weird, is some of the people I talked to thought they were getting such good deals - they must not check out Ebay or Etsy? I can understand if it's something is rare but then that what I expect at auction houses?

This whole sale was confusing to me? If someone cares to explain it to me...





Owl vase was gone, Blenko fish was $150
Spisa Ribb was a chippy, sadness



4 comments:

  1. These prices are really crazy!

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  2. man,really crazy prices - but I guess neat to see everything. I'm totally agreeing w/ you, its like estates are realizing they can make more selling it right there than on ebay.. and they dont have to worry about shipping it. Win-win for them. Many of the estates near us have similar prices to this one..

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  3. We all got spoiled when sellers didn't know what they had, and we could pick up things on the cheap. Those sellers have wised up, and gone are the days that we're going to find Adrian Pearsall side tables for $4 at estate sales (Yes, we actually did!), but for an estate sale/seller on eBay or Etsy to try to charge as much for an item as they see them listed for in an actual store is a little ridiculous. I do think, though, that original vintage pieces in good condition, by virtue of their age, are worth more than the licensed new issues.

    Even though I miss the extreme bargains of the old days, I don't blame sellers for trying to charge a reasonable price, but since they don't have the overhead that an actual brick and mortar vintage store has, I think it's a little greedy to charge like one.

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