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I gave up on Long Island tag and estate sales a long time ago, but one recently came up with multiple items of interest, so I figured I'd give it another shot. Here's my experience...
A. Two outdoor deck storage boxes featured in the listing photo's were pulled from the sale by the owner, and it took one of the sale staff 10 minutes to find this out and report back to me.
B. I asked for a price on a sled (to be used for holiday decoration) it took another 5 minutes for staff member to get a price. He comes back to the garage with a price of $20.00. With that some professional reseller picks up the sled and says "20 dollars!!" I'm not sure the staff would have honored that I was the first to inquire, but I said to the guy "for 20 bucks it's yours, I'm not interested". Neither one of us bought it.
C. I inquire about the price of a Schwinn recumbent exercise bike, a staff member very aggressively says they won't take less than 200, and that it was 1000 new. I try the bike out and the electronics won't start, I ask the staff and the owner (an elderly woman) to hook up the cord and transformer that was resting on the seat, not being able to find the port myself. No one can locate the connection for the power and get the bike working. They all thought it was funny and had a laugh over it, but I have no doubt they would have taken my money in a hurry.
I mention how poorly the sale is being run to the owner and staff, stating the deck box and sled incident. With that the owner laughingly states she pulled the boxes from the sale. No shame or excuses from anyone.
I give it one final shot inquiring about an air compressor and miter saw (again both featured in photo's). It takes another 10 minutes for them to track the compressor down, they bring out a dangerous rusted relic and quote a price of 200 dollars. Then I find out the elderly lady pulled the miter saw from the sale.
One of the staff finally comes chasing me down the driveway to apologize for the situation blaming everything on the owners (guess they didn't want me to leave a bad review), stating I should understand, the couple were elderly and going through a lot (couple was loaded and house and neighborhood high end). I asked why the pulled the miter saw, where they thinking of becoming late life contractors? The staff member said maybe the saw was the son's and had sentimental value...
Have any of you had better long or short term luck with these types of sales...
My sister used to run them when she lived on LI....I am sure the preference is that the owners not be there.
I guess it does come down to the company hosting the sale. A friend of mine hired one for her mother's estate and said "never again". She said the company had a bunch of insiders that skimmed all the best stuff off in advance before the sale even took place and then left her and her sister to run the sale and deal with the rest.
Another said they didn't want the owners there because the owners would accept the lower offers, yet post sale they have "sellers remorse" and blame the company for giving their stuff away. The companies apparently get paid to haul away unsold items at the end, so it is actually more profitable and less damaging to the companies reputation for the owner to complain they didn't sell much over feeling they gave their stuff away.
I remember years ago I bought a hack saw that had a two part frame, I held both parts of the saw up to the lady running the tag sale and asked "how much for the saw"? She quoted a price of 5 dollars each, stating there were two saws. I then assembled the frame and pointed out that it was indeed one saw...
Same woman, same sale, I display a cheap knock off copy of an acoustic dreadnought guitar and ask "how much"? She quotes 100 dollars pointing out the bridge pins are mother of pearl. I show her the pronounced mold seam lines on the pins and explain mother of pearl cannot be melted and poured into molds, and that the pins were actually mother of plastic....
I did wind up buying the saw for 5 and guitar for 50, but the shamelessness of the company owners and/or employees is second to none....
Once I attended an auction hosted by professionals with models and runners,it is about the condos on Hilton Head Island facing a lake,many attendees .
The auctioneer is a real pro and the runners both men and women with fancy sneakers carrying a whistle will run t o you when you bidded ,he will place a hand on your shoulder and look at you admirably when it is time to decide whether to outbid your fellow bidder.
The priciest condo went to a woman who cant pay,but she likes the thrill.
The word Estate draws a lot of attendees,somehow people think of estate,they think wealthy people but many are just from ordinary people who collect junks !
I guess it does come down to the company hosting the sale. A friend of mine hired one for her mother's estate and said "never again". She said the company had a bunch of insiders that skimmed all the best stuff off in advance before the sale even took place and then left her and her sister to run the sale and deal with the rest.
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Ha ha my sister did skim some good stuff.
As far as owners, do you mean heirs? There's no "owners" in a true estate sale.
You should leave a horrible review, that is so unprofessional and sounds like a waste of your time.
Behavior like this is why I personally never sell anything, I offer to my extended family first and if they don’t want it I put it by the curb or put a picture on Facebook and tell people it’s free to first person who sends me a message. Otherwise People get real weird and say they want to buy it but then they don’t show up or when they show up they want to negotiate a lower price.
I agree with whoever said it sounds like hoarding, once someone else expresses an interest they can’t bear to part with it.
I get the feeling it may be a common practice, along with having a group of "insiders" they might give a head's up or special access to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mojo101
arent the heirs the new owners now?
Heirs are involved in estate sales, but anyone can hire one of these companies (or run their own) tag sale for their own stuff while they are still above ground.
Most of my estate/tag sale frustration over the years seems to have been with sales held in the Dix Hills/Melville area for some reason... They are held all over Long Island, however.
With Covid many are using the online auction format, but you are charged an 18% bidders fee and 8.625% sales tax on any item you bid on so you roughly have to figure you will pay an additional 25% of the final purchase price if you are the successful bidder.
You also have to agree to pick up the won item at a specific address on a set day and time window, so factor in your gas and time. Items do seem to be well photographed and described with the online auctions, however, so at least there's that, along with bidding from the comfort of home. Haven't jumped in and bought anything yet, but have seen some interesting stuff.
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