Estate Sales

[Thursby]

Just wanted to see if any of you have had the similar fortune of picking up some steals at these places. This one that I went to was at the house of a deceased doctor, and it was being run be a contractor that my wife works with.
Long story short I picked up: one suit, one sports coat, six pairs of trousers, ten shirts, and two london fog coats. Unfortunately the suit is a modern style, but a very nice grey one. The trousers are all wool except two, and the shirts are all Savil Row, Hilfiger and Ralph Laurens. The best part about this is that it all cost me -- nothing.
The other item of interest that i picked up was a nice book called: Amy Vanderbilt's New Complete Book of Etiquette - The Guide to Gracious Living. It is a bit worn on the cover and I have yet to look through it properly, but there are chapters covering: The Ceremonies of Life, Dress and Manners, Home Entertaining, Household Management, Corespondence, The Family ans Social Education of the Children, Your Public Life, Official Etiquette for Civilians and Travel Etiquette at Home and Abroad.
So all in all a steal for having payed nothing for it all, although I will have a nice dry cleaing bill for it all. Oh well.
Anybody else got any good stories??

 

[Lauren]

I am a BIG estate sale fan. It freaks out some people, but doesn'y phase me at all. I figure that a lot of times people already have died and we have their stuff. Here's some of my recent finds

 

[matei]

I wish I had paid more attention to these when we lived in Noo Yawk. Estate sales and thrift shops...

I plan on making a visit to the states this year (maybe two), so I'll put my top men (man actually, me da lives there now) on the case before I arrive to tell me if there are any that correspond with my visits.

I've never attended one, but I have a friend who used to find all sorts of neat things... Clothing, instruments, odds and ends...

 

[Senator Jack]

In New York, estate sales were great before E-bay, but now everybody thinks their old clothes, plates, records are worth something so the prices have gotten high. I have to laugh at people who have a crate of vinyl lps, asking $5 for Herb Alpert records when you can find them in mint condition at the thrifts for .50. I guess they're thinking 'hey, no one plays records any more, so it must be worth something.'

What I also hear from the sellers to justify the high prices is 'That's what it goes for on e-bay.' So then I tell them, 'well then sell it on e-bay and you have to deal with taking pictures, listing, packaging, etc.'

Worse than that, is the competition we now have here. People line up at 6 am to get first crack at a sale. Then the antique dealers cut the line and there are fights - yes , actual fights - because the dealers believe the very nature of their work entitles them to be first on line. Needless to say, all of this has led me to go out much less than I used to.

My one regret is that in the twenty years I've been going out, I 've never found the big score. Sure, I've gotten countless suits, coats, robes, hats records, glasses, and pieces of furniture, but I've never found the '57 Les Paul being sold for $10 or an original Saarinen chair for $5. I can't imagine how anyone is able to find a bargain any more.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[matei]

My friend found an old Gibson 335 and a Fender Twin at one such estate sale on Lawn Guyland back in 1995... He paid less than $100 for them both, whoever was putting on the sale just wanted to get rid of the stuff.

Oh well...

 

[Lauren]

Matei, I have heard of people liquidating country estates in England. Now THAT is something I'd like to go to, even if I couldn't afford anything. The dresses I've seen come out of those sales.... WOW!

 

[MissQueenie]

I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about the sorts of things one might come across in an estate sale like that, Lauren!

I can't wait for you to move your sweet self up here so we can go to estate sales together. We could work as a pair -- I'll bring a hefty handbag and beat back the rabid antique dealers while you plunder!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Here are a few goodies I've found at Los Angeles/Pasadena estate sales. In every case mentioned, the seller had no idea what he/she had:


-- A 1914 bowler hat and morning coat owned by Herbert Hoover.

-- A three-piece, double-breasted suit made in Las Vegas in 1954 for Dean Martin.

-- A single-breasted, peak lapel, grey flannel suit made by MGM tailors for Roger Moore back in 1957.

-- An extremely fine pre-WWII Japanese kimono brought home by a GI.

-- An 18th century jewelled snuffbox given by Conrad Hilton to his butler's wife.

-- A never-published nude photo of a young, pre-Hollywood Kim Novak.

-- Seven steamer trunks filled with late 19th and early 20th century ball gowns, tea dresses and walking suits in pristine condition.



.

 

[geo]

You've got some pieces of historical importance there. They belong in a museum!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Thanks! Actually, the steamer trunks full of clothes went to my friend and fellow estate-saler, Ben McGinty. We opened the trunks together, though. Had no idea what was inside. It was like opening Tutankhamen's tomb!


Lauren, would you consider selling the strange suspenders to me? Just the suspenders, not the tuxedo (which I know is spoken for.)

 

[Marc Chevalier]

By the way, these estates can be pretty creepy. Sometimes the previous owners die in their homes and the corpses are not discovered for a few days (or more). I remember one such estate: the husband had died in the bathtub, and his senile wife continued to bring him breakfast, lunch and dinner on a tray for 3 days afterward. Luckily, the cold porcelain of the tub kept the man's corpse "on ice", as it were ...

Sometimes, the elderly owners are all but abandoned, and have Alzheimer's disease to boot. Their homes pile up with garbage and are infested with vermin. Finally, social workers take these poor souls away to a nursing home ...

I remember going through the Pasadena estate of the guy who invented the odor added to gas in order to warn users of gas leaks. He died a fairly wealthy man. Unfortunately, he was also a racist and anti-Semite who had an entire room filled 3 feet deep in neo-Nazi / KKK magazines and newspapers. Rats had made nests underneath the pile.

And don't get me started on the estates of elderly, senile cat-lovers ....



Mind you, most estate sales don't come from places like these. But it happens. A lot of heartbreak is exposed.


.

 

[Lauren]

Yeah... I went to one once that was simply filthy. It was covered in cat or dog hair everywhere, and you'd assume they'd at least want to dust or vaccum or something. I think it was put on by friends of the deceased person. The stuff was just in boxes in the middle of the floors. Ran away with some great 50's fabric and patterns, as well as some cookbooks, but it took a good washing to get the stale smell out of the fabric.

This other one, the woman was obviously a diehard packrat/crafter. She had just "stuff" everywhere. There was even this room that was just filled with books and craft supplies around the room on tall shelves, then garage style shelves in the center of the room, all PILED with various crafting things from the 60's through the 80's. This woman had ROOMS of sewing and crafting stuff. Kept thinking there'd be a body of a pet in the corner under stuff, but luckily it didn't happen. You want to see wars? Those craft ladies are NUTS! But I ran away with a Life book of dog illustrations for a dollar that I sold for $300. Never know what you'll find at those places amongst the crap.

 

[Thursby]

Well luckaly I have had no bad experiences so far, but I'm sure they will come. No bad smells or suspicious stains yet.
Talking of liquidating estates in England, not far from where I used to live there was a place that delt with that stuff. But it was an architectural place. So if you needed a stone spiral stair-case, a double footed wooden stair case, revolving doorway, giant iron statues and gates, and at on time a very old glass green house set up as a conservatry.
So here is to the people who do not care about ebay and would rather get rid of the stuff that they obviously do not want to those that will give it a decent home.

 

[PutALidOnIt]

Back to Matei...

About 10 years ago I missed by moments a '59/'60 5F6-A Bassman at a garage sale. This guy was carrying it out and I asked to see it. It was really pristine original - even had a Victoria Luggage cover (I think that's what Leo used...), get this:
He paid $20!!!!! :cry:

I offered the guy $100, then ante'd up to $500 cash, but he wouldn't give it up. Just a case of "try to find another..."

 

[matei]

Jeez... you all have had some good finds (or either just missed out).

The grandfather of a good friend of mine had several houses in NJ, on the waterfront. This guy had turned a bit loopy at some point during his life and had never, ever thrown anything "useful" out. He was a man of some means, so he would also constantly acquire new things - which went into his collection.

When he passed away, there were about 3 houses full of stuff... Entire rooms full, up to the ceiling, dating back to the '30s.

My friend invited me to come along and help sort through this, but at the last minute a huge family feud broke out as to how the spoils... emm, inheritance would be divided. I think they ended up selling the whole lot to some collector who also purchased one of the houses. I don't know - it turned ugly.

Oh well...

 

[Marc Chevalier]

It often does turn ugly. Estates are willed to feuding heirs, get fought over for years, fall into neglect, etc. I've seen it happen again and again. Sad, huh?

 

[Absinthe_1900]

My best estate sale find was a Edison diamond disc "London" console, $100.00, with a bunch of Diamond Disc in the cabinet. (All late 20's Edison flappers music)

Second best was when the seller was unloading a bunch of 78's from a common Victor upright machine....first record was a King Oliver disc, second Arthur Gibbs's Charleston, after that I bought the whole stack for $25.00, and ran like a theif scoring a a bunch of E+ grade 20's music, all pretty rare stuff.