You Call That a Sale?

Each week we check www.estatesales.net for new estate sales in Riverside County.  There appeared to be a great sale that would take place on Friday in Chino starting at 9:00AM.  We like the 9:00 start time as it gives us plenty of time to get there and be one of the first 15 in line if we get there by 8:00.  If the company running the sales limits the number of people allowed in at one time, getting there an hour early usually assures that we are in the first group let in. But this company said that a "sign-up" sheet would be posted at 7:00.  Oh well, we figured getting there by 8:00 would assure that we would be in the first group anyway.

So, we headed out to Chino at 7:00 and there was virtually no traffic at the major highway "pinch" points.  We got to the site at 7:45, an hour and 15 minute early.  Parking spaces were virtually non-existent on the narrow street and people were walking over 1/4 mile to the entrance.  I lucked out and found a space 200 feet from the entrance, the place was mobbed!

I dropped Elly off to go sign up while I parked the car.  Elly informed me that we were #90 on the list.  So much for getting there early.  Everyone just milled around until the proprietors starting making everyone get in line based on their number on the list.  They said they were going to let 30 people in at a time. When 1 came out 1 more could go in! 

The Linein front of us!  Red Arrow points to Elly.

This is the line in back of us!

We were a little disappointed because we expected that all the good stuff would be sold by the time we got to go in.  At 9:00, the first 30 in line went in and then we waited, and waited and waited.  While we waited we had great conversations with our "line mates."  The people win front of us were friends we had meet at two previous sales and we enjoyed conversing with them again.

Then... people started coming out, empty-handed and shaking their heads in disgust.  There were saying that the prices were extremely high, higher than retail, one guy paid $25 for a plain wooden box, another paid $100 for a rusted book press.  We have a book press back home, in better condition, that we couldn't even sell for $25 on craigslist. Wow!

People in back of us started leaving after they heard the stories, but we figured we had invested so much time & energy so far, we might as well see it through.  One of the guys we stood in line with with owns "Joe's Italian Ice" near Disneyland.  His heart sank when he saw the book press go buy as he was there only to buy the book press as a Christmas present for his wife..  I told him he could have ours if we could get it out to California, but not before Christmas.

Finally, after about 1 1/2 hours it was our turn to enter the sale.

Elly entering the sales area with her bags.

When we got to the sales area we saw what the others were talking about.  The merchandise was fantastic, but hardly anything had been sold because the prices were way too high.  They were asking retail or above prices on everything.

Table of antique toys, notice there are no empty spaces. Nothing sold after 3 hours!

Steamer trunks, None sold by noon.

 It turns out that the owner of the merchandise was following the workers around during the setup and pricing, and telling them what price to put on things.  He loved his stuff way too much!.  I felt bad for the estate sale company because they were losing sales and commissions because it seemed like the owner didn't really want to sell anything.  Now all the dealers know where the stuff is, will probably contact the owner later to buy the stuff and the company will lose out on their commission.

We found $43 worth of stuff we think we can sell at a profit.  If the prices were lower, we could have spent over a couple hundred dollars easily. So sad!

Expensive big stuff!

Elly checking out.  Usually estate sales checkout line are long! Notice no line!

The gate as we were leaving. No more line.

In retrospect we could have showed up at 11:00, and all the stuff were waiting in line for would have still been there since nothing was selling.  Who knew!