Estate sale bargain...

[alexpgp]

While driving around, Galina and I saw a sign for a Thursday–Friday estate sale, and decided to stop by, despite the fact that quite often, such sales are "professionally" arranged by a third party, which must account for the rather impressive prices one finds on what's being sold.

I'm not sure just what the difference was, but I'm assuming that all the junk in the garage that was reasonably priced was the stuff the professional organizers could not be bothered with. I found a Decosonic 828 food sealer in the pile, and when I asked if it worked or not, was told there was no outlet in the garage where we could test it, but if I wanted to take the item "as-is," I could have it for half price, which turned out to be a dollar.

So I bought the thing, and it made all the right noises and the wire sealing element appeared to work, but I could not find any apparent source for the manufacturer's bags (not even on eBay). Improvising, I got a fairly reasonably seal using a Ziploc freezer bag (although it seems to be about as good a seal as I get using my "immerse the bag in water" technique), so maybe if I get a suitable bag, I might get a better seal.

But for $1, it seems not that bad a deal.

Comments

[bookfoole.livejournal.com]

"despite the fact that quite often, such sales are "professionally" arranged by a third party, which must account for the rather impressive prices one finds on what's being sold."

Overall, I find you're much better off with a "professionally" arranged by a third party estate sale --they're biggest customers are dealers, so they usually price with enough room that a dealer can sell it and make his mark up. If they price too high and lose their dealers, all of their future sales tend to do poorly. Sales done by the owners or heirs tend to be very uneven in pricing --they expect you to pay for sentimental value and/or their initial investment --not a portion of the current market value. Of course, they make more mistakes in both directions --so they have vastly overpriced items, next to giveaways --based on what they personally value.

But, you're right professional estate sale people tend to invest their time on the big ticket items and collections, etc. --and odds and ends are often sold cheaply. BTW, if you come more than two or three hours after the start of the sale, all you see are items that dealers have passed on.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Interesting point, about what you can expect to see a few hours after the start of the sale.

Thanks for the comment.

Cheers...