What does an estate sale operator do?
A thousand things.
We are professional: Photographers, videographers, copywriters, marketers, online marketers, planners and project managers, sales people, problem solvers, negotiators, riot calmers, organizers, pricer's, loaders and delivery specialists, wrappers and packers, cashiers, house cleaners, detailers, stagers, merchandisers, car parkers, garbage collectors, sign makers, running interference- preventing disasters. Not in that order. We have to do it all.
I have a little help, but not much. I am the bottom line make it happen estate sale bitch. I am the one that makes it happen, or not. I have a hip ache, a back ache, a headache, low blood sugar. We forget to eat. I sometimes trip and fall down, I bruise and bleed, only to get bitched out by customers, accosted by crazy people, criticized by people over issues that are none of their business, who don’t know us, what we do, how we arrive at what we do. They want it all for less than or for free. The price is rarely right.
Sometime someone hears me groan or watches me trying to hold 5 things at once and ask if they can help but I got it. The rare estate sale shopper is considerate.
I am ON PURPOSE. I am ferocious, inside. Get out of my way, please. What does it take to get the job done? We will produce results. No one else is here to do it. No one else wants to work. When is the last time you hired someone? No one else thinks and intuits the way I do. I am a survivor of an insane business, for 27 years.
A man returned to a sale one very stressful Saturday to see if I was still standing and congratulated me for handling the crowd. He was amazed. Thank you for that, who ever you were, sir. I should have married you. Another missed que.
Running up a driveway to intercept a vehicle that’s going the wrong way because the driver couldn’t follow my monumental sign with black and white directions and was befuddled. She is old. Standing in a parking lot playing Rubick’s cube with moving automobiles, dodging bumpers, parking, directing them, moving them.
Spending up to a week or more unpacking cabinets, boxes, attics, basements, arranging, organizing, pricing, dusting polishing, merchandising items for sale.
Working in houses with no lights. Dead light bulbs. Lazy owners, dead owners. NO ceiling fixtures, standing in water in a leaky basement. Leaky toilets, sinks. Digging in corners to find what is there.
Sneezing, inhaling dust, mothballs, absurd discoveries, disgusting things, hypodermic needles, pulverized mouse excrement, dead bugs, cobwebs, mold and mildew, lawn chemicals, spilled garbage. Working in hot attics because that is when the job has to be done. The client waited until June. Thanks. And all this for a little estate sale fee and a commission.
Supervising sale days, overseeing potential liability issues- that might happen. Minimizing the trip and fall hazards, telling people with canes and walkers to stay on one level, “we are not responsible for your accidents”… so don’t go up or downstairs, removing things the owners have left in the way ( “Oh gee, can you get that for us…we forgot- no big deal”,) …eliminating possibilities of potentially destructive issues that could take their wealth from them, flood their property or burn their house down. I've encountered all of it.
Posting lawn signage. Taking our lives in our hands to park and run across intersections. Recovering stolen signs and having words with bullies and thieves. Signs taken down by HOA’s or jealous neighbors holding yard sales. Being cursed by the neighborhood coven. LOL.
I am actually great at what I do. I am kind and generous- but only when I feel like it. It’s a privilege deserved and enjoyed by a few, when I am alive.
If I unavoidably bite your head off it’s because I am in a tailspin, my bad. Multi tasking to the max. I can't expect people to see that. I work like a dog and am rewarded like one by clients who have no clue what we do, how we do it, what we are doing for them…how much we are looking out for them. An estate sale operator. What a job.
If I am the cashier and you are the buyer standing in a line of 25 people- you’re just standing there staring at me… how rude…I am a robot. That’s because I have to be. Calculate, write it down, take money. repeat... take the deals. All you shoppers had to come in from the cold weather, you pled with me that I let you in all at the same time, so then you breathe down each other’s necks, waiting in line, at check out. Why not rub each other’s shoulders? I am not going to stop and tell jokes. I am not going to stop and let you negotiate the price on every damn item. We have discounts posted and that is the protocol. We price low in the first place. Be grateful for an awesome deal. But your greed is the game.
So, if your oversized sofa doesn’t sell, because they rarely do, and solid wood mahogany traditional dining room is still there at the last minute of the sale even tho it was marked down to practically free or your “Cinderella in the castle sized” armoire has to be cut in 4 pieces to get it downstairs and out of the house…because ain’t no one gonna buy that thang, then so be it. Sorry. We won't take responsibility for what the horse drank. But we brought him to water. Hundreds of them in 3 days-advertised in photos for a month. Thousands of viewers. Guess they don't want what you have.
We meet your deadlines. We are great at this job. Get er done. Set it up, sell it, clean it up. That’s a fraction of our work.
If you don’t “like me” because I am not “nice”, think again. Nice is ineffective. What is "nice" to you?
Because you read old reviews written by shoppers who did not get their way, and in my professional opinion are entitled to nothing besides a fair deal, It shows you are shallow and have the mentality of a high school sophomore. Did you get to know me. Get to know what I do and have just done for you.
I am a machine. I sell your pre-owned stuff. And I do a whole lot more than that. Then I send you a check for my trouble. For some demanding clients I even hand deliver the money so you can tell me how I have failed you, to my face. What a loser. If you don't want to give me a positive review on my professional site for making your 10 grand on your used crap, so be it.
What a shame. PTSD is not limited to veterans of foreign wars.
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