Estate Sale Adventure: Good Cop, Bad Cop

Hello, My Friends!~~~

It has been a crazy week! First our son, our one and only child, graduated from high school last Wednesday! The graduation ceremony was held at the Patriot Center on the campus of George Mason University. It was beautiful and of course I cried! Later that night, I volunteered for the all-night grad celebration held at the recreation center next to the high school. I worked from 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday night until 4:30 a.m. Thursday morning. I was pretty much wiped out all day Thursday, grabbing a nap when I could. It was all good, and our son and his classmates had a great time at the party!

So, I rallied by Friday morning and hit two estate sales. The second one was a digger's delight, which are my absolute favorite types of estate sales. The laundry room in the basement was chock full of Christmas decorations and it looked like I was the first one there as the boxes looked untouched. In no time I filled my bag with lots of holiday goodness. I then cruised the rest of the sale looking here and there, finding this and that, filling my bag even more. After about 30 minutes, my bag was full and quite heavy. I was being very careful as most of the goodies inside were glass ornaments. I've learned how to pack a bag with glass ornaments with little to no breakage at the end.

I went to pay after 45 minutes of good shopping. Now, let me give you what I feel is a good piece of estate sale advice: choose your pricer wisely!

At this sale there were two women pricing the items. Most of the things at the sale had no price. That can either be a good or bad thing. I hung around each of the women, casually observing how each one treated the customers and how they priced the goods. It was immediately obvious that one of the women was much nicer and offered better prices than the other one. In fact the "bad cop" was just plain nasty. The people getting her to price things and take the money, were what I call "the usual suspects", the dealers that are always first in line. They obviously knew this woman, Miss Bad Cop, and were willing, for some reason, to put up with her snotty attitude and absurdly high pricing.

The other lady, "Miss Good Cop", had a nice disposition with the customers, and even better, she just wanted to get your money and get you out of there. So when I walked up to her, and opened my bag, she looked inside, took a couple of items out, and then quickly gave me a good price for everything in the bag including the things she took out. So, remember to observe the folks taking your money at estate sales, and you may get the best price.

However, my story doesn't end there. Since the sale was so close to our home, I went back in the afternoon. I found more Christmas, and some goodies I had overlooked. There wasn't the crowd shopping that had been there in the morning. I went to look for Miss Good Cop to pay and found her sitting at a table with Miss Bad Cop. They were both playing with their cell phones and pretty much ignored me for a few minutes. Then Miss Bad Cop asked in her raspy smoker's voice: "Can I help you?" I told her I needed to pay. She ignored me again and started up the cell phone thing again, talking to Miss Good Cop. I was standing closer to Miss Good Cop and kept inching my bag toward her, keeping a steady eye on Miss Bad Cop, praying she wouldn't give me her lousy high prices and nasty attitude. Then good fortune arrived in the guise of one of their workers who summoned Miss Bad Cop away. Yay! Then Miss Good Cop gave me another good price for the bag full, but told me to go to the other room to pay another lady. I went to where I was directed and there was Miss Bad Cop at the table! Dun dun Dunnnn!

I told her what I owed her, and she nastily asked me: "Well, what do you have?" Fearing she would search my bag and raise the price (which would have been wrong since I already had a price, but I wouldn't have put it past her) I said: "Christmas stuff." She wrote that on her receipt pad and I gave her the money. It took her forever to give me my change and receipt at the some time she was giving the "stink eye" to a man behind me who was moving furniture out of the house. It even looked like she was frozen. I finally had to bring her out of her stupor and say: "I just need my change and receipt and I'll get out of your way." Fortunatley, she complied and I was out of there. Whew!

Here is a shot of the first wave of goodies I bought, just to give you an idea of what I carried around for 45 minutes before paying, and because after all of the text in this post, you should have at least one photo of something relevant to the post :) It's actually a partial photo as I pretty much dumped everything on the table. There's a few other, heavier, items not pictured.

So, just remember to scope out who's taking the money, if there's more than one person doing so, and decide who'll give you the best prices. Good advice, I think. Good luck out there!~~~XXOO, Beth

Comments

[Linda Joan]

What a treasure trove!!

[Renee]

You are very patient. I do the very same thing. I have learned which ones will price the best. Kindness is often the best medicine. Smiles...Renee

[Into Vintage]

The things we do for junk! But you're so right -- especially when it comes to things without prices. So subjective. :-)

[Meri Wiley]

I just wish and dream that we had estate sales like those out here. I guess I'll just have to keep buying your stuff ;o)

Hugs,
Meri

[Laurie - Magpie Ethel]

Good finds and good advice. I also check out the folks giving out prices..lurking for a bit before choosing one. Often I turn to the fellow in the garage - for some reason the garage person is often a gem of a pricer.

Congrats on the graduation and high five for chaperoning the all night party. (I did the same, but only till 2 a.m.)

[Marci]

Wow, what a great vintage Christmas haul! That was worth putting up with stink eye!

[georgiapeachez]

Gotta watch out for those "arlingto" sales for sure!! They are the unpredictable ones.

[Jullie Joy Dodds]

ooh well worth the agony my heart would be beating fast if i got them.Had to laugh at your ghood cop bad cop i do the same in my local op shop.

[John]

First of all, congrats on your son graduating! Secondly, love these ornaments. I'm also an ornament collector and would have snatched these up as well! Great finds!