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I just love Monday Morning Finds (THANK YOU, SKYLER!)and look forward to all the thrift store, CL, yard sale finds every week. Unfortunately, I admit to being a junkie and wonder if I'm heading towards being the poster child from Hoarders! Most of my house is decorated in these finds.
It's what I am, what I do. So I thought this might be the right place to pose my question.
I'm sitting here watching "Storage Wars" and can't help wondering "Are they kidding me??"
Do TS, SA, GW, auctions in other parts of the country REALLY bring those prices? $150.00 for a used frying pan?? A Royal Daulton (sp?) mug for $100. $300.00 for a dining room sideboard?
$1000 for a used couch and loveseat?? $300 for a set of Ralph Lauren brass bookends.
Are they kidding me???

Shut OFF the TV. Walk away from the TV...
Make a cup of tea... relax, enjoy YOUR STUFF and your home!

YOU are in REAL LIFE, They are NOT it is entertainment. RELAX... LOL

I have never seen those prices for second hand items. The prices you quoted are very inflated.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: cocok,

On Storage Wars you don't see the stuff SELLING for that amount of money -- it's the person buying the unit that says "nice couch I'll get $1000 for it", "these Ralph Lauren bookends are a 300 dollar bill", etc. You never see the stuff SELLING!

I can say anything I please about what my stuff is worth -- but will I realize that amount of money if I sell it -- I doubt it.

Martha

I never see them getting those prices. I remember one of them, buddy was saying he'd get this huge amount for plain ole drinking glasses. I thought, in your dreams. Some things they may rack up on, if it is a very unique or sought after item, but most, nah ah.

When the find money and things at the very back, I often wonder if it's planted there too.

I see the latest trend on our local Craigslist is to list lower, then a week later the same $45 lam is relisted as $65, then this week that same Alabaster lamp listed for $100, then I was shocked yesterday to see it for $145! So, I figure if they get responses, they figure they priced it too low and then try till no response.

This is a way to get a value of an item. BUT that does not mean that the item will sell, just people curious. The way I think this does not work is if the item is not described well and the photo is from too far away, so you NEED to email to ask questions. I guess someone in an antique business could check eBay for pricing ideas (they always list as 'double that or more on eBay'!).

I even called one man who listed a great chair, by the time he gave me the run around to come into his warehouse full of antiques, I gave up. No straight answer on that one chair!
Even Craigslist has its irrational sales tactics! LOL

You're more than welcome Jaysmom I enjoy doing MMF and am happy you like it.

I've never seen the show but can tell you I've seen some used items going for CRAZY prices at the Rose Bowl flea market. There are a lot of decorators that shop the market for their very wealthy clients who are willing to pay high prices.

When the Shabby Chic style was at it's peak, I saw weathered, iron tables selling for hundreds. I bought a bedside table EXACTLY like the one Rachel Ashwell featured in her book for $75 (no bargain but I loved it). I left it there while I continued to shop. When I returned the vendor told me Rachel herself had been by and offered to pay triple what I had just paid. Fortunately, the vendor was honest and told her it was already sold.

Had Rachel bought the table for triple what I paid, I'm certain she would have taken it to her shop and sold it for even more.

Check the news, Dave Hester of Storage Wars is suing A&E and alleging that significant aspects of hit reality show are fake.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...wsuit_n_2279176.html

quote:

Most of my house is decorated in these finds.
It's what I am, what I do.

DH has the opposite complaint about the guys with the pawn shop in Las Vegas. He thinks they underprice the purchases and then plan to make a killing on the items.

About the specific things you listed Jaysmom, I did pay $300 for a side board (with china closet top) maybe 10 years ago at our local consignment shop. Also a Royal Doulton toby mug would be reasonably priced at $100 in some cases. As far as the legitimacy of some of those "reality" shows, yeah, in a pigs ear they are real!

As to your bigger point about how we acquire things, yes except I have never bought (only sold) on Craigslist, it would be easier in my home to count the things that were bought new, than the things from yard sales, the town swap shop, auctions, etc etc.

I will be posting my fantasy d.r. decorations soon and in total spent $37 and that includes $11 for the bed coverlet I am using as a tablecloth! And that was a badly stained salvage item!

I used to love to go to the Auctions - particularly those of containers full of stuff from England but that was back in the 70's and early 80's. Then I got onto a yard sale tangent for several years. Then NOTHING.
This past summer a man whose wife had died was moving and I happened to see an Estate Sale sign here in my subdivision. WOW I'm hooked again.
There are at least 3 organizations that I know of who have estate sales here but one in particular has really fascinating sales of higher quality things. I don't always find something I can't live without BUT it is always fun to look at people houses, the things they surrounded themselves with and the way they lived. Now I end up going about once a month. When I know there is going to be a sale, its something for me to look forward to. I guess other people are as nosy as I am and that's why Open Houses for Sale are so popular.

Lu -- we traded auctions for Estate Sales years ago -- you come, you buy (or not) and leave. With auctions you hang around forever, buy stuff you don't want because you're bored and then the thing that you did want goes for more than you wanted to pay so you've wasted a day!

At least with the Estate Sales, everything is priced! We especially like the SECOND day of the sale when everything is HALF price! That's where we've found buys and often some things are marked down more! (That's where we found at antique carved leg wing chair for $25 -- the upholstery was awful (which is why it was still there) but $25?

Martha

I agree Martha about going to auctions especially the part about buying things one had no intention of buying and wasting time.

My favorite estate sale organization only deals with higher quality things, frequently conducts sales whereby they can't advertise in the newspaper only by email and sells the entire contents not just the leftovers from people moving. Sometimes, I come home and make a list of what I would like to buy at half price the next day. Unfortunately when I go back sometimes things are gone and then I kick myself but then I kick myself for buying stuff I don't need either:::::smile:::::::::