Insane Yard Sale Lady

My dad is bad for over-valuing things. I think it becomes part of an elaborate excuse mechanism for not getting rid of stuff. Over the years, he's been convincing himself that his collecting/hoarding is an "investment" but is unable to comprehend when it becomes a toxic asset.

Last year, when we were going through his and mom's stuff as they were downsizing and moving into a retirement community, he kept putting highly unrealistic prices on things to sell. He was convinced that his 20-year-old Buick LeSabre was worth $5,000, but he would take no less than $4,750 for it because in his mind, taking anything less than that would be letting somebody 'steal' it. In reality, book value for the car was half his asking price on a good day. After storing the car for several months at $200 a month, he finally let a friend of his take the car and sell it for him His friend got a decent real-world price for the car, and took a cut of the proceeds for his troubles. I have no idea how much Dad netted out of that deal, but I'm sure it wasn't more than a few hundred dollars after factoring in the cost of the storage unit.

I also took a large portion of his antique toy collection and have been gradually selling it on eBay. He was giving me prices to start the bidding on items that were two and three times what they were selling for. In other words, he was giving me 'I don't want to sell it' prices but the reality is there's so much stuff to deal with that it's more realistic to start the bidding at 'move it the hell out of here' prices and see what happens. Some things have amazed me while others have been disappointments but I end up doing okay in the long run.


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Post# 374374 6/24/2017 at 15:06 (2,495 days old) by crazykirbydude (Lexington, KY)
Checkrate/Likes 1 So today I went to a yard sale close to my neighborhood. Among the typical piles of used junk I saw a filthy Hoover Windtunnel V2. Get this. She wanted $60 for it! I had to ask her twice. Who would pay $60 for a filthy, twelve year old bagless vacuum? I could understand it if was an older Kirby, But not a Hoover Windtunnel V2! She thought I was crazy for offering "only" $10 for it. Bet it had the signature "old people" smell to it.

Post# 374385 , Reply# 1 6/24/2017 at 23:23 (2,494 days old) by jimjimmunster (Hammond, Ind.)
Checkrate/Likes *WOW* That's crazy. Iv ran into some real crazy estate sale people only. This one estate sale wanted 950 bucks for a Victrola console in not very good shape. I was thinking "What are you smoking lady?" They also wanted 125 for a beat up hoover 63 with a partial late model tool set at the same sale. I tend to just check after the yardsale and see if they tossed out what I wanted in the trash.

Post# 374386 , Reply# 2 6/25/2017 at 00:57 (2,494 days old) by tolivac (Greenville,NC)
Checkrate/Likes Yesterdays yard sales on the way home from work-again mostly busted kids toys,worn out clothes-only thing I found remotely useful was a nice camera tripod for a buck.

Post# 374393 , Reply# 3 6/25/2017 at 09:04 (2,494 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina)
Checkrate/Likes My dad is bad for over-valuing things. I think it becomes part of an elaborate excuse mechanism for not getting rid of stuff. Over the years, he's been convincing himself that his collecting/hoarding is an "investment" but is unable to comprehend when it becomes a toxic asset. Last year, when we were going through his and mom's stuff as they were downsizing and moving into a retirement community, he kept putting highly unrealistic prices on things to sell. He was convinced that his 20-year-old Buick LeSabre was worth $5,000, but he would take no less than $4,750 for it because in his mind, taking anything less than that would be letting somebody 'steal' it. In reality, book value for the car was half his asking price on a good day. After storing the car for several months at $200 a month, he finally let a friend of his take the car and sell it for him His friend got a decent real-world price for the car, and took a cut of the proceeds for his troubles. I have no idea how much Dad netted out of that deal, but I'm sure it wasn't more than a few hundred dollars after factoring in the cost of the storage unit. I also took a large portion of his antique toy collection and have been gradually selling it on eBay. He was giving me prices to start the bidding on items that were two and three times what they were selling for. In other words, he was giving me 'I don't want to sell it' prices but the reality is there's so much stuff to deal with that it's more realistic to start the bidding at 'move it the hell out of here' prices and see what happens. Some things have amazed me while others have been disappointments but I end up doing okay in the long run.

Post# 374394 , Reply# 4 6/25/2017 at 09:29 (2,494 days old) by compactc9guy (Bathurst NB)
Checkrate/Likes *reply* i scored a electrolux discovery 2 for 20$ lol at a yard sale i ran to the bank paid fix it up still got it lol

Post# 374395 , Reply# 5 6/25/2017 at 10:11 (2,494 days old) by FantomFan (Rochester, New York)
Checkrate/Likes *Yuck* $60 is unreasonable for any ten plus year old big box store vacuum. That aside, the V2 is a TERRIBLE vacuum cleaner. Loud, messy filters, bulky, and worst of all, that brushroll design. So trouble prone, and absolutely pointless. They don't clean any better than a regular Windtunnel. The only possible advantage is that it may not get caught up on carpet edges as much. Hoover had some pretty lame vacuums in the mid 2000's: the V2/Savvy, Tempo bagless, Windtunnel 2 bagless, and the Z700. Thank god those days are over.

Post# 374405 , Reply# 6 6/25/2017 at 16:02 (2,494 days old) by kirby519 (Wisconsin)
Checkrate/Likes 1 Wednesday I scored a Kirby Sentria for $50.00. No hose and attachments how ever they did have the shampooer attachment. It was built at the Andrews Tx plant in 2012. This one has the newer mini emptor with the F style bag. Impressive machine as I am partial to the pre G series models. This is the first G series model that really impressed me. I have several of the others and seem to like this one the best so far.

Post# 374528 , Reply# 7 6/27/2017 at 11:46 (2,492 days old) by sptyks (Skowhegan, Maine)
Checkrate/Likes I have a late model Sentria made in late 2011 which has all of the Sentria II improvements with the exception of the Sentria II color scheme. So basically I have a Sentria II that is dressed in the Sentria I colors. It would be interesting to find out how many of these late model Sentria's were made because they could be somewhat rare.