Estate Sale Clients Drive Me Crazy! A Rant

I run a small estate sale business which I use to love, but after six years of dealing with crazy clients and grumpy customers the fun has pretty much disappeared.

I really don't understand why people wait until the last minute to contact us for a sale.  Even though they know they are going to have one, the home has been empty for months, they are going to sell the house soon (like yesterday) etc.  They call me and think I can do their sale right away.  They need it done in a week or so.  I am sorry.. it takes some time to pull their stuff out of the cupboards, closets, and attics.  It takes time to clean their dirty dishes, organize their messy garage.  It takes time to price each item.  If it was that easy why don't they do it themselves!

I usually come in to a big mess.  Papers all over, food stuck on dishes, mice poo, dirty rooms.  We basically come in to a pig pen.  And the clients wait to get the items they want to keep out so we have to work around their stuff.

Then I get the clients whose items are in their eyes worth a lot.  This makes it very hard for me to sell and then at the end the client isn't happy because there is a lot left.  So then it ends up going to an end buyer or to a charity.  If they would just let me do my thing.

I get clients who have me come in and see what they have to sell and then when I come back to get started all the good things have been taken out.  Family have changed their mind about selling said items...or I get them taking things as I am getting the sale ready.

I do not understand why these people even call to have an estate sale.  If you aren't going to let the person do the sale the way they think it should be, why bother calling for someone to do it.  They need to trust the person they are hiring to do the sale instead of making it so difficult.

Yes I use to love starting a new sale.  The fun of digging out buried treasure and setting up the place so it looks like a show room.   Now I just hold my breath for the next problem to arise.  Get it ready and get the hell out of there before they drive me more crazy.

Customers are no better.  They come in complaining that the prices are to high, yet my prices are lower then Goodwill is, or an antique shop.   They are more willing to pay top dollar at a antique store then my bargain prices at the sale... go figure

So thanks for reading my rant.. I am done for now ... lol

Take care, until next time....