Well, I held an estate sale this last weekend. My mother passed away last year and my sister and I and my wife did an estate sale to clear out the stuff from my moms house. My sister and I went through and saved the stuff we knew was good like the China that was my Grand mothers's wedding gift, crystal glasses from my mothers grandmother, a pocket watch from the late 1800's, and some furniture that was hauled out on a horse and cart during the Chicago fire, among other things. (Certain lines of my family go back to the late 1600's so we have been around a long time.) There were other items that had either real monetary value or certain sentimental value that we split up. What was left was lots of furniture and nick nacks and well...... just lots of stuff. My mom never tossed anything.
Anyway, has anyone ever done as estate sale before? If you have, then you know what goes on. For those who have not, here is a brief description. We put an ad in a couple of local papers saying this was from 9 AM to 4 PM. Well, 6:45 AM the first day people are lining up outside my moms house. I go out there and hand out the numbers. Numbers are needed because you let only 10 or 15 people in the house at a time. More than 10 or so is hard to handle because everyone is asking a zillion questions and people also like to just snag stuff when you are not looking. Heck, stealing this stuff would be doing me a favor. Anyway, while people are waiting the crowd is growing. By 8:45 there are about 25 people outside. They are crawling through the bushes to look through one of the front windows, they are peeking in the kitchen window asking my wife "hey, I want that clock. Put my name on it" or" I know what I can I come in early?" My wife told everyone no and get in line.
Well, I let in 10 (and started 15 minutes early) and then was being bitched at that I should let in more. One woman was like "you should let in 40. This is a big house it can hold 40" I told her "Yeah, it could hold 40 normally but there are like 10 tables all spread out loaded with stuff and all that takes up space. 10 will be a tight squeeze." I should have told her I only let in 10 because you people are scum and I want to see you squirm. It would have been the truth and it would have been funny, but I guess it would not have been nice.
Most of these vultures hovered around the jewelry. My mom had 3 types of jewelry. First, the good stuff or family stuff that was in a safe deposit box. Second, the decent stuff that she wore here and there. Lastly, there was the stuff from the jewelry shows and the Home shopping network. Well, my sister and I went through and kept the decent stuff from the house and all the stuff in the safe deposit box. What was left was the Home shopping club stuff and these people were crawling over each other to buy this stuff. Jeez!!!!!! I should have taken a picture. Other people had lists like old pocket watches and old harley stuff and stamps, coins, and guns. I had none of that, at least none I was going to sell to these people.
Along with the hard core estate folks we had to deal with the plain old cheap fuckers. Here it is, 9:30 AM and there is a line of 50 people outside and like another 10 inside and this Indian guy comes up to me asking me what my best price is on this 53" Hitachi Wide screen TV I had for sale was. I asked him what do you mean by best price? He's like what is the lowest price and I told him well, it's only been 30 minutes and ther are hordes of people waiting to get in here so my best price is the price it is marked, which is $300. He would not make an offer and was being a general dick so I told him to come back on Sunday and if it's still here, we can make a deal. The TV sold like an hour later. He came back on Sunday and was sort of bummed because it was gone. He had tried to get me down on the price of a nice leather couch and I told him no and that was also gone when he came back on Sunday. I don't have enough space to type in a story of every cheap fucker that tried to get something for nothing. I had to mention this guy because he was the most offensive and the most persistent. Not actually offering a price on anything, just walking around asking me what my lowest price was on this or that. I should have kicked his ass out.
The estate sale was Friday, Satruday, and Sunday. On Sunday, there was a table that was still not sold. It was piled with stuff that was for sale so it was probably not very visible until late Saturday or Sunday. It was an end table..... it was dark rood with a round top and a hexagonal shaped base with a cabinet inside. It was a nice piece. I think it was from Ethan Allen which is not a cheap place. I had it listed at $20. A fair deal if ever there was one. Anyway, my wife and I were thinking it may look good in our house as we have a dark wooden dining room set. About that time, these 3 russians or whatever came in and were asking about the table and trying to get it for $10. My wife told them $20 or nothing. They then went to my sister and my sister, unaware that my wife and I were thinking about taking it home, offered my sister $10 and she said let me ask my brother. Now, I saw these guys talking price with my wife but did not know they went to my sister. My sister asked me if $10 was okay and I said "We told them $20." They then said to me "How about $15" and I said "Look, it's no logner for sale. I just decided it's better to take home than to let you have for $15. It's not for sale anymore and I'd appreciate it if you leave" They sort of gave me a weird look and left. Just some more assholes trying to get something for nothing.
If you ignore the low ball fuckers just trying to get something for nothing and the people who are there at 7 AM trying to get something they can make a buck off of later, most people were nice and most of the items went to a good home. A girl about 21 or so was moving out and she bought a nice brass bead and mattress set for her new apartment. Another set of people bought soke nice bookshelves for their house. Another woman bought some bedroom furniture and a electric chair for her mother who was disabled. When I say electric chair, I do not mean execution type chair..... I mean a comfortable recliner that powered by a motor. The press of a button causes the chair to recline and then goes forward to dump you out. Great for elderly people who have trouble getting out of a chair. It belonged to one of my grandmothers sisters and my mom just used it as a regular chair. It was very expensive new just like wheelchairs and those electric beds are but, it was going to someone who needed it.
Next estate sale I have a plan. Instead of handing out numbers in sequence like 1,2,3,4..... I should hand them out randomly. Like, the first person there may get number 40 and the second person may get number 5 and the 50th person may get number 10. THAT should make for good entertainment. Some asswipe lines up at 6:45 AM and gets number 400. HAHAHAHAH!!!!!!
Well, it was in the news last night. 4 US contractors (not even military people) were killed and then dragged through the streets by the very same bunch of toothless ignorant smelly vermine we are trying to make a better life for. Another 5 US military people were killed when their vehicle was bombed.
Personally, with the gas priced being so high and OPEC not producing, our economic recovery will not happen. Couple this with the constant shenanagins going on in Iraq and I think we have only one alternative:
Nuke the place and pull out the oil.
Seriously..... this city of Faluja or whatever this happened in? Shit happens there all the time. It's time to level that place. Perform some complete genocide on the area and make an example of what happens when you dick with us. After all, we are trying to help these assholes out but there is that select groupd of Iraqi's who just don't want us there. It's like roaches in your kitchen. Maybe only 3 or 4 crawl across your floor and the other 100 hide in the walls. You don't screw around by trying to catch and kill those 3 or 4.... you bug bomb the whole kitchen and kill them all.... Good, Bad, and otherwise.
Next, regarding oil production, I hear our President is putting pressure on OPEC to increase production. I do not think they are using the right type of pressue. My idea of pressue is to park a few aircraft carriers off the coast of Saudi Arabia and see how fast those assholes can make oil. The Saudi's are back stabbing lying sacks of shit and I would put them tops on the next place to wreak havoc on.