[NOTE: THIS POST IS UNFINISHED AND UNEDITED. I'M JUST TIRED OF HAVING ALL THESE "DRAFT" POSTS SITTING IN MY STACK. I HAVE A LOT OF THEM.]
I have been very impressed with the estate sale people up here (Specifically on the Washington Olympic Peninsula , Where there are a lot of of us retirees). If there is enough to make it worth their while, which there might be in my house if I were to keel over abruptly, they come through with the team, they Evaluate the value of everything, they go through and they put price tags on everything, they organize things to make it easier for people to come through and buy, they staff the estate sale. They seem to have fair prices which are somewhere between quite a bit lower than collectors prices and still just enough high that they're not being sold at junk prices.
They charge a fee To the owners of the estate, but they handle all of that and making sure that the place is emptied (or whatever it is that you want to do – – often there are one or two rooms that are closed off that have signs saying do not enter, which are presumably things that the current owners or the airs are keeping). For big enough worthwhile things, they'll run it for two or three days on sometimes consecutive weekends.
I mean, there are estate sale people like that probably everywhere. I certainly went to enough estate sales down in California that looked like they were being run the same way but I just didn't know as much about them as I do now.
One estate sale I went to about a month ago, I bought two lamps at low prices that work fine. One of them I had been looking for for quite some time but hadn't found one because the newer ones were made of junk plastic
I also bought an outside Christmas decoration that is lightweight, easy to store, simple to set up and I thought about buying over and over every year at Home Depot or whatever and never did because, ugh, more money for something to store, but the price was right and I'm very happy with it.
And, As seems to be typical with these estate sale professionals, they helped me carry the larger and heavier things out to my car.
[NOTE TO SELF: MAYBE THE REST OF THIS POST SHOULD BE A SEPARATE ONE ABOUT MUGS?]
I also bought an A&W glass mug (All still at the same estate sale) ! I don't know if any of the A&W's even have the glass mugs anymore. This mug cost me probably what a large root beer float would cost these days in a paper or plastic cup, Plus it's not just an everyday one; it's for an A&W anniversary year. Brings back such great memories. A&W in general, plus specifically the one in Cupertino that I would go to after Playing tennis with friends, or anytime for just a root beer float. And there is/one also in King city? That (At least back when I was going there often enough--1970s?) still had outdoor car service where they would bring a tray and set it on your window. Going back-and-forth between here and Los Angeles for various reasons for many years, we would stop and have root beer floats and hamburgers. Whoever I was with.
anyway, yeah I need more mugs.😁
I actually gave away quite a few before moving. I still have way more than enough; I would have to have a very large coffee party to use all of my coffee mugs at the same time, or ditto a root beer float party all at the same time.
But also I have broken three since I moved up here. Here's a downside: going online, I have been able to replace two of them!!! so, depend depending on what one breaks, yeah, there's no such thing as breaking something and it's gone🤣. Also actually one I bought at a national park the previous year, and we went there this past year again and I checked their gift shops and was able to find the same one.
I just did a crazy thing and bought one from a friend who has taken up pottery – – anything made out of clay and glazed and fired, she makes some wonderful stuff. She recently posted pictures of some mugs that she made and I just fell in love on the spot. She charges a lot. In fact the one that I originally wanted, after it had cooled for a day, turns out it had a crack in the base. So she had to make another one and gave me a slight discount on the new one because I had to wait. Probably cost twice what my latest Disneyland anniversary mug engraved with my name cost, so it's insane. Or I'm insane. Not sure which.
[NOTE TO SELF: PHOTOS FROM THAT ESTATE SALE IN NOVEMBER OR EARLY DECEMBER OF THIS YEAR? ALSO DO I HAVE A PHOTO OF THAT NEW DISNEY MUG FROM THE SEPTEMBER TRIP? ALSO DID I ALREADY POST ABOUT BREAKING SOME OF THE MUGS THAT I REALLY LIKE AND REPLACING THEM? I DO HAVE PHOTOS OF THE BROKEN MUGS SOMEWHERE.]
