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Showing entries for Category: estate-buys
Weird Wednesday with Wally - The occupational hazards of an auctioneer
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If your spooked easy, estate cleanouts are not for you.
Don't get me wrong, I love my job, I mean I really love my job and liquidating an estate is usually the exciting part of it part of it. That said, it can be a little weird. Usually these liquidations take you into a deserted home that is still very thick with the presence of it's former occupant(s).
If your one to believe in ghosts and are sensitive to such entities, this is as good a place as any to encounter one. I'm not such a person, but on the other hand, there have been some unexplained things that have happened to me in houses that leave me with a somewhat open mind on the subject.
On one particular occasion, I had allowed a dealer friend early preview as she was not able to be present on the day of the auction. She wanted to inspect the offerings and possibly leave a few absentee bids. When she walked in the house she she said "oh, the former owner died here, in this room". At the time we were in the type of room that used to be referred to as the parlour. I told her that she was wrong, the owner had passed in a nursing home. "Are you sure, she asked". "Yes", I answered, "at least that's what I was told that by the executor". My friend murmured something like, "I can't believe that", and no more was said about it.
The next day the realtor of the property stopped by to see how the process was going. I asked if the owner had died in a nursing home, saying that's the story I had, "yes, that's right why do you ask" she replied.
I told her what my friend had said the day before and her face almost hit the floor. "Walt", the realtor told me, "that is so weird, the woman wanted an old fashioned wake". I knew immediately what she meant and said, "she was waked in this parlour, wasn't she". "Yes", said the realtor.
Holding a wake in the home for the deceased was the usual in the Victorian era, but some folks still keep this tradition today. I'd told my friend how close she was and she acted like it was no big deal. "I get feelings like that all the time she said".
Obsessive collecting can be good or bad, here's the bad
In my line of business you can't leave any stone unturned. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it's the breath that estate liquidators breath.
Searching crawl spaces, a love/ hate thing
You have to check everywhere because you just never know where people will hide things. Crawl spaces are the best,... or the worst. You can find a cache of old coins, diaries, early photo albums, or a family secret that is better left unmentioned.
Yeah, it's an unusual job at times, but I'm never bored and I wouldn't trade it for anything!
Thanks for reading.
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Topics: antiques , liquidation , Weird Wednesday , buying for resale , estate buys , high end items
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