Estate Sale thoughts

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  • GrumpyDad
    Established Member
    • Jul 2020
    • 163
    • Midwest
    • Ryobi BT3100, BT3000, Sawstop PCS

    Estate Sale thoughts

    Estate sales are fascinating and sad at the same time. Wandering through someones home/life is surreal. Having watched my parents transition I have a whole new respect for the sale and the items within. I attach sentiment to objects and feel that objects always have a story. That respect needs to be paid silently as you tour a sale.

    The wife and I attend a few a week and I always try to figure out who these people were. What made them tick. What were their hobbies and interests as well as vocation. Hobbies are obvious vocations can be obtuse. Clues are always found in the bookshelf or the valet on the dresser.

    Today's sale was a silver mine of tools and equipment owned by a seasoned woodworker, photographer, genealogist, amateur geologist and tinkerer. His basement setup had good workflow and he had procured some enviable heavy iron. He also had successfully and with great care made some of his tools. A homemade 6 x 48 sander (very nice dust control), a shaper (with a washing machine motor and some sort of clutch system for speeds(?)), clamping racks, assorted jigs and a paint or finish booth of sorts. I do wish i could have met him and learned a trick or 2.

    The sad portion of the (any) sale was all of the medical equipment in various rooms that told the story of the end of the couples (extensive pacific rim) travels. Also apparent was the inability to traverse the stairs to the basement where all of the pastimes and stress relieving/ rejuvenating immersion of self waited for them. My own father went from mobile to wheelchair via stroke years back and his pursuits seemed to grind to a halt. Life charges past the mortal in man.

    Having said all of thisI will thank Mr Swenson for the honor of purchasing some of his tools. Hopefully he will approve of my stewardship and the money spent will aide him and his wife in their further care.

    Harumpf!
    Grumpydad


    Last edited by GrumpyDad; 08-27-2020, 07:37 PM.
    Harumpf!
    GrumpyDad
  • capncarl
    Veteran Member
    • Jan 2007
    • 3564
    • Leesburg Georgia USA
    • SawStop CTS

    #2
    In the past my wife and I enjoyed going to estate sales. It finally became obvious that we were just looking at dead people’s stuff. After that realization we seldom visited estate sales. Lately it seems that estate sales are a collection of many estates put on by people that buy out estates, research prices and squeeze every dime out of everything.
    One of my most memorable estate sale purchase was a Craftsman lathe on a tool box style cabinet. It contained a lot of the owners metals from various schools, specialty tools and steel rules in 10th’s. I sorted out notable and personal items and stored them all in the top right hand drawer in honor of the owner. I still use the rules, but wipe the down and return them to their proper place after each use,

    Comment

    • LCHIEN
      Internet Fact Checker
      • Dec 2002
      • 20914
      • Katy, TX, USA.
      • BT3000 vintage 1999

      #3
      Yes, very sad and at the same time should be reminding you of your mortality.
      I wonder how my stuff will end up after I die, that I spend a lifetime collecting and each piece has a story for me.
      I have some of my dad's old tools, be he was not a serious woodworker.or hobbiest. I've looked at a few estate sales but I don't have anything from them - feel too much like a vulture.
      Loring in Katy, TX USA
      If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat all problems as if they were nails.
      BT3 FAQ - https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/di...sked-questions

      Comment

      • cwsmith
        Veteran Member
        • Dec 2005
        • 2737
        • NY Southern Tier, USA.
        • BT3100-1

        #4
        Just imagine, as I have, that your family will just set up two old tables in the driveway and start to fill them with the stuff that you've left behind; then, after a couple of trips in and out of the house, they will say, "Enough of this!" and those tables will be quickly replaced by a large dumpster! That's MY nightmare!

        I live in an old 1887-built house with a walk-up attic, a 2-stall garage with an 8 x 20 extension on the side, and a 12 x 20 work shed. I've got a few tools that were my father's, more from my father-in-law, and even a few from my wife's grandfather. Then there's all of my stuff, some of which I bought when I was in high-school... and ALL of it is usable and in fairly good condition. The shed is full of tools: RAS, BT3100, drill press, planer, jointer, router table, routers, drills, circular saws, and multiple pneumatic tools, two compressors, and the list goes on and on. In the garage is the portable saw, ladders, shelves, spare parts for the RAS, auto tools, 30-gal compressor, and of course some lumber, molding, a couple of furniture pieces I want to refinish, and of course my 95' Miata.

        In the house is the library which occupies two second floor rooms, and a good share of the basement. Add my camera collection, tripods, copy stand, lights, lenses, camera bags, light tables, and other graphic production tools like brushes, color gels, templates, drawing board, light pad, and film editors, etc. Then of course there's the four computers, back-up devices, and of course the video and film files with more than 3,000 35mm slides, and multiple albums or prints and negatives. I've got my illustration/drawing board tools... too many to list. Oh, and let's not forget the Ham Radio stuff, which consists of at least three HF transceivers, a couple of mobile VHF/UHF units, and a few HT's, power supplies, meters, etc. Oh, I can't forget all the HO model railroading stuff that my, soon to be 51, little boy loved when he was just seven and eight! I sold the layout, but I still have the engines, rolling stock, some rail and switch-outs, cork roadbed, and most all of the building models the two of us made together (hey, you can't get rid of stuff you and your kids made together).

        Among all of this, the attic is with stuff we've inherited from my in-laws, dishes, glasses, serving trays, and an assortment of other paraphernalia; all of which is near and dear to my wife. Also there rests the many games and assorted books and toys from our very early 'parent years'... treasures, every single one!

        Did I mention that my wife used to be a "scribe" in some past life? Oh yeah, she files everything and that is what I've been doing the last couple of months, going through it all; sorting, scanning, filing, and shredding! This past Thursday the refuse pickup took my 7th lawn waste bag filled with shredded documents. You may wonder WHAT could all that possibly be? Well did you know that on June 13, 1976, my paycheck stub said I made $446, the Fed took out $85.31 and the State $17.06 ?? Yep, every check stub was there along with every bill, Dr's appointment, vaccine, and even the receipts of stuff we purchased, no matter what we paid or where we bought it! And while it was all neatly boxed, filed, cataloged, and noted made the clean-out process sort of easy, it was still tiring to go through.

        Well that stuff is now gone, almost, I'm still sorting, scanning, and shredding. But the important thing is our son won't have to cart any of those boxes to the curb... NOW all he has to do is hit the delete key!

        So this past July, I hit 76, my knees are about worn out and I wake up exhausted! I'm working to clean out, and have come to the realization that I'll probably spend the rest of my years cleaning out stuff that I really don't have time to use anymore because I'm too busy cleaning it out! (I'm fighting that though!) Personally this has taught me that I have a really organized house... except I can't find where I left my tape measure!

        CWS
        Think it Through Before You Do!

        Comment

        • leehljp
          Just me
          • Dec 2002
          • 8429
          • Tunica, MS
          • BT3000/3100

          #5
          I need to let my wife read this thread! She thinks she is an organizer but she is just excellent at getting more stuff into less space than anyone else, and then forgetting where something is! I will have to delete this post if she does decide to read my posts, or I will live outside in the dog house!

          A good friend and I talked about this about 15 years ago, (when my mom passed away) and he brought out something interesting - After the Great Depression, followed by WWII, our parents were very frugal about wasting anything and even started purchasing things they couldn't during the depression. AS these people began to pass away in the '70s and more so in the '80s and 90's, the thrift shops, antique stores and country-side stores of collectables began to be filled with more and more object and had an over-abundance of things. That is where we are today.

          That said, I watch PAWN Stars about once a month at the most (LOML does, so I have to follow along). One day a person came in with a square glass gallon jug and top with a small churn in it (for making butter from whole milk). The pawn star guy was fascinated with it and bought it for about $200 - $300 or so. I was floored. I can go to one of the flea markets in the three state area and pick one up for $30 - $50 now. We had one that mom used when we were young - my sister has it. Lots of aunts and uncles had them too. I have one that one of my aunts used. We had some big milk churns also.

          Most of the stuff is just useless to me.

          The more stuff I own, the more that stuff owns me!


          Hank Lee

          Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted!

          Comment

          • cwsmith
            Veteran Member
            • Dec 2005
            • 2737
            • NY Southern Tier, USA.
            • BT3100-1

            #6
            Thanks GrumpyDad, but I'm in pretty good shape security wise.

            Understand, I do not store anything online, ever! No photos and especially no documents. I keep everything on at least four separate systems, stored in three places. You can't get into any of them without a password and each has it's unique password and those are documented under a code word and kept off premise (just in case I suddenly loose my memory).

            Right after high school I took an Air Force ECI course in document security and in 1965 I was a vital records clerk for a local insurance company's main office, and later worked in their data processing center. Of course those were the days of microfilm, document vault storage, and IBM punch-card data processing centers. But, the principles still apply and such things are so much easier today. I laugh when I think of Security Mutual's data center, with it's dozens of machines and workers, and then think that I have far more powerful equipment right here at my figure tips. (Two laptops, flatbed and document scanners, a 'tower' equipped with tape, 5-1/4 & 3-1/2 discs, and even a couple of Zip drives... and I have DVD-RAM capabilities also.) On top of that I have a copy stand for larger documents, photo albums, etc., as well as both mono and color laser printers; and we have the internet should we need to communicate it to anywhere.

            Lee,

            That's a nice find.

            I don't have much of anything from my side of the family, but Patty's family has been generous in their bequests of things dear to them, and now us. The first house we purchase back in 1969 was built in 1915 and had only one owner prior to our purchase. It was a nice house, though sort of worn down. The woman who owned it had passed away the year before and we bought it from her brother who was quite old. He told us that her husband and her had the house built for them especially and about two years after they moved in, he passed away. He thought it was in the 1918 pandemic, but he couldn't remember exactly.

            The house was beautiful, though small and it still had the same kitchen as when it was new. I replaced the bathroom and removed the tons of wall paper which was easy enough as it was mostly falling off anyway. Those walls were almost as smooth as glass. The woodwork was just beautiful although quite dry, as the first coats of paint in the upstairs would "alligator". So we sanded and sealed and sealed and sanded... a heck of a lot of work and that was when I started buying my first power tools. But to the point of this:

            We had one room off the back of the dining room that i turned into a den and a place for our first books. But upstairs where our infant son bedroom was I took note that the back wall lined up with the dining room back wall... so, what was above the room where the den was... and how do I access that? The back porch, off the kitchen, was notched under the common long roof, and it was there that I found a hatch. Barely noticeable because the board and bead ceiling was perfectly matched, with no external molding to reveal it's presence. So that weekend I grabbed my FIL's bigger ladder and an extension light and proceed to do some exploring. The place was stuffed. Being just 25 at the time, I didn't care much for antiques, and obviously didn't appreciate the value of any of it. We told one of Patty's uncles and he recommended an antique dealer friend of his, who frankly didn't want to bother with any of it, in fact wouldn't even take a look. So, we passed out a few things but for the most part everything else remained as it was and in 1973, I took a job with Ingersoll-Rand and we moved to Painted Post, leaving it all there to be discovered by the new owner (which I don't think they ever did).

            The one thing that we had that was of interest to someone, was about fifty 1858 blue Mason jars, three piece glass with lead tops. The husband of one of Patty's cousin's went nuts over them and wanted them. I thought why not, but not being totally ignorant, I told him that if there was any value to them, it would only be right and proper if we split the profit. (After all, they were are discovery, but he had the knowledge.) Well, a year later they moved to Florida and I never heard another word. Someone told us not long after, that those jars went for a pretty good price on the collector's market. Oh well, I hope he enjoyed them! (One of the reasons that I generally don't have a lot of faith in people's honesty; money seems to pollute the integrity of too many.)

            CWS



            Think it Through Before You Do!

            Comment

            • Carlos
              Veteran Member
              • Jan 2004
              • 1893
              • Phoenix, AZ, USA.

              #7
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