Is there anything you DON’T sell, Matt?

Yup.
You bet your sweet bippy that there are things in the estates we liquidate that we just don’t sell and, well, WON’T sell.

First off, we don’t sell food. (Selling food carries high liability; furthermore, we don’t have a grocer’s license.)

We also don’t sell liquor. (That’s a given, and no one wants to tangle with the A.B.L.E. Commission.)

We don’t sell pornography. (Although, that last bit said, we do occasionally sell erotica. I make an Oliver Wendell Holmes judgment call in those cases. I never forget that we’re smack dab in the buckle of the Bible Belt and — everything else aside — I’d rather not offend the sensibilities of a good chunk of my loyal customers just so I can make the paltry commission that a couple of boxes full of wrinkled old Penthouse magazines might bring.)

As a general rule, we no longer sell household chemicals. (Yes, we used to. But no longer.) Rather, we give these items away to the public on sale mornings before the doors open ON THE CONDITION THAT no food products nor household chemicals be brought into the sale in question. (It’s simply not worth someone spilling a bottle of bleach, nor getting a nasty chemical burn, or whatever. It’s just not worth the tiny bit of revenue raised for both the client and the liquidator alike. Trust me.)

Most magazines go directly into the bin, as they have little to no value. Also, it’s a given that most encyclopedia sets, common textbooks, and Reader’s Digest Condensed Books find their new homes in landfills. (Even charities such as Friends of the Oklahoma City Library won’t take these singularly unsalable things after the sale. Sorry. Facts are facts, folks.) Naturally, though, we DO recycle whatever we can.

We don’t sell medical equipment; we donate it to a local hospice. (You want those Sani-Pads, that hospital bed, or those cases full of new colostomy bags? Knock yourself out, kiddo. They’re all yours.)

We don’t sell anything that’s illegal to sell, whether on the state or Federal level. (Examples include, but are not limited to automatic weapons, elephant ivory over the newly established de minimis exceptions, certain game trophies prohibited from sale by Oklahoma law, et cetera.)

We skirt Oklahoma law on used bedding (it’s illegal here to sell used bedding that hasn’t been re-conditioned) by allowing customers to take the mattresses and box springs (should they want them) that match headboards or footboards or frames they’ve already purchased.

We don’t sell items that are in flagrantly bad taste. (For example, we helped P.E.L. prep a sale in NW OKC’s Rock Knoll neighborhood a few years back. The client was from Monroe, Louisiana, and possessed a child’s Ku Klux Klan robe from the turn of the last century. We opted to broker the — admittedly valuable but patently tasteless — item through a high end auction house in New Orleans, and thus avoid offending a great many (if not most!) of our patrons. Again, sometimes it’s just a judgment call we have to make, and on a case by case basis.)

We don’t sell used lingerie, nor underwear of any kind. (It’s nasty; it’s illegal in Oklahoma. Oh, and it’s in insanely poor taste to sell such items.)

So yes.
I think I covered all the bases, but I may have missed one or two minor things along the way.

Naturally, we’re happy to put back items that we won’t sell so that you may dispose of them as you see fit; we have “no dog in the fight” when it comes to, well, crap we won’t sell. All we ask is that you, the client, promptly pick up the dross we put back for you in the “don’t sell but don’t throw away” pile.

I hope this little blog entry has been of assistance.

Check out the “Upcoming Sales” page here on EdmondEstateSales.com and see what we and our friends ARE selling!

3 Comments

  1. Jody on August 17, 2016 at 12:08 pm

    Made me laugh as usual — about the Klan robe and the lingerie.

  2. Our next sale will be in Fairview Farm. After Fairview Farm? A beautiful sale in the heart of Nichols Hills, then a MASSIVE sale moved out of Gaillardia and into a NW OKC commercial venue.

    In the meantime, it’s our pleasure to tell you about estate sales and auctions conducted by friends. (See details now posted on the “Upcoming Sales” page of EdmondEstateSales.com.)

    Feel free, too, to check out our latest blog entry.

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