As Time Goes By Estate Sales

We attended their self-​touted «Sale of the year» in Kenosha, highlighted by Leica cameras and a ton of photography stuff. The sale was insanely over-​advertised. We drove 45 miles to get there, which was a waste of time (WAIT, I did get a quarter pickle bucket of Snap-​On, Proto, Mac and Craftsman wrenches and ratchets at a different sale for $ 15 — so not a total loss).
Back to this story. On an ice-​cold morning in November we stood in front with 50 people waiting for the doors to open. This house was across the street from Lake Michigan, and it was WINDY-​A$$ biting cold. Despite that, they opened about 15 minutes late (without an apology or explanation or any courtesy).
Fine — we’re past the line and finally inside for all the great deal, right? Wrong.
Here comes line #2. The «camera room». Another half hour wait. Hey, at least we’re inside. Waiting in line #2 we realized, everyone in front of us was leaving empty handed. RED FLAG. Once inside we found out why. Their prices were INSANE. eBay prices were much cheaper. 25%, 30%, even 40% less on some items. They reported they sold some things Friday to a clamoring crowd of photog buffs (I even heard someone say a man was in his car out front for 2 days — joking?) but if they did those people got the only fair deals to be had. If the prices were any good, the place would have looked like Walmart before a hurricane by Friday 10AM.
I checked out the rest of the house out, and while I don’t know furniture or knick-​knacks I do buy American made tools. They had just a few things, like an old Wards toolbox that would be an OK deal at $ 10. They wanted $ 28. They had a 70s Action Tools socket tray, a garage sale find for a buck you’d expect for $ 4 at an estate sale. They wanted $ 9. Ridiculous. And NO negotiating.
More examples than I care to recount, but I would say that if you want to use them for an estate sale you better be sure they price things to sell because there were 100+ people at that sale with us Saturday and I think I saw 5 or 6 people buy something. And that was mostly books. If you want to attend one of their sales, be sure it’s VERY close to home and you have nothing better to do.
Sorry to have to leave a negative review as the first review of this co. but that is how it goes. People seemed nice but that’s it. They get an extra star for that.

I attended As Time Goes By Sale of the year and was disappointed. They left us out shivering in the cold waiting to get in and of course they were late opening the doors. I went there for the camera equipment advertised and when I found the camera room there was another list to get in. Although I had to wait about 30 minutes I did appreciate the ability to shop around for camera gear without 15 people hovering over me. This is the only reason I did not give them 1 star.
Unfortunately prices were a joke. I saw a used Canon t3i with 18 – 55, online refurb price is $ 360 but they were asking $ 475. That was just one example. Most prices were at or above prices available on the net. They also offered 25% off the gear on the last day. More than likely because most did not sell to begin with.
Negotiating the prices was not allowed but they did allow a blind bid that was to be opened by Saturday night. The catch was all prices had to be within 25% of asking because they were going to take 25% off anyway on Sunday.
I can bid on ebay without all the traveling and I could get better prices since most prices were more than 25% over valued.
Thanks for wasting my time. I will be warning other photographers on the photography forums to avoid your auctions.