I chose Perkins to manage my mom's estate sale based on a good BBB rating, professional website,…read morethe caring nature of owner Gayle Wells, and because they'd been around since the 1940s. Despite that, they ran my mom's estate into the ground. Hopefully I can save YOU the same heartache and frustration that I've experienced.
I even gladly paid an extra 10% due to the quantity of stuff in my mom's house, so they got 40% of the proceeds. Overall the stuff wasn't particularly dirty, just dusty from storage.
I'll list the issues roughly in order of when they happened, but the first one is first because it's so egregious. If you don't want to wade through the details, the summary is: RUN AWAY AND DON'T LOOK BACK.
-- Part of the sale was an expensive sports car. A relative was there on the first day of the sale, and overheard Gayle on the phone with an employee. Gayle was angry, telling him to bring the car back, it could be damaged, and he shouldn't have taken it to lunch. My relative alerted me and I called Gayle. Gayle outright lied. I asked how the car was, and she said fine. I asked if I got there in a few minutes would it be there; deer in headlights, then she said it was on a test drive. But it should be back in a few minutes, right? After hesitating again, she said that it was actually on a test drive in a city that's ALMOST 40 MILES FROM THE ESTATE SALE. Finally I told her I knew it was taken out for lunch, and she made up a story about her employee taking it to SHOW someone in another town, and that he then went to lunch in it. Note, the car was never supposed to leave the property except for supervised test drives.
-- Her employee also took the car to CarMax without my consent, ruining my chance to clean up and assess the car before taking it there, resulting in a lower valuation.
-- Gayle promised nothing except obvious garbage would be thrown out before I could see it. We agreed that no one except survivors knows what may have sentimental value. But during sale prep, anything even slightly imperfect was tied up in trash bags and set aside for me to figure out how to dispose of it. Examples include a heavy glass relish tray that had a tiny chip; ladies shoes where the inside lining had loosened; books; medical equipment, new in boxes; who knows what else?
-- After I spent days organizing a MASSIVE amount of jewelry, pairing earrings, putting sets together, etc, the appraiser seems to have literally dumped all the sorted containers onto the couch, then dumped the costume jewelry into a huge bin for buyers to sift thru. I believe this for 2 reasons. Only hours after the sale started, I found that many earrings were missing their mates (they said buyers will carry an item away and set it somewhere else ... a), I call BS, and b), aren't you supposed to be KEEPING PEOPLE FROM DOING JUST THAT?). The other reason is that two earrings that I specifically remember sorting were later found under the sofa cushions - where the appraiser worked. Hm.
-- Neither I nor my family members ever saw a road sign advertising the sale.
-- Most items were horribly overpriced. Examples include $20 for sets of 3 or 4 plates; $6 for a half-used candle the still had its $5 price tag; $15-$25 for curtain panels. Later 3 separate people who know Gayle told me WITHOUT PROMPTING that this is normal.
-- Other items were misvalued by the appraiser. Examples include a $650 watch priced $15 and a $200 watch priced $10. Gayle even admits this.
-- Many dozens (hundreds?) of items were left uncleaned and unpriced, pushed back in closets, cupboards, under stairs, etc.
-- Many items that were priced were left uncleaned.
-- Some antique items were priced by WRITING THE PRICE DIRECTLY ON THE ITEM IN BLACK SHARPIE. Examples include a 1968 set of collectible coins and picture frames.
-- Despite promises, coat pockets were not checked (or they purposely left used tissues in 6 coat pockets).
-- Gardening pots & tools and a set of wood kitchen cabinets, was brought from the shed and left in the yard the day before the sale, despite a forecast 100% chance of rain or snow that night.
-- Those items were moved to the garage at my request, but after the sale many planters were left outside in the mud.
-- Garage was left open & unattended for hours at a time.
-- Lawnmower left sitting outside in the rain until I moved it under cover (which was less than 5 feet away).
-- A buyer shattered the screen door glass moving furniture; Perkins cleanup method was to leave glass shards in the mulch, entryway, and porch and walkway, and leave the empty frame (with glass shards sticking out all around it) in the back yard. All the glass they DID clean up was left for me in a recycle bin with holes in the bottom.
-- Despite promises, items that were new in original boxes had those boxes thrown away, greatly reducing the value of those items. This was important because most items didn't sell, so I had to try to resell and/or donate them.
