Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › How NOT to sell a $15,000 Dicken's Village…
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T-Satt.
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10/15/2018 at 11:18 am #50158
So, we have had a saga for the past year regarding the sale of a Dicken’s Village collection for a person in town. We received a Facebook message in late spring of 2016 letting us know that they know of someone that wants to sell their Dicken’s Village collection…
We contacted the seller and this thing is ENORMOUS! We are talking over 300 individual pieces. Buildings, people, trees, bridges, everything. He had custom built tables with holes drilled into them to run the electrical, a RUNNING TRAIN through the village, glass for the pond, fake snow, the works.
We take the photos, make some videos (for YouTube), and put this out there at his requested price of $15,000, and we wait…and wait…and wait. We get some nibbles, one scammer, and lots of people that want us to split it up. Finally in November of 2017 we get a $5,000 offer, but they want to pay in $1,000 monthly installments. Seller says yes, so the next step begins.
We keep in touch with the buyer (in Texas) and with the seller (in Colorado) to see how this is progressing, and the final payment takes place in May of this year. Then…delivery is the issue. The buyer is asking for help to get this moved to Texas, and most companies are in the $2,500 range. Even if I do this myself, it would be about $1,800 after truck, mileage, gas, hotel, and time. So, the buyer wants to wait longer to be able to pay for the shipping. A few more months go by, and then…the buyer wants to back out.
They had some large vet bills for their horses, and now they are asking if they can cancel or if we can sell this Village for them…
So now I’m scrambling. The seller wants to get this big collection out of his house, and now the buyer wants out of the deal. After lots of phone calls, the seller doesn’t want this back, but the buyer is feeling a little better now. I help the buyer see that they are almost done with this whole thing, it is a surprise Christmas present, that we can get this done. They realize that they have more time, they are more comfortable now, want to continue with the sale, and we wait some more.
Then, we get to this week, and we are ready to seal this deal. The moving company is set to arrive on Wednesday. I have talked on the phone with them numerous times for HOURS explaining what this is. Hundreds of small boxes, totaling about 280 cubic feet, then the wood tables, table legs, etc. We had an estimate of $1,600 total now to keep the cost down for the buyer. Again, I have talked for HOURS with them on what this is to get an accurate estimate of the dimensions on this thing. It is mostly hundreds of small boxes…
I get a phone call on Wednesday from the driver. He says he has to upcharge $800 now to repackage all the small boxes into large boxes…
Not happy. I steam and say that was NOT THE DEAL! And there is NO WAY I’m going to have the buyer have this surprise on the back end of this deal. I tell the driver to give me some time to make some phone calls to the broker on this deal. He says fine, he will start packing. I said no, if you start packing anything, YOU are doing this on YOUR dime. I say again, give me an hour to figure this out. He says if he has to wait an hour, he is charging $180/hour to wait. I tell him to leave…
So, the seller is confused and worried when this is getting out of his house. I call the broker and they say that they have to have all of this in larger boxes. I’m JUST a bit ticked as this is information I could have used MONTHS AGO! So, I get the broker working on a new pickup time ASAP, and I drive to the seller’s house and pack this collection myself.
It was like playing Tetris. The seller had ALL THE ORIGINAL BOXES, THANK GOD. He had everything packed back in their original Styrofoam molded cases, and then in the outer cardboard box. So, I get the heavy duty large moving boxes we have around the house, a couple rolls of tape, a large bag of air pillows, and go to work. 5 hours (and a trip to Home Depot for MORE large boxes) later, and I have this sucker done. Small boxes puzzled together in big boxes, with air pillows to fill the space. About 12 large and extra large boxes total.
Friday…
Now pickup is planned for Friday between 9-11. I have a dentist appointment at 12. No calls, I figure I’m safe….
While in the chair, with half my face numb, I feel my butt vibrate from a phone call. Then again 10 minutes later. That just HAS to be bad news…
So, with a break in the dentist action, I ask if I can take a phone call. Sure she says. It is the seller calling, saying that they haven’t arrived yet, and he is wondering what is going on. I call the broker, and ask them to call the seller to inform him on what the status is of pick up.
Dentist finishes up his work, and then I get another call on my way out the door, still with half my face numb. It is the seller, saying there is a problem. The problem is, the truck broke down, and they can’t pick up today. I said ok, when are they picking up? He says he doesn’t know. I ask if he rescheduled with them. No, he says, he wanted to call me…
So I say OK, I will see when they can reschedule, are you available this weekend? Seller says he is out all day Saturday, but free on Sunday.
I call the broker, tell them that no one is available on Saturday, so we have to do Sunday. The broker says they say they can’t do Sunday, it has to be Saturday. If not Saturday then they would have to get a different company to pick up, so no idea when this can be done. They ask me why can’t they do Saturday. I say because NO ONE WILL BE THERE SATURDAY!
So, I tell the broker we have GOT to get this done soon, tell them to work on plan B company to pick up, and I will ask the seller if I can stay at his house on Saturday so that his thing gets done. I call the seller and he is shocked that I would sit at his house for 5 hours (yes, it was a 5 hour pickup window). I said I want this done for EVERYONE. He says fine, and I call the broker to say I’ll be there Saturday.
THEN the broker says that the driver CAN make the pick up today (Friday), or if not, he can do Sunday now that some things have moved around. They give me the driver’s number. I contact the seller, ask if he is around today to make this happen. He says it has to be done before 6, as they have a dinner party planned. I call the driver…no answer. I call again…no answer. I text the driver all the information and tell them we need to talk immediately. No answer. By 3:30 all I can picture is the driver showing up at 5:45 while the seller has guests arriving…
At 4:00 the driver calls, says his truck is pretty full, can he do this on Sunday?
For the love of all that is holy…
YES, let’s do this on Sunday morning.
So…we get a snowstorm on Sunday morning… 🙂
Luckily, it didn’t cause any issues. All packed up and on the truck, and the driver asks how I’m paying for this. Nooooo, here is the buyer’s information, contact them. As I have said a MILLION times, they are paying for this!
So that is where we sit for now. It is on the road, hopefully going to arrive in the next week or so. The amazing thing is the lack of communication on all of this. Just all around from the broker and the carrier side, there has been such a lack of communication. I have tried to get OUT of the middle of this, but had to STAY in the middle to get the job done.
So, continued good thoughts and prayers that this arrives safely for the buyer and that we can FINALLY get paid on this!
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10/15/2018 at 1:26 pm #50184
Thoughts and prayers are with you!
I sold some postcards for someone once on eBay. Postcards. easy to ship, pretty easy to list. Consignor never happy with prices (this was back in the auction days) Sold a few, gave the rest back to the consignor and told myself: never again.
I can’t imagine doing a Dickens Village like you’ve been doing.
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10/15/2018 at 1:36 pm #50186
And I constantly get asked why I won’t sell on commission! 😀
Wow, T-Satt, I admire your patience!
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10/15/2018 at 3:04 pm #50195
Yep! I think this will net out in the positive, but it has been a loooooooong journey….
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10/15/2018 at 4:44 pm #50202
Wow, This was painful even reading your story… eBay is NOT supposed to be that stressful… EVER.. 🙂 I hope it all turns out well – nothing broken – buyers and sellers happy – net positive for you.. fingers crossed…
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10/16/2018 at 9:50 am #50242
Thanks ebaymom!
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10/16/2018 at 8:18 am #50234
Wow. What an ordeal! I read this whole thing and now my palms are sweaty and I caught myself gritting my teeth. I can’t imagine going through all of that. I’ve been asked to sell some glassware by an aunt one time and I just said no thanks. If there’s one thing I don’t do well at, it’s being the middle man.
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10/16/2018 at 9:52 am #50243
Yeah Doubly, I was having flashbacks. When I was paid a LOT more money, this was a big part of my job, bird-dogging a process with multiple people, vendors, customers, etc. until it was done. It shouldn’t be that tough if people just do the job they are supposed to, or even think through what the next action should be…
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10/16/2018 at 11:53 am #50255
I’ve done a couple commission sales, but my rules are (1) the item has to be in my storage so that I can access it and ship it directly and (2) the payment comes to me and is only paid to the seller (less my comms) after 60 days, so that I don’t end up with return issues OR is paid immediately and then becomes mine free and clear if it is returned.
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10/16/2018 at 3:05 pm #50266
We are pretty similar in the commission sales we have done in the past. This was the first one we had done in years, and the opportunity was just too cool to pass up. But this thing was so huge that our normal rules would not apply!
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10/16/2018 at 3:04 pm #50265
@Amatino – and I get to decide the sale price of the item.
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10/17/2018 at 9:31 pm #50372
So, if you were to do it all over again would you have moved it/ drove it yourself to the buyer for the $1800 cost? Do some picking on the way back in the truck and call it a win?
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10/18/2018 at 9:46 am #50384
No. Would be 2.5 days for a $500 net profit on the delivery. Not worth the time and effort…
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10/19/2018 at 7:45 pm #50421
Late to the party this week. About 25 posts behind. But holy Cow! T-Satt. What a monster project. Those kind of tough projects I left behind at retirment and glad not to be involved anylonger.
We did a little remodeling after the mfg. job and boy, subs are just problematic. You can’t force them into your time schedule because they are not your employees so as independent business people [i.e. 1099’s] they can just cut there own trail. Mostly late, many times call to sluff off to another day, late agagin, start then have to leave because they are doing 3 jobs at once, the take 3 days to do what should have been a 6 to 7 hour job. Then throw in their phone time to take requests for estimates.
You sure had to have the patience of Jobe on this one. Congratulatons for getting through it, and if you could charge $180 per hour to do multiple hours of talking them through what seems to be people who have no idea of what “Project Management” software is, then where do you send your $2,5000 invoice to??? LOL 🙂
I guess you learn from this, ‘ya think!!
Mike at MDCGFA
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10/25/2018 at 1:01 pm #50735
Amen Mike…Amen!!!
🙂
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10/25/2018 at 1:09 pm #50739
T-Satt,
This looks like fun, to read!
After a listing binge, I’m running back over to hear about this, been waiting.
I bailed on my ‘resale’ little snowy Christmas village collection some years back, flipping at a shop for low profit.
Funny, I never regretted doing it. -
10/25/2018 at 1:12 pm #50741
Yeah…
We thought about doing an offer to buy this outright and list individually, but man, that would be a lot of work and he would have had to accept a $1000 offer (and he would NEVER do that).
We still list and sell these items when we can, but it is sometimes hard to get the good price. Most garage sellers want the eBay price for them, so we walk away…
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10/25/2018 at 2:02 pm #50748
oh, this is at a way wider scope than my little car full, an entirely different deal. Just read.
Once this is completely over, maybe start looking for a good local Dickens Village resale support group and talk this out for a few months. Certainly you must have been purty pugnacious at times. Justified. -
10/25/2018 at 2:17 pm #50752
Yeah…but I was trained in my old job for this. LOTS of things that I THOUGHT…but never SAID… 🙂
Resale Support Group…I like that idea in general!
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10/25/2018 at 2:20 pm #50753
My name is Tom, I’m a crazy resale guy
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10/25/2018 at 2:25 pm #50757
Hi Tom!
My name is Troy, and I’m a crazy reseller…
Working on my 30 day chip…
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10/25/2018 at 2:30 pm #50758
The thought of doing this makes my stomach hurt. I had to do a little bit of project management in my last job and I HATED it. I don’t think anyone could pay me enough to consider going back to that kind of work.
Congratulations on the sale. Goodness knows you earned every penny of your commission. -
10/25/2018 at 2:42 pm #50761
Thanks Antarestar.
One of my “superpowers” is exactly that…being a project manager. I was a bird dog to the nth degree on projects, making sure things are done, done right, and on time. VERY hard to do without being a micromanager, but I was usually able to do that.
Once, we had 159mph winds at our warehouse, lost a LOT of inventory, and the inventory that wasn’t damaged we had to insure wasn’t contaminated. The rest had to be scrapped, and since we were Just In Time inventory to our customers, we had to make sure not to shut them down (and we incur penalties).
No lost time, and $3.1M in recovery from the insurance company…and I worked my second SMonday (I went in to work on Sunday morning and went home on Monday afternoon, no sleep).
Bird dog…it’s in my blood… 🙂
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