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Post by Di on May 6, 2012 15:26:03 GMT -5
I have watched the hoarding shows on TV and in some cases I am appalled when they toss nice items into the bin and destroy them. However I also see many people overvaluing their belongings. I have a very dear friend who values her "antiques" when in reality only a few are actually saleable, most is just broken old furniture.
I hate waste. I wish that the shows would get in someone to value and sell if possible all the things that are being removed from a home. I know that I would have welcomed help of that nature. WE see VALUE in our belongings. We somehow need to get a realistic vision of what we have. Is THIS something that someone would want? Does THAT need to go in the rubbish bin?
Too many times people walk into the home of a hoarder and all they see is "STUFF" so in their eyes it becomes JUNK. I have gotten very critical on my own stuff. If it is not something I would buy if I had room to store it, I toss it out. But it hasn't always been that way, for years, I planned to sell this and fix and sell that.
Maybe people need to look more carefully AT our belongings, while we also gain 20/20 vision and stop seeing what it CAN be and base our decisions on what it IS now.
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Post by Sunshine on May 6, 2012 15:39:56 GMT -5
In one of my clean outs (a couple of weeks ago), I went through my jewelry (sp?) box. The stuff that was in there had been there for donkey's years, and my actual jewelry, such as it is, was strewn throughout the house. I had some old pennies in there, just things I had found when I was a kid. I got quite scared about throwing them out, because what if they were worth something? Then I decided to look up their value on the internet. They were worth about 5 cents each.  They had sat there for... 30 years?... because I mistakenly thought they might be valuable. I have kilos and kilos of my son's old Pokemon cards. For now, I'm just making sure they all go in one place. I know some of them are valuable, but I'm not sure if I have the patience to actually put them online and sell them. For now, I'm just deferring that. It's gonna be a big job. Interesting idea for a thread Di - thank you. |
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Post by ramatama on May 6, 2012 16:30:01 GMT -5
I feel the same way as Di. Have had he same experience as sunshine. I have been given some things from my father and mother that they told me were valuable, and also some things were passed on to me from other relatives. Am not sure of their real value. Have my grandfather's stamps from around 1900. Some might be worth something. It is so difficult to know. (No, our library does not carry stamps catalogues, which is weird) Then there is the story of a good friend who sold his father's stamps to a collector for a lump sum, only to find out ( through the grapevine) that a few of the stamps (each) sold for thirty to fifty times what he got, at a special auction in London. AUGH! No, I cannot travel to London for that... I would have some things to sell on ebay, but hessitate, have heard of people getting hassled for no fault of their own or cheated out, claiming things arrived broken etc. It has to do with trust. But I have lost it. I once took a porcelain statuette to a local auction house for appraisal. They told me it was worth no more than 40 Euros, then saw the same object selling for 340 Euros in a shop around the corner. The store owner did not want a second one. She wouldn't tell me what she paid for it. But when I told her what the auction house had told me mine was worth, she said: "they are crazy." huh?  I got no other comment from her. Similar thing happened with a book with 10 smallish japanese prints from 1910. It was appraised for 30 Euros 'tops' by a supposedly trustworthy man. I saw the same prints selling individually for that amount. I asked shopkeeper if he took things in commission, he said no, he was not doing that anymore. Everything takes time too. Travelling into town takes money and I was told to take someone else as a witness if I do decide to sell on commission. (A lot is done per handshake in the antiquities business, very strange, but it is so) During the normal shop hours (which are limited here) none of my friends have time. If I send a photo of the object, (did this once) to an auction house, I am told that it will cost me!! money to have it displayed in the catalogue with no guarantee of it being sold. Nevertheless, my intention is to set aside one day a month for this pursuit. (< to get money for things I don't want to keep and are probably valuable) Will keep you all posted.  |
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Post by angela on May 6, 2012 16:45:18 GMT -5
The final sticker price on many items ALSO includes the time of the seller, the overhead for a shop if that is the venue, etc.
Unless you are in the Second Hand business now or want to be as a regular pursuit, let it go. Your time is more valuable than the potential gain from gambling on finding the one stamp that might be worth 30 bucks in a pile of worthless ones.
Mail order selling has become an advanced skill pursuit. You have to be organized, systematic and responsive. Many of those folks run it like a business with a dedicated work area. If you do not run it like a business, you will drive yourself crazy by not knowing how to do things, not having supplies when you need them, etc. You will likely lose any profit you "earned" in the wasted time.
Remember, your time is the most valuable asset you have.
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Post by Di on May 6, 2012 17:23:21 GMT -5
I would like to see a show on TV where the hoard is analyzed, experts are brought in, everything is valued and the value or lack of same is explained to the hoarder, I am of course not talking about filth, that just needs to be shoveled out, but our stuff is our security blanket. We need to see exactly where we erred and how. I think that someone could profit from being taught just what is valuable and what isn't.
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Post by messymimi on May 6, 2012 17:25:48 GMT -5
Except for nice jewelry, antiques, items that belonged to my grandparents, and a couple of other things, most of my stuff i ask what someone would pay at a garage sale.
Around here, the answer is usually pennies. It isn't even worth the time of a garage sale.
messymimi
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Post by Di on May 6, 2012 17:34:29 GMT -5
And there ARE always things that are valuable to us and not to anyone else. I have "Grammy's Box" that has very old family photos and letters as well as Grammy and Grampie's wedding rings. Some of the contents are valuable in the classic sense but most are just valuable to my family as it represents our history. Actually the box itself is probably somewhat valuable as it is a handcrafted box with dovetail joints built during the arts and crafts era, but it's irreplacable to me. I have a few pieces of depression glass that belonged to my mom's family, and I have a few nice pieces of jewelry. Other than that most of mine is sentiment and sediment. (I still have problems distinguishing between those two.)
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Post by angela on May 6, 2012 18:14:38 GMT -5
Di, I agree that it would be an interesting tv show for a hoard to be analyzed for value as you say. I did a lot of selling and attempted selling with Grandpa's stash when I was cleaning up the property (the first time!)
What I have left of my own things are only valuable to me. I loe your description of the dovetail box. Sounds like a lovely thing.
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Post by einsteinsdesk on May 6, 2012 22:28:02 GMT -5
I've seen a couple of hoarder shows where they had appraisers out. One lady had PILES of designer purses, but found out only a couple were the real deal. She had spent a fortune on fakes.
Another had several storage sheds full of antique furniture, but only a few pieces were worth real money, and certainly not worth the amount she had been paying in storage for those years.
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Post by Sapphire on May 7, 2012 2:17:15 GMT -5
We recently had a series shown here with that very theme. They took everything out and set it up in a warehouse. It was for 2 reasons a) to show the hoarder just how much stuff they had, and b) to value it all. Like Einstein exampled, people's hoards are rarely worth anything near what they thought. And certainly not worth living in squalor for!
I hate waste, too, but the problem with hoarding is that you hold on to everything just because it might be worth something, or might eventually be useful, or might do someone a good turn if you could fix it/ clean it up, etc. Then the hoard just stays, and grows. I didn't make any headway in my de-squaloring until I accepted that I couldn't hold on to things for this reason. I threw out things that I know were worth money, but I had been holding on to for years with a view to one day [/i] selling them. THAT was keeping me in squalor! I was given amnesty by people on here to just throw them away. Although I sometimes feel bad about the stuff I threw out, and think how I could [/i] have cleaned it up or fixed it and either sold it or given it to a charity shop, the simple fact is I had kept those things for YEARS with that intention but never did it! So the reality was that they would have just sat for many more years being useless and worthless in my squalor!
Sometimes a hoarder just has to throw things out, valuable or not. It's a harsh lesson, but it frees us. Those possibly valuable trinkets are the locks and chains on our squalor.
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Post by Script on May 7, 2012 6:49:02 GMT -5
Everything takes time too. For the last 9 months I have been selling some old car parts on e-bay with DH. The TIME and energy and patience needed is almost unbelievable. Some things sold quickly and well; some have been a huge hassle. We have the time: fully retired. My DH and I have the energy [together] and we can afford to spend to sell [eg: buying boxes, mailing supplies]. I already have a GOOD CAMERA [$$$$] and I STILL get requests for "higher resolution" pix. We are driving to/from the post offices and UPS locations almost daily. IT IS LIKE A JOB. And..........we are not really "making money" --- just recouping what we spent collecting the parts in the first place [plus storing them for 30+ years in purpose built HEATED GARAGE.....]. I can foresee a day in the future when we have to GIVE UP, as we just cannot endure another moment of this. The E-bay and PayPal fees! The angry demanding questions from buyers! The disputes about shipping fees! AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH I certainly would not waste one more nano-second of time to sell things for a pittance. And really, any item selling for LESS than $100. is JUST NOT WORTH THE TIME. PS: we had a professional appraisal of some items: about one-half of what we thought they were worth. Talk about sticker shock............. |
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Post by Di on May 7, 2012 8:11:15 GMT -5
That's sort of the point of the thread. I think a lot of us hoard because we over value our stuff and spend WAYYYYY too much (time. effort. storage fees. inconvenience. living in squalor) because of our misconceptions.
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Post by moggyfan on May 7, 2012 8:12:30 GMT -5
I think the more important question is: What's it worth to be out of squalor and to have your house a welcoming and orderly space that brings you comfort and contentment?
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Post by fluffernut - now Jannie on May 7, 2012 8:34:37 GMT -5
Our STUFF is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. I have sold a few (very few) things on Ebay, and I think most old stuff is just old stuff. I remeber once walking thru a garage sale, spotted a pretty coffee table. it was marked $100. Heck, my parents had one just like that years ago! I asked the owner, "Would you take seventy-five?" "NO" she yelled at me, THAT"S VINTAGE! Whatever the F that means! I went away empty-handed. I hope she got stuck with the stupid table! My Mother never threw anything out. She saved our old toys and games from childhood. She pased away January 2011 and my brother is in charge of the estate. He held an estate sale last fall. I asked if any of the games sold. He said, oh yeah, I sold everything as a "lot" for $30. And Mom had always thought she was sitting on a pile of valuable antique toys!
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Post by babz25 on May 7, 2012 8:41:11 GMT -5
I am so happy I found this thread!!! This, right here, is the problem that I have!!! And, in some ways, I am much worse than any of you. I have nothing worth any money, really. I mostly have old clothes from my kids and old toys. Why am I holding on to all this stuff? I have sold some things on ebay, and although I never had a problem with a buyer, the fees from ebay and paypal eat up any profit you may see - something that sells for $ 10.00 you might see $ 5.00 from and you still have to pay for packaging and get it to the post office!! Is it really worth it or should I just donate all this stuff!!! I just have trouble getting rid of stuff that I paid good money for when it is still usable. It is not usable to me, because my kids have outgrown the toys and the clothes. But I spent good money on them and I didnt get the full use out of them. I have no problem throwing away actual junk - in other words, if I buy myself a pair of sneakers, I will wear them for 5 - 10 years until they are actually falling apart and then I will throw them away and buy new. I usually only have one pair of sneakers at a time, and I will not nor can I afford to buy any extra. However, my children have, at any given time, 5 or 6 pairs of shoes that they are able to wear and them 6 months or so later, they dont fit, but they still have use in them. Why do I see value in an old pair of childrens sneaker I probably paid $ 20.00 for and they are dirty anyway? And they dont fit my kids feet? I dont think I am even having any more kids, so I am not saving them for handmedowns (although I have not totally given up the idea of another baby, my dh has!) I am sorry to have rambled on for so long, but this thread really tackled my particular clutter problem head on. I hold on to things because I think all these things are worth money, but is that small amount of money worth me and my family being miserable. And if they are able to be put on ebay, why dont I do it? I make up a ton of excuses - I should just start selling or tossing!! Why is this so hard!??
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