Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

Michaell

Mr_Shiftright said:

Michaell said:

Shifty - she’s as stubborn as they come. Unless the winds shift 180 degrees, I don’t think her house is in danger. 

Generally if she gets an advisory evac, she is at some risk. If she refuses a mandatory, she's asking for trouble. She might also consider the possibility of being trapped in a last minute panic.

I'll need to study the maps a little closer to figure out which applies to her.

Thanks for the advice - I'll do my best to get it passed along to her.

I know roads are getting closed, so if she doesn't go soon, I'm not sure there is any way out.

Michaell

roadburner said:

The latest episode of the RB Election Saga...
I'm definitely running; the appointee has made several unforced errors- the biggest of which was firing the extremely popular office manager who had worked in that office for 25 years- and she was just 9 months away from retirement. The lady has a huge network of family and friends, who will all work like crazy for me.
To make things crazier, the mayor of the city I live in called me today and asked me if I'd consider the job of city attorney. I'm probably going to accept the job and resign from my current job. It won't be as much fun, but it's also part-time, pays double what I'm making now, lets me work out of my home, and won't require working weekends or holidays. I'm waiting on a quote on malpractice insurance and if it's reasonable I'll be taking over the job my father held back in the 1960s...

Let me make sure I understand this ....

1. You're retiring as a BMW Genius
2. You're likely to sign on as city attorney where you live .... and ....
3. You're going to run for the office you weren't selected for, but have a tremendous amount of support in the community to hold

You go, rb!

stickguy

I want to retire to do less, not more! Though RB has much more interesting jobs to pick from than I do...

driver100

Just to start you off on a Thursday, here is a unique idea;

driver100

Michaell said:

roadburner said:

The latest episode of the RB Election Saga...
I'm definitely running; the appointee has made several unforced errors- the biggest of which was firing the extremely popular office manager who had worked in that office for 25 years- and she was just 9 months away from retirement. The lady has a huge network of family and friends, who will all work like crazy for me.
To make things crazier, the mayor of the city I live in called me today and asked me if I'd consider the job of city attorney. I'm probably going to accept the job and resign from my current job. It won't be as much fun, but it's also part-time, pays double what I'm making now, lets me work out of my home, and won't require working weekends or holidays. I'm waiting on a quote on malpractice insurance and if it's reasonable I'll be taking over the job my father held back in the 1960s...

Let me make sure I understand this ....

1. You're retiring as a BMW Genius
2. You're likely to sign on as city attorney where you live .... and ....
3. You're going to run for the office you weren't selected for, but have a tremendous amount of support in the community to hold

You go, rb!

Thanks for the update Michaell, I was losing track.

Good luck RB in whichever career move you make!

imidazol97

Adds meaning to the term "tailgating."

ab348

Highest and best use of most such oversized rear wings.

graphicguy

roadburner said:

The latest episode of the RB Election Saga...
I'm definitely running; the appointee has made several unforced errors- the biggest of which was firing the extremely popular office manager who had worked in that office for 25 years- and she was just 9 months away from retirement. The lady has a huge network of family and friends, who will all work like crazy for me.
To make things crazier, the mayor of the city I live in called me today and asked me if I'd consider the job of city attorney. I'm probably going to accept the job and resign from my current job. It won't be as much fun, but it's also part-time, pays double what I'm making now, lets me work out of my home, and won't require working weekends or holidays. I'm waiting on a quote on malpractice insurance and if it's reasonable I'll be taking over the job my father held back in the 1960s...

WOW. How cool is that? Happy for you RB. Sounds like lemons are turning into lemonade. Do you need my vote? I can send it to you for a small favor.....;)

graphicguy

oldfarmer50 said:

jmonroe said:

mer50" rel="nofollow">oldfar mer50 said:

abacomike said:

I ordered a large poinsietta to be delivered by Avas flowers this past Sunday for delivery in LaQuinta CA this past Monday.  I received an email stating the poinsietta was delivered at 4:30 PM PST.  

The next day (Tuesday) I had not heard from my son’s SO, which surprised me - she always acknowledges gifts and flowers I send her.  So I called her and she said she never got a deliver of a poinsietta plant.  This was at 5:30 PM EST yesterday.  She said she never got a phone call to schedule a delivery like I told Avas Flowers.

So I called them wanting to know why they sent me an email that the delivery was, in fact, completed as required, and that my don’s Significant other still has not received the poinsietta.  I further told them that she was home all day Monday and Tuesday.  Their response was that they needed to contact the florist in CA to find out what happened.  I said I wanted a refund and I told them to cancel the order.  They refused stating the would look into it.

So I called AMEX and had the $90 charge reversed.  I again called Avas Flowers (they are like FTD) and told them I refuse to pay for something I never received - in this case an order to deliver a poinsietta on Monday.  I informed them I had AMEX reverse the charge and that they lost me as a customer.

I subsequently found out that florists frequently send the floral company confirmation of delivery before the delivery is made in order to collect the funds due for an order quickly.

So last night I contacted a florist in Palm Desert directly and ordered the poinsietta plant for delivery today and sent my son’s SO the name of the florist and their phone number.  I ended up getting a poinsietta twice the size of the one previously ordered at the same price and did not have to pay the expensive fees.

What I’ve learned from this experience is that online florists are undependable and frequently lie about deliveries and that I will contact s local florist directly when I send flowers or plants.  It was a pathetic experience with this company.  

I once ordered a display of fresh flower through one of those services and the recipient was given plastic flowers.

That's what happens when you buy flowers via CL.

jmonroe

My gosh, this was before CL or even computers.

Speaking of CL, if you had $20k to throw away, which would you take:



https://westernmass.craigslist.org/ctd/d/1965-cadillac-deville/6398327774.html



https://hudsonvalley.craigslist.org/cto/d/1965-pontiac-gto/6363056939.html

I like that GTO. But that’s a whole lot of work that needs to be done to get it right.....swap motors (and hope the 389 actually runs). Swap the automatic for the original manual. Probably won’t be numbers matching at that point.

Whole lot of money and work for something that has so many question marks.

graphicguy

Mentioned looking at new TVs for my son. Went to Best Buy last night. While the OLEDs haven’t dropped much since I bought mine over a year ago, the other TVs have become much better and dropped in price.

Pretty good time to buy one. I’ve never seen such an array of really good TVs with excellent pics and all the online goodies for such low prices.

Observations....Sony, Samsung and LG seem to be the ones that are vying for top honors. Sony has their own OLED (that they get from LG), but even those a step down from OLED are quite good. He liked the Vizio, but it did not have its own tuner. So, that was a non-starter for him.

Didn’t know SHarp was still in the biz. But, saw a few of those at Best Buy. Thinking someone bought the rights to Sharp and is now slapping the name on some (mediocre) TVs made by someone else.

All the rest seemed 2nd or 3rd tier for picture quality....Insignia (Best Buy’s house brand), Westinghouse (who knows where these are coming from, but they don’t look very good)...and some others on the periphery.

Right now, he’s leaning towards a Sony 900 series. But, we went to Costco, and they didn’t have that TV. So, he’s also looking at their Samsung 8xxx series from Costco, too.

Both are around $1,500 for 65”

Still, makes me wonder if plasmas kept being developed what they’d look like today, especially at 4K.

Side benefit, I get to spend time with my son while shopping. We usually have a quick bite before we’re hitting the stores. I’m sure I love this more than he does. But, who knows....he at least gets a free meal out of it.

Mr_Shiftright

That's why the GTO is so stupid-cheap. It's needy. You'd be better off spending another $10K and getting at least a decent driver.

graphicguy

Mr_Shiftright said:

That's why the GTO is so stupid-cheap. It's needy. You'd be better off spending another $10K and getting at least a decent driver.

No argument from me.

houdini1

suydam said:

Then they will totally be bought and paid for by large donors, and won’t care what they do because they’ll never have to live with the consequences.

You just described what is happening now !

28firefighter

graphicguy said:

Mentioned looking at new TVs for my son. Went to Best Buy last night. While the OLEDs haven’t dropped much since I bought mine over a year ago, the other TVs have become much better and dropped in price.

Pretty good time to buy one. I’ve never seen such an array of really good TVs with excellent pics and all the online goodies for such low prices.

Observations....Sony, Samsung and LG seem to be the ones that are vying for top honors. Sony has their own OLED (that they get from LG), but even those a step down from OLED are quite good. He liked the Vizio, but it did not have its own tuner. So, that was a non-starter for him.

Didn’t know SHarp was still in the biz. But, saw a few of those at Best Buy. Thinking someone bought the rights to Sharp and is now slapping the name on some (mediocre) TVs made by someone else.

All the rest seemed 2nd or 3rd tier for picture quality....Insignia (Best Buy’s house brand), Westinghouse (who knows where these are coming from, but they don’t look very good)...and some others on the periphery.

Right now, he’s leaning towards a Sony 900 series. But, we went to Costco, and they didn’t have that TV. So, he’s also looking at their Samsung 8xxx series from Costco, too.

Both are around $1,500 for 65”

Still, makes me wonder if plasmas kept being developed what they’d look like today, especially at 4K.

Side benefit, I get to spend time with my son while shopping. We usually have a quick bite before we’re hitting the stores. I’m sure I love this more than he does. But, who knows....he at least gets a free meal out of it.

I just picked up the Samsung 65" 8XXX series from Costco during their Black Friday sale for $1279. Beautiful picture and a great price.

driver100

28firefighter said:

graphicguy said:

Mentioned looking at new TVs for my son. Went to Best Buy last night. While the OLEDs haven’t dropped much since I bought mine over a year ago, the other TVs have become much better and dropped in price.

Pretty good time to buy one. I’ve never seen such an array of really good TVs with excellent pics and all the online goodies for such low prices.

Observations....Sony, Samsung and LG seem to be the ones that are vying for top honors. Sony has their own OLED (that they get from LG), but even those a step down from OLED are quite good. He liked the Vizio, but it did not have its own tuner. So, that was a non-starter for him.

Didn’t know SHarp was still in the biz. But, saw a few of those at Best Buy. Thinking someone bought the rights to Sharp and is now slapping the name on some (mediocre) TVs made by someone else.

All the rest seemed 2nd or 3rd tier for picture quality....Insignia (Best Buy’s house brand), Westinghouse (who knows where these are coming from, but they don’t look very good)...and some others on the periphery.

Right now, he’s leaning towards a Sony 900 series. But, we went to Costco, and they didn’t have that TV. So, he’s also looking at their Samsung 8xxx series from Costco, too.

Both are around $1,500 for 65”

Still, makes me wonder if plasmas kept being developed what they’d look like today, especially at 4K.

Side benefit, I get to spend time with my son while shopping. We usually have a quick bite before we’re hitting the stores. I’m sure I love this more than he does. But, who knows....he at least gets a free meal out of it.

I just picked up the Samsung 65" 8XXX series from Costco during their Black Friday sale for $1279. Beautiful picture and a great price.

That is what we have or is similar to what we have at home. Out of curiosity, how did you get it home.....not a roof rack I presume?

28firefighter

driver100 said:

28firefighter said:

graphicguy said:

Mentioned looking at new TVs for my son. Went to Best Buy last night. While the OLEDs haven’t dropped much since I bought mine over a year ago, the other TVs have become much better and dropped in price.

Pretty good time to buy one. I’ve never seen such an array of really good TVs with excellent pics and all the online goodies for such low prices.

Observations....Sony, Samsung and LG seem to be the ones that are vying for top honors. Sony has their own OLED (that they get from LG), but even those a step down from OLED are quite good. He liked the Vizio, but it did not have its own tuner. So, that was a non-starter for him.

Didn’t know SHarp was still in the biz. But, saw a few of those at Best Buy. Thinking someone bought the rights to Sharp and is now slapping the name on some (mediocre) TVs made by someone else.

All the rest seemed 2nd or 3rd tier for picture quality....Insignia (Best Buy’s house brand), Westinghouse (who knows where these are coming from, but they don’t look very good)...and some others on the periphery.

Right now, he’s leaning towards a Sony 900 series. But, we went to Costco, and they didn’t have that TV. So, he’s also looking at their Samsung 8xxx series from Costco, too.

Both are around $1,500 for 65”

Still, makes me wonder if plasmas kept being developed what they’d look like today, especially at 4K.

Side benefit, I get to spend time with my son while shopping. We usually have a quick bite before we’re hitting the stores. I’m sure I love this more than he does. But, who knows....he at least gets a free meal out of it.

I just picked up the Samsung 65" 8XXX series from Costco during their Black Friday sale for $1279. Beautiful picture and a great price.

That is what we have or is similar to what we have at home. Out of curiosity, how did you get it home.....not a roof rack I presume?

My sister-in-law's Jeep Grand Cherokee. Folded down the rear seats and laid it flat.

pensfan83

I bit the bullet and reupped the satellite radio today. I invite you all to say "I told you so" in 6 months if I am pulling my hair out dealing with their you know what.

driver100

We took the GLK. Two Costco employees helped me take off the box and helped load the TV into the car. It wouldn't fit in the box.

That reminds me of another thing....we are ordering so much from Amazon that every day it seems I am cutting up boxes and putting them into our recycle bin. What gets me is they send this tiny item, like a bottle of sunscreen (we have to use that down here btw) and they put it in a 1 ft X 2 ft box.

driver100

pensfan83 said:

I bit the bullet and reupped the satellite radio today. I invite you all to say "I told you so" in 6 months if I am pulling my hair out dealing with their you know what.

Just be sure to call them one week before the expiry date....note the time and person you talked to....record is even better. I found they gave in fairly quickly if you demand the same rate....I wonder what percentage just go along with their automatic renewal?

Michaell

driver100 said:

We took the GLK. Two Costco employees helped me take off the box and helped load the TV into the car. It wouldn't fit in the box.

That reminds me of another thing....we are ordering so much from Amazon that every day it seems I am cutting up boxes and putting them into our recycle bin. What gets me is they send this tiny item, like a bottle of sunscreen (we have to use that down here btw) and they put it in a 1 ft X 2 ft box.

The last three mornings, we've had a package from Amazon (delivered by USPS) dropped off at 7:30AM.

And, like you, I find myself stuffing our recycle bin with broken down cardboard boxes.

stickguy

you guys are lucky. My wife believes that every box needs to be saved, because, you might need 75 some day, and have to have every size imaginable, just in case. I might have to dig out a bigger basement just for the empty box collection.

imidazol97

The charge for a return to Amazon Prime members has been talked about. Another item that I noticed on Ebay is a seller listed a $5.99 shipping charge along with a bid price to be determined. BUT in the text down in the description, the seller made clear they would add $.99 as a document fee, errr, I mean, materials and handling charge. In my opinion that's just packing, no pun intended, extra charges on for the shipping under the pretense of materials and work for packing and taking the item to the shipper.

I dug through Ebay's website and found they approve that now. They do want reports of excessive shipping charges to be reported. I had such a rough time trying to report a non-shipped order, I doubt I would try.

tbirdmarco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EIbd_1otkqE

tbirdmarco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufv7UfyAWWY

tbirdmarco

@roadburner wow congrads on everything! still do come in hear when you can tho!

tbirdmarco

@driver100 nice nice good way to start off the day!

tbirdmarco

@graphicguy glad you got to spend quality time with your sun!

roadburner

Marcothecarguy1986 said:

@roadburner wow congrads on everything! still do come in hear when you can tho!

I'll probably have some time with just the city attorney gig; if/when I get the Commonwealth Attorney positin I'll have a LOT more on my plate.

tjc78

20 boxes from online shopping hit the curb this morning.... we are all in this together....

cdnpinhead

stickguy said:

you guys are lucky. My wife believes that every box needs to be saved, because, you might need 75 some day, and have to have every size imaginable, just in case. I might have to dig out a bigger basement just for the empty box collection.

I feel your pain, truly.

While I was growing up our family moved every 2-3 years, and we were limited to 4000 lbs that the company would pay for. As a result, there was much "thinning" that took place before each move. The expression "three moves is as good as a fire" was a way of life. Well, that's what I got used to and it's nothing like how I live now -- my wife is a borderline hoarder. Some days I pray for the fire.

driver100

roadburner said:

Marcothecarguy1986 said:

@roadburner wow congrads on everything! still do come in hear when you can tho!

I'll probably have some time with just the city attorney gig; if/when I get the Commonwealth Attorney positin I'll have a LOT more on my plate.

The important thing is....can you fix tickets for us?

stickguy

one of the reasons I want to move (besides slashing my property tax bill!) is that it will force a good clean out of the house. Probably a few fights with the wife along the way, but that's life! If we don't do it, someday the kids are just going to dumpsterize everything.

driver100

cdnpinhead said:

stickguy said:

you guys are lucky. My wife believes that every box needs to be saved, because, you might need 75 some day, and have to have every size imaginable, just in case. I might have to dig out a bigger basement just for the empty box collection.

I feel your pain, truly.

While I was growing up our family moved every 2-3 years, and we were limited to 4000 lbs that the company would pay for. As a result, there was much "thinning" that took place before each move. The expression "three moves is as good as a fire" was a way of life. Well, that's what I got used to and it's nothing like how I live now -- my wife is a borderline hoarder. Some days I pray for the fire.

My wife is the opposite. If I get a new item, one item has to go. She believes in the - if you haven't used it for a year rule, if you haven't used it for a year then you don't need it, and if you did need it you wouldn't be able to find it anyway.

It isn't how I would be normally, but, I think it works, less clutter just simplifies life, and most things can be bought if you really need them.

But, saving 100 boxes because you might need one just that size one day.....now, that is never going to work.

driver100

stickguy said:

one of the reasons I want to move (besides slashing my property tax bill!) is that it will force a good clean out of the house. Probably a few fights with the wife along the way, but that's life! If we don't do it, someday the kids are just going to dumpsterize everything.

My wife was executor for two friends that died...they were hoarders. The stairs going up had junk on every step...just enough room for your one foot on each step. To get to the bed they had a small path through the junk. In the room over the garage there were sewing machines from the 30s, original empty Coke bottles, cans of oil from the 1930s, ancient lamps.

It took one huge dumpster and one smaller one to get rid of stuff, and that was with a dealer taking away about 20% of it. btw, don't bother saving antique furniture, crystal or silverware....no one wants it anymore.

stickguy

we learned that a few years back when my mom passed away, and my dad decided to sell the house and move to a (very small) retirement apartment. And sold it quick, with a fast close date, before we had a chance to deal with the stuff (and they had been in there 60 years). Fun times, considering I was 2 hours away, my sister who spoke to us was 5, and my other sister (who didn't speak) was 3.

the nice auction guy supplied the hard lesson about all the china, collectibles, etc. that no one wanted (not even goodwill). And a lot of it was stuff that had come from my Grandmother 20 years earlier, that they could have sold at the time. Oh well. live and learn.

our stuff is not valuable though, more like "family heirlooms".

Mr_Shiftright

Some antique furniture can be worth money, but it has to be well-known (builder's name) and in a style popular today--like Mission style for instance.

fintail

Silverware is always worth something, if sterling - but if it isn't a nice pattern, to the smelter it will go. Sets of china, carnival glass, heavy Victorian furniture, 20th century recreations of colonial furniture, yeah, good luck. A lot of stuff was worth more 25 years ago.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

stickguy said:

one of the reasons I want to move (besides slashing my property tax bill!) is that it will force a good clean out of the house. Probably a few fights with the wife along the way, but that's life! If we don't do it, someday the kids are just going to dumpsterize everything.

My wife was executor for two friends that died...they were hoarders. The stairs going up had junk on every step...just enough room for your one foot on each step. To get to the bed they had a small path through the junk. In the room over the garage there were sewing machines from the 30s, original empty Coke bottles, cans of oil from the 1930s, ancient lamps.

It took one huge dumpster and one smaller one to get rid of stuff, and that was with a dealer taking away about 20% of it. btw, don't bother saving antique furniture, crystal or silverware....no one wants it anymore.

If you watch American Pickers you'd know that every item you mentioned is a valuable collectible. If you dumped them you probably threw away thousands of $$$$$.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

we learned that a few years back when my mom passed away, and my dad decided to sell the house and move to a (very small) retirement apartment. And sold it quick, with a fast close date, before we had a chance to deal with the stuff (and they had been in there 60 years). Fun times, considering I was 2 hours away, my sister who spoke to us was 5, and my other sister (who didn't speak) was 3.

the nice auction guy supplied the hard lesson about all the china, collectibles, etc. that no one wanted (not even goodwill). And a lot of it was stuff that had come from my Grandmother 20 years earlier, that they could have sold at the time. Oh well. live and learn.

our stuff is not valuable though, more like "family heirlooms".

Would you have believed a car salesman who told you that about your trade?

oldfarmer50

fintail said:

Silverware is always worth something, if sterling - but if it isn't a nice pattern, to the smelter it will go. Sets of china, carnival glass, heavy Victorian furniture, 20th century recreations of colonial furniture, yeah, good luck. A lot of stuff was worth more 25 years ago.

They rerun old episodes of Antiques Roadshow on PBS. A lot of the stuff that was worth a lot 15-20 years ago is worth half today. But an old painting sold for $450 million.

Michaell

My MIL passed away about 6 weeks ago. She'd been living in her house for 40 years, give or take. She wasn't a hoarder, but there are a lot of "treasures" (her words) here and there.

Problem is, she was a chain smoker, so I'd guess that everything in that house reeks.

My sister in law is in charge of dealing with everything (my wife took care of her dad's estate), so we'll answer a few questions here and there, and wait for a check when the house is sold.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

stickguy said:

one of the reasons I want to move (besides slashing my property tax bill!) is that it will force a good clean out of the house. Probably a few fights with the wife along the way, but that's life! If we don't do it, someday the kids are just going to dumpsterize everything.

My wife was executor for two friends that died...they were hoarders. The stairs going up had junk on every step...just enough room for your one foot on each step. To get to the bed they had a small path through the junk. In the room over the garage there were sewing machines from the 30s, original empty Coke bottles, cans of oil from the 1930s, ancient lamps.

It took one huge dumpster and one smaller one to get rid of stuff, and that was with a dealer taking away about 20% of it. btw, don't bother saving antique furniture, crystal or silverware....no one wants it anymore.

If you watch American Pickers you'd know that every item you mentioned is a valuable collectible. If you dumped them you probably threw away thousands of $$$$$.

You would have to have buyers who really know what they can resell.

I would advise against getting rid of furniture through an auction, unless you are desperate and don't care. In the case of these two friends who died, an auctioneer came, appraised the furniture at about $25000...there was a pine cabinet and chairs etc. appraised at $3000 approx. Most things sold for 10% of the value, then he got 20% or something. I asked him what happens if an item doesn't sell. His answer was don't worry, everything sells. Everything sells because if it isn't of much interest he sells it for $1. Thing is, once they have it they couldn't care less...they just want their commission.

Most of the buyers had little shops or sell online....and they are very particular.

The best selling items were old toys!

driver100

Michaell said:

My MIL passed away about 6 weeks ago. She'd been living in her house for 40 years, give or take. She wasn't a hoarder, but there are a lot of "treasures" (her words) here and there.

Problem is, she was a chain smoker, so I'd guess that everything in that house reeks.

My sister in law is in charge of dealing with everything (my wife took care of her dad's estate), so we'll answer a few questions here and there, and wait for a check when the house is sold.

Since our experience in dealing with an estate and a will I have heard a lot of horror stories about relatives and wills. As our lawyer who drew up our will said....the vultures move in. A will can cause a lot of destruction in family relationships. We have been fortunate so far, my wife has a brother and my brother in my family have been extremely honest and fair.....but, I get the impression that may be an exception.

Michaell

driver100 said:

Michaell said:

My MIL passed away about 6 weeks ago. She'd been living in her house for 40 years, give or take. She wasn't a hoarder, but there are a lot of "treasures" (her words) here and there.

Problem is, she was a chain smoker, so I'd guess that everything in that house reeks.

My sister in law is in charge of dealing with everything (my wife took care of her dad's estate), so we'll answer a few questions here and there, and wait for a check when the house is sold.

Since our experience in dealing with an estate and a will I have heard a lot of horror stories about relatives and wills. As our lawyer who drew up our will said....the vultures move in. A will can cause a lot of destruction in family relationships. We have been fortunate so far, my wife has a brother and my brother in my family have been extremely honest and fair.....but, I get the impression that may be an exception.

There's only the two siblings, so it won't be that complicated... or contentious. My SIL got the car, a 20 year old Grand Cherokee with massive hail damage but low miles. There isn't anything at the house my wife wants, so it's a matter of selling, donating or throwing away everything at the house and then selling it. SIL thinks it's better to wait until spring. Whatever.

ab348

At least the family is still involved. After my Mom passed away, my dad got involved with a woman he had known years before in the real estate biz. They were never married but lived together for a few years. When he died I'm sure there must have been a will, but none of us ever saw it or got asked to attend the reading. She just took whatever he had.

graphicguy

28firefighter said:

graphicguy said:

Mentioned looking at new TVs for my son. Went to Best Buy last night. While the OLEDs haven’t dropped much since I bought mine over a year ago, the other TVs have become much better and dropped in price.

Pretty good time to buy one. I’ve never seen such an array of really good TVs with excellent pics and all the online goodies for such low prices.

Observations....Sony, Samsung and LG seem to be the ones that are vying for top honors. Sony has their own OLED (that they get from LG), but even those a step down from OLED are quite good. He liked the Vizio, but it did not have its own tuner. So, that was a non-starter for him.

Didn’t know SHarp was still in the biz. But, saw a few of those at Best Buy. Thinking someone bought the rights to Sharp and is now slapping the name on some (mediocre) TVs made by someone else.

All the rest seemed 2nd or 3rd tier for picture quality....Insignia (Best Buy’s house brand), Westinghouse (who knows where these are coming from, but they don’t look very good)...and some others on the periphery.

Right now, he’s leaning towards a Sony 900 series. But, we went to Costco, and they didn’t have that TV. So, he’s also looking at their Samsung 8xxx series from Costco, too.

Both are around $1,500 for 65”

Still, makes me wonder if plasmas kept being developed what they’d look like today, especially at 4K.

Side benefit, I get to spend time with my son while shopping. We usually have a quick bite before we’re hitting the stores. I’m sure I love this more than he does. But, who knows....he at least gets a free meal out of it.

I just picked up the Samsung 65" 8XXX series from Costco during their Black Friday sale for $1279. Beautiful picture and a great price.

Thanks 28FF. We looked at those again last night. I liked it. My son seems to be stuck on the Sony X900E. His money. His choice. The other issue, there’s no way the Costco TV would fit in my TLX and definitely not in his GTI.

Best Buy will deliver for free.

But, using “my” Costco card would extend the warranty at no charge on their TVs.

Decisions....decisions!

fintail

It was like that when my paternal grandmother passed - 5 daughters, and they all wanted the same stuff. My dad just stepped back and laughed, not wishing to fight over some out of fashion glassware. Apparently there were some real squabbles. That might lessen up in time, as younger people are generally more averse to clutter than boomers and older. Almost none of my friends collect anything, and some are quite minimalist.

Around here at estate sales, I have noticed there's often a lack of worry about the stuff in a house - the heirs just want it emptied to be sold. Houses here that were 20K in the 60s can be 1MM or more now.

driver100 said:

Since our experience in dealing with an estate and a will I have heard a lot of horror stories about relatives and wills. As our lawyer who drew up our will said....the vultures move in. A will can cause a lot of destruction in family relationships. We have been fortunate so far, my wife has a brother and my brother in my family have been extremely honest and fair.....but, I get the impression that may be an exception.

fintail

I've always preferred a sale over an auction - faster, and you don't have worry about shill bidders or drunks bidding you up. My parents were hobbyist antique dealers, and I attended many auctions with my dad. It seemed very time consuming, and sometimes the deals were questionable, when he'd get stuck on an item. I just want to buy it and get out of there. There's also the thrill of the hunt at a sale, getting out early, being first, finding unexpected things, etc.

Toys do very well in this market, one category that hasn't suffered so much. Vehicle toys and character toys also have global popularity, which can only help prices.

driver100 said:

I would advise against getting rid of furniture through an auction, unless you are desperate and don't care. In the case of these two friends who died, an auctioneer came, appraised the furniture at about $25000...there was a pine cabinet and chairs etc. appraised at $3000 approx. Most things sold for 10% of the value, then he got 20% or something. I asked him what happens if an item doesn't sell. His answer was don't worry, everything sells. Everything sells because if it isn't of much interest he sells it for $1. Thing is, once they have it they couldn't care less...they just want their commission.

Most of the buyers had little shops or sell online....and they are very particular.

The best selling items were old toys!

tjc78

When we cleaned out my mom’s house I had our contractor get a dumpster.....

I put my foot down when it was becoming a challenge just to give stuff away.   The hardest places to clean were the shed and attic.  The big furniture went to Goodwill.  

My house is pretty loaded up between the kids stuff and the stuff my mother had to take with her.   I’ll just gradually thin it out.  

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

one of the reasons I want to move (besides slashing my property tax bill!) is that it will force a good clean out of the house. Probably a few fights with the wife along the way, but that's life! If we don't do it, someday the kids are just going to dumpsterize everything.

My wife was executor for two friends that died...they were hoarders. The stairs going up had junk on every step...just enough room for your one foot on each step. To get to the bed they had a small path through the junk. In the room over the garage there were sewing machines from the 30s, original empty Coke bottles, cans of oil from the 1930s, ancient lamps. It took one huge dumpster and one smaller one to get rid of stuff, and that was with a dealer taking away about 20% of it. btw, don't bother saving antique furniture, crystal or silverware....no one wants it anymore.

ok I am back from having a password issue so I will start back from here.  

With hoarders you have to be real careful. My grandparents were hoarders and their house was like you described. When we cleared that out we were throwing things out right and left. One item was a crappy old worthless compact. I don't know what possessed me to open it but I did and I found five two and a half dollar gold coins. You never know what is stashed away with that type of person.