Saturday I was at an estate sale this weekend, strewn around the basement and in a couple of open storage totes were a bunch of photo boxes, picture frames, photo albums, rolls of 8mm film, etc. None of this stuff had prices on but then a lot of other stuff clearly for sale wasn’t priced, and it wasn’t marked “Not for Sale” either. I hate to see someone’s memories sold for the value of the blank album and frames, but it happens. I wanted a new photo album and one of them had some 30 year old pictures of highway construction that I was interested in besides the normal family photos, so I brought it up with some other stuff and they sold it to me without comment.
Sunday I was back for “Half Price Day” and noticed all the media stuff was now all packed in a stack of closed storage totes in a corner with “Do Not Sell” clearly on it. So now I’m concerned I have something that would be valued by the person’s family. Am wondering if I’m overthinking this and it’s not my problem that this happened, or if I should try to return the pictures at least? The thought occured to me to mail them to the house, or the estate sale company, or maybe just go back and drop them off on the porch?
Given that you car enough to ask us, my advice go back and talk to the people. Bring everything, and be willing to give it up in exchange for a refund.
I have only run a couple of estate sale-like events as seller. But they were chaotic, with less quality prep and more making it up as we went along. The person that approved you taking that stuff for that price may not have been the only person involved. And only after that day’s sale was over did the various sellers get together, compare notes, and discover the goof one of them made.
You have a chance to fix that. Or to be told that it’s fine: you can keep all that stuff with a clear conscience. ISTM that you’ll have a happier future with either of those outcomes than with the present lingering un-dispel-able doubt.
You aren’t. Estate sales can be intensely melancholy events even if nothing is sold inadvertently. You have an opportunity to do something kind, and it will be a kindness whether or not you actually have to give the photos back.
Always try to take those opportunities, especially when they cost you nothing.
Yes, take them back and ask. But in the lot of cases no one cares. It’s like when your mother mentions that she is going to leave you when she dies the fine china set which has been passed down for generations–but you just consider it a bunch of clutter and would never use it.
I agree that you should contact them and ask if they want them back. It’s entirely possible no one wants those old pictures anymore, but who knows.
Similarly, you could take the pictures out of the albums, put them in an envelope with a note explaining what happened and drop it off at their house.
I knew a case years ago in which family photos were sold at auction without the knowledge of a family member who wanted them, and who found out too late that they’d gotten in with the items to be auctioned.
Yes, I’d try to contact the family. And if the one person you spoke to doesn’t seem to care, you might try, if you have a way, to check with other family members.
One time my parents bought a crate of very old 78-RPM records at a farm auction of an elderly deceased couple (estate sales were rare then). Why did they buy them? I don’t know; they weren’t music buffs.
A few days later, one of the adult children of the deceased couple figured out who bought the records and called my parents (it was a small town, where everyone knows each other). They asked my parents to return the records, after.refunding the price, saying they were very sentimental to the children. My parents refused for some reason, much to my dismay. The jerks.
When my parents died, these records were on their auction sale, still in the crate, but i don’t think they sold. My parents never listened to them, and we had no emotional connection to them, so if they got thrown in the trash, we didn’t really care.
So as someone who has seen this sort of thing, do the right thing and offer to bring them back.
So, I kept the actual albums and a half dozen pictures I wanted and really doubted would have sentimental value to the family- they were of the Wabasha Street Bridge being built, not the “kids with grandpa” and “vacations to Universal and the family cabin” type content of the rest of the photos.
All the other pictures I put them in a waterproof envelope and dropped them off on the covered front porch of the house, with a brief note explaining what they were and what I thought had happened.
I do kind of find it sad that the eventual fate of essentially all family photos (including my own) is going to be thrown away by someone that doesn’t care about them, but since it came to my attention that there might be people that want them, I’m glad it didn’t happen on my watch.
I also find it interesting that there’s people that apparently buy random vernacular family photos, search for “found photos” on eBay, like I discovered when I was looking for something else. I’m assuming these mostly come from the same place- filled photograph albums that get sold for the value of the empty album at estate sales.
I have a friend the works intake receiving for a thrift store. They receive a lot of estate sale leftovers including hundreds of framed pictures a week. They save the pictures for a couple weeks in case someone comes back looking for them. That rarely happens. They do remove the pictures before the frames are put on the sales floor, I have no idea what they do with the pictures.