Murdoch Estate Liquidation

Not well...
Pro:
1. .They were on time.

2. Set up of items upstairs.

Cons:



1. Promised 8-10 employees to work sale, she had 5 the first day and 3 the second day. This was a 14 room house and it was packed tightly with furniture, valuable collectibles, Steeler merchandise, Nascar merchandise, antiques, books, kitchen items, clothing, jewelry...and many miscellaneous functional items of high quality.

2. There was no straightening of merchandise during the sale.I went around and did this. As things sold, items that were hidden or behind others were not replaced in the empty spot so as to be displayed. i did this.

3. ;There was a conflict of interest as the staff priced the merchandise and then she allowed them to purchase it. if indeed money was exchanged, she had no one in the family witness these purchases.

4. The chopsticks were priced at .25 a pair, but the $250 dollar Egyptian necklace was selling for literally $3.

5. 14 k gold rings were pulled by me the night before, because when I went over to vacuum the floors, I noticed that they hadn't been priced.

6. Advertisement lacked. The target population was the Washington and Pittsburgh area, leaving out Wheeling and Waynesburg and Uniontown areas. Also, no signs were posted on the major intersections in Washington to target drivers in the area.

7. Item that didn't sell were dumped into boxes at the end of the sale. It was like, ok, we're done, lets get out of here!
8. Over promised and under delivered.
9. I worked along side them the entire time. I did not expect to be paid. However, my step son, also worked for her doing a lot of heavy lifting and moving. She did not put him on the payroll. She used him as employee and saved herself a lot of labor expense. If the family had not been there, the sale would never have been ready on time.

The initial agreement was fine, but right after the agreement they adding in that $350 would be added for advertising. I thought that would be considered an advance. She then told me that the $350 was in addition to the 35% cut that we agreed upon. We had quite a few items. One item of note was our antique dining room suite. They appraised it between $3500-$5000. It did not sell, so they charged me to take it to the auction. They sold it for $400 at auction. In the end, I only received $59. They gave me a tape of all of the items sold. The tape show less dollars than what they said they sold. They appraised everything at approximately $34,000. I did not expect everything to sell, but we expected at least half. There was nothing on the tape that sold for more than $182. They either over estimated or under sold. They had at least 400 items that they did not sell. The remaining items were to be given to Goodwill in my name, but I received nothing for tax purposes. My outdoor furniture was to be bought by one of the workers, but we never received any proof of purchase and it is gone. They charged us an additional charge of $350 for clean-up. I found out from one of the workers that instead of the furniture going to Goodwill, it went to some gentleman named Bill. I left some ice cream in the freezer and they actually ate it! The new owner, Coreene, took over from a very respected figure, Rosemary Dingle. The new owner is young and does not seem to have the experience needed or control over her employees.