Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Archives of the best of past topics For Sale Archive, Non-Petro "Garage Sale" for the estate of Gary Risk

Gary Risk was a dear friend of mine who passed away this past April from Cancer. He could be found over the years going to truck and equipment shows with his 1964 GMC Crackerbox of his 1973 Peterbuilt, usually with an antique Caterpillar crawler in toe. Not only did he collect old truck and Cats, Gary was also a life long collector of Toys, Signs and Gas, Oil and Truck Company Memorabilia.

There are over 500 Toys, 100 signs and 150 oil cans. These will be sold at a "Garage Sale" on December 10th and 11th at the shop of Steve Risk at 141 North Church Street, Quarryville, PA, 17566 (South of Lancaster and North of the Mason Dixon). All items will be priced and this is not an auction.

If there are any specific questions please contact Steve Risk at srisk@paulrisk.com

Steve has been working on a Facebook page with photos of all of the items. Try searching "Gary Risk Quarryville PA"

Thank you for your interest.

Some photos of the collection set up for the sale.

And a few more

And a few more

WOW!!!

It's a good thing for my wallet that I'm several thousand miles away.

Thanks for posting..Like going back in time to a toy store.

I have debated on writing this, but this info should be shared. I got a price list of all the signs to the tune of around 11k. When asked if they were good prices I said yes! I can still resell and make money. Knowing that 20 people at a time will be allowed in and I wanted 28 of the signs, I got a hotel and was planning on being first inline. Yesterday I get a NEW price list. Lots of the things I want are now marked up higher. No one ever said the prices may change.
I will keep my opinions to myself. There are the facts.

The object of the game is to get the most money for the estate.

I agree and thats what they were doing over the last 2 months. When many are waiting for the price list and they put it out, 1 week before sale and say here are the prices, you expect that to be so. Not cool to change the prices after talking to people that tell them they are great prices.

You're not supposed to say they're great prices. They shouldn't have changed the prices though.

I am sure they had lots of interest and that was the main reason to raise the prices, but at the end of the day you can ask whatever you want...finding someone to pay that price is a different story.

Here is the price for a car, we have been talking about for 2 months. Do you like the price? "Yes its a good price, see you sat morning, I am coming and will be first inline." Days later... "I have raised the price on you!" ...
Come one !

'Nuff said!

It seems all too often a mans word = 0.

I agree raising the prices is not right after they had it down on paper.But it's their stufff and they can do that!

Settling an estate can be a nightmare...so often all the interested parties cannot agree on what the items are worth and if one sells something without consulting the others there can be he ll to pay. It often literally tears families apart. I bought a small estate a couple years ago and took six months to get my offer accepted. The heirs had priced each item according to one son who "knew what this stuff is worth" and it was crazy high on almost everything. I made my offer and they declined... they shopped it around...they contacted me again when the house was put up for sale and they needed it cleaned out. My original offer was accepted.

Check in later and make your fair offer...you just might still get them.

Jim

You thought you had it all wrapped up ..then things changed.

That's the nature of this "business", which is what it has turned into BTW...

I collect TONKA toys but I'm not about to go crazy on them esp. without the boxes.

He wrote in all his adds, that he was asking retail for everything. When I told him I was reselling and that I thought I could make money, he knew he was too low. Hey, I offered 2 months ago to help price stuff. He listed nice vert Lee tire signs for 100 bucks, but Q.State button signs for 400, he was all over the place.
Oh well lots of other places to spend my money

Just to clarify to all. I only assisted with getting the word out about these items being sold and putting together the "ad". I did not set this "garage sale" up or make up the rules related to it.

Steve Risk, Gary's cousin, was tasked with cataloging and pricing all of these toys. He did enlist the help of two knowledgable collectors regarding the toys and has spent countless hours online researching.

Gary Risk was a dear friend of mine and I have been trying to help whereever possible. So I guess I am saying don't shoot the messenger.

Thanks,

Ken

Thank you Kenj for the tip, Hope they can get the most possible money out of each and every item they sell. They can change the price when they go to cash you out if they want to.

Instead of using their time on researching the market/prices, why didn't they put the stuff on ebay? They would have reached A LOT more buyers and chances are they would have gotten much more than they were expecting.

I told Steve that and told him an auction would be good too.

ken is there any old porcelain Caterpillar signs for sale? thx mm

No porcelain Caterpillar signs. The only CAT signs that I know of are a reproduction one with a D4 on it and a light blue background, size about 12" x 14".

I know that Steve looked into doing an auction, but everyone was looking for a 20% commission and was going to charge a 10% buyers premium on top of that and he is looking to try and get the most he can for Gary's widow.

Ken

20% is a small price to pay for professional advertising, cataloging, and bringing numerous buyers. You'd make that up in volume and higher prices brought it for items during an auction.

I agree with badgas, professional help with this would go far to getting the best bang for the buck. If you choose the right auction house that is known for selling this type of merchandise and commanding good crowds and healthy bidding you can often do far better. The condition of alot of the toys I saw would make any collector's mouth water, and alot of auctioneers know just the people to call to bring them to auction for specific types of items.

What they are doing is called a Tag Sale, which, unless well advertised across many papers, on auctionzip, etc, is mainly going to bring in locals. Also, what ends up happening is that the collection is cherry picked and more than a few days will be required to dispose of the collection.

Auctioneers utilize the 20%/10% to ensure their costs are covered and they can still make some money. I know some that charge more than 20% to the owner.

My best guess is that after doing the tag sale for a few times they will end up sending the rest to auction, missing alot of the items that would have brought more money to the widow in the beginning.

Again, my 2cents.

from all the prices I seen, they would have lots more money at an auction. Its well advertised. When the doors at 9 am, it will be a mad house !

Tag/estate sales are mainly frequented by resellers. They're looking to buy cheap and resell at retail to collectors. Collectors also frequent the sales and are looking to get a great deal on new additions to their collection. An auction, on the other hand, draws a lot of collectors and a few resellers hoping to win something. Collectors vs resellers are different. Different mindset and different wallets. A person that bids emotionally for an item in order to add to their collection, will generally bid more for the item than a reseller that doesn't have an emotional attachment to the item and is purely after the profit.

Huge quality collections should be sold at an auction. This will guarantee higher return and a mostly complete liquidation.

I'd be willing to bet, based on your replies, that not a one of you knows what goes on behind the scenes of an auction!

A Gentleman, by the name of Gary Risk, had DIED! His family, is trying to 1) Get his collection, into the hands of some people that will appreciate it, and 2)Probably raise some money to cover whatever expenses that have been left behind.

Would you all PLEASE, have enough courtesy, to be sypathetic to the family, and NOT WHINE & COMPLAIN about them trying to achieve their goals?!

How about a little respect for the dead?

I hope some time some where I have the chance to to meet you Thunder 2. Any body every tell you-you have a habit of saying whats every on your mind. I would lay odds that I'm not the first.

Jeff, I also hope you keep expressing yourself, in your own manner!

Been behind the scenes at auctions.

Sympathetic to the family? Whine and complain?

I lost my Mom earlier this year and I have a collection of her dolls to dispose of, I know exactly what they are going through. I personally don't plan on going through over 300 dolls to try and price them for a tag sale.

Her Aunt had a collection of over 1000 worth over 1.5 million and they sent them to auction rather than have to mess with tag sales and prolonged personal responsibility for disposal of such a collection.

If you want to have your heartstrings tugged, run a tag sale and let people offer you less for the item than marked because that's what happens, expect to have to rerun the sale again and again or settle in the end for selling the remainder off to a reseller for a wholesale price.

What most of us are saying is that even given a 20% charge by the auctioneer, it is still the far most effective and less cumbersome means to dispose of the collection to the family. I hope they do sell everything at the tag sale, but I wouldn't put all my hopes on that being the case, because it sets up the family for disappointment.

Sadly, this is also one of the worst times of year to hold such tag sales or auctions in general because most people are buying new gifts in retail stores, they aren't going to auctions for them. Dec-Feb are the worst months for attempting estate sales whether via auction or tag. Weather, competition for money, taxes due, etc all add up to it being less than optimal timing.

To Carolinaskies... Unless I misunderstand the English Language, it seems to me, that somebody is complaining about high prices here! And as for timing? How dare Mr. Risk be so inconsiderate as to die at this time of year! Lets just forget the "Garage Sale"! I think the family should just put everything out in the yard for people to pick through, and take what they please. That should relieve the family of the burden. I hope somebody has a place for the dear deceased also. I mean... He did just about ruin Christmas now, didnt he?

omg... they decided to have a sale. After months of talking to different people they sent out a price sheet for the sale tomorrow morning. When they found out they priced things so people like me could resell, they raised the prices days before the sale.
They can ask whatever they want. Dont tell people, here are the prices you have been waiting months for, then change things days before the sale.
As my buddy put it... it would be like getting a price on a classic car after discussing it for months, planning your trip and days before you leave to pickup the car, the price is changed.
For the people that think its ok to do that. I would like to see how you would feel, if it happened to you. I could care less what the price is. Just put out the FINAL price sheet one time.

I for one, hope the Moderators will lock down the thread and remove ALL posts that aren't on subject. And since this thread has moved a million miles from that Subject.

Let me remind everyone, especially always lookin... the subject of this thread is the "Garage Sale for the Estate of Gary Risk".

It is NOT about how slighted you may feel, because the family decided to exercise their right to change prices on items.

If it matters, Gary passed away April 14 2011.

If you read my first response, it was info some would want. If people here were interested in going to the sale and they had heard or seen what prices were, they would now know things had changed. I did not give my opinion in my first post. It blew up from there.

Even though this topic drifted off of the original discussion of the collection estate sale, some good information and opinions were shared here about the challenge of what to do with a collection after the collector passes away.

Please limit future posts in this topic to how it's going at the sale.

Indeed, I would like to know how the "garage sale" went regardless of my own opinion on disposal of a collection.

So for those who had the opportunity to go, let us know.

So no one went to the "garage sale"?

I sent a PM to kenj, first of all, to appologize for all the less than polite comments here. And secondly, asking him to reply to your request for information about the garage sale.

I'm Pretty sure, that his reluctance to respond, has a LOT to do with with the lack of consideration to his dilema.

PLEASE!!! For the Love of GOD!!! DROP IT!!!

My father n law passed away last year and as bad as it can be the house was not paid for and we had to move my mother n law quick. we had a sale and watched as all the things he held so dear were sold . Things some time are not worth as much as the family thinks because their loved one loved it so much.I hope they get as much as they can because I know its hard, sorry for the loss.

Seems to me that if the prices were changed and you didn't like it, don't go to the sale.

Gary Risk RIP