Smokey Row Antiques — Local services in Lemont Township

We used Smokey Row Antiques to run an estate sale for my mom. That was a huge mistake. Sue, the owner, said she would need about a week to set up and price items. She only spent only a few hours of each of two days actually setting up. Most items were not priced at all, and the larger items that she did put a price on were listed so ridiculously expensive that not much was sold in the three days of the sale. Sue suggested we run the sale for another weekend, and we had no choice but to do that. We still had a house full of stuff to get rid of. I did a little investigating and realized that she only advertised on a handful of estate sale sites. No place else. She didn’t put enough signs out on the busier roads, and insisted on keeping the garage door closed so you couldn’t even tell which house had the sale going on. In the week between the two sale weekends, my mom found boxes full of items under tables in the garage that Sue never put out to sell! I then posted the second weekend of the sale on FB and Marketplace, put posters on the grocery store bulletin boards, and made more signs directing people to my mom’s house. Then we insisted on keeping the garage door open and stayed at the house for the second weekend to assist buyers. We finally sold a LOT more items! Sue was irritated, but at that point we didn’t care. We needed to get rid of stuff. We had movers coming the following Saturday!

Then, after the second weekend Sue was supposed to bring a check with the profits by Tuesday, but she never showed up or called. My mom had to call her, and she couldn’t even tell my mom how much money the sale made. All she wanted was to come get her folding table. She then asked my mom for her new address saying that she would bring her a check the following week after Mom moved! We had my mom call her back and insist on getting her money the next day. Sue was stuttering and speaking like she was trying to come up with a reason why she didn’t know how much money was made. All she kept saying was that she needed to come get her folding table because she had another estate sale in two days. She finally agreed to tally the sale and bring a check the next day. Personally, this is just a hunch, but I think she did something with the cash for my mom’s sale and needed to that next sale to be able to fully pay my mom. It’s just my suspicion. It was all sounding weirdly unethical.

Well, let me tell you about that check! It was a check from a bank that no longer exists! My mom’s bank would not cash or deposit it because it was from an old account at MB Financial that Fifth Third Bank had bought out in 2019! My mom’s bank advised her to take it to Fifth Third to see if they would honor it. Turns out that Fifth Third acknowledges that the account still existed as now a Fifth Third account, but because it was an MB Financial check, the only way they would they would agree to “cash” it was if my mom had an account with them. So my mom had to open a savings account at Fifth Third so the check could be deposited, not cashed. We no longer wanted to deal with Sue, so asking her for another check was something we didn’t want to do.

Sue’s fees were 30% of the total sales. We really feel like Sue “underpaid” my mom or something. It was all just unsettling, odd, and suspicious. I cannot prove anything, but the whole experience was strange. My mom really feels cheated and taken advantage of. Mom and I would NEVER recommend Smokey...

The owners of smokey row Antiques are examples of which ALL BUSINESSES in Lemont should follow! Gary and Sue are not only good friends,but do an EXCEPTIONAL JOB of all aspects of business. The in at Smokey row is absolutely fabulous,the Antique store is the best and also the Estate sale aspect of the business is the BEST. And it deserves Lemonts upmost attention. Take note Lemont BUSINESSES and learn from the best! Gary and Sue Roy. Congratulations on a job well done! And thanks for being a breath of fresh air to...

Wonderful antique store with a wide variety of clothing, furniture, china, pictures and paintings, jewelry, and more. The employee on hand was really friendly and helped out with flashlights where light was low. With lots of interesting things to peruse, I'll be coming back to this...