Carnaby Estate Sales — Local services in Town of Boston

They took 47% of our sales. Underpricing meant a $5700 sale gross. Charged a $2300 fee + $360 for extra set-up. I’d spent time cleaning/pre-organizing to avoid extra charges, then find 1960’s/‘70’s Bills yearbooks mixed in with other random magazines for $1. This became one of many things I had to catch and get corrected. The most egregious being the Waterford crystal I showed the business owner when she first came to assess. They got priced at $7 and $28 (they’ve been appraised for $125 and $200+). Here’s an email the owner sent after these had been priced, “Great first day-our main goal was to get the house interior done and the special pricing done by the people who would not be there tomorrow.” Direct quotes from their site. “Our goal is to get top market dollar for every single item in your home…It would be easy to sell everything by putting a below market price on it. That’s not our style. We have expert appraisers on our team.” A $2200 like-new lift recliner was $650, solid maple desk $42, silk and angora sweaters $3, vintage Christmas ornaments $2, Pierre Cardin luggage with tags on $12 (I sold it for $100), a knife block set $12 (I sold for $45), my father’s Korean War jacket was left in a closet with clothes for $3 the morning of the sale. The legs were ripped out of my ping pong table and thrown outside by the barn, and not one photo was taken of our 1915 slate pool table for the marketing effort. My favorite complaint is that a bathroom door that was removed would not close after it was reinstalled, but possibly the most stunning discovery I’ve made is that two of the hand-painted Redwing Bob White stoneware bowls - the featured item for the marketing effort - were left unwrapped in the box, then thrown in the shed with other empty boxes. Their contract makes it obvious they want no client involvement. The goal isn’t to please the seller, it’s to please the buyers. Friday is for dealers who want stuff cheap. Saturday is 25% off, despite that their website states they do not mark things down, instead, “…just price fairly to start with." The owner seemed very concerned with providing food and cleaning supplies as they have regulars who come for that. Another website claim is, “…things like food, spices, half containers of laundry soap, clothing, linens, cans of paint and oil, matchbooks and souvenirs, holiday decorations, office supplies, and other household items can add thousands to your sale.” I had all of those things, and considering they were priced at $.50 or $2-3 did not bring “thousands” to the sale. I don’t mean to pick on this little company alone, but feel the game industry-wide is to arrange things quick, price low, collect the money and leave. Considering how much didn’t sell maybe that’s how it has to go, but it contradicts the website claims and personal assurances that sold me on Carnaby.

Response to owner: “That’s a nice one, that’ll sell” was her reaction to our lift chair. I’ve been selling used items for years and do not need a lecture in depreciation. I’m on track to make as much selling what’s left as I made on this deal (and they sold the nicest stuff). The bowls were flawless, I’ve added a photo of them to this post, along with a vintage Santa that was left in the attic. Their decision to move the entire shed contents to the house garage caused the extra hours, not my meddling (I addressed issues evenings via email). I live on the property and was asked to help in the barn, only going into the house when staff was there to ask what happened to my ping pong table. The stuff in the house is what sold, the barn/shed stuff is what did not. The military jacket did sell for $42 (to a reseller) after I’d pointed out it was not priced. The claim they threw out several trash bags of expired food and spices is a complete lie. Due to their website claims that they’ve sold bags of rocks – I’d ask about viability of items, and if they said it wouldn’t sell put them away. I am not worried about “borderline libel” as I have emails, photos, the items, and their website to back up...

First off, if I could leave a negative number it would be a -5. We met with one of the owner's (Phoebe) at my mom's home to show her what we had to offer for a sale prior to Covid hitting. At the time, we were still in the home and were advised that they don't normally do estate sales with people still residing in them otherwise, she would have done it. Ok cool, totally understandable. We told her would be in touch when we knew a bit more about the house selling. Then Covid hit and everything shut down. We called her and let her know that we had decided to use them for our sale once the home sold. She asked that we keep in touch with her during shut down til they figured out when they could start doing sales again which we did. Probably talked to her 3 times during the stay at home phase here in NY. Fast forward a bit, stuff started opening back up and Carnaby once again started doing sales. Yay...we thought. We also sold mom's home fairly quickly and attempted to contact Phoebe to make arrangements for the estate sale. Nobody ever answered when I called (I have a distinct phone number since I live out of state) nor were any of my voice-mails (around 4 of them I left) ever returned. Not cool. If you didn't want to do a sale for us anymore, at least have the decency to let us know so we could figure something else out...i even said that in one of the voicemails I left. No harm, no foul but still no return phone calls from Phoebe. Wanting to test my theory, I called her from a local number and lo and behold....she answered right away. She remembered who we were but didn't acknowledge the voice-mails I had left. Ok, whatever. We set up a time for her to come back over and again see what we had for the sale. When the time of the appointment came, well guess what?? She didn't show. No show, no phone call to say she was running late maybe, no nothing!! It's been over a week now since she was supposed to meet with us and still haven't heard from her or her company. Bad business ethics, practices and horrible way to treat people! Now I understand why I have heard some less than stellar things about Carnaby from other people in that industry. At this juncture, if she came begging to do our sale for us, we would rather give the stuff away for free then use them!! Beware of Carnaby and how they treat people!

●●● response from owner is not true. Our appt was actually for last Tuesday evening, not on a Wednesday (that was my.moms bay and we had plans). Nor did I call to reschedule....i have phone log to prove it. And what about all the non-returned calls or voicemails? Again, if you had changed your mind about doing our estate sale, the professional and decent thing to do would have been to just let us know, not ignore calls or set up a meeting you probably had no intention of keeping. Again, less than stellar. Mine is not the only story. I stand behind my. -5...

I went to a sale in Fredonia, NY this morning. I got there before the doors opened, but too late to sign up. At 10 am, they opened the doors and let 18 people in. There were about 18 of us waiting outside. After 10 minutes, during which he’d let two more people in, I asked how long until the rest of us could go in. He said there were only 3 people working and they were doing the best they could.

In the meantime we’re watching those inside grabbing items and creating large piles to purchase. The barn was huge, so it wasn’t a safety issue. 5 minutes later, without letting anyone else in, I (and others)left.

I’d be upset if I had hired them to handle my estate and known how this was handled. What a...