The mother was an antique collector, so when they had to move her to assisted living they had a garage sale (didn’t call me). Their quote: “I was surprised that antiques aren’t worth anything any more, most people didn’t want to pay much of anything and we didn’t sell much except to a couple of people that came early”. (This means a couple of pushy dealers got everything they priced too low and they couldn’t sell the stuff they priced too high). When the mother passed away a few months later they paid a moving company almost a thousand dollars to move everything from her apartment into storage (didn’t call me). After paying a hundred dollars a month for storage for six months, they decided to sell the stuff that was in storage (bed, couch, chairs, clothes, encyclopedia set, entertainment center, old TV, etc.). So now they call me, want me to “Just pay what it cost to get it moved and stored ($1,600)” and want it gone in three days.
Strike 1: Hold your own sale when you don’t know what you are doing or what things are worth.
Strike 2: Pay to move stuff you don’t want into storage.
Strike 3: Pay storage on it for months and then think someone will bail you out for your mistakes.
Postscript: I referred them to a guy that does hauling. He charged them another $200 and took everything to charity except the items they would not take. The old TV had to go to e-waste, the encyclopedia set to recycling, the mattress and box springs to the dump (charities are prohibited from taking beds because of the bedbug problem).