Estate Sale Etiquette

A few weeks ago, I arrived about 40 minutes early for an estate sale. I'd
never been first through the door so I walked up to the house and stood on
the porch to wait just to see what it was like to be number one. A little
bit later, maybe 10 minutes or so, a woman stepped onto the porch and stood
a bit uncomfortably close. Her companion stood with one foot on the walk
and the other on the porch. We chatted as we waited and watched the line
grow to about 20. The guy with one foot on the walk and one on the porch
mentioned the woman at the end of the line and said she actually was third
in line and wondered why she didn't claim her position. That was a bit
cryptic but I didn't ask what he meant. He went on to say being first
really didn't make that much difference because number-one had only a
momentary advantage because he could concentrate only on one small area and
everything else was available to the higher positions. A few minutes before
the scheduled 9:00am start, the operator opened the door and said she was
ready. The woman on the porch and the man on the walk rushed around me into
the house. My 40 minute wait was good for only third place.

I was a bit taken aback by what seemed like unusual rudeness. In my
experience, most estate salers have been polite so the experience stuck with
me most of day until an explanation struck me. I recalled seeing the
porch-woman and the walk-man in the street in front of the house as I drove
up. She was in her car and he was standing in the street talking with her.
Presumably the woman at the end of the line had been there, too, thus giving
her the number three position. Porch-woman and walk-man claimed positions
one and two because they were close to the sale.

So here's the etiquette question: can an estate sale shopper claim a place
in an estate sale line merely by being close to it or does he actually have
to be in the line?

Nancy2...

In my experience, life's too short to be annoyed by things like this.

Jessica V....

All is fair in love, war, and antique hunting. In most cases, dealers
& auctioneers have been though the house weeks earlier and have already
taken the best things out. What's left is run of the mill stuff, and
slow movers that the dealer running the sale has seeded the house with
from their shop. First in line on the day of the "sale" overrated in
my book.

Kris Baker...

Marie Forjan...

I am firm, no early birds!

Yes, there are some incredibly insistent people who show up early, but
they are turned away. It upsets me when I respectfully wait until the
starting time on a sale only to find the place picked over.

No one gets into one of my sales early (it's my little revolution).

All I know is this:
The one closest to the door, seldom gets in first.

Kris Baker...

So there's never a screen door that you have to step back behind as it
opens, letting everyone else behind you in first?

Kris
That gun remark just put you under the bridge, though

jas10021...

As in: Slang. a person who lives or sleeps in a park or under a viaduct or
bridge, as a bag lady or derelict?

Or did you mean: to fish for or in with a moving line, working the line up
or down with a rod, as in fishing for pike, or trailing the line behind a
slow-moving boat.

The former just doesn't fit. The latter is more appropriate but I'm not
doing it.

Otherwise, if I'm there, I go in and look...and usually come out
empty-handed.