Am I the victim of an estate sale con artist?
Going home to Illinois and leaving the sale of our Arizona condo furnishings in the hands of Marie Luffman (AKA “Cheyenne”) of Trinity AZ Estate Sales (AKA Trinity Sales of AZ, and, most likely, also AKA Trinity Estate Sales LLC) was, from our point of view, a miserable mistake.
Our predicament was that we had already accepted a stunning offer on the condo itself and the buyer’s preferred closing date of September 21, 2021—which was less than three weeks away! To handle the sale of all our furnishings ASAP, I signed too quickly with a company I had not properly researched.
The bare facts:
1) We left AT LEAST $34,511 worth (original cost; receipts available) of furnishings in our condo for the estate sale. Everything was in “like new” condition because we were rarely there—which is why we sold the condo.
2) Marie (who told me she used to go by the name “Cheyenne”) said she never accepts a sale unless she expects to make at least $1500 at 35% of total sales.
This translated to an expected return to us of at least $2785.
$1500 = .35 x $4285
Minimum return to us = $4285 – $1500 = $2785
$2785/$34,511 = at least 8.1%
That’s not even ten cents on the dollar, but that was the deal… and probably about par.
3) Contrary to the contract, we were forbidden from being anywhere on the premises during any part of the sale. I wanted to be there, but my problem was the contract, which I had failed to fully absorb at the time. It says she can walk out at any time before the start of the sale, for any reason, and we would owe $20 per hour for all time spent by each person on the project. Lost funds aside, we did not have time to find another estate sale company.
She threatened to walk out quite regularly over the following days, commenting at one point that she really preferred to handle estate sales only for dead people!
4) Advertisement of the sale was supposed to have occurred several days before the sale. To accommodate that, we were forced to live out of a closet for a week so she could lay everything out for the sale and take pictures for the ad.
5) Advertisement for the sale did not occur until the afternoon of September 14—less than 48 hours before the sale! Furthermore, it appears her “advertisement” was not viewable by the general public; it appears her single advertisement was only accessible by her “followers” and those who received a link. She also let it slip that her “followers” were resellers!
6) Three days before the estate sale, Marie was so concerned that we would not have vacated the premises before the start of the sale that she threatened to cut the first day, leaving only a two-day sale when the contract was for three! With the closing date on the condo sale only eight days away, we had no choice but to comply with her every demand.
7) Many items were seriously mispriced. The little black table I bought at a hobby store for less than $40 was priced at $20, while a stunning Ethan Allen night table I bought for $734 was priced at only $40. I was so incensed that another beautiful Ethan Allan table I bought for $595 was priced at $25 that I removed it from the sale and brought it home!
8) On September 20, Marie sent a text that the sale was complete, and the premises were cleaned out.
9) On October 1, when I pressed for the overdue check and sale details, Marie’s return text proved “inaccurate” for both the date she said she sent the package and the carrier she said she used.
10) On October 5, seven days overdue by the contract, we received a check from the sale for a measly $641—a mere 23% of the minimum we were led to expect!
Click here to review Edie’s Estate Sale Accounting
(This may take a while to load — If something seems wrong, scroll down and click “Open in new tab”)
Click here to see Marie Luffman’s Estate Sale “Accounting”
(This will be pretty quick)!
Click here to see the “advertisement” Marie posted on EstateSales.net
Click here to see the high value items that disappeared
Questions:
- What happened?!
- What was Marie so afraid we would discover that she threatened to kill the first day of the sale, if we had not vacated the premises before the open?
- Why are so many expensive items unaccounted for?
- Who was the “liquidator” who “bought” all that unsold property at “auction cleanout” for just $100?
- With so much property unaccounted for, were/are kickbacks involved?
- Is “Trinity AZ Estate Sales” a legitimate company?
- Why were so many of the high value items that are unaccounted for also not in any of the advertisement photos?
Suggestions:
- Always carefully research an estate sale company before signing a contract because theft will likely be difficult to prove. (And therefore likely to happen)?
- Ignore the deliberately distracting buddy-buddy schmoozing and READ THE DAMN CONTRACT!
- Don’t sign with a company that engages in pre-sales, regardless of what a good idea they tell you it is (for them).
- Consider simply donating everything to charity. I certainly wish I had!