Estate Sale Manners

I was just talking to a fellow antique dealer friend of mine who recently attended a local estate sale. His nicely covered pile of leather bound books held for him at the front door were stolen by another shopper. Where have all the manners gone?

I have been attending estate sales for about 15 years now. It never ceases to amaze me the lack of manners and etiquette at these sales. There are some cardinal rules among estate sale shoppers;

• If any item has a "sold" tag, someone has done the work to find it and is going to purchase it. Hands off.
  

• If there is an obvious pile of items in a corner, ask before you rummage. They are probably someone else's gathered treasures that they have set aside because they can't carry them around.

• Don't push and shove. Courtesy is rule #1.

Objects are just material things and there is certainly enough to go around, isn't there? I've cut back on my estate sale attendance since I've witnessed some of the most horrific incidents including my girlfriend getting knocked down on the ground for complimenting a man on his turquoise jewelry. He was definitely crazy.

Do you have any of your own estate sale nightmare stories to share?

Are there any comments you want to add on estate sale manners?

image credits; 1. Emikokolala 2. Stephanie Moisan 3 & 4. unknown