Featured I am being driven insane by a family member

Greg, I laughed out loud at your title: "I am being driven insane by a family member ". How many times have we all said that? We could have an ongoing thread to commiserate with each other...I wish you the best of luck with this!

 

Tell her to give it to her best friend that she is leaving behind. Friend may have similar tastes and be thrilled with it.

 

I usually say that I'm not an expert in whatever the item is and wouldn't feel comfortable handling it. Or it's too large and ornate for me to ship safely. Or I am uncomfortable handling such a valuable item. I am sorry you are in this position.
Don

 

I had a neighbor ask me to sell a huge brass light fixture. I saw it in her apt and said no, too big. She asked me again a few months later, same answer. No.
That thing was huge.

 

Everybody here has terrific advice, really!!! The main thing I'm beginning to think is that your SiL is apparently unwilling to hear, or hard of hearing, when you try to tell her that you don't think it has that value!! I'm sorry, but it's beginning to sound to me like she'd like YOU to list it so SHE takes NO RISK....and maybe figures you'll pay her regardless of what might happen to it (i.e. broken, returned, etc.???).....it's just a thought and I do NOT want to offend you!!!!

 

no offense to him.....offend her !
Some folks ...who don't know any better ...just think that you go on your computer, show a pic of what you have for sale...and folks come running to pay you what you ask for...send you the money...& that's the extent of it !!

 

Reminds me of when I was helping a friend’s family hold a yard sale. The owners had lots and lots of stuff. They proudly took out some pressed glass and told me it was made by Sandwich Glass (we live on Cape Cod not far from Sandwich). I tried to explain what they had is a pattern called Sandwich made by a mid 20th century glass maker, it was not made by Sandwich Glass in the late 1800s.

Needless to say they didn’t believe me.

After the sale I bought the pieces I liked that sold well for me on eBay and they loving put away the Sandwich pieces for another day ;-)

 

Reminds me of a ring Mom took to wearing after her "good ones" were lost when she left them in a restaurant ladies room one Sunday after church. The single stone was an ordinary moonstone, but at that point in her descent into dementia she insisted that it was brought back from the moon during an Apollo visit. No one could convince her otherwise.

 

Actually, I find that quite touching. I'm sorry your mother failed in this way, but at least her imagination was still strong.

 

Thanks, Kiko. It was certainly amusing to think of!

 

Try listing it with best offer, and show her those results (if any), or low starting auction with reserve (you don't want it accidentally selling for less than she considers reasonable).

When I was working, and selling on eBay, someone came asking me to list a limited edition plate - one of those kitten-in-basket things, limited to more than the manufacturer could hope to sell. I tried to be diplomatic in telling her it wasn't worth the effort, but as I was telling her, another woman showed up and started gushing about how it was worth big bucks. I told the one holding the plate to let the other sell it for her.

 

I can't tell you how many calls I get from people wanting to sell the valuable items they were left by their parents - collector plates. I try to let them down nicely and advise them to give them to a thrift store and take the tax deduction.

 

seems we get our fair share of that here too.........

 

My out is that I don't list breakables any more; the USPS has too good a record of smashing them. I also don't list for other people except one or two of my mom's little old lady friends.

I tell folks who ask about breakables that the market has honestly tanked. These days the hot market is new in box 70s and 80s plastic toys.