All of us have to deal with people on a business level that we wouldn’t give the time of day to otherwise. This week I received I call from a woman who needed help in determining whether the items she inherited from her mother were worth anything as she wanted to sell them.

As I usually do, I began to ask her questions to figure out if it was worth her while for me to go out. Quite honestly I hate to be the bearer of bad news. No one wants to be told their precious items are worth very little except perhaps to them. So, I prefer to give as much information as possible so that a motivated person can do their own research and save themselves some money.

Based on the way the questions were answered I was sure that this was one of those cases. But she insisted she needed my help. She sounded feeble and against my better judgement I agreed to go to her home. (I have a soft spot for seniors who need help).

When I got to her home I realized that she was not old but definitely feeble. She walked with a cane and had a great deal of difficulty maneuvering the icy steps to the garage where her husband had stored the items she wanted to show me.

Once I began to look at the furniture and odd assortment of china I knew I should not have come. The items were of little value and paying an appraiser to be told that may feel insulting to some.The jerk in this story is the husband.From the time I arrived he complained about having to unwrap dishes. About how her brother had stolen things from the mother’s estate and they were left with this garbage. He wanted it all to be thrown away. He only wanted to donate it to a charity if they came to pick it up. He said he didn’t want people to see his “stuff” (which, trust me was not worth stealing even if you could see it under all the junk that covered it.) He had to do all the work. He threatened. He complained some more. He got angry.In reality there was some lovely china in amazing condition and some original Pepsi glasses complete with their promotional materials amongst other things that did have some value, even though it was not high. He didn’t even want to help his wife. I felt so bad for her that I charged her 25% of my regular fee and said good bye. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.