A New Beginning Estate Sales and Appraisals

I've liked going to estate sales for years now. You'd be surprised with what you can find at them! I've found some really nice purses, books and other bargain priced items. They're also good to go to if you're looking for dressers, other furniture, etc. I just wouldn't ever buy a used mattress from one! That will always be a NO for me. I also like looking at the vintage stuff. Anyway...I recently attended Jay J. Armes' estate sale. A New Beginning is the company who organized this sale. It was held at Mr. Armes' former residence, a 9-room mansion in El Paso's lower valley. I was always interested in seeing this home since I was a little girl in the 80's. We used to drive by and I would ask my uncle or mom if we could stop by. Lol. He had a zoo on his nearly 4 acres of land. I've heard that he had giraffes, monkeys, tigers, peacocks and other animals in there. I only saw a turtle, a stuffed ostrich and tiger at this estate sale.Mr. Armes was a well-known private investigator. He took cases from around the world. His claim to fame had to be when he worked with actor Marlon Brando to find his son. He found him! This happened circa late 1950's. He is also known for his prosthetic hands. Mr. Armes lost his hands at 11 years old due to messing around with railway torpedoes. He rubbed two of them together and they blew up. His hands had to be amputated at the wrist. Mr. Armes is now 89 and I believe lives in a retirement community (I've heard this but I don't know if it's true). Overall, the sale was organized. Cops were outside guiding people on where to park and letting them know what was expected. They were all nice cops, really polite. Let me tell you, I've met some mean ones over the years. I waited about 30 minutes to get into the sale. I knew the place would be packed because Mr. Armes is well known here and perhaps in other parts of the world. I felt like the majority of the items were overpriced. For example, a vintage slot machine was around $600. I almost bought one but I figured I didn't have space for it. Costume jewelry ran at around $25-50. Not a good deal imo. Books and magazines $25-50. Framed artwork $300 and up. Photos $10-20. I didn't ask or see prices on the furniture that I saw. There was probably a couple of hundred people in there! I didn't go through all of the rooms upstairs. I spent around $60 on photos and small items. Some of the employees were grouchy and unfriendly. Believe me, I get it...There were some employees who were really nice, though. Not sure if I would attend another estate sale by A New Beginning based on the service and item costs. It would have to be an estate sale of someone well-known in the city. Other than that, probably not.

complete scam artist. steals from the clients. He's very rude and yells at the customers.

Disorganized, procrastinator, full of excuses. It's been a month and I still have not received the proceeds from the estate sale. They used dishes, utensils to cook and did not wash them or place items back into estate sale. Dishes were left in refrigerator dirty. The contract stated they would haul off trash; they did not.