I Hate Going to Estate Sales

I have hated going to estate sales ever since my experience of having an item snatched out of my hands by a "little old lady" who declared "I meant to get that!". Still estate sales and garage sales seem to be the last frontier in the antique business. There are still good things to be found in such sales if you can only stand to get up real early every Thursday, Friday and Saturday of your life and go and stand in line for hours just to be among the first in the door. I rarely go to these things now, preferring to drink my coffee and read the newspaper before stirring out, usually then only to take my morning walk with my four legged side kick. I did go to one this morning after three friends called to suggest that I take in a certain sale. I arrived an hour and a half early only to be among the first 20 or 30 people in line. One person told of having arrived at 4:30 am to find someone's bag first in line. The bag had a note on it which said "gone for coffee". Remarking on this to someone else, the true early bird learned that someone who had gone by the DAY BEFORE to case the place had seen the bag there. As time went by and the coffee bearer did not materialize , the bag was gently lifted and pitched out of the line. As time grew nearer the opening, a gentleman arrived and picked up his bag and crassly moved to the head of the line. I should have said tried to move to the front of the line where he was challenged by the people he was trying to usurp. Banging on the door, he pleaded his case with the estate sale giver who quickly sent him to the rear of the very long line. Shaking his head he was heard to say "This is a sad state of affairs." He obviously thought himself to be the aggrieved party. This type of behavior seems to be common with some of the serious dealers who live or die economically by their finds. Still there is something demeaning about people who run around slapping sold stickers on everything, until they can decide whether they really want to buy it or not or even brazenly removing items from other people's selections. Maybe it's because I have a pension to live on but I just can't stand to act that way or even see others act that way. Oh, and by the way, I didn't find anything.