Black Thumb Syndrome

When Timothy Loughmiller Estate Solutions hosts an estate sale, we price EVERY OBJECT, unlike many companies that run sales. Pricing everything is a laborious, time-consuming process (which is why many don't attend to this detail) but it's VERY important to do.

To speed the process up, often we will write the price right on some objects (mostly glass and metal items) with a felt-tip marker - one, it's quick, and two, it doesn't damage the item because it wipes right off again with your thumb - which brings us to the topic of this story.

Occasionally (but more often than we'd like) a customer will bring an unpriced item to the cashout, hoping to literally get a steal of a deal. I say unpriced, but recall that earlier I stated that we price EVERYTHING. So, what happened to the price?

Now, I won't say that anything untoward is afoot, however, a cursory examination of the customer's hands will reveal that, yes, the dreaded "Black Thumb" syndrome has yet again affected another unfortunate buyer.

I say unfortunate because there is only one cure for this dread disease - the automatic doubling of what the price would have been before it mysteriously vanished (five dollars becomes ten, ten dollars becomes twenty, and so on). Many times the stricken individual will resist treatment, and sometimes, astonishingly, they will blurt out "but it said such-and-such price before!" (how could they know?).

Fortunately, though, once a particular customer is so treated, they seldom experience a recurrence of (drum roll please) the dreaded Black Thumb Syndrome!

Let's hope it never affects YOU!