Ain't family great!

[HIU8]

My wonderful aunt offered to SELL me my grandmother's silver a while ago. She wants $135 a place setting. There are 24 place settings and my aunt won't break up any part of the set. So she wants $3,240 for it. My dad is livid (he wants her to give it to me since I'm the one in the family who does all the holiday meals etc....) She refuses to just give it. I just don't get it. I can't believe she will only sell me the stuff. She is single (has been her whole life), no kids. She does not entertain or do anything. She lives rent free and banks all her $$. She is rich several times over, yet she wants to sell me the silver.

thanks but no thanks...

[garnetgirl]

Maybe you could present auntie with a bill for all of the food/hospitality you've provided her at holiday meals you've hosted. Let her know you'll accept payment in the form of place settings! Wow, and I thought I had money-hungry people in my family.

[sariana]

I guess that's why she's rich...

I guess you just keep saying, "No, thanks." How did your aunt end up with your grandmother's silver in the first place? Is she your dad's sister? Did she inherit it, or did she have to buy it from your grandmother?

Ah, family.

[StantonHyde]

For the love of Pete!! That is beyond cheap and obnoxious. Maybe she has this thing that other people got something of monetary value and she just got silver so she wants to convert it to cash??? In my family, if you inherited something like that, you GIVE it to the next generation fer cryin out loud!!

Tell her to try to sell it to Replacements--she won't get that much money for it!!! And I would totally bill her for the holiday meals--what a whacko!

[elizabethkott]

"That's okay... I'll just wait until you die and get the place settings then."

Ok, that's a little harsh, I suppose...
I like the idea of presenting her with a bill for each holiday meal from now on.
Wack-a-doodle-doo!!!!!

[LMPC]

Wow, now *that's* tacky!!!

[wellyes]

"That's okay... I'll just wait until you die and get the place settings then."

Heh, that was my thought too. What a wackadoo. My question is -- is that the family-only price or what she's trying to sell it for on eBay too?

[AshleyAnn]

I'd bring it up at the next family dinner how you'd like to have served them on grandma's family silver but aunt so and so's asking price is too high and she won't negotiate.

DH's family is like this over his dead relatives stuff. The second someone passes its like a feeding frenzy to get as much stuff as you can and hoard is so someone else doesnt get it. Even junk. We had someone go nuts that MIL brought her father's drinking glasses to us after he passed - they were from goodwill and were monogramed with someones name on them. They also want to barter and trade over it. SIL had to buy her grandmothers display cabient from a distant aunt even though it was willed to SIL. My family is from a different region of the country and I've never seen such practices.

[Kestrel]

I thought you should charge her a place setting for each holiday meal - past-present and future... until you have all the settings.


(Then make her sit at the kids' table and use paper plates and plastic silverware.)

[scrooks]

Originally Posted by elizabethkott

"That's okay... I'll just wait until you die and get the place settings then."

Seems a little harsh but I was thinking the exact same thing!