Estate Sale Pioneers … Featuring Janelle Stone (Part 1)
(No 2 in the Pioneer Series)
Her estate sales can bog down traffic in Highland Park. Homeowners leave their houses early and return late to avoid crowds walking through their neighborhood when she’s on the job. Police Officers can be seen directing traffic and standing in the doorway of a “For Sale” home. It’s all an indication Janelle Stone is on-site conducting one of her incredible estate sales. Yes, she is a pioneer in the business having started when she was only twenty-four years old. Just recently Janelle and her son Wen, headed to Nashville to speak at the National Estate Sale Conference Their topics … “Staging” and “High End Estate Sales.” Janelle certainly has her PhD in both.
While it takes lots of hard work and dedication to rise in the estate sale business, there’s plenty of fun and interesting surprises along the way. Thankfully, Janelle was willing to share some of them with us. Prepare to laugh your head off.
THIS IS THE BEST EVER! I used to advertise in the Yellow Pages – back in the day. I decided to take out a $5,000 ad with my picture. One night, right after the new Yellow Pages came out…back when they laid them on your doorstep….I started getting calls from men in the middle of the night asking me to come over or send one of my girls. I had no idea what they were talking about. It kept happening and happening. I was at home alone (I was actually changing the sheets) and got a call in the middle of the day from a guy who had clearly been over served. I told him I was getting calls all the time and asked him where he got my number. He said The Yellow Pages. I told him to wait a minute….I ran downstairs and grabbed my Yellow Pages. I asked him what page it was on. He told me the page, I opened it, and it was something completely different. Then he asked me if I was looking in the Big Yellow Pages or the Small Yellow Pages. I was looking in the Big…he was looking in the Small.
LOOK AT THE UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER! Because I put my picture in the ad, they couldn’t fit it in the Estate Liquidator Section. I was under “Escorts”. Turns out, I was right next to “Women in Command”, Women of Color” and “Hot Young Beauties”. I found out it was illegal for Escorts to put photos in their ads….but mine was there!
The end of the story: I talked to the President of Yellow Pages and she said, “You read our publication from left to right, not top to bottom”. So totally wrong! You read the Yellow Pages from Top to bottom by category. They didn’t refund my $5,000 and I got calls for years after that. I guess people kept old Yellow pages! I never advertised in the Yellow Pages again. That was only 11 years ago. Hasn’t the world changed in a few short years?!!
So there you go … the first of many unexpected events in Janelle Stone’s “professional” life. Don’t think that’s all. We’ve got more stories to tell you next week. Keep the tissues handy!
There’s proof of the ad!