Parents clear-out / sale

[ArDi]

My parents (mid 70s) have been doing a big clear-out prior to selling their house.
A few things have been offered to me and when I've expressed an interest (largely for nostalgic reasons), they have said "but we want money for it" and then asked for way over what it's worth. I'm not prepared to haggle with my parents, nor to pay over the odds, so I've just said, "thanks but no thanks".

I am quite surprised they are wanting money from their own daughter for their old junk.

What do others think - weird or normal?

YABU = it's normal for parents to charge children for their castoffs
YANBU = parents normally give old junk to their kids.

I can’t stop my mum or in-laws trying to give us old junk! And new junk. It seems mean of them to ask for money for something they would throw away otherwise.

Rather depends on what sort of stuff you are calling 'old junk' really. One man's rubbish is another man's treasure and all that. Your old school books YANBU antique dressing table Y(might)BU. Also depends on why they want(need) the money.

Perhaps it suggests they aren’t feeling secure financially and trying to be proactive to manage better? I am sure they wouldn’t do this by preference if you have a good relationship so I would even be conscious of whether they need any support with it.

I'm very surprised that they're asking for money for their old junk treasures. Are they skint? Is there some back story, like they paid your student fees and now don't see why they should give you valuable stuff?

That's my parents all over. They've tried charging me over the odds for a few things over the years and I've just said no thanks. I wouldn't dream of charging anyone else, especially family, for stuff and I regularly give things away that I could've got money for. Not to them though. Ever.

Older people are absolutely terrified of running out of money - and they should be.

I wouldn’t push the issue. Keep your eye on what you want and have it when they realise no one else wants it.

I completely agree with you 100% that you should have free pickings, but at least they’re being savvy.

Thanks for the insight. I'm not especially upset by it (although there are a couple of things I loved as a child and would have hoped to inherit eventually - but not enough to pay more than it's worth!). Just wondered if it was me or them who had the "wrong" way of looking at things. I think they do worry about money (unnecessarily, but upbringing...) .

They've also in the past asked me to give them the money if I have sold something they previously bought me - which I think is definitely cheeky. Not talking about getting a gift for Christmas and putting it on Ebay in January: I'm talking about textbooks for college, which I sold at the end of my course to the next intake of students; and a musical instrument I no longer had an interest in playing.

In the case of the textbooks I explained that I had budgeted on having that money at the end of the course, so they did relent, but the instrument I ended up keeping, rather than lose it and its value.

The items in question at the moment are a bike one of my boys could possibly make use of and an old violin which I remember Mum playing when I was small. Maybe a few hundred pounds for the violin but the bike is pretty old, although a good one and not ridden much. Anyway, I'm not going to make a big deal of it, just wondered what others thought. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity.