Richard C Frey Fine Arts

I bought a piece of art at an estate sale and after doing lots of research found that it might be worth a hell of a lot more than I paid for it. I had no intention of keeping it and bought it to resell however, I'm no pro when it comes to appraisal so I scouted this appraisal service out on Yelp and called to find out if they could take a look at my art. I spoke to a girl who said they were busy but I could drive over, and they might be able to take a quick look or I could drop it off and leave it so they could do the research on it.

I didn't think this service was going to be free but there was no mention of a charge for them to simply look at it. I made the drive out to the house (it was literally a house with a make shift appraisal shop in the garage). I parked in the driveway, walked in and was greeted by the same girl I'd spoken to earlier, she was really friendly and answered the few questions I had, one of them being about the cost. She handed me 2 pieces of paper which had all the various prices for each appraisal service and WOW, it was costly! The simple service of having the appraiser glance at it was a ton more than the actual art piece! She took a look at the art and excused herself to go talk to the appraiser to see if he had a quick minute to take a look at it. She disappeared for a minute then came back advising that I could leave it and they'd do research on it and get back to me. At that point an older (70 ish) man walks out from the back, looks at me, doesn't say hello, doesn't say ANYTHING and just stands there looking at me. Umm ok... AWKWARD, so I say, "Hi, how are you doing?" he finally says one word and responds, "Good". And that's it before he turns around and disappears. RUDE. I asked the girl if that was the appraiser, she said yes and then he yells from the back, "My appointment is here!" She then asks again if I'd like to leave the art piece and I politely declined. I mean, there was no reason to be rude to her when she was actually very kind, it was the appraiser who was rude and unwelcoming. Nope, not leaving my art there and paying the crotchety old dude one cent, thank you very much.
The thing is, on my way out, my car was still the only one in the driveway. It was a 2 car driveway and while I was inside the old dude claimed that his "appointment was there" however, that appointment must have driven in her invisible car being that mine was the only one there. I will note that this business isn't easy to get to unless you're in a car, it's on a super busy street, there are no sidewalks and it's not a walker friendly location so... yeah, how his appointment was there I don't know. It seemed more as if he just wanted to prove he didn't have time to glance at my art piece. Totally fine, the prices are outrageous anyway.

Attitude can make or break whether a new customer gives you their money and/or becomes a returning customer. In this case, the appraiser won't get my money but instead 2 stars for the girl who works in the front, thanks for being nice! Kindness is worth it's weight in gold these days.