Dig This Treasure!

For once we were able to get started early on a Friday. I arrived at Erin’s at 10:45 and we departed shortly after. The first sale on our list was located really close to Erin’s house. As soon as we walked in, we recognized the woman running the sale as the same one we met at the beauty salon sale. We thought this was a good sign, but as it turns out, it wasn’t. I’ll get to that in a minute. 

So, this house seemed to have some treasures in it if you dug enough. Erin certainly found some that I’m sure she’ll write about in her update. I found a couple of cool things, but nothing crazy. There was a HUGE collection of Playboys, but they had them all grouped together and were trying to sell them as a lot for $175!!! WTF? They were all newer, too. No vintage as far as I could tell at all. 

When we got to the basement, there were lots of other magazines, and when I started sorting through some of them, I discovered that there was actually another whole stack of Playboys hidden amongst some Golf Magazines. The stack of Playboys I found went up through August of last year, so dude was still gettin’ his porn on until late in life. I couldn’t exactly figure out this man’s steeze but he seemed to like golf, naked ladies, and western wear. Here’s one of the best things I found:

That is a label inside one of his cowboy hats. 

While we were in the basement, I also spied some sealed alcohol. Most of it was champagne, but they also had some old beer. At this point, Erin already had a load of stuff in her arms, and was desperately searching for a box. I emptied one for her; it was sort of large but not deep. She said that was fine, and started loading it up with stuff, including four bottles of the alcohol. A disaster waiting to happen, I know. 

Anyway, I had two breakable items in my hands and then found the stack of Playboys, so I wasn’t much better off. Erin definitely had it worse, though, because in addition to the box of heavy stuff, she had a fold-up chair hanging from her arm, and then two golf clubs in her hands.

So here is where it gets really great. We are waiting in line with all our crap, and there’s one guy in front of us. While that guy is waiting to finish checking out with a credit card, the woman whom Erin “loved” from the beauty salon sale (who is the only person at the table) gets a call on her cell phone and proceeds to talk to this person casually for literally 5 minutes. Important to note: there are probably five people behind Erin and I. The guy shuffles from foot to foot, trying to figure out if he’s done or needs to stay. About two minutes into the conversation, she makes a gesture so he knows he can leave. But that leaves the rest of us standing there, waiting. A woman a few people behind me tells her husband to go find the other woman working the sale, who basically ends up being useless. 

Erin looks at me desperately, because there’s nowhere for her to put her giant box of stuff, and it’s getting too heavy for her. I can’t help much because my arms are also full. The woman just keeps going on and on with her friend on the phone, making plans to meet up “any day but Thursday,” and blah blah blah. It was seriously insane. Finally, she gets off the phone, looks at Erin and says, “WHAT’S UP.” I’ll let Erin debrief you on the exchange, but needless to say, it was also insane. 

Here is a picture of the best treasure I found at this sale. A porcelain beagle made in Japan. Y’all know I can’t resist my beagle statues. 

We finally made our way out of the house and on to the next sale which was only a few miles from that one. They had a bunch of old children’s toys and puzzles, but they weren’t in great shape and they were sort of marked up. I did, however, find something that was NOT marked up, which hopefully will be fruitful. An original Margaret Wise Brown. Damn, Dawg! 

I’ve got it up on eBay now, thanks to a friend who helped me identify it as a first edition. If you know of a collector, send them my way!

I also found Papa Bear.

He’s in good shape and will fit right in on my shelf of stuffed children’s book characters at work. 

On our way to the next sale, we saw an estate sale sign that was not on our list, nor was it online. SECRET SALE! It was weird but ended up being fruitful, as I found these absolutely adorable vintage buddies:

They were in a big ziplock baggie that had a sticker on it that said “VINTAGE KURT ADLER SCROOGE SET”… I couldn’t tell a lot about what Kurt Adler ornaments were at first glance, but after doing some research when I got home, it seems like it’s a company that’s been around for a while, and also like it’s a brand that people collect. Anyway, the set already has some watchers, so I’m hoping for a good outcome. They’re so cute! I honestly don’t really want to sell them but they’re pretty big and we already have too many ornaments (you’re welcome, Adam). 

At this point we were really hungry, and the final sale of the day was really close to Pastries by Ellen again, so I cheered as Erin agreed that we could eat there. We fueled up on delicious food and treats and headed out to the final sale. Now, this sale was run by the kids who seem like they’re squatting in the houses where they have sales. But Erin wanted to go because it was supposedly the home of a collector who had multiple antique booths. Anyway, the house was about as horrific inside as the previous sale they ran that we wrote about, and the items were equally overpriced. Here’s an example, but Erin has more: 

This is a bad picture, but basically, that is a windowsill full of garbagey christmas ornaments priced from anywhere between $3 and $10 each. 

I ended up finding a couple of cool things. First, this old wooden Vernor’s carrier: 

If you don’t like Vernor’s, you’re crazy. If you don’t know what Vernor’s is, you’re not from Michigan. 

I also found these two weird prints of EMU from… the ’50s or ’60s if I had to guess. 

They are both by a person named Ralph Avery, and were both marked $5. I sort of felt obligated to buy them, but also liked the ’50s looking people walking around campus. 

Finally, Erin found some vintage LEGOs on a table. So of course, I had to call Adam. One set was marked $75 because it was sealed, but it actually seemed pretty cool—the red double-decker London bus.

I gathered all of my stuff and went outside to check out. Adam told me to ask the guy if he’d take $40 for it and it seemed unlikely to me, but I figured I’d ask. The guy said he’d take $50, so I just said, “Ok, what would you want for all of this stuff?” The Vernor’s box was marked $25, the two prints were marked $5 each, and the bus was marked $75. He said I could have it all for $70 and so I went ahead and got it all because that’s a $40 discount. SWEET!

To top things off, when we were about to leave, one of his employees went out to their scary looking “company” van and grabbed a Coors Light. The guy running the sale looked at me, rolled his eyes and said, “Apparently it’s party time. Fuckin’ A.”

Okay, then.

-Sarah 

Update from Erin: So yeah, I almost passed out at that first sale.  Here is what I had in my hands while the seller lady chatted away on the phone for 5 minutes: 2 CRAZY HEAVY cast iron skillets, 2 FULL bottles of champagne, 2 FULL collectible bottles of beer, an old metal wind chime, a wooden fold-out PGA chair, and 2 golf clubs.

I was sweating so bad trying to hold this stuff in line, and there was literally no where to set it down.  My arms started shaking and I kept looking at Sarah in desperation, mouthing “It’s so heavy! It’s so heavy.”  Like Sarah mentioned, the lady finally got off the phone and then asked me, “WHAT UP?”

I looked at her in disbelief and said, “Uh, I’d like to buy all of these things.”  Of course, nothing was priced, and the seller started slowly glancing over my items.  Things quickly devolved into total chaos as she quoted me $60 for just the skillets and alcohol.  Um, no.  She then said that the golf clubs were $20 EACH.  Um, no.

We negotiated back and forth and it became clear that she was getting confused by what prices she had already quoted me.  We settled on $20 for the skillets, German wind chime, and the PGA chair.  Fair enough, especially since one of the skillets was Griswold.  I left the alcohol and golf clubs behind.  Here is the wind chime that I plan to put on my back deck:

Here is the staircase to the attic from the second sale:

Not dangerous at all.

Also not dangerous at all was the attic itself.  The floorboards were super flimsy and I was sure we were going to plummet through the floor at any moment.  At one point, I found an odd looking bundle wrapped in newspaper and tied shut with string.  I started to open it and was chanting, “bag of money! bag of money!”  I was so sure I was about to make it rain up in there.

The bundle ended up being a bunch of old baby gowns and clothes from the 1950s.  All in great shape and super fancy.  I am going to list them soon on ebay, but if they don’t sell, I will tuck them away for a future mini-Erin baby.

The last sale was a nightmare.  The house had no heat and this day was a super windy 40 degrees, so we were walking around the sale shivering.  I could tell that we were both getting cranky from the cold and the insane prices at this sale, because we didn’t try to whisper our commentary.  At one point, I openly noted that Sarah would have to dip into her 401K early to buy some of the things for sale.  For example, here are some drinking and wine glasses:

They are marked $15.  They weren’t signed and they clearly aren’t solid gold, so I was pretty stumped on this one.

We moved through the sale pretty quickly, which was made easier by the giant holes in the walls that we stepped right through.

I ended up buying a heavy wool jacket from the United States Military Academy at West Point.  I found it in a box of clothing that had a sign directly above saying, “All Clothing $2.”  There was a lot of other jackets, sweaters, etc. but the only indication for pricing was that sign.  I handed one guy the $2, but then another dude started insinuating that I should give them more money.  Oh boy.  The issue was dropped once the guys decided to go outside and drink beer instead.  Anyway, here I am in the coat.  I planned to sell it, but think it might make cute and super warm winter wear.  We’ll see!

P.S. By the looks of this photo, I definitely wasn’t out until 2am the previous night at a martini bar.  Wait, yes I was.

Yesterday I decided to venture out on my own to some nearby sales.  The first sale I went to was in Dearborn, and was pretty uneventful, except for the Hitler parade photo I uncovered.  Looks like I can sell the picture on ebay after all, but with some stipulations.  I can say “WWII” and “Germany” and “Hilter” but I definitely cannot say “Nazi.”  I may also have to blur out the swastika in the photo.  In addition to ebay restrictions, I am having my own moral dilemma with this one…similar (but arguably worse) than our contemplation of selling “bulge photos” online.  Not sure if I want to be that person making money off of Hitler pics…

Anyway, the second sale I visited was in Inkster.  I knew right away that this sale was going to be weird and gross.

Yeah, that is a real dried out wasp nest that they were selling for $30.  The man running the sale tried convincing me that I could easily resell this wasp nest for $100 on ebay.  I told him that I wouldn’t have any idea how to ship it, and his reply was, “Well, in a box I suppose.”  Yeah no kidding, but, 1. this will break and 2. what do I say when the post office man asks if I am shipping anything potentially hazardous?

P.S. Imagine the look on my husband’s face should I walk in the door with a GIANT WASP NEST.

The house was clearly a hoarder, but one with some sense of organization.  Here is the living room:

Lots of animal statues, but also lots of oversized silverware decorations:

Too big?  How about this size:

The last thing I will mention about this sale is the garage.  It was packed with a lot of dirty and broken things, but in the back was this table full of old McDonald’s toys.  We mentioned before that McDonald’s toys are pretty much valueless, even if they are unopened.  The toys at this sale though were all opened and all real dirty.  I almost died when I saw that they wanted 75 cents EACH for these!!!  Unreal.  These were suitable for one of two things: a “free box” or a garbage can.

I did buy one cool thing at this sale, but it will be featured soon in its own entry.  And for the record, it is a sexy item, so I can no longer blame Sarah for all of our racy entries.

-Erin

Since Friday was sort of a bust, Sarah and I decided to wake up bright and early to hit more sales on Saturday.  Actually, that is only half-true.  I wokeup bright and early thinking that Sarah did too, and that she was picking me up at 10am as promised.  We got rolling around 11:30.  ANYWAY…

The sales were awful.  We rolled up to the first house and instantly panicked.  It was the SAME HOUSE as the one where our Cash & Cari blowout went down.  We were so confused at first, thinking that maybe we were just delusional.  Sure enough though, this was the same house.  Another estate sale company had been brought in to try and sell more of the items that were left after the first sale.  

I felt like I had PTSD the whole time I was at this sale.  I got nervous stomach as soon as we walked it.  It was hilarious and absurd.  In the end, I didn’t find any treasures.  In fact, I only found sad things…like the following:

I also found a bunch of old wedding photos, dirtied and shoved under a bunch of boxes, as well as a crumpled marriage license.  Such a bummer finding those types of things.  

Since I mentioned it, I’ll say that Sarah and I did find disguises should we ever have to attend another RePurpose sale.  We picked these up at a garage sale Saturday for 50 cents.  The man who sold them to us was super drunk and kept calling us “ladies,” as well as constantly apologizing to us for every move he made around the garage.

We saw a rummage sale sign after visiting this garage sale, and despite Sarah’s objections, we stopped.

The sale was in the clubhouse of some neighborhood development, and all clothes and shoes were $5 per bag.  I was excited about this, but I could tell that Sarah was less than enthused.  She busied herself with the book table while I dug through the clothes.

I ended up with some surprisingly nice scores…Ralph Lauren corduroys, a Pendleton blazer (that Sarah found and kindly gave to me), some unworn Mossimo shoes in my size, and two Banana Republic sweaters.  I also found this old pair of Nikes that may turn out to be quite lucrative.  They are from the 80s and similar pairs sell for anywhere between 80-100 dollars.  I already have one bid on them and have had 3 people message me asking for more details.  Very exciting!

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Ask Erin how late she is to my house any time she has to be at it.

ANYWAY…When we were walking down the street from our car to the first sale, I said, “Something about this walk reminds me of the last Cash & Cari sale.” We hadn’t even gotten to the house yet! Damn, I’ve got a good memory. Anyway, it wasn’t another company that came in to sell the rest of the stuff there—it was family. I only know this because I overheard the main woman running the sale telling a buyer that these large pictures in the house were her ancestors. I think the owner of the house was the woman’s aunt. ANYWAY… somehow I ended up spending almost $40 at this sale but I’m too lazy to take pictures of what I spent it on. I do know that I purchased a Beavis and Butthead book. 

Erin left out a horrible sale between the first and the neighborhood rummage sale. It was horrible, and was sort of the “third strike” for me with this particular company. Who shall remain nameless because they’re not on TV. Anyway, the guy who runs these sales is crazy and overprices literal junk. There wasn’t a single thing in this home worth purchasing. Also, he had a “Cash for Gold” sign outside the house. Where he was supposed to be SELLING things. Not buying them. But the worst part was that the house had a hot tub in the basement which is about the grossest thing ever. I’d rather find guano in a barn than a hot tub in a basement. At least I learned officially that from now on even if pictures look ok, this dude’s sales aren’t worth going to. 

At the rummage sale, I found a huge stack of ’80s ARTnews magazines for $2. I actually don’t think they’ll sell but they’ll be cool to go through. One of them featured Cindy Sherman so why not? Also, while I was walking around with them in my arms, one of the women running the sale came up to me and said, “What books did you find?” I showed her and she said, “Oh I think I know what house these came from. The woman was a wonderful artist. She’s in heaven now.” I’d like to know how she confirmed this information. 

Erin left out the best part of the day, which was going to Pastries by Ellen, which, if you’re ever in Sylvan Lake before 4 p.m., you should hit up. They had macarons and I asked for a lemon one even though they were $2 each, which is simply outrageous. But to my delight, when I opened the box I discovered that the guy at the pastry counter had given me THREE: a lemon, a strawberry and a chocolate. Dude ruled.

Sorry for the lack of pictures of the delicious treats. Eating them was top priority. 

We do have a post about our trip on Saturday but I’ll save that for tomorrow and surprise Erin with this one tonight. I am so incredibly mad right now, I need to just get this off my chest. 

So the vintage zodiac suit (the one that accidentally led us to the dark world of “bulge” photos) ended up selling last week, and I was pretty excited, just because it was a cool suit and I figured it found a good home.

I thought everything was fine and dandy until I received this message this morning: 

Ok, so let’s take a look at the original listing, shall we? 

That’s right, the description of the fabric is: “white with blue and black zodiac symbols all over it.” 

So, in fairness, I respond in this way. And for the record, at this point I’m perfectly happy to refund his money for the suit: 

This is the truth— and maybe it’s because I’m used to looking at the suit INSIDE MY HOME, but uhm…the pictures of it are how it looks. And again, it’s described as “white.” And it’s about 40 years old—so yeah, the white is a little yellowed. Apparently just not to his liking. 

So homeboy writes back again, and says this: 

“I did read the discription but usually a picture is worth thousand words.  If you use flash you get realistic results on colors.  Esp. important when selling clothes.   I’m have to see what my wife says .  This was purchase for a 70’s style family portrait and I wanted Quin to match the yellows in my shirt.”

Glad I’m on a first name basis with his son. Also particularly thankful for the words of wisdom. Anyway, after consulting with Adam, my resident eBay expert, this is what I write back: 

“If the suit had been yellow, it would have been listed as a yellow suit, not a white suit. Using a flash on clothing washes it out, which is also problematic in representing an item accurately. This is not, by any means, the first time I have sold clothing on here. In the future, I’d just like to reiterate that colors can often appear inexact in images, and if you’re at all concerned, you should ask in advance of purchase. Especially if the color in a description looks different to you than the color in an image. To me, that picture is just clearly taken in indoor lighting. The suit does not look yellow. I am happy to refund the cost of the suit if you’d like to send it back to me, but I will not refund shipping. At this point, I am primarily concerned about feedback. I don’t think this is an error on my part, but I do not want to receive negative feedback from you. Let me know if you’d like me to go ahead with the refund.”

A few hours later, I get this response:

“‘To me, that picture is just clearly taken in indoor lighting’. This statement is funny to me cuz all there is to compare your color points to is wood table(which can be stained any color), I have to trump you there cuz I am a professional photographer and there is nothing clear in this photo pointing to indoor lighting.

There are off whites that look yellowish. I can go into a paint store and see yellow looking whites all day, therefore the term “white” can be up for interpretation- that being said ebayers will always look to the photo to clearify. I own a photo studio for a full time living and am very familiar with camera settings- most cameras have an indoor mode to set white balance to correct the problem. OR you can put a piece of white paper over the flash to diffuse it. OR put on photo up washed out to show real color and another to show detail. OR take the photo outside under natural light instead of yellow house bulbs. OR in the auction say “I know the photo looks yellow BUT”… OR put “white” in the TITLE knowing it is represented as yellow. Most importantly for your ease of mind I will NOT require a refund. I am just disappointed (less cuz of money, more cuz I planned on shooting this weekend). another note: I took the tone your reply as that you are speaking as an expert seller and I as a novice buyer that would need tips from you, but I also must point out that I have score of 922 and alot more purchases than that. I have bought roughly $400,000 dollars in items on ebay in the last 12 years. No matter how you explain the auction- that you were in the “right” and I was wrong, The auction was still unclear and misleading(unintentional of course).

I am corresponding to you NOT for money off or a refund, but on principle. So if you would simply admit to me in response that the auction could have been more clear and apologize. I will not leave bad feedback.”

This just threw me over the edge. I couldn’t handle it. I mean, this is the sort of argument reserved strictly for husbands/wives and/or close friends and family (AKA “Just admit that I’m right and we’ll drop it”), NOT STRANGERS ON EBAY!!! Adam said, “This guy’s insane, he’s going to leave you negative feedback no matter what. Keep his money! He just has buyer’s remorse!”

Instead, I went ahead and refunded his money, and sent him the following message:

“Wow, you have a lot of time to argue with people on here.

I in no way suggested that I am an expert seller, nor did I suggest that you’re a novice buyer. All I did was reiterate that if you are that concerned about the color of an item being exact and perfect, you ask before purchasing. I’ve offered you a refund; you’ve refused. I apologize for your experience but I do not apologize for the listing. I’m not a professional photographer—I use my iPhone to take pictures of items I post, as do *many* individuals on here. My listings explicitly state to ask any questions before purchase, and the listing stated that the suit was white. Not off white, not yellowish white, but white. The suit is white. There was absolutely nothing wrong with my description of the item.

It’s not my job to get into arguments with buyers—it’s my job to solve a problem that a buyer has. The problem I can solve is refunding your money. You appear to just want to bully me into making a statement that I don’t agree with, which is both odd and a waste of my time. If you want to start coaching sellers on how to more accurately represent colors in eBay listings, maybe you should start a side business.

I’ve refunded your money completely, so maybe you can take that sum and purchase some Rit dye to get the color just right on your son’s suit.”

Fin. (Probably not, actually. I’ll update y’all with my tainted 100% positive feedback when it comes.)

-Sarah

Sarah and I decided to head out for an adventure on Friday, our sights set on two sales in Grand Blanc, which is just past Lansing.  We were excited because both sales looked pretty good.  Spoiler alert: they weren’t.

On the way to Grand Blanc though, we stopped in Whitmore Lake, and good thing because we found lots of treasures.  I picked up this cool ceramic pitcher for Zach.  It was some sort of promotional item for Cutty Sark scotch.  I liked it because it looks really New England-y, and knew he would dig it.  

I also got Zach this little box of old flags, but turns out that he wasn’t that interested.  I might try to sell them on ebay, but I am not even sure what they are or how to list them.

Cute right?  I might just leave them on the bookshelf like this as decoration.  Anyway, the best part of this sale is that everything was priced SUPER reasonably.  And despite it being the first day, the sellers were really fair on reducing prices for us since we ended up buying a lot.  I love sales like this, obviously.

To resell, I bought some old 1950s/1960s sewing patterns which already have a bid on ebay.  As well as a Laurel Burch cat pin that started blowing up with bids the second I listed it!

I am actually a little bummed that the Laurel Burch pin has so many bids.  I told myself that I would happily keep it should it not sell.  I imagined it on my spring coat.  Oh well.  I guess with all the crazy cash it brings in I could buy a pin for my jacket.

As I mentioned, we headed to Lansing after this sale and were in for a whole afternoon of disappointment.  Things seemed promising at first:

I walked down into this basement and was excited by the volume of items before me.  It was a real nice moment.  I was all alone in the basement and Selena was blasting on the radio.  I was sure that good things were about to happen.  Then, Sarah came downstairs, announced that she didn’t know who Selena was, and things got worse from there.

I opened a box and started rummaging, immediately realizing that something was way wrong.  I started screaming in misery as I realized my hand was covered in some sort of ultra sticky goo.  

Yeah, that cup is filled with an ocean of melted candy, clearly decades old.  I assume this candy was one of those chewy old-time candies that rip out the fillings in your teeth.  Bit O’ Honey or something like that.  Whatever it was, it was sticky as hell and ruined the use of my right hand until I could wash it.

I found one thing at this sale, an old Napco salt shaker that I put on ebay.  We’ll see how that goes.

Stay tuned for our update tomorrow, all about some sales we hit on Saturday.  Don’t get too excited, but we did hit up a random rummage sale and I scored some ultra-cool vintage Nikes!  

-Erin

Update from Sarah: First off, sorry this is so late going up. I had a lot of work to do today, and am also getting sick. Anyway, Erin is right. The sales on Friday weren’t that great—especially not for how far we had to travel to get to them. The exception, as she mentioned, was the sale in Whitmore Lake. I just took pictures of all the stuff I bought and I’m horrified with myself in some instances. For example, what was I thinking here? 

There is only one pin here that was necessary to buy, and I think we all know which one that is. 

Besides those great finds, I found some other actually cool things. For example, these two cute dolls: 

The one on the right, I believe is a polish doll that matches two others I found at a sale a while back. I love the one on the left best, though. 

I also found some awesome vintage Peanuts Christmas cards. Here is a picture of me, hoarding the cards so that Erin cannot get at them:

Here is a picture of Erin with yet another Mouse King!

That one didn’t have smaller mice crawling out of its neck. 

When we got to the basement, I found a huge stack of vintage wrapping paper, which is always my favorite thing to find. Here are some of my favorites from the big stack I found: 

Two final items that I had to purchase: 

I wonder if the girl on the bench is as happy as she appears. 

I would like to say that both the wrapping paper and that small, vintage bear-shaped milk bottle pictured above were in a pantry in the basement that Erin had already gone through and told me there was nothing inside. When I got back upstairs and she saw that I had both of these things AFTER she already had first chance at them, she was sad. OH well! Finders Keepers! Plus, she already has a bear-shaped bottle. 

On our way to the first sale in Grand Blanc, we saw the first of a new chain of hotels—Dads Inn (not to be confused with the lesser known Days Inn). 

The next sale on our list was down a very treacherous road. Here is a picture of what it looked like: 

This sale contained a lot of garbage that was not worth the 80 minute drive to dig through. I found a stack of vintage cards, some vintage Tuco puzzles that may or may not be valuable (whatever, they were $.50 each, and then these adorable buddies: 

Finally, at the last sale, I found one cute thing, and then a couple of things to try to resell. This is my one cute thing: 

Probably an ash tray, and clearly needs to be cleaned, but it’s cute! 

I also got a few other things that may or may not be worth anything. First, a bunch of vintage Christmas carol pamphlets (I think they were things that places would hand out when you went caroling?) 

Next up, a vintage money counter. AKA, the Handy Adder: 

Finally, I found this weird pamphlet about Russian education: 

Tomorrow we will update about day two of sale-ing, which wasn’t much better.

P.S. I know who Selena is—I just don’t know her songs when I hear them.

P.P.S. That Laurel Burch pin is fugly.  

I briefly mentioned that I picked up this old paper “Humanoscope” at a recent sale.  I bought it for $1 and hoped to turn it over for around $5 or so.  I apparently underestimated the desirability of whatever-the-hell a humanoscope is.

I started my ebay listing for this item at $2.99 and it ended up selling for $37.  THIRTY-SEVEN DOLLARS for a 4-page paper booklet.  I was astounded.  

But here is where things get interesting…

Riddle me this Batman.  There are a few other Humanoscopes for sale on ebay.  All the same as mine.  And they are listed as “Buy It Now” for like $11.  AND NO ONE IS BUYING THEM.  Why was mine bid up to $37 when people could just go buy one of these from the other auctions?  It makes NO SENSE.

Although, I’m not complaining.

-Erin

I’ve been saving these two priceless pics for a rainy day, so you’re in luck! 

It was difficult, but we managed to leave a sale without these two gems. We spotted both at the sale a few weeks ago where we fought for a few moments over a dirty miniature, and also where I saw replicas of Erin’s future children:

I know some would agree with this sentiment, but I’m definitely not one of them. In fact, my back door is always locked. Also, two dollars seems fairly steep. 

But this find is definitely even better: 

Look, I realize that this is the Mouse King from the Nutcracker (fun fact: Erin didn’t know this), but I don’t remember ever hearing a version of the tale where all the other mice crawl up his outfit. Am I wrong? 

Also, which is crazier—the Mouse King or Erin’s expression? 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: That Mouse King doesn’t just have mice crawling up his outfit.  Look closely, that rodent doll has all those little mice heads attached to his neck!  Like he has multiple mice heads on his body.  So gross.  The original price tag on that atrocity was $40 which is seriously so sad.

As for my expression, who knows.

Anyway, here is a hard to resist treasure that I am adding to the list.  It is from one of the barn sales last Friday.  

Box of old coconuts.  Anyone?  

So a few weeks ago, I provided some long overdue eBay updates. They weren’t that exciting. I have more exciting news this week on the smut front. I sold all of the weird porn that I found at that one sale a few weeks ago. It didn’t sell for mass quantities of money, but at least someone bought it! One of the purchasers was Organ himself! What a guy! Because the pictures are far too racy for this decent audience, I will summarize: 

Two vintage issues of Hustler: $4.99

Eight issues of weird “Family Secrets” and “Sexy Letters” type digests: $10.50

Five issues of Playboy, including one with Vanna White: $7.99

Six vintage issues of Playboy: $9.99

So in summary, I didn’t make a lot on any of this crap, but I’m glad it all sold. The one suggestion I do have, though, is to NOT look at the Facebook profile of a person who buys your ultra smutty (“Family Secrets”) porn. I will not out this person, because that’s just not right. However, I will post some of the (as I like to call them) Facebook Gifs that he’s plastered all over his wall. These are the ones that are safe for our more sensitive DTT readers:  

And one of the more ultra-benign, non-sexy ones…

Needless to say, I feel horrified that this person has my return address. 

So all in all, a bit of a letdown, but I’m hoping that these vintage playboy puzzles end up bringing in the dough. Considering the fact that people have already started bidding each other up on them, I think it will happen. I’ve already made most of my money back on them. Here’s what seems to be the most popular, and my favorite—Britt Frederickson—she looks a lot like Lindsay Lohan!

-Sarah

Update: The puzzles that sold brought in the cash, but two of them didn’t sell at all. I relisted them and we’ll see what happens. Here are the stats: 

Britt: $24.50

Cynthia Myers: $22.19

Gwen Wong: $14.99

I still made my money back but I’m hoping that the two that didn’t sell end up doing so. 

So all in all, none of this stuff ended up being a great investment, but it’s all a learning experience: For example, I now know that if I ever find one of the 500 piece puzzles, I should grab it—they’re worth some cash. 

Update #2: The final two puzzles sold for $15 each so my total profit was $41. Not bad! 

This is a surprise post for Sarah.  After our sales last week, I stayed at Sarah’s house and watched her dogs while she went to Canada for a Sloan concert.  Here are her beagles eating some bones:

The cute one’s name is Betsy and I don’t remember what the second one’s name is.  Anyway, while I was there, I decided to pretend I was at an estate sale.  (Sarah’s house is decorated pretty much completely with estate sale finds.)  Here are some photos of treasures that I would buy should this have been a real estate sale and not my friend’s empty house:

First up is this little hedgehog.  He is made of some sort of real animal fur.  He is also the cutest thing ever.  I thought about stealing him, but I am generally a super good person and decided against it.

This is some sort of amazing old printing press thing.  You arrange the letters on it, ink, and then print away.  It is so cool looking.  I am obviously really jealous of this piece.

This old box is just my style.  Rustic and primitive, I can just picture this guy hanging out on my fireplace instead of Sarah’s.

Last up are these things I will call “roundies.”  I’m not sure what they are or what they do, but they are round and they are cute.  They appear to be Japanese.  Whatever they are, I want them.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I just found this in our post queue and it made me LOL. I would like to straighten out some factual inaccuracies, though.

First, Erin made us pay her $10/hr. to watch our dogs, which is still a good rate, but she made it sound like she was being charitable. Second, she loves pretending like she hates my 13-year-old beagle, Max just because he ate her Panera off our coffee table four years ago. Who is dumb enough to leave Panera out in front of a hungry beagle? Third, our home is NOT decorated of mostly estate sale finds, because Adam would never allow it. And also, some things would be sort of gross to have used. For example, someone’s old couch would be gross. You never know who bumped uglies on there.

Erin found some great things to “purchase” from my home—some of my favorites, actually, and Adam’s too (except for the hedgehog). The hedgehog was actually purchased at a Cash and Cari sale last summer (you were with me, Erin.) The printing press tray & blocks are something Adam found at my favorite sale. I think we found that wooden box there as well. The “roundies” are these wood carvings that Adam brought me back from Japan. So not old at all or from an estate sale, but still adorable.

In summary, good selections—I approve!  

On Friday, we decided to go to some sales that were out on the west side of town, rather than out where Erin lives. There were a ton of sales out by her, but they all looked bad, and there were two out in the boonies that looked good. Erin also discovered an ad for a barn sale in the town where I live, so we figured we’d hit that up too. The ad for the barn sale made it sound cute and interesting. I should have known that it was going to be a letdown, considering the fact that the person who listed the sale used quotation marks instead of apostrophes when necessary:

“Picker”s delight Barn Sale!…Cleaning out our barns built in 1877.  Antiques, collectibles, shabby chic and oddities.  WWI cavalry items; saddle pad, Sam Browne Belt, canteen cover.  Old skis and  sled.  A brass and iron bed.  Other items: Victorian walnut platform rocker,  spool bed, caned chairs, Childs/doll items; rattan stroller, pine doll bed, wicker doll high chair, child”s rocking chair.  Vintage Limoges, Aynsley, china. Vintage linens, clothes, aprons, hot pads, table cloths, dish towels and doilies.  Old buttons, sewing items, crochet hooks, knitting needles.  Lots of old advertising ephemera; cookbooks, recipes, cards, booklets, instruction manuals, flyers and maps.  Several kid”s marble games.  Large assortment of jewelry, vintage and newer.  Antique Persian copperware. Garden accessories, shabby chic chairs, plant stands.  Old bottles, and books.  New messenger bags, computer laptop bags, golf shoe bags, insulated lunch bags.  Old photos, and postcards early 1900”s.  Hanging leaded glass lamp.  Set of 4 Mission Oak tavern chairs.  Old chalkware Kewpie doll bank.  Set of china for 12.  Oil lamps. Architectural Antiques; 4” Round spoked window, newel posts, railings, doors, doorknobs, hinges, hooks, faucet handles, mirrors, light fixtures, lots of barn wood, barn stuff, Fisher Price wood toys. 1889 framed Odd Fellow Lodge document. 2 brass chandliers, one large and one smaller.  Men”s hats.  1930”s vanity w tall mirror. Porcelain topped table.  Vintage wood kitchen cupboard, oak dresser w mirror, Art Deco cupboard, oak washstand.    Homemade cookies, brownies, and banana bread, gourmet coffee and  lots more treasures.  Old expanding drying racks, throw rugs. Old picture frames.  Steel wagon wheels, kid”s school desk, roll top desk top, gun rack, carpenter”s tool chests,  misc. housewares.  Plants. and more..

I was sold when she told me there would be cookies and brownies there. Since it was really close to my house and the other sales were an hour away, we hit the barn sale up first. This is what the outside of the barn looked like—a bunch of antiques and non-antiques all over the lawn:

Right away, Erin said, “I already love this sale.” I did for a second, too, when I saw this adorable racoon:

But a few minutes later we were both in agreement that it sucked. Bottom line is that the ad did not lie. However, it was like they had ONE of each of those items. Which does NOT fit the description of a “picker’s delight”… I was trying to rush Erin out of there, but she kept gazing at the rafters in the barn, saying, “I just really love that wood. Don’t you wish you had a barn?” Uh… ok. Anyway, guess I know what I’ll be getting Erin for her birthday—some rotten wood.

I bought an antique bottle carrier and some other odds and ends and Erin bought some old handout about tornados that she forgot in my car. I also bought some baked goods. The woman who made them told me the cookies were really good and she lied. The brownies were good but they were basically bite sized, for $.50. Come on now. 

Disappointed, we left for the second sale of the day in Mason, MI, which is basically in the middle of nowhere. The ad for the sale sounded great, and the pictures looked good too. It was a house and barn sale. Anyway, when we pulled up, we saw a bunch of insane things, including this: 

If it’s hard to make that out, it’s a little craft tent, full of large white piggy banks with people’s names painted on them. What the hell? Erin immediately started going ballistic, yelling, “I thought this was an estate sale! Is this a craft sale?!” I’ll admit I was worried too. Anyway, there were some scary peeps outside the barn that was next to the craft tent, so we went inside the house first. There were a few tables of vintage ephemera, which is my jam, but not an overwhelming amount. There were a few piles of vintage cards that they’d had priced at $1 each. Whatever, I bought some. I’m not proud. 

When I was looking through the stuff on the table, I heard some people say things like, “oh just wait until you go upstairs!” so I was really excited to find out what treasures awaited us up there. Turns out this person was just OBSESSED with scrapbooking and there was a sh*tload of scrapbooking supplies up there. The one thing I noticed right away was that everything was in big batches and had signs that said “CHOICE” above the price. As in, “Your choice of gross scrapbooking paper for $.50.” 

We got out of the house and went around the corner into the basement, that you had to enter from outside. It was terrifying. Here is a picture of Erin, climbing down into the depths of hell:

There was nothing but junk in the basement—totally not worth the scary descent. Finally, it was time to check out the barn. When we were walking in, Erin said, “This must be where all the treasures are.” She was definitely right: 

I can’t decide what I wanted more—a mini washboard or a Lowe’s paint stick. 

We were ultra disappointed, but then a man with black stubs for teeth told me that we could get into the top level of the barn by going around to the back. We did just that, and found this: 

Yes, that’s right. A whole bunch more junk. While we were walking around up there, Erin spotted some boxes full of USPS Priority Mail boxes and went crazy like she hit the jackpot. I seriously got excited until I realized that she was that enthused about boxes. Anyway, this person must have done a lot of shipping because there were TONS of boxes. Granted, it was a good find—these were the boxes that they never have at the actual post office. They’re smaller sized ones. Anyway, the boxes were in great shape, so we started carrying around these huge armloads of shipping boxes. 

They got pretty heavy and difficult to carry so I set mine down for a minute. When I went to pick them back up, I noticed that the outside box had a bunch of animal droppings on it. I got really grossed out and went back to the pile of boxes to try to find some that did not have turds on them. I thought we were safe and then Erin noticed that her boxes also had turds on them. Finally, we had a bunch of boxes that seemed poo-free, and started walking out of the barn. Now, I had thought that these droppings were from mice. But when we were leaving, two guys working the sale asked us if we found everything ok. I said yes, except I could have done without the mouse poo. One of these hillbillies said, “Those are bat droppins!” I looked at Erin and said, “I think bat droppings are poisonous!” We freaked out a little and then asked the checkout lady about it and she said they were safe. Whaaaa? 

We got back to the car and put all our poopy boxes inside and decided to get some kettle corn with our poo hands. Yeah, I forgot to mention that they also had a kettle corn stand there. Here’s a picture of me looking less excited than I actually was to get kettle corn: 

Once we obtained the corn, we had a dilemma on our hands (NO PUN INTENDED)… How were we going to eat this delicious treat when we had potentially poisonous poo particles on our hands? We tried to squeeze out the remnants of our two small bottles of purell and decided that was good enough. Then, Erin started reading stuff on the Internet about guano, and we got REALLY freaked out. It wasn’t until a little later that Erin read that the excrement has to actually be in large quantities and “moist” in order for it to have the poisonous fungus or whatever on it. But we spent a good two hours worrying. At one point, Erin’s eye kept itching and she kept saying she had “guano eye”. 

Since it was still pretty early in the day, we decided to drive to Okemos for a sale that looked sort of interesting. The guy who lived there obviously served in World War II, so there was a bunch of cool ephemera and clothing from WWII. It was a good way to end the day, because we both found some decent treasures. As mentioned on Friday, I found what will hopefully be the first of many bulge photos, and Erin scored some treasures that I’m sure she’ll write about below. 

I found an old Tuco puzzle that looks like it could sell for a little bit of money. Adam helped me out by putting it together last night and today so I could be sure all the pieces were there. I tried to do some of it this afternoon and failed miserably—the pieces do not interlock, so it’s so hard to put it together!

I also took a risk and purchased a decent sized group of personal photos from the war for $25. I have to do a little research before I list them, so I’m not sure yet if they’re valuable or not. I also got two menus from 1944, and some vintage pamphlets about Iceland that Erin found but for some reason did not want. Turns out they may be worth some cash. Here are the menus: 

I also found this really cool, mid-air picture of a kid at a swimming pool. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: Let me first say, that I was “gazing at the rafters in the barn” of the first sale for a very IMPORTANT reason.  I wasn’t really obsessed with the wood, I was just pretending.  Here’s the deal:  It is super awkward to take pictures at these sales we go to.  People seem very suspicious when we are snapping pics all over the place.  My whole “I-just-love-barns-so-much” act was a well thought-out charade to explain why I was taking photos.  I must be a really great actress because I clearly fooled Sarah.

The second sale was such a bummer, except for the kettle corn.  The ad for the sale went on and on about antiques.  Let me explain something: mass produced mini washboards that look all old-timey do NOT qualify as antiques.  Sure, they are made to “look” antique, but they are cheap and have Made in China stickers on them.  Anyway, I was happy with our shipping boxes.  Here they are in the trunk:

I also got a TON of Sharpie markers, which I use all the time.  And, for the record, my “guano eye” turned out to be my allergies, and it’s all back to normal now.  Oh and also, I kept saying “guana” instead of “guano” which Sarah found hilarious.  I then said something about Guana being a country, and that I was confusing it with bat poop.  All of that I think is a lie, as I am probably just thinking of the country Ghana.

The last sale was good.  I got some Cole Hann men’s boots and some vintage French Shriner dress shoes, each for $3.  I am hoping to resell them.  I also got a vintage Gucci watch that was in a ziploc with other watches all being sold for $10.  I am hoping that it ends up being a Money Maker.

I also picked up this old print, which I thought was some sort of secret society-type art. Zach thinks it is religious art.  The jury is still out on this one, but I think it is so cool, no matter the meaning.

I also got this adorable oven mitt that Sarah was horrified by.  I think it is probably the cutest oven mitt ever made.

In this installment of “Hard to Resist” (HTR), we’ve got some items I encountered while out antiquing in Marshall, MI last weekend.  

First up are these two wizard pins.  Truth is, these actually were kind of hard for me to resist. They were so amazing and hilarious that I considered buying one to wear on my jacket.  They were priced at $25 though, which was way too pricey for a joke.  

Next up is…well, I don’t really know what this is…

I suppose it’s exactly what it says it is—a “tube to blow fire.”  Alright…

The last item that I just had to pass on purchasing is this little Mexican buddy.  He sure is adorable, but the extremely premature mustache was kind of off-putting.  

Cute outfit though.

-Erin

So a few weeks ago, I made reference to the fact that I found a copy of an Uncle Shelby (Shel Silverstein) book, Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros, that looked like it might be worth some dough. Refresher:

I grabbed the book in the basement of the sale on a shelf with some cookbooks. As you probably noticed from the pictures of that basement “motherload,” there was a lot of stuff down there, and not all of it was nice or in good shape. Refresher #2:

Behind a staircase (where I was standing while taking the above photo), I spotted a shelf of books. I have a pretty good spidey sense for valuable children’s books, so I noticed the Silverstein book among the 1970s cookbooks right away. 

I listed it on eBay that night. There were two watchers all week, but no bids. Because I’m greedy, I tried changing the price around a few times (adding a “Buy it Now” option, reducing the starting price, etc.), but nothing seemed to kick those watchers into gear. The other thing I forgot to mention was that, because I listed the book that Friday evening, it ENDED the following Friday evening at 11:54 p.m. That’s the best possible time for an eBay auction to end, right? 

Anyway, nobody bid and I went to bed that night feeling pretty sad, realizing that I had been duped about the value of this book. But about 20 minutes after falling asleep I was startled awake by the lovely noise that your iPhone makes when someone has bid on your item on eBay, and cheered gleefully when I realized that someone had come in and sniped that sucker at the last minute! It sold for $152. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. 

This morning, while I was discussing blog content with Erin, this happened: 

I then blew her mind by showing her this:  

Many laughs were had by all. 

-Sarah

Immediate disclaimer: Erin thinks some of our posts are getting too sexy, but I’m fine with that. 

So, once again, I’ve found myself learning about something sexy that I didn’t intend to learn about. Today I started researching how much a vintage boy’s suit might go for on eBay, since this cute outfit has been laying around my house for a few weeks: 

When you look for completed listings on eBay for “vintage boys suit,” you find a lot of different kinds of items. You find vintage sailor suits, vintage ceramic figurines of children in bunny suits, and then I started noticing something weird. REALLY weird. I was seeing a lot of vintage photographs of boys and young men in bathing suits. And these photographs were selling for a lot of money. This one was the first I noticed that sold for a crapload of money. It seems totally benign. A dad, holding the shoulders of his son. 

But still, I felt creeped out, so I immediately called Erin and told her to take a look. We both thought the same thing—creepy pervs all over the land were scooping up these vintage photographs of boys in bathing suits. But then Erin asked a good question… why? Why do they need to own the photograph if that’s the purpose? Anyway, it gets better. Or worse, depending on how you’re viewing this. 

We started noticing that some of these pictures had the word “bulge” in the title, and then others also had “gay interest” in the titles. So I told Erin that maybe gay men like to use these cool, period pieces to decorate their homes. She seemed skeptical, but I still think that could be it. Maybe that’s wishful thinking. Anyway, if you happen to stumble across a vintage photograph of young men in bathing suits, or any outfit really, where you can see a “bulge,” you might want to consider selling it on eBay, because you could make hundreds of dollars. 

Erin and I talked about how ethical it is or isn’t to sell these items. I’m really not sure how I feel about this. I guess because I don’t really know for sure what the reason is behind the popularity of these items, I’m making a lot of assumptions that are leading me to feel creeped out. But there’s definitely a fine line—there are plenty of pictures up there of little boys in bathing suits that sell for $30-$50, and I honestly can’t think of a GOOD reason for someone to want these pictures, unless they just happen to be collectors of vintage photographs, or have an interest in vintage swimwear. I’m sort of doubtful that that’s the reason, but anything’s possible. 

But in terms of the “bulge” photos of sailors or other seemingly LEGAL young men in swimwear, I’m cool with people buying those, and I’d be cool with selling them. I love vintage photographs. Why wouldn’t someone who likes well-endowed hot old timey dudes want these pics?

Anyway, yes, I know it seems like I am obsessed with all things pervy, but really, I just fall into these situations.

Also, if someone would like a vintage boy’s suit, size 4, created out of zodiac-themed fabric, look no further.

-Sarah

Update from Erin: When Sarah first called me about this, I wasn’t really following what she was saying.  I heard her mention “Zodiac” so I got really excited that she or someone had figured out who the Zodiac killer was.  That was pretty wishful thinking on my part, as she was really just rambling on about that Zodiac patterned children’s suit she had bought.

Anyway, this whole “bulge” photo thing is quite the mystery.  The insanely high prices being paid for these photographs makes me think we are missing the full story here.  Would a perv really spend so much money on these pics when they can probably get free images from their evil co-conspirators in the internet underworld?  

I guess gay collectors—we’ll call them gaylectors—might be a reasonable hypothesis for this phenomenon. So for the record, let me say that the bathing suit pics of well-endowed GROWN men are pretty cool.  Like Sarah, I would totally buy them and sell them (especially because it could make us rich).  

That leaves the pics of little boys (like seriously young boys) in bathing suits being sold and advertised as “bulge” or “topless”  VERY SUSPECT.  I really cannot think of any good explanation for this.  But maybe I can email Nancy Grace and she will bust it wide open.

I miraculously had no plans/obligations/work this past Saturday so Zach and I decided to take a small road trip to Marshall, MI.  I had never heard of it, but at some point Zach was told that it was filled with antique stores.  Indeed, it was!  The whole main street of the town was lined with them.  

We were looking for treasures for our house, instead of items for reselling.  It’s actually been a long time since I’ve bought anything for keeps, except for that doll I bought and Zach hated.  

The first store we visited was called “Amazing Grace Antiques.”  Everything in the store was displayed awesomely.  Cool and unusual display cases, vintage dresses in old wardrobes, books on ornate shelves, etc.  The items were all high quality and interesting.

I immediately fell in love with two items.  One was a tiny “Tom Thumb” cash register toy, and the other was a giant kitchen scale.  

I’ve been into a lot of metal items from the 1950s/60s lately, as well as old scales.  I’ve created a nice home for these items on top of my kitchen cabinets.

Alas, I didn’t buy the toy register or the giant scale.  The register was $20 and I saw that they sell on ebay for significantly cheaper, so I figured I could just pick one up there.  The kitchen scale was too large to fit on top of our cabinets at home. I also didn’t want to try convincing Zach to carry this thing up the store’s stairs and to the car.

To be honest, I am glad we ended up not buying anything at this store.  I was totally in love with the place, but then the following happened…

Zach found this old book about hunting in Africa that he wanted.  It was pushed back on a shelf, among a million other books.  It was in really bad shape (dirty, loose spine, detached pages).  The inside of the book had a price of $20, which seemed pretty high. Zach sadly put the book back.  I picked it back up and told him that I would ask if they could come down on the price.

When I went to the register to ask if they would take less for the book, the woman barely let me get the question out before cutting me off.  ”All prices are firm,” was her answer.  She didn’t even look at the book, or the price on it.  It was really disappointing and the book got left behind.

Continuing on our journey, we saw some other interesting things.  One store had a bunch of old scrapbooks, which was sad but also super fascinating.  

A lot of them had cards and letters in them, and I considered buying one.  I decided against it because I didn’t know what I would do with the scrapbook after looking through all of it at home.  It didn’t seem right to just hide away someone else’s memories on a shelf in my house.  I did this once with some 1940s love letters I bought at a sale.  I read them all, and now they sit in a drawer, which seems really rude of me.

By the end of the afternoon, Zach and I were shockingly without any treasures.  We just didn’t see anything that we HAD to have.  The trip was certainly no waste though, as we ended it by eating at the historic Schuler’s Pub.  I had the best egg salad of my life.  Seriously, highly recommended should you ever find yourself in Marshall, MI.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Did you guys spot that blue scale above Erin’s kitchen cabinets? Look familiar? Why would anyone want to put an old scale that some dirty old naked baby sat on 60 years ago in their kitchen? One of many mysteries that may never be solved. 

Sarah had Friday off of work this week, so we were pretty excited about getting out early and hitting some sales.  We realized pretty quickly though that not only did Good Friday mean Sarah had the day off, but it also meant that our choice of sales was pretty limited.

We thought about just going to Loehmann’s to shop (Sarah had a coupon) but because our ebay listings were getting slim, we decided to sale.  On the way to the first estate, we stopped at a garage sale.  They had some $3 DVDs, clothing heaps, and half-used candles.  We didn’t buy anything.  I did test-drive this Charles Manson-esque Halloween mask though…

After that detour, we made it to the first sale.  This sale was so bad that Sarah didn’t even buy anything, which I believe is unprecedented.  Remember that insane hoarder house we went to?  Even then, Sarah bought some Christmas gift tags.  

I did buy a couple things at this sale.  Some brown craft paper that I use for packaging things, and some brand new OPI nail polish.  That stuff is like $8 new!  I got it for 50 cents.  I also got these crazy magnifying/reading glasses that have flip up lenses.  I plan  to try selling them, and if not, Sarah said she wants them for reading.  Part of me just wants to give them to her because the thought of her wearing them is hilarious.  For now though, here is a photo of me wearing them:

Very chic.

The next sale was just as awful, which was a bummer because we drove pretty far to get to it (about 30 miles).  Upon entry, it was pretty clear what kind of wares we were going to be encountering…

I’ve never been a big reptile fan, and considering the amount of furry animal-related things that Sarah buys, I’m guessing she isn’t either.

We also prefer our beer cans to be full of beer, so the empty can collection was of no interest…

I think that some beer cans are probably collectible, but the effort of trying to figure out which ones might be seemed too tiresome.  We hadn’t eaten yet and were really excited to go to Grand Traverse Pie Company and get some food/treats.

I ended up buying two silver-plated Gerber baby spoons from the 1950s.  I paid $1 total, but it seems like they might not be worth much.  Whomp whomp.

On the way out, I noticed this treasure that we had missed.  $30 is pretty steep, but I hear that LAN parties are pretty awesome.  Actually, I have no clue what a LAN party is, but I know it is something super nerdy. By the looks of the box, it might be tons of fun.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: What a bummer of a sale-ing weekend. Easter had to go and ruin all our fun. 

Ok, so I need to just clarify a few things. First, I might have a hard time leaving a sale without buying something (and FYI this is not true at all at garage sales), but Erin is the worst when we’re at sales where it is obviously just a bunch of garbage. She loves to just linger and make sure she’s dug through every bit of grossness there. Perfect example: I could tell within 20 seconds of being at that Manson mask garage sale that there was nothing good there. But of course, Erin has to slowly and thoroughly browse through the piles of used slippers, dollar store candles, and cheap picture frames, just to make sure she hasn’t missed anything good. You really think there’s gonna be a hunk of gold on that table? 

Second thing: I did not say I wanted to use those glasses to READ. I said I wanted to use them as magnifying glasses, which is what they are! The other day I told Adam that I needed a magnifying glass because I have a hard time reading the really small copyright dates on plastic and metal toys. What Erin also didn’t mention is that she wanted to sell those glasses to a STEAMPUNK on eBay because there was another pair listed that way. I then reminded her that hers are made of giant cream-colored plastic, rather than METAL, which is a necessity for steampunks, and she said, “oh… yeah.” Anyway, obviously she’s going to just keep them since she looks so adorable in them. 

That last sale was the worst, except I found a sealed crystal radio kit that already has two watchers on eBay. The rest of the stuff in that house was pure garbage. This picture perfectly summarizes the experience: