[video]
I guess this is technically a “Hard to Resist” post, because all of the following items were really hard for us not to purchase. You might remember the dumpster-diving sale last week which offered such fine items as McDonald’s snack makers and “not-laser disc” Tron laser discs. This sale also offered an incredible assortment of aardvark-related items.
I don’t know what makes someone love aardvarks so much, but I really can’t judge because I was obsessed with manatees and pigs growing up. I was a card-carrying member of the Save the Manatees Club and adopted a manatee named Ariel. And for Halloween one year, my parents let me dress as a ballerina pig, which is such a SERIOUSLY BAD decision on their part because I was a fat kid.
Before we move on, here are some aardvark facts:
From what I can tell, aardvarks and Sarah have three characteristics in common. I’ll let you guess which ones.
I didn’t see any tickets from the 2nd or 3rd annual Aardvark convention, which leads me to believe that numero uno didn’t go so well.
Um, no. I have not hugged an Aardvark today. I probably would though.
It took Sarah a good 30 seconds of convincing before she put this on. So worth it though.
This all just goes to show you that you really can collect anything….although there is no guarantee at your eventual estate sale that anyone will buy any of it.
-Erin
Update from Sarah: That plastic aardvark nose grossed me out SO BAD.
We mentioned that our adventures two Fridays ago did not end with our stop at Crocker Blvd. Resale. Rather, we had one more very important stop to make. Gibraltar Trade Center! This Friday happened to be Gibraltar’s “Garage Sale Extravaganza.” And what an extravaganza it was.
We blew past all of the normal vendor booths on our way into the Center (more on those later). We even blew past these inflatable water balls that you climb inside of and roll around in. I momentarily considered forcing Sarah to try these out with me, but then I started getting worried that I would pop my inflatable ball, which would be MEGA embarrassing.
When we got to the garage sale area, we were greeted with tables and tables full of treasures (and garbage).
That lady is SO on to us.
This was a booth where some white people sold Native American goods. Each Dreamcatcher came with a special extra treat:
How much do I have to spend to supersize my “reading” to the non-mini size?
All jokes aside, there were some nice booths here. It felt like a huge estate sale–the good and the bad all in one place. I bought a ticket stub from the opening game at Ford Field and an old Briggs Stadium ticket. I paid a mere $6 total. Sarah bought a lot more than me, so I’ll let her show all of that off.
My only other purchase was some handmade Easter candy. This part gets a little NSFW so heads up people! While looking at the available candy, Sarah noticed a sign that said “Adult Novelty Candy–Ask to See.” Of course we asked to see. And of course we bought some.
That rabbit’s sitting on a barrel and has a giant wigglywob. Zach and I still have not eaten this because it creeps us out so bad. I suggested we break off the wigglywob and then eat it, but this still hasn’t happened.
Eventually, Sarah and I left the Extravaganza and got some ice cream at the upscale dining establishment in the heart of the Center.
Mad props to the head chef here because that ice cream was hella good.
From the looks of this photo, Sarah got beer flavored ice cream. I got Superman. Also, here is a close up of that booth behind her:
Idk which of these is my favorite sticker, but probably any of the ones that include the phrase “Ditch the B*tch.”
Anyway, here are some T-Rex heads mounted on a board so you can fool everyone into thinking that you done shot yourself a dinosaur:
I would like to know the rules on hunting baby T-Rexs though, because, like deer, I don’t think you are supposed to kill the babies.
We searched high and low for the wrestling area before we saw that helpful signage hovering in the sky like the Batman symbol.
This person was selling various “oddities,” which I think is becoming a more mainstream thing to do.
I kind of think the truck decals were scarier…and those inflatable water balls.
-Erin
Update from Sarah: You know how you know when you have a world class blog? When your co-blogger’s entry makes you laugh so hard you start crying. I don’t know WHAT kind of face that is that I’m making with the ice cream but it is truly great.
Ok, so right when we walked in, I saw this.
As we all know, a wall of books often excites me. But before I could even start browsing, I saw this sign:
Can someone answer this for me?: In what world is the going rate $18 for a used Dean Koontz hardcover from 1989?
Moving on… the next thing that caught my eye was a wall of iPhone covers being sold by a teenaged Juggalo. He ended up selling me one for $5 and it’s super cute!
The only problem with that little bear is that his big squishy body sometimes rubs against the phone and accidentally flips the ringer on. Very convenient for quiet concerts and movie theaters.
Before I go on to what I did buy, let me show you a few more things that I did not buy:
I’m no expert but I believe that is an assault rifle hanging from the ceiling.
Anyway, when we first walked into the garage sale area, I saw a long line of boxes of records, which of course caught my eye. Right away I found Endless Summer and a bunch of ‘80s records that seemed really awesome at the time but in retrospect really aren’t that exciting. But the guy who sold them to me was nice and only charged me $5 for 8 records. Whee!
I also scored this cool cast iron trolly for $10.
It looks big here but it’s tiny.
The best thing I found, though, was this adorable sterling charm. It’s got inlaid stone so Erin thinks it could be Zuni. I paid $20 which was totally reasonable to me!
It’s a little bigger than the size of a quarter. I’m not even an owl person… I just think it’s adorable.
Like Erin, I also bought my husband some sexy chocolates, and like Erin and Zach, Adam and I cannot bring ourselves to eat them. One of Adam’s is the absolute worst:
Part of me still can’t believe I bought this.
All in all, though, we had a fabulous day! Things are finally improving!
It’s time to share some more estate sale items we had a REALLY hard time not buying.
Why on Earth would you want a fake life-sized child that just creepily hangs out and pretends to play Hide-N-Seek? I’ve seen enough The Good Son to know how terrifying kids playing Hide-N-Seek are. Also, when I wake up at night, I have a hard enough time not scaring myself by imagining a demonic child is going to pop up on the side of my bed. Imagine this thing in the dark. IT’S THE END OF BLAIR WITCH PEOPLE.
“Hey Bill, we are going to put you on a shirt. Yeah, we are using that photo of you staring into space with your mouth wide open.”
This wizard Santa was in a horrible car accident and is still recovering. Prayers please.
Who am I kidding? I would totally read this book:
They were sold out of the friendly rabbits. They were also sold out of the rabbits not holding suspicious items between their legs.
For more HTR entries, look here!
-Erin
After we left the overpriced sale from hell, Erin and I were ready for some num nums. On our way to find food, Erin spotted a sign that said “Sale” in front of a store. We had no idea what sort of store, but I did a U-turn and pulled into the parking lot. As it turns out, we discovered a tiny little gem in the middle of… wherever we were.
There’s a picture of the storefront through my disgustingly dirty windshield.
I’ll admit that the front looked a little janky but the inside was awesome!
The store was filled with lots of antiques, vintage clothing, and just nice, cool stuff in general. Here I am, about to annihilate this cabinet of goodies. I bought three things inside of it!
You can also see that I’m holding an awesome red buffalo plaid jacket. I found it on a rack in the back and it was from J. Crew, in perfect shape. It looked small to me but ended up fitting perfectly!
(Yes, I am married to this person.)
Erin was really interested in that Kewpie doll in the case above but it was priced too high. I ended up with the jacket and some other small items. Here are some of the cutest:
Can you believe those puppies? They’re almost too cute to look at. They’re breaking my computer monitor with their cuteness.
I bought one other item at this sale that I’m going to save for another day because I love it so much, I want to highlight it.
The lady who ran this shop was awesome. She was a little old lady but was very cute and hip, and shared all sorts of gossip with us once we started talking to her. She also had reasonable prices and would negotiate. I’ll let Erin tell you about the gossip.
She was also the perfect person to ask for a restaurant recommendation. After we left her shop, we went to River Crest family dining, per her suggestion.
It was great. Good ranch dressing and chili fries are all I ask for in a restaurant. All Erin asks for is good cole slaw and egg salad sandwiches. This place lived up to our expectations. And they had free tootsie rolls.
-Sarah
Update from Erin: First of all, and most importantly, I got a BLT, not an egg salad sandwich, at RiverCrest.
Anyway, when we rolled up at this little shop, I mentioned to the owner that we spotted the store after visiting an estate sale in the area. It was instantly clear that this woman was well aware of the estate sale we were talking about. We were then told the following tale:
So apparently, the crazy woman running the $7 bra estate sale (here is the link again) had originally hired a company to come in and run the sale. The company cleaned up the entire house (it was apparently chaos) and organized everything on tables, etc. Once the clean-up was done, the crazy woman who owned the house CALLED THE POLICE. She told the police some lie about the company and fraud and how they were now trespassing on her property. The police forced the company to leave, and not return.
So, if you’re not following, this woman got a free house cleaning and estate sale set-up, because she is absolutely bat-sh*t crazy. I must say, though, this is kind of genius.
So I bought two things at this store. First was a Johnson Brothers huge, heavy platter.
It looks like a winter scene, but there’s a turkey hidin’ up in there, so this platter is now multi-use.
The store owner wanted $50, and I was about to put it back when she asked what I was willing to pay. I said $30, but we settled on $35.
That kewpie doll in the case was really cool. It had a little heart sticker on its chest that looked very old. I don’t know a lot about kewpies, but I was guessing that this one was a Rose O'Neill because of the heart. Anyone know if I’m right? It looked like this one I found online:
It was marked $100, which I didn’t want to spend, but maybe it is worth that.
The second item I bought was a Navajo ring. The stone is spiny oyster in a really cool color.
I’m really antsy to wear this ring, but I have to get it sized first. It’s just slightly too small.
Ok, stay tuned, because this day’s adventures are far from over. Sarah and I had one more stop, and it turned out to be a doozy.
Last Friday (Good Friday) honestly didn’t seem that promising. Because of the holiday, there weren’t very many sales. But it ended up being such an awesome day that we’re going to have to split the adventure into multiple posts!
We started out our day by visiting two sales on the east side of town. The pictures of the first one looked promising, but it ended up being packed full of junk. We knew this was going to be the case when we saw people DUMPSTER DIVING in the driveway.
For a minute I thought this was a good sign, but it really was not.
Inside, the place was full of old stuff, but they had a lot of it priced really high, and then the rest was sort of dirty or just cheap and junky. I did find a few cool things. An inflatable birthday cake (don’t worry, it’s never been opened).
Who wouldn’t want this ultimate birthday gift?
I also found some old Fantasia postcards…
…And I honestly can’t remember what else I bought at this sale except for an old flip book for Adam. They were selling a bunch of vintage Disney flip books and the I thought the lady running the sale was full of it when she kept telling us they were valuable, but it turns out she was right! Oh well!
Here is an overview of what you missed out on if you skipped this sale:
Looking through some show tunes on vinyl.. busted!
That is one among many paper box tops filled with Agatha Christie mysteries.
The house was FILLED with these SelectaVision VideoDiscs, which Adam just told me are called CEDs and were the precursors to laser discs. You may recall Erin saying that she only watches movies on laser disc, so I’m shocked that she did not jump on this rare opportunity to enhance her collection.
On the way out, Erin actually made friends with some of the dumpster divers.
I asked the guy on the right if he found anything good in there. He started talking about how he found some stuff for movie sets and that he’s in the video production business, so Erin started chatting him up. She asked if he needed any editing work and ended up with his business card. So all of you job seekers out there… check the dumpsters!
We checked the listings for sales nearby since we had no plan. We found a sale that was described as being at the home of a former gift shop owner and Erin and I both got pretty pumped. It was only about 20 minutes away, so we hit the road. As soon as we walked in, we were transported to A Whole New World.
Yes, you are in fact looking at a life-size plush carousel. It seriously only got worse.
Those bears are on bikes, and they were $10 each.
Now I’m no expert but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that if you have MASS QUANTITIES of Easter goods overflowing your counter space two days before Easter, it would in fact be the PERFECT time to make those exact items half off.
The den was filled with dirty old plastic toys and “DVDs”…although I’d argue that this woman was fairly confused about what DVD means.
I would also like to know where on Earth a VHS tape is worth $4. Probably the same place where a dirty, ratty old paperback is also worth $4. I’ll get to that in a minute.
We headed to the basement and that’s where Erin found Beanie Baby Heaven. When we got down there, it became clear that this was some sort of weird “I’m selling all of my possessions” sale because the woman’s teenage daughter was down there and talked to us for a while. She told us that “everything except the beanie babies” was half off. Right away, I found some vintage teen paperbacks that I thought a friend might like, a couple of records, and an old Pucci doll.
I was about to pay when we realized that there was also an upstairs. Of course we had to check it out. It was the worst of the worst.
You are reading that correctly. TWELVE DOLLARS for a gross old used men’s sweatshirt. I’m not sure a new sweatshirt costs that much at like, Target.
I also found this totally bodacious one-piece suit.
To top off our visit, we found this stain. Clearly a biohazard.
Right after I walked in and saw this, Erin walked in and made a priceless face. I’ve captured it here for your enjoyment.
One more time.
At this point, it was clearly time to check out and the lady told me my total was $16.50. I almost just took out a $20 but then reality hit me and I had no idea how a couple records, books, and a tiny stuffed animal could cost that much. I asked how much the books were and she said, “Four dollars… so they’re two dollars today.” I still felt confused and then realized that she meant EACH ONE was that much. I said, “…oh…that’s A LOT.” The lady seemed shocked by this, and Erin reiterated that $4 for a paperback that cost 25 cents in the 1950s was insane. Then the woman told me, “oh… well I’ve been selling them like crazy for the last four weeks.” I’m not sure why we did not ask this but… WHY HAVE YOU BEEN HAVING AN ESTATE SALE FOR FOUR WEEKS?!
Anyway, I paid for everything besides the books and we high-tailed it out of there. In part two of this Friday update, we’ll tell you all about we heard some gossip about this very sale at our next stop!
-Sarah
Update from Erin: At that first sale, I did in fact call all those weird CEDS “laser discs.” Some guy heard this and later hunted Sarah and I down to tell us that these were NOT laser discs. He didn’t know their proper name (thanks Adam) but knew FOR SURE that these IN NO WAY were laser discs. Thanks man, but I’m still not buying them.
I didn’t find much at this sale, but they did have this snack maker, which Sarah was not shocked to learn I had as a child. Spoiler alert: I was a fat youth.
I remember this being kind of janky when I was young. The fry maker would shred a piece of bread into strips and voila, you had fries. Except not. I can certainly tell the difference between shredded bread and french fries.
They also had this doormat, which cracked me up immensely:
Someone’s last name was “Chicks” or someone was trying to welcome “the chicks” to this house, in which case, that someone should have cleaned up all the Tron CEDS and McDonald snack makers before said chicks arrived.
I found one treasure here. A pennant from the 1950s or 60s, for the St. Louis Cardinals. When I reported this find to Timmy, he was so thrilled. Apparently the green background on this is mega rare. It will be on ebay soon. I paid $5.
The second sale was held in the fourth circle of hell which, if you don’t remember, is reserved for the hoarders and the spendthrifts.
Ok, let me explain something about Beanie Babies. Wait–let me first explain my Beanie Baby credentials. Early readers of this blog may remember, but this is me:
I know my stuff. TRUST.
Beanie Babies in 2013 are worth exactly the scrap price of polyester blend fabric and tiny plastic beads, which as it turns out, is $0.00. That said, at estate sales and garage sales, young children still love them a cheap Beanie. So here is what you do: sell each Beanie Baby for 25 cents, or even better, let any kid who shows up fill their grubby little arms with as many Beanies as they want–for free.
Instead, the woman at this sale was selling each Beanie for $2.50, which sounds cheap, but isn’t when you have THOUSANDS to sell.
I didn’t find anything to buy here, although chances are I couldn’t afford it anyway. Case in point:
We have some full treasure hunting updates in store for the next few days, but in the meantime, here is a photo from an auction 2 weeks ago. This guy won that Storm Trooper helmet and then wore it the rest of the auction. BEST.
-Erin
A few weeks ago, Adam and I were driving to get some breakfast in Ann Arbor, when we spotted a sign for an estate sale. We did the “Secret Sale!” chant, but decided we were too hungry to stop, and that we’d hit it on the way back home instead. Since this blog often mixes food and treasure hunting, I’ll just say that this was a great day as far as both of these things go.
First, the food. It was the day I discovered that Afternoon Delight offers something called “The Berry Patch” on their menu, which consists of frozen yogurt and fresh fruit. No, this isn’t something special and mind-blowing but I have never seen this on a brunch menu, and let me tell you–it’s good. The only thing that was not good was the line we had to wait in to get served, and this man behind us got so close that his iPhone was literally rubbing against me so often that I had to move and make Adam receive the phone rubdown instead. Proof:
He’s so close you can see the dirt under his fingernails! UGH!
Before going back to the sale, we hit up the Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library’s bookshop. If you’re from the area and don’t know about this hidden treasure, you should. In the basement of the main library on 5th, the library’s Friends organization runs a resale shop that consists of book donations and withdrawn stuff from the collection. It’s insanely awesome and most used books are between 1 and 2 bucks. Maybe I’ll feature it another day. Anyway, we found some treasures there and went on with our day.
The secret sale actually wasn’t secret–I just hadn’t noticed it in the listings that weekend. It was the home of an artist, and there was SO MUCH of this woman’s artwork in the house, it was unreal.
That last piece was so awesome, but it was huge, and was marked $475 I think. Fair for a piece of original art, but not in my price range! I wish I could have captured more of the quantity of artwork there, because there was just so much of it. It was all priced very reasonably.
One of the first things I noticed when I went inside was this little box of dudes.
The Santas weren’t in the box–I stuck them in there… but it wasn’t until I bought these that I realized that it’s a nativity scene. They really looked like something Erin would like, and as it turns out I guessed correctly. Am I a nice friend or what? These are bread dough figurines made in Calderon, Ecuador, which apparently is known for its bread dough figurines.
She also had two dolls that were really interesting, and looked vaguely familiar to me. I can’t remember what they were priced, but I remember thinking it was too much for me to pay.
Here in the US, people often call them “puta dolls,” but apparently that’s a misnomer. It translates into “whore dolls.” These are Mexican paper mache dolls that are called munecas de carton. I found a really interesting article about them, and about how people buy them in Mexico for really cheap and then resell them here for about 5x that amount. Ugh. That’s sad. Anyway, I thought they were really cool but you could tell they made Adam want to die.
I left the sale with some cool shirts that I forgot to take pictures of, a few books, the coolest of which is this one,
and some vintage Automobile Association stuff:
I have no idea if it’s worth anything, but it will be cool to sort through.
I also got this little printed cloth.
I have no idea what I’m going to do with it but it sure is cute!
Adam didn’t buy anything but he did shell out a whole bunch of eye rolls.
-Sarah
Happy Easter, y'all!
The 4th grade me just peed herself. Unopened Beanie Baby swag from a closed gift store.
-Erin