I spotted a secret sale the other day while driving and decided to stop. It was pretty unremarkable, and I didn’t buy anything at it. At one point though, I spotted a tiny attic closet that no one seemed to be looking in, and I immediately thought, “I bet that’s where all the treasures are!”
You can just barely see the opening of the secret attic door in the top left of this photo. It was one of those little midget Alice in Wonderland doors. (The kind that Alice couldn’t fit her fatty self into after eating all the little cakes.)
I climbed into the closet and started to rummage. There were a bunch of sealed boxes, which I assumed could only contain solid gold bars and Princess Diana beanie babies.
EVERY box and bag in this closet was filled with SHELLS. Little shells. Like thousands of shells. And not special shells. Just those normal plain looking shells.
Look at those shells peekin out. I then found this:
Dictionary of shells? Is dictionary the right word here? I sure as shell don’t know. And I sure as shell don’t care.
-Erin
Sarah showed up to my house mega early on Friday because there was a sale in Trenton that looked BALLER. It was packed to the brim, possibly past the brim. And everything looked collectible and old.
This sale was run by our now favorite company, which will remain nameless. They always have great full houses and are always willing to be fair about pricing. I used to be kind of intimidated of these ladies, but turns out you just have to ask nicely and they will work with you on price.
When we showed up to the sale, there was a line. Sarah and I are super impatient and generally try to avoid estate sale lines at all costs. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes, Sarah suggested we leave and come back later, but I insisted we had already come too far.
Here we are waiting for our turn to enter:
Our hair in this pic looks like we are those Garbage Pail Kids.
We finally got in the sale and it was indeed packed full, of both people and stuff. There was so much to look at! I immediately grabbed this old bisque Arranbee doll. I recognized it as a “Dream Baby” doll because in the past I had unwittingly bought one in a lot of doll parts and sold it for quite a bit.
I have this doll up on ebay now, but I am secretly bummed about it. I kind of want to keep it! I’m not sure what my attachment is to this doll, but I think it has something to do with how TRULY ADORABLE it looks when you take off that gross dress:
Look at that weird little body. It makes the doll look like a dumb little idiot, which I find kind of endearing.
I can’t remember what else I bought at this sale, except for a little plastic King Kong from the 50s or 60s. I also got some turkey salt and pepper shakers which I had to throw away because I washed them and all the paint came off :(
The next sale was in Troy and took place in a basement. This person was certainly a collector, and everything was sorted neatly among their various interests. There was a lot of Shirley Temple stuff, and a lot of glassware.
At this sale I got a Ted Williams baseball bat (sold in Sears stores in the 1950s) and this little metal Santa. He is skiing! I got this guy for Zach because it combines two of his favorite things: old metal soldiers and Christmas.
Look! Zach already had some fellow skiers for Santa to join up with.
I think Sarah hated this sale because they were selling Garfield pins for $1 each and she wanted a million of them. They refused to give her any sort of discount even though pins are universally a 25 cent item.
The last sale was in Warren and it was weird. Everything upstairs was newer ceramic and looked very Hallmark-y. The basement though had a bunch of old dolls. Clearly, as of late, Sarah and I are on a doll kick. We weren’t the only ones though…down in the basement there was this lady walking around talking to each and every doll she picked up. She would grab one and say, “Oh hello! You look very friendly. Looks like someone liked you very much! Oh look at you poor thing, you have no hair!” and on and on…
This lady was also some sort of self-defined doll expert because anytime I would go remotely near a doll she would interrupt me and say, “OH I didn’t see that one. Let me see that” and then she would tell me all about it. This was helpful in some ways, but it also seemed very clear that she might be making everything up. At one point, she grabbed a broken doll and said, “Oh my, this poor doll was in the war and was injured.” And then she picked up a doll that someone had painted black and said, “And you are black now! Someone wanted you to be black! But you aren’t supposed to be black!” I almost died.
Here she is, dollin’ it up:
This will be me in about 20 years, I guarantee it.
I bought two dolls at this sale, each for $5. One has the coolest eyes of all time and is a Bye-Lo Baby, which are apparently collectible.
-Erin
Update from Sarah: The first sale was so incredible–I knew as soon as I stepped foot in the house that I was going to find some extreme treasures. There were bags and bags of Victorian (and later) postcards at the front desk, and I immediately started looking through those and found a stack that I wanted. It was so crowded at this sale that I got pretty irritated with people pretty quickly. If you were looking at items on the floor, people would crowd you so much that eventually their butt would be right in your face. Not a recipe for a fun time.
Anyway, the house was a tri-level and on every floor and in every room, there were tons of office boxes (the sort with handles and lids) filled with various items. When I went into the bottom floor, I spotted a box with a few random things inside, but when I moved some of it aside, I found a huge stack of 1930s/1940s greeting cards! Here’s an up-close picture of some of the best ones:
They’re up on eBay now, if you happen to be interested in that sort of thing.
The best, though, was when I got upstairs–there was one room that was just FILLED with office boxes overstuffed with ephemera. I noticed right away that many of the boxes had greeting cards–and they were 1940s through 1960s era, for the most part, which is my most ultimate jam. I just started gathering them and shoving them in one box that was already overflowing with cards. The woman who owns the company running this sale knows us and knows that I collect cards, so she said, “I’m gonna make a judgement call–$50 for the whole box.” I was prepared to pay way more than that, so I was thrilled and agreed. She said, “Good. I figured you wouldn’t bitch.”
Anyway, I’m going to have to do a separate entry about these cards because they ended up being SO AWESOME. This sale takes the cake in terms of the best huge amount of GOOD greeting cards I’ve come home with. Can you tell I’m excited? I don’t know why I didn’t take a picture of them before I sorted them, but here is a picture of some of them, post-sort:
I bought lots of other stuff at this sale, but nothing quite as good as this lot.
Erin actually forgot about one other sale we hit up downriver–I actually forgot too, until I saw this picture:
That sale was full of garbage. End of story.
The rest of the day was sort of uneventful in comparison to the first sale. I didn’t find anything crazy awesome, but I did buy a lot of buttons (Peanuts, mainly, NOT Garfield), even though that lady was a jerk about the prices. At the last sale, I bought some records and three-headed doll, after Erin and the crazy doll lady convinced me that it was a good buy. I forgot to take a picture of mine but it’s identical to this, except without any hair or clothes. The faces it makes are pretty amazing–especially the crying face:
The crazy doll lady told me it was “in the doll books” and worth something like $500. I asked her why she didn’t buy it then, and she said it was because she didn’t realize it had three faces when she first saw it. That one above sold for $35 on eBay, which is good, but obviously she was full of sh*t.
While sorting through a large quantity of cards this past weekend (that I’ll talk more about in last week’s Friday wrap-up), I found two very awesome things. First, this:
She even drew the stamp and the postmark!
Second amazing thing I found:
Now, yes, I love vintage greeting cards for aesthetic reasons… but I am also always hoping to find some cash money when I buy large quantities of them at sales. So my wish came true! Five dollars is not too shabby.
-Sarah
On Sunday, Zach found some nearby sales that looked interesting, so we rushed out to visit them. The first sale was in a condo, which is often disappointing because the smaller space typically means less treasures. However, this condo was pretty full and had lots and lots to look at.
I was immediately excited to see a Zuni fetish necklace, which I have blogged about wanting before. They had a price tag of $50 on it, but since it was the last day, the woman said she could do $25. It was immediately clear that the woman had no idea what this necklace was, because as I looked at it, she said, “Yeah, such a strange little piece, huh?” I told her that it sure was, and that I was interested in it, but for $20.
Of course I bought it, and of course I was thrilled. There was actually a lot of Native American pieces in this sale, but some of it was more common touristy type stuff. In what I shall call a true miracle, I was reunited with this guy, who I had seen at “best sale ever” and stupidly did not buy:
He cost me $1, which is probably THE BEST $1 I have ever spent.
So Zach and I headed onward to the next sale, which was run by the lady who once made me wait in line holding a 30 pound box while she talked on the phone with her friend. Despite that whole debacle, I have come to like this lady (Linda), as she is generally pleasant and has fair pricing. When she doesn’t have fair pricing, she will say frankly, “Fine, then what do you want to pay for it?” and then you tell her and she says ok.
So as soon as we walk in, it is clear that Linda is being bowled over by some mega bargain hunters. Everything at the sale is already 50% off, but these ladies wanted even more, and possibly, they wanted blood. The bickering was overwhelming and awkward, and Zach and I shuffled out of the way of the conflict.
We head in the basement, and there is another fight down there! Let me break this down…when you go to a sale and the seller says they will give you a discounted price on a whole pile of stuff, that price is therefore only applicable if you agree to go ahead and buy that whole pile of stuff.
You cannot do the following: Get a price on a whole BIG pile of stuff (let’s say that price is $15) and then ask the seller, well how much is just this one pan in the pile? When the seller says, well that pan is marked $10, you cannot then say, “Well fine, I’ll just buy all the rest of this stuff for $5 then.”
I hope that all made sense. The bottom line is that there was a man in the basement YELLING over pricing at one of the women running the sale (not Linda, who was busy being slaughtered upstairs). When this lady walked away from him, he followed her and continued the charade upstairs. He engages Linda in his rampage and every time she tells him a price that he doesn’t like, he throws the item down on top of a jewelry display they have at checkout.
At some point, he knocks over a piece of dishware and Zach decides to step in. Of all the things to say to an angry man, I think Zach chose wisely. He simply looked at the man and said, “YOU NEED TO RELAX.” Truer words have never been spoken, except for what Zach said next, which was “AND YOU NEED TO PICK THINGS UP WHEN YOU DROP THEM.” Yes, right on. I married a smart man.
The grump ignored Zach and things escalated when we ran into him outside as we were leaving. Zach called him “a rude person” and a “f#cker”, which I support as a harsh but fair assessment. The man walked away, but looked back at Zach one more time before we got in our car. Zach then proceeded to do the most terrifying point and stare maneuver, which I have forced him to recreate here and now for this blog entry:
That man was surely shaking in his boots. Or flip flops. For all I know, that jackass was wearing flip flops.
This was probably the worst I’ve seen people at a sale, except for THAT ONE TIME when Sarah and I were in the eye of the storm. I just don’t get the logic here. Throwing a fit will definitely NOT make someone lower the price for you. You gotta be nice!
Alright, anyway, I bought one thing at this sale, which is a fabric applique art piece known as “mola.” It is made by the Kuna Indians in South America. It is hanging in our bedroom now and cost me $30, a super discounted price that Linda gave me FOR BEING NICE WHEN ASKING FOR A DEAL.
-Erin
After my solo auction excursion, I convinced Sarah to go to another auction with me the following the day. I had auction fever for sure.
This auction was in Romulus, so Sarah met me there. I had arrived first and scoped out the goods, and was pretty excited about most of the stuff there. Everything was high quality. I saw a bunch of old greeting cards that I figured Sarah would like, and a bunch of old chocolate molds for me.
There was also a separate doll auction going on in another room that I figured Sarah might like. Boy did she ever. I think she stayed in that doll room nearly the whole night. Every time I came to check on her, she was drowning further and further in a sea of dolls she had purchased.
That furry beast on the top of the heap looks like this up close:
Sarah paid money for that, in case you are all wondering. It came in a lot with a bunch of other animals, but this kitty was by far the best.
I bought many things at this auction but nothing that I really really wanted. Most of the stuff I bought was super cheap, and I decided to just take a risk on reselling it. This sale had some old paper mache Halloween decorations I wanted REALLY BAD, but like last time, they sold for a crazy high price. I was so disappointed. A lot of two pumpkins sold to this guy for $220 and I wanted to walk up to him and tell him that 1. they aren’t even worth that! and 2. my Halloween was now ruined.
There he is all smug with his pumpkins. I should say MY pumpkins. My stolen pumpkins. Also, someone is going to step on those as they are so carelessly placed on the floor. If I had those pumpkins, I would have gone to the doll auction and bid on a $400 antique doll cradle to carry my pumpkins in. That’s how much I love those pumpkins.
Whew, anyway…speaking of the doll auction, I did buy some dolls. I got a lot of 3 for $10 and a Madame Alexander baby doll for $10. The latter turned out to be my best score, as I sold it for $56.
I also bought an old print of a natural history museum to hang in our house. I used to work at a museum like this in Ann Arbor and got to teach kids about dinosaurs. This print reminded me of that and was just too darn cool not to buy.
I definitely overpaid for this ($40) but I love it so much that I will accept that hard truth. At some point, a dude came over to me and said, “You know that’s the Louvre in France, it’s a famous museum.” I politely thanked him for the knowledge, but will say now that that is a bold faced lie. No dinosaurs up in the Louvre y'all. The print also says Hunterian Museum, which wikipedia says is in Scotland.
I’ll let Sarah talk about how much she loves auctions now, but before I do, here is my favorite part of the night. Near the end of the auction, the auctioneers do a sort of speed round in which they break off into little clusters around different tables and sell the stuff on each one at a very rapid pace. Sarah was bidding on a bunch of cards and valentines during one of these rounds, and as soon as she started to, this older woman behind her let out a yelp similar to that of a trapped animal. A sort of singular moan/howl of true sadness.
I think this lady thought she was going to be the only person interested in these items, so when Sarah bid, she was obviously distraught. Every time the bid went up, she would repeat the same moany “NOOOOO.” I felt bad for her in a way, because I had been sad about my pumpkins…but at the same time, the whole thing was absurd and hilarious. Listen people, auctions are like the end of “Old Yeller”…heartbreaking but necessary.
-Erin
Update from Sarah: I won a SH*TLOAD of dolls at this auction, and it was SO FUN! HOWEVER, Erin failed to mention that at least four dolls in that doll pileup were hers.
I think Erin is an auction addict now, but I understand why. It’s like going to an estate sale but more exciting in some ways, because you don’t really know how much you might end up paying for something you want. There’s more mystery involved. Also the whole thing was mysterious for me because Erin invited me about 5 minutes after I got out of work, so I had no idea what would be there, and I definitely did not know that all those dolls would be there! The only real downside about auctions in general seems to be the sadness that happens when you don’t win something you really want–like the pumpkins.
The only complaint I have is that the food was not good. Erin had tempted me before by telling me that the auction she normally goes to with Zach in Plymouth has a huge food bar with french fries (I don’t know about you but that’s enough to entice me), but at this auction, I had a hot dog that was so bad that I threw it away after one bite. An occurrence that is unprecedented in the history of my life.
Before I talk about what I won, let me say that half the fun of going to this thing was the people watching and also seeing some of the insane things in that doll room. Erin said the stuff was all high quality but I mean, you saw that stuffed cat. And here’s another doll we didn’t win:
I don’t know if the previous owner was trying to make a statement (The Bluest Eye?…) or was just blind, but that is one crazy looking doll that I would not describe as “high quality."
Unlike Erin, I ended up winning everything I wanted, and that stuff fell into two categories: dolls and stuffed animals, and ephemera. I haven’t even really sorted through the valentines and postcards that I won, but so far the dolls are doing well:
I think I paid $30 total for those three dolls (plus some), so I’ve definitely made a profit. There are many more where those came from. Here are two terrifying ones that I have on eBay right now:
When I saw that paraplegic doll it made me feel weird and sad inside. I ended up getting her because she came with that first doll (the antique Horsman doll) and when they brought her over to me I felt so genuinely creeped out. Erin wanted me to just throw her out but I feel like maybe some doll collector will give her a new pair of legs. Or who knows? Maybe you’ll see her zoomin’ around some day like Oscar Pistorius!
Don’t fret everyone! DTT will be back in full effect tomorrow. In the meantime, check out these little statues I found on Friday. Totes normal decor, nbd.
-Erin
DTT is taking a much needed Fall break this week. Our non-treasure hunting lives are on overdrive right now but we will be back soon! In the meantime, since it’s almost Halloween, I present you this photo of Sarah holding a doll without legs that she bought in an auction lot. Because this doll is haunted, the photo turned out like this. SPOOKY.
Oh yes, this purple pipecleaner will do quite nicely as a replacement leg.
Last night I drove to Howell for an auction. Now, I wouldn’t normally recommend spending your Wednesday night driving to Howell, MI but I went for two reasons. First, I was cooped up working all day yesterday and started going a bit stir crazy. Second, Zach has either the Plague or Black Lung, so I wanted to decrease my chances of catching it.
Oh wait, and three, I wanted to buy these awesome old paper mache Halloween decorations:
That cat one alone sells on ebay for $60-$80. The pumpkin varies anywhere from $30-$70 or so. My plan was to buy them for keeps…we’ll get to that later though.
The online listing for this auction said “Boston Peddler Auction” but when I showed up, the sign outside said “HAMMER TIME AUCTIONS.” I laughed really hard at that.
The place was kind of a ghost town. And it seemed like most people were there for the snacks. In the back of the room they were selling various Little Debbies and that sort of fare. $1 per box! What a steal! People were walking out with boxes and boxes full of this stuff.
Besides selling probably-expired-moonpies, this place was weird for many reasons. Here is a sample of the decor:
Let me be honest and say that I don’t get the joke here at all. Is this a sexual innuendo or an ode to cannibalism?
Also weird were some of the items for sale. I wish this picture was more clear, but that there is a burlap sack for use in bagging terrorists. It has a silkscreened image of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, and the phrase “Terrorist Body Bag.”
I almost bid on this. Look at how nicely it is framed. Let me point out though, that you could NEVER fit two bodies in that little bag. I don’t speak from experience, but I do speak from common sense.
Ok so on to the auction. I’ll spoil it now and say that I didn’t win either of those paper mache Halloween things. It’s like people at this auction were made of money. Either that, or they were just super competitive and insisted on winning any item they bid on. Both of these items sold for over $50. My logic is that I could buy some on ebay for around that price, and in better condition. Still though, I was bummed.
I did buy some old pressed tin cap guns for $3, and this spooky old Halloween costume.
What’s weird about this costume is that it looks very similar to someone I know. I don’t want to name names, but I will say that it rhymes with “Barah.”
Perhaps my best buy was this Mickey Mouse pull toy from 1939. It is in rough shape, but I only paid $10 for it. Ones in good condition sell for $150 on ebay, so hopefully I can at least make my money back.
I don’t anticipate heading back to Hammer Time Auctions anytime soon, but I will for sure remember it fondly. Well, kind of fondly.
-Erin
Sunday morning I was sitting at my desk doing some work, and Zach rushed in the room all excited about some nearby estate sales. They were apparently packed to the brim, and both 50% off. We rushed out the door and headed first to Redford.
The sale was kind of packed, but you could tell that it was also picked over. And it was super old lady. Zach kept looking for a “man’s room” but found none.
There was a lot of porcelain, but most of it was cheap or chipped. I bet there were probably some good pieces in the sale days before. This person certainly was a collector.
I did find some marble eggs, which I had been looking at recently on ebay. I wanted some of these to put on my egg scales. What’s interesting about marble eggs is that they are a good alternative to Victorian glass eggs, which many people collect. Victorian glass eggs were placed in chicken coops as decoys, and would provoke the hens to lay their own eggs. Isn’t that neat? I love these glass eggs and hope to one day own some, but for now, marble eggs are much easier to find and to afford.
I also found this little piece of Jasba pottery, which is a company out of Germany. Some of their pieces are really collectible, but others are more common. I took a chance on this because it was $2.
The last thing I bought at this sale was an old toy stick horse. When I grabbed it, Zach looked at me like I was insane.
But look! These things sell! I only paid $4 for him, so my chances at a high profit margin seem good.
The second sale we went to was at a super rich person’s house in Farmington Hills. The house was a mansion, and the sale was listed as having Chanel items. I recently bought a fake Chanel bag in New York, which fell apart in less than a week, so the chance of owning a real one was exciting.
Upon arrival, Zach and I were whisked into some sort of time travel machine and taken back to the 1980s. This was cool because I was born in the 80s and don’t remember much about them. Here was my chance to get a taste.
All of the furniture was like a white formica substance, and the carpets and walls were white. We had to wear little booties on our shoes to protect the carpet, which turned out to be silly because the carpet was filthy. And my little booties kept snagging on things and falling off. Zach ended up just taking off his shoes because the booties were too small for him. Shopping in your socks is embarrassing.
Check out that banister.
I asked the people working here if all of the Chanel stuff was sold, and the woman paused and looked at me for a good 5 seconds before answering. I know she was thinking, “You Miss, didn’t shower today. AND you can’t afford Chanel.” Both of these things were true, but still, how rude. The Chanel items were in fact sold, but I did buy one treasure here:
This my friends is some 80s-ass modern art. It’s a big heavy sculpture which Zach contends is of aliens riding an alien horse. I refer to it as “tribal.” I’m sure Sarah would refer to it as ugly.
Ok, last thing of note. On the way home, we passed the craziest set of old abandoned buildings I’ve ever seen. In the middle of Farmington Hills! So weird. Apparently, this was an old commune that got shut down or something. How sweet would it be to go explore? You could tell there was still stuff inside of all these buildings.
-Erin