Sarah and I ventured out to one sale last Thursday because it looked really good. It turned out to not be really good though, and I bought nothing. They did have this old cooler though:
What’s funny about this is that Sarah’s nickname in high school was Pleasure Chest. I told her to buy this, but she didn’t. Oh well.
Anyway, the real point of this entry is the sale we hit next. We were driving home and randomly saw a sign that said ESTATE SALE. We were about to start chanting “SECRET SALE, SECRET SALE” because we weren’t aware of this sale, but then we saw another sign…
This wasn’t a secret estate sale! It was a garage sale disguised as an estate sale! So rude.
In the end though, this garage-ate sale ended up being pretty good. It was all old antiques and collectibles. I bought this old leather horse for $5:
I also grabbed this ceramic bear because he looked mid-century modern. He was $5. At some point, one of the ladies running the sale referred to the bear as “ugly.” When she realized that I heard her say that, she got all apologetic and embarrassed. I didn’t tell her that this bear was to sell, so she assumed I was going to decorate my home with it.
When I got home, I realized that this little guy has an artist mark. Turns out he is made by JARU Art Products, a ceramics company out of California in the 50s-70s. Even better news, people collect JARU! You can follow his progress on ebay here. I had one lady message me and ask if I would change him to Buy It Now, which I couldn’t because he already had bids.
Sarah got some cool stuff at this garage sale too! I’ll let her share…
-Erin
Update from Sarah: The sale we went to was bad, but I still found a few things. Since I’m once again out of town, I don’t have pictures of anything, but I’ll try to make do. I found a Fisher-Price phonograph in the box, and it worked. I figured Adam would want it. They had it marked $24 but I got them to go down to $20. They were real sticklers. It’s of this variety:
I also found another copy of the Charles Manson cover of Life Magazine. If you ever see one of these in good shape for a dollar or something, snatch it because it sells on eBay. Also, the article itself is pretty cool. I found some other stuff that I can’t remember at this sale, so obviously none of it was fabulous.
I did find a couple of things at the GarageATE SALE–an old tin filled with old buttons for $5 (may or may not have been worth that… who knows?), an old wooden puzzle like the sort you see crafty old men selling at art fairs (Adam loves these), and then one more item that will be featured as a Fave Find.
Hey y’all, my birfday is next Friday. Feel free to buy me this Griswold cast iron rabbit mold for $350. Or some fancy ass porcelain.
-Erin
So the New York posts continue…
While walking around the West Village with Zach and our friend Mary, I spotted this little basement shop called “The Porcelain Room”. It seriously looked like the cutest place on Earth, packed full of tiny porcelain creatures and decor.
I don’t think I realized my love for porcelain until I went in this store. I wanted pretty much everything, especially this deer bowl:
I kept imagining what it would be like to have a party and serve something in this adorable dish. It cost $2,500 though, so I guess I’ll never know.
I did find something a bit more reasonable in price. It was this cute rabbit made by KPM in Berlin. He was $310, which is still pretty outrageous for a porcelain anything. I pulled this photo of him off the KPM website:
So the point here is that I want me some baller porcelain. It’s something I am going to keep my eye out for at future sales, which I am sure Zach will be thrilled about.
-Erin
So my New York adventures continue with a trip to Obscura Antiques & Oddities. You may remember my post from a few months back in which I interviewed Obscura’s Ryan Matthew. He and the store are featured in Science Channel’s Oddities. Since I only knew about the store from this TV show, and from the interview, Zach and I decided to go check it all out in person.
Everything in New York opens super late, which we weren’t aware of. Heading to Obscura, we saw Ryan Matthew sitting on the steps outside. We breezed past and killed some time by drinking $13 raw juice smoothies (only in New York!). When we got back, the store was open, and packed with people.
My first thought was that it looked EXACTLY like the TV show. I know this seems obvious, but I once visited the pawn shop featured on History Channel’s Pawn Stars, and it looked completely different in person. Mostly everything in Obscura has been featured on the show, or is visible while watching the show.
The store is really cool. It is full of so many things. The first item that really caught my eye was this taxidermy pig. It looked less like real taxidermy and more like an adorable Steiff collectible.
Ok so actually, in this picture, he looks terrifying. Trust me that in person he was cute. Anyway, at this point, I introduced myself to Ryan Matthew and asked about the pig. He told me that it was a Victorian specimen and not for sale. If it was for sale, it would be about $5,000.
Ryan also told me that he confuses “Dig This Treasure” with the phrase “Take This Bottle”, which is a “phrase” I have actually never heard of. I am thinking this is some sort of word association thing having to do with messages in a bottle/pirates/buried treasure. Who knows. Either that, or Ryan is the Zodiac killer and speaking to me in ciphers.
Zach and I didn’t find anything to buy at Obscura, even though we went there determined to do so. Everything was pretty out of our price range or wouldn’t fit on the plane home. I kind of regret not buying a t-shirt from the store because it had a nice design. Whomp whomp.
-Erin
truth.
As Erin has mentioned, she was out of town last week, so I was on my own. Except not, because ever since we took my mom out sale-ing with us a few weeks ago, she’s been addicted! Yay! A new convert!
Now, Cindy will tell you that she’s been “doing this stuff for YEARS,” but she was mainly an antique-shopper, rather than an estate sale junkie. Now she has crossed over to the dark side.
On Thursday last week, she mentioned to me that she had been out looking for treasures and found a sale that was not listed. SECRET SALE! SECRET SALE! (My mom probably didn’t know she was supposed to chant this when she found it, but now she knows for the future.) She said it was packed full of stuff, and it was all priced reasonably, and that she wanted to go back. I trust her judgement (usually), so we started out the day by meeting there.
My mom wasn’t kidding. There were so many old things inside this house. Right away, I saw some cool stuff.
I mean, I don’t know what any of that stuff on the table IS… it just looks cool and old.
I was glad to discover that my mom is quickly becoming a true DTT convert–she picked up this terrifying doll and commented on how much she liked it…
…which, if she had purchased it, would clearly could be featured on TTFYHO. By the way, is that Santa wearing some business casual clothing?
Speaking of TTFYHO, I really wanted this photograph and my mom insisted that it would freak Adam out:
I ended up buying it and he likes it! Also, those are two boys, not girls, and the one on the right was the woman running the sale’s dad in the 1920s or ‘30s.
The wallpaper in the dining room reminded me of something Erin would be down with. It was gold with lion-like creatures.
All in all, a really good sale. I found some cool stuff to keep this time around, and then a few things to sell too. Here are some of the things I’ve already listed on eBay:
That’s a little hay-filled black bear with a rubber snout. Apparently, these were souvenirs bought at Yellowstone in the '50s and '60s. I bought him and his mom for $10 total. A little overpriced but we’ll see if someone snatches them up. He’s freakin’ adorable but his mom is a little scarier looking.
Also, they both have collars with leashes. I don’t know about you but it seems to me that taking a black bear on a walk is a bad idea.
I also bought this little snowbunny that someone bought for $13 already.
As far as keepers go, I got an old Towne Club bottle carrier, a bunch of minis, and lots and lots of cookie cutters that my mom pressured me into buying for my future children to use to make Christmas cookies. Now I know where I get it from…
The second and last sale of the day was a bit of a letdown, mainly because of how hyped up we were about it. We had really been looking forward to it because the pictures looked excellent. It was all the way in Taylor, which Erin and I have had mixed luck with in the past.
It was supposed to have a “HUGE” amount of antiques, and it was written that way in the listing, so maybe they weren’t just misusing quotation marks–maybe they were trying to tell us something. I did end up finding a few cool things, but for the most part, it was just filled with overpriced ceramic stuff (including these Medusa cats),
books you’d never want,
and old crafting supplies.
I did find some cool treasures to sell, though. First, some vintage and adorable Dream Pets:
A little pile of vintage pictures of this girl and her Boston Terrier, living inside a cool old trailer:
And a weird Dachsund statue that Adam said looks like a snake.
Even though my mom didn’t find anything that great at this sale and it was a letdown, I’m still glad we went. I ended up finding two more beagle statues and some pretty cool old (early 20th century) postcards. Here’s one thing I passed on, even though $6 is a steal:
-Sarah
[video]
So, as mentioned, I was in New York last week for work. Zach tagged along and we stayed through the weekend to maximize our fun. On our last day we headed to Brooklyn to check out a flea market there.
I was actually scared about going to Brooklyn. Literally all week people kept saying to me, “You’re not going to Brooklyn right?” It turns out that Brooklyn is a lot like shopping at American Apparel or Urban Outfitters, at least the area we were in. Still kind of scary, but not in a dangerous way.
Here’s a wide view of the Brooklyn Flea. It was huge. Most booths were crafts or food, but several had antiques. The first one I went in had tons of plastic toy soldiers and old typography letters.
I was hoping I would find some Marx figures but gave up pretty quickly because most of the figures were broken and chewed. I did buy some letters that spell out our last name:
The best find by far was this weird handmade horse toy/figure/thing. It is made from real horse hide and hair, which I am sure most people would find horrifying.
The guy selling this said that it came from the estate of a mortician, and that he made it for his children. This could be a total lie. Here is the man who was selling the horse:
I tried SO HARD to barter with him, and only got him down $5. I brought Zach over to look at the horse, thinking he might talk me out of it, but in the end, Zach loved the horse too. He now lives on top of Zach’s piano in our living room.
-Erin
Update from Sarah: I’ve been there before and some of that food is dope.
This week’s Questionable Card is one of my favorites.
I don’t know what’s better… the passive aggressive sentiment behind it all, or the inevitable mental image of sitting on a toilet.
Also, for the record, it does not “feel good” when a toilet seat is warm.
-Sarah
Hello hello from NYC. Today was my first day not working and also my first day to treasure hunt! Picked up this vintage Burberry hobo bag at a consignment store. Bartered down to $200. Hopefully more treasure posts to come!