Dig This Treasure!

I’m not sure how this is even possible, but somehow two dolls that look IDENTICAL to Erin’s future children were available for sale at an estate we visited on Friday.

Mar 30

Long Overdue eBay Updates…

My mom and others have mentioned that they wish I posted updates about what things ended up selling for on eBay. Erin is pretty good at doing this, but me…not so much. So I’m going to try to remedy this.

The Golden Books I mentioned in one of the first entries did not end up being very fruitful moneymakers. In fact, the Bugs Bunny book is something I tried listing multiple times and it never sold. Not even for $10 bucks! At least I made most of my money back. I sold a lot of 7 of them for $32, and I think I bought all of them for $40.

I sold a vintage Levi’s purse for $20, but I think I bought it for $13, so that’s not that great a deal. I sold 6 old Playboys for $10, which at most is a $4 profit, but I screwed up the shipping on them, so I probably lost money on those. I made $10 on the Disney books & $11 on the lot of vintage cards. So, not the greatest, but at least I made some a little bit of money:

One of the best moneymakers (it’s all relative) was that “Feds ‘n’ Heads” issue of Playboy that I posted about a few weeks ago. It ended up selling for $16!

I lost money on the freaky clown, but at least he’s out of my house now and is no longer spending his evenings haunting us while we’re sleeping. The best part is that the person who purchased the doll left me feedback that called him “beautiful”:

Some other duds… Those Dutch art journals from that “European Delights” sale ended up being not very valuable, but I think I am going to try what Adam originally suggested, and pick out the ones featuring really famous artists, and try to sell those issues individually instead of in lots. The 45s I found at that same sale ended up being semi-dud-ish. I made more than my money back on just two of the Joan Manuel Serrat records, but the rest of them haven’t had any bidders. So, not exactly a dud but not really super profitable. I did buy a vintage Playboy “femlin” lowball glass at that same sale for $5 and sold it for $10, along with a vintage Monsanto/Disney postcard booklet for $.50 and sold it for $5.

I’ll write another one of these updates sometime next week, after some of the weird “dirty” items sell, along with all of the stuffed treasures from last Friday.

Mar 29

Mar 28

Last Saturday I was out running some errands and I randomly passed an estate sale. I decided to stop, and good thing I did because I spotted this little treasure. I was pretty BLOWN AWAY by the price. Only $1? That’s what I call a steal.

Fave Find: Antique Cigarette Dispenser

So, Adam loves anything old and mechanical. A few weeks ago when we went to the sale that I’ve deemed the European Delights sale, he left with a pile of stuff, but I didn’t pay much attention. Later that night, I saw him fiddling with this little box. He explained to me that it was a mechanical card shuffler. I nodded and acted interested, but in my head, I was like, “There is no way that’s true. A deck of cards can’t stand up in that thing.” He then tried to put a deck of cards in the box and realized that this was not, in fact, it’s purpose.

The next morning, I came down to make my coffee and found Adam sticking a bunch of toothpicks in the box, trying to see if that was the purpose. Again, it was pretty clear to me that someone would not create an elaborate contraption to dispense toothpicks, but what do I know? Once we recognized that the toothpicks were getting stuck in nooks and crannies in the box, I suggested that that probably wasn’t the purpose either. Adam was real pleased with me pointing out this obvious fact.

Adam was getting more and more irritated with his inability to determine what the box was for, and I kept hearing him mutter, “What the f*ck is this thing FOR?!” under his breath. A few minutes later, I came back into the kitchen and found Adam cutting up paper, rolling it, and sticking the rolls into the box:

Once it worked one time through, he exclaimed, “I’M A GENIUS!” (I didn’t remind him that he’s really not one since he thought it was for shuffling cards first, and clearly cards will not stand up in those dividers.)

Later that day, Adam told me to go pick up a pack of cigarettes at the store so he could test it out with real ones. If you’re a smoker and you come over our house, we’re ready for ya:

Mar 26

Christmas Explosion and Girl Scout Trunk Sale

On Friday, Erin and I hit about four or five sales. The first was a sale that had a bunch of old Life Magazines as soon as we walked in the front door. Now, if you see old Life Magazines at a sale, be careful. Many of them are not valuable. However, if you’re a Life Magazine expert like me, you can find the diamonds in the rough. They were priced at $1.50 each, and I probably bought 12 or so. Some of them I purchased just because I wanted them for myself, and others I purchased to sell, including two from MLK’s assassination:

I think these will sell for about $20 total. Not a bad profit, eh? I bought some others–mainly all from the ‘60s. One has Ernest Hemingway on the cover, another has Grandma Moses. My mom has told me that Life Magazines from the 1940s are also valuable, so that’s something else you could look out for.

I cannot remember what else I purchased at this sale, which is a pretty bad sign.

At this point, we were starving, so we decided to get snacks at a nearby Target. After eating my Pizza Hut bread sticks (they hit the spot, BTW), I was craving a treat. Well, thank god we were in Taylor, because there was a mom and her daughter selling Girl Scout Cookies out of a minivan, on the side of Telegraph.

Here’s me, making the money exchange. It sort of made me feel like I was doing something illegal.

In case you are wondering, I purchased one box of Tagalongs and one box of Thin Mints. Erin purchased no cookies, because she likes to deprive herself of all joy.

Next, we went to a sale that was held by our now favorite cranky ladies. We used to be sort of scared of these ladies, but now they are our buds, and they recognize us when they see us. They also give us deals, which is totally awesome.

So this sale was advertised as one having a lot of cobalt glass items. Turns out that stuff isn’t very valuable, as far as I could tell from eBay, but Erin thought it was pretty. Gross.

Besides a lot of cobalt glass, this person also thoroughly enjoyed collecting valueless toys from McDonald’s over the years.

These two pictures don’t really even begin to capture how many McDonald’s toys this person had. I didn’t buy any of them. Oh sh*t yes I did, I bought two small Inspector Gadget toys for my office:

Besides those guys, I bought some holiday pins (sorry, Adam) and a book about dogs. I also am ashamed to admit that I bought a TY stuffed dog that I thought was a pug. He’s a bulldog. I don’t like bulldogs. I mean, I don’t have anything against them but they’re not as cute as pugs.

Next stop was a sort of grimy sale a few miles away. I only found one item worth purchasing, and even that is still up in the air. I don’t know if it’s worth anything:

It’s a vintage speaker that still works. I thought it was an amp when I purchased it. It was marked $10 but I got him to give it to me for $8. I thought Adam might want it but he didn’t really know much about it, so I am planning on trying to resell it.

This sale also had a number of really nice items that I did not purchase, as pictured below:

I had been looking forward to the final sale of the day, which was the second weekend of the sale I went to with Adam a few weeks ago, where I got those old Disney books, among other items, and was let down by a molting E.T. The sale did not disappoint. The quantity of items that they were able to pull out of three closed rooms during the previous weekend was insane:

Ok, I purchased a lot of stuff at this sale, but I’ll focus on the highlights–the resellable (hopefully) items. First up:

Original 1995 Tickle Me Elmo! I replaced his batteries and he’s good as new. He already has a bidder on eBay, which blows my mind. I purchased him for $2.

I also found a complete set of the Seven Dwarves beanies, which can sell for up to $60 on eBay. Erin thinks I’m nuts for listing them for that much, but I figure if it happened once, why can’t it happen again? I paid $.75 each for these, but am too lazy to do the math for how much that comes out to. About $5, right?

Finally, I found a complete set of Simpsons promo dolls from Burger King, from 1990. They, too, were $.75 each. They have been known to sell on eBay for about $15-20, so I’m hoping that happens. They’re in great shape:

Update from Erin: I didn’t buy a lot this week, mostly because I bought tons and tons last week, some of which was risky (i.e. plastic horses and ceramic kewpies).

The first sale was kind of a dud, although I did find a big piece of coral that I am sending to Ryan Matthew in thanks for his interview. I am also sending him a bunch of other weird crap that I will write about in a later entry. He will probably not want any of it, but the items were the best I could do in terms of “oddities” found at estate sales around here.

I probably should have bought this though because sometimes at crowded sales I get real sweaty. This is a combination of my narcolepsy medication and general crazy-person anxiety.

I also saw this cool thing, which was in really nice shape. Ironrites have been at other sales before, but they are usually broken and rusty.

I would never actually use the Ironrite, but I can just imagine how adorable it would look next to my washing machine. I can also imagine the total horror on my husband’s face should I ever bring something like this home.

For the record, I did think that cobalt blue glass at the second sale was real pretty. It was just so vivid of a color! I can’t understand collecting thousands of pieces of it, but one nice vase on the mantel ain’t bad. I didn’t end up buying any though, and instead grabbed a stack of Red Wings championship posters/newspapers/etc. to put on ebay in the future.

The Christmas bonanza sale was super interesting to me. This person was CLEARLY a hoarder, but the house and items were all clean and in good condition. I was honestly astounded at the volume of items. Everything was in boxes and stacked up on shelves, and every box was just LOADED with random items. The sale people did a good job of organizing some stuff on tables, but otherwise, you really had to rummage to find things. The basement and garage were particularly packed, and the items were tucked into boxes without any rhyme or reason. There could have been a diamond ring packed in with some old kids’ toys and no one would even know.

A lot of the items at the sale were unopened and unused, mostly appliances and cleaning products. Perhaps my favorite score of the day was this giant box of Oxi-Clean that I got for $3:

At this sale, I also got this weird cat pitcher from Germany. It is currently on ebay, and usually sells for about $15. When I first got it, someone had filled its head with glitter. I figured I could just take it home, remove the stopper, and dump out the glitter. Well, it turns out that the glitter fairy GLUED IN the stopper. I had to really fight to pry it open and thought that I was going to break the whole head in the process.

Alas, the glitter was removed and now I don’t have to explain on ebay why this German antique was all bedazzled.

The last thing I will mention is that I found another piece of Wagner Ware. This time instead of a waffle iron, it is a griddle. I paid $8 for it and right now on ebay it has bids at $15. The waffle iron ended up selling for $48, so I really hope that this piece does too.

Mar 24

Rules of the Road: Buy Low, Sell High, Duh

In this installment of ROTR, I’ll explain the age-old tip of buying low and selling high. It sounds really simple, mostly because it is really simple.

The things we sell on ebay are not all antiques or rare collectibles. Sometimes they are common household items or newer trinkets/collectibles. We buy and resell such items because they are usually pretty expensive to buy new, and therefore, someone out in ebay world would appreciate a deal.

I often look for high-end cookware (cast iron items like Le Creuset, kitchen gadgets, etc.) because if you find these things in good shape, you can usually make a good profit when reselling them. A Le Creuset dutch oven might be $300 new, and you can buy it at a sale for $50, eventually selling it for $150-$200.

That’s just an example. My current endeavor with this technique involves plastic Carnegie dinosaurs. These little guys are authentic replicas of all sorts of prehistoric beasts, made to scale and with super nice detail. I used to work at a Natural History Museum and we sold these dinos. The small ones were like $14.99 and bigger ones were up to $30 each!

Anyway, at a sale recently, I bought 3 of these guys for $1 each. I figured there must be collectors out there who wouldn’t mind saving some dollars and buying these on ebay. They are in great shape and look totally brand new!

No bids yet (3 watchers), so we will have to wait and see if our strategy pays off eventually!

-Erin

Mar 23

Ryan Matthew kind of hates Christmas, and other revelations

As mentioned, I was lucky enough to get in contact with Ryan Matthew Cohn from SCIENCE’s cult-hit Oddities. I was hoping he would humor our little blog with a mere email correspondence, but instead, he was kind enough to chat with me on the phone last week. So if you’re wondering what a real child’s skeleton might cost you these days, or you have questions about bejeweled human skulls, look no further…

Alright, so let’s start with the obvious, how did you get into collecting?

I’ve always had the bug. It’s something you are born with. My mom had it to an extent, but she wasn’t obsessive compulsive like I am. She collected old quilts and baskets, things like that. And she wouldn’t bombard the house with them like I do now with my collection. I grew up in upstate New York, in the woods, and I would find roadkill or animals eaten by bears…and I would bring them back to the house. My mom probably thought I was going to be a doctor or a serial killer…which I didn’t become either.

Hahahahaha, exactly. So anyway, it went from natural history stuff to collecting stuff I would find at the thrift store. And then when I was 10, I collected baseball cards. But it wasn’t just collecting baseball cards…I obsessively collected baseball cards until my whole room was filled. And then I moved on, and it became more art-based, and then I got into the oddities world.

Well, there typically is a piece that sets you into like a fury…a piece that sets exactly what you are going to collect for the next 5 years. For me, that piece was a taxidermy dog I got. It’s a real nice old one. It’s a mid-size hunting dog from the Victorian era, obviously someone’s pet. It was in a really nice glass case and at the time I didn’t have a car or anything. I called my dad, who was living in Jersey, and he picked me up at 4:30 in the morning in Manhattan, and we drove all the way out to Yonkers to go to this estate sale. I already knew it [the dog] was going to be there, and we had to wait out in the rain. And then other people were looking at it…but finally, I picked it up. It was kind of a lot of money for me at the time. I think it was $400. And it’s like one of those things, from there I went crazy and started collecting taxidermy and selling it, and manipulating it.

And then the first skeleton I got, it was partially put together…and I got to see, ok…this spring holds this together…and it was like a big puzzle. So I put that together, and then I got obsessed with putting skeletons together. So it all sort of blossomed…doing this kind of work that I do now–manipulating skeletons, started with this one.

So it seems as though you guys work with a lot of antique dealers on Oddities, but where else are you finding these treasures?

Where am I finding this stuff? It’s kind of a mixture. There are flea markets, those for me are the most fun. It’s like this big treasure hunt and you never know what you are going to come across. And you are there at like 3am, it’s cold, it’s dark out, it’s raining. That scares some people away, but then you have the hardcore people who might be looking for the same thing as you. So you might walk away with a candlestick, or like the rarest object you’ve been looking for your whole life. And there is this adrenaline rush that comes with going to these things. Although at this point in my life, I don’t go there with any expectations. I don’t even go at 3am anymore. I straggle in later and will find something that someone else has overlooked.

Yeah, our site is primarily about estate sales, so I know what you mean about the adrenaline rush and finding that thing you’re really looking for…

I’ve found that the rarest stuff will come to you. It actually will. I’m not being superstitious–I’m not a superstitious person–like the other day, for instance, I got a call from someone who said they had a lot of cool stuff in their basement I might be interested in. So I go out and it’s like stuff I’ve had interviews about looking to find, and they had it. And I just basically got it because they were cool and they liked me.

Some of the mummified stuff, and some of the elongated skulls, and then like the medical collections from places that have gone out of business. I love those because you never really know what is in a jar until you get it home and look through it.

A lot of the stuff I’ve gotten is in bulk…collections I have gotten in boxes that take me a week to sort through. I’ll have what looks like a normal bone or box of bones and I put it together and it turns out to be someone who had a severe abnormality.

So who are the people who have–well you said medical collections–but have you met people who are like, “Oh hey, I have a jar of bones just hanging out in my basement.”

That happens quite a lot actually. We really put ourselves out there with the show. We used to have to locate this stuff but now people contact me because they know I am interested in it. They sort of want to hear our expertise. Situations like that, if they could happen everyday, that would be cool. Although looking around for the stuff is half the fun…

My question about people’s basements was more…well, we have seen a lot of crazy things while out at estate sales. I guess my question was are these people like you who also collect or do you literally have people who for some crazy reason have bones in their basements?

A lot of people’s families were in the medical field. They don’t necessarily do this today, but back in the day, when you went to med school, you had to buy a skull. It was just part of learning the cranium. So for all of those millions of people who went to med school–they might have passed on–and the family didn’t know what to do with the skull so they put it in the basement. When they move, well it’s, “I don’t want to bring this skull with me!” That’s how stuff is changing hands. A lot of the time, a physician might retire and they don’t want to take this stuff with them to Boca Raton…they want to retire, not with a full child skeleton. Those are my favorite times because they are happy for these things to find a home.

I also have a problem because I am such a collector, so a lot of stuff that comes through me ends up in my personal collection.

Yes, the photos of your collection look amazing. So let’s say your house is burning down, what do you grab?

Oh, I don’t like to talk about that. Fire is not my friend, even though I use it for a living. I don’t know. I don’t think there is one thing I could grab. I might have to die with my things.

I give little tours to people, clients or whatever, and I always go around and say, oh this is one of my favorites pieces…and I say it about like every piece.

My fetal skeleton. It’s a child. Those just as far as skeletons go, are very difficult to find. I actually have a funny story about that little guy. I was supposed to move out of my apartment and into a new one. This was back in the day and I didn’t really have any money, and I spent my deposit money–much to my girlfriend’s at the time chagrin–and thank God she could spot me because I spent all my money on this skeleton. It’s really cool. I still have it to this day. I keep it on my mantel in the living room.

Um, it’s about 2 feet or so, which is perfect. It is a really nice, old one. The day I found it–it was from a dealer friend of mine–and I said to him, “Hey, I’m looking for a child skeleton. If you ever come across one…I don’t have a huge budget, but I really want one.” And he didn’t say anything, he just pointed to a shelf and there it was.

Well, the store Evolution has them and they are $1000, but you could be lucky and sometimes get them a lot cheaper.

Well they are a lot more rare. Children die a lot less frequently than older specimens.

Yeah, children don’t as readily leave themselves to science. That is ultimately how a skeleton is bought…someone leaves their body to science. The organs and tissue are used to save lives and then the skeleton is cleaned and used for medical purposes.

Ok, so what is your holy grail? The thing you have yet to find but always hope that you do.

That’s hard because I have found a lot of things I have strived to find. There is always stuff. Hmm, what do I want? What do I want that you people can get for me…

Yeah, put it out there into the world so someone can read this and get it for you.

I was answering this same question a month or so ago and literally a week later I found the piece I was looking for, which was an elongated skull from Peru. And a real drastic one. Um, I don’t know…you know, one of the things I have been focusing on is mummification. And more medical mummification as opposed to Egyptian mummification. Egyptians were wrapped and typically done centuries ago. Medical mummification hasn’t been around as long. It was used to educate people who didn’t want to use wax specimens, because wax melts and is expensive. So they came up with a preservation not unlike plastinating something. They usually use nasty chemicals like arsenic and mercury. But some of these things still come up and are preserved that way. So think “Body World” and plastination but a way earlier form, from the 18th and 19th century. I just recently came across one and was flabbergasted.

Shrunken heads are like my main focus. I don’t have one right now. I sold one I had awhile back and I really regret it. That’s one of the things that just is not coming up these days.

You know, I held a real shrunken head once. That’s something I can say I’ve done in my life. I used to work in museum prep at a natural history museum, and the Anthropology department had some they kept locked up.

Most Anthropology departments have stuff like that and you’ll see the craziest stuff in the back room. It just pains me because it is supposed to be an educational tool and of course, it’s just sitting back there. It makes me crazy.

Yeah, they had it all locked up. I think they were worried about the cultural implications of it, putting it on display. Anyway, a shrunken head, I would think you would already have one of those.

I have had a few and resold them because I needed money, or I traded them. And now it’s like the one thing I really want back, and of course if is one of the hardest things to find–especially like long hair shrunken heads. Ripley’s Believe It or Not has bought most of them, so they are extremely hard to find…of course, they have a bigger budget than private collectors. So when they come up, they are really expensive.

Alright, well, we will put it out there. Maybe in like a week you will get a package and there will be a tiny head inside…

So this may be a silly question after talking about shrunken heads, but is there anything that comes into Obscura or that you have seen that is too freaky even for you?

I get really weird about certain types of taxidermy and the fear that it might have bugs.

Wait, you’re not worried about like arsenic in it, but you are worried about bugs?

Uh, no. Believe it or not, because I collect a lot of Victorian taxidermy–or I did a lot more than I do now–but of course, antique taxidermy had arsenic in it. And I never wore gloves. When I work with mummification, I wear gloves and a mask. But anyway, bugs could easily get into your collection and ruin it.

Oh I see! You are worried about taking bugs home. I thought you were saying you were scared of bugs!

Well, then, is there anything that is too gross or too sensitive for you to own?

I hate Christmas collectibles. I don’t hate Christmas, Christmas is alright. But I hate…like, you’ll spend 3 hours at some flea market and you’ll see a bunch of vintage Christmas decorations. And it bums me out.

Well yeah, that’s a whole market. There is money to be made with that stuff.

Animatronic Santas…those things bug me so much. I mean, I’m not scared of them or freaked out…

Yeah, exactly. Also, I have a keen sense of smell, so things that are potent occasionally gross me out. Say you have to change the liquid in something being preserved, even with a mask, that stuff is gruesome. Actually, when I have had to clean skeletons myself, they are sometimes disgusting. They have the meat on them. It’s the stench you can’t get out of your nostrils.

Ugh, I bet. Alright, well tell me about those other hobbies–taxidermy, skull manipulation, and your store Against Nature.

In a sense, it is really two businesses. It has gone beyond hobbies. I know Mike and Evan [from Obscura] because I have always done articulations for them. You know, people who want skeletons done. I do that mainly at my home studio. And then I have a studio at Against Nature. I own that business with a couple friends. We do custom suits, and I do the accessories here. I actually used to do a lot of work with Ralph Lauren as a designer, so when I stopped working with them, we started this business. It’s in the Lower East side of Manhattan. We primarily do the custom suits, called bespoke suits, custom denim…and we do everything in house.

I was a collector first, and then I got a paid internship as a jeweler’s assistant…to a man who was Ralph Lauren’s first jewelry maker. He taught me what I know. Luckily, for osteology and medical preparation, the same tools are used, so I was able to segue, mixing all these things together. When you’re working with skulls, you are also working with brass hardware, and I can make a skull look 300 years old, and that is from working in antique restoration. So I am using all the categories as one…

I am actually doing a skull right now…I can’t go too far into it, but it looks like something a 15th century king would have on their bedstand.

A special order for a client. We are collaborating on the idea for it, and I am executing it, no pun intended. It’s going to be very regal.

You can read more about Ryan Matthew Cohn at his website ryanmatthewoddities.com and on his tumblr page. Be sure to check out Oddities this June for the second-half of the third season. It airs Saturdays at 9pm on SCIENCE.

Mar 22

After the Bomb

Wow, it’s already Wednesday and we still haven’t updated you about the rest of our experience on Saturday, post-Re-Purpose-Blowout.

We hinted at the fact that there was some cool stuff at that sale. I guess you have to go through battle to get to the good stuff. Like this:

Pretty gross to find this at a grandma’s estate sale but grandma gotta get hers too, I guess.

Ok, in all seriousness, I found this adorable vintage cat “gum parker” (don’t think about it too much… it will gross you out because it’s used)…

It’s a little jar filled with little babushka ladies. When Adam saw it, he asked, “Are those all of the souls you’ve stolen?” I guess that could have been featured as a TTFYHO post, just like Erin’s doll from the day before. I also got some other stuff, but those are the highlights.

After we left this sale, we went to a few others in the Bloomfield Hills/Beverly Hills area. We stopped at one that wasn’t on our list, but I’m glad we stopped because I found this cool, sterling silver necklace:

I also found a Sesame Street cookie jar from 1980, featuring Cookie Monster. When I got out into the bagging area (this company makes you wrap up and bag your own stuff), I found a handful of dead ants in it. AWESOME.

The lady who owned the condo that this sale was at was a total baller! She had so many shoes, and they were all real fancy brands:

Unfortunately, her shoe size was between a 5 and a 5.5, which isn’t even remotely close to mine. I bought a few of her shirts, though.

The next sale was a letdown, but I did see this great item that I decided against buying:

Great price for a weird insulting/loving statue. No, seriously. Can someone tell me WHO would purchase a sculpture of a fat, bald guy on a scale with his eyes literally bugging out of his head?

The last sale we went to was a “digger” sale at this old house and barn. The pictures made it look crazy but it ended up being pretty disappointing. First, it was really dirty and grubby in there. Second, there wasn’t really anything good there. Third, these people were hoarders of some weird stuff. Like giant, open buckets of sand. Here are some pictures that Erin snapped inside and out:

I bought a coffee table at the sale. It’s still in my car. Erin also found me another HUGGLET!!! I’m going to give it to her so Erin’s car can also be protected from evildoers.

Update from Erin: I have to disagree with Sarah about the weird old farmhouse. I found an awesome old cast iron waffle maker from 1910. I got it for $5 and on ebay right now it is at $21 and has 15 watchers!

Apparently Wagner Ware is some sort of collectible cast iron maker. Three other waffle makers like mine sold for $100 each! So my fingers are definitely crossed on this one!

I also got a GIANT bag full of bubble wrap for $1. This is great because bubble wrap is so expensive! If I have any surefire sale tips, it is to buy all tissue paper, bubble wrap, boxes, and wrapping paper at estate sales.

And then there were these Jello molds. How are these not the most adorable of all jello molds? THEY SAY JELLO. Can’t get much cuter.

The last thing I will mention is this cool liquor set I got at the sale with the fancy shoes. The bottles are all really heavy glass, including the stoppers. The holder is chrome with a locking mechanism so no one steals your booze. They originally had this priced at $45 but since it was the last day of the sale, everything was marked way down. Thank goodness because when I got home, I realized one of the bottles has a cracked corner and leaks! I’m hoping I can find some sort of glue filler to seal it up. I made up the term “glue filler” so my chances of finding it probably aren’t great.

Oh wait, one more thing. I was seriously heartbroken when Sarah found that cat “gum parker” instead of me. The face on it is THE BEST. And the whole premise of having a fancy place to park my gum is alluring. So I am now on the hunt for my own gum parker, and hopefully it is just as cute as Sarah’s.

Update from Sarah: You can have the gum parker. It sort of grosses me out, and the face is the part I don't like. It looks human.

Mar 21

Well that’s odd.

So this entry is a teaser for a SERIOUSLY AWESOME entry that will launch on Friday. If you are not familiar with the TV show, Oddities, then you should check it out. It airs on SCIENCE, and the second-half of the third season picks back up in June.

Oddities explores the fascinating world of scientific artifacts–taxidermy, quack medical devices, preserved specimens, and so on. The show is based out of Obscura, an antique store in Manhattan that wheels and deals in this type of collecting. It follows co-owners Mike Zohn and Evan Michelson, as well as their buyer Ryan Matthew Cohn, who finds the treasures being sold.

So we thought, “Hey! Who better to talk about antiques and treasure hunting with than Mr. Ryan Matthew himself.” Luckily, he was gracious enough to spend some time on the phone with me last week, and talk all about his wild and wacky collection.

But before the interview is posted on Friday, we wanted to brush you all up on the show. So watch the video below, check out the Oddities website, and get ready to hear about one of the strangest hobbies out there. You think we buy crazy things? Well, just wait…