So, as previously mentioned, Friday was a solo mission. There were a lot of really good looking sales, which made it even worse. Just because it’s SO much more fun going with someone–especially Erin.
All of the sales I went to were all the way out in Warren. The first was advertised at the home of a woman with “a lot of collections.” When I arrived, I discovered that the sale was 15% off because it was the second day. Now let me just say… FIFTEEN percent off?! Come on. You’ve gotta go at least 25% or is it really worth it? Also do you really want to start getting into nickels and dimes?!
Anyway, the verdict is still out in terms of whether I bought anything that will sell, but there was a crapload of stuff at this sale. The entire house basically looked like this or worse:
It was like the supreme definition of a digger sale.
Let’s first take a look at some of the things I decided to pass on.
So very true.
Also quite true.
Who knew? Skeletor is a hippie.
In one of the upstairs bedrooms, I found this amazing little boy’s suit from the ‘70s, which I’m hoping will sell on eBay. It still has the tags attached. (For the record, this does not count as something I was purchasing for my future children. I would never make my future child wear something that embarrassing.)
In the same room, I found this Captain Kangaroo doll still in the (extremely beat up) box. He’s pretty cute but I bought him strictly for the purpose of reselling. He was $20 and am hoping to get $40. We shall see.
Is it just me or does that doll look nothing like the man at the bottom of the package (Captain Kangaroo himself)?
Ok, so at this sale, I also found a wide variety of children’s books, including a lot of Golden Books from the '70s. I’m not sure if they’ll sell or not but I’ll try. I also found a bunch of really cute Raggedy Ann books from the '60s.
One other thing I took a risk on were these blocks.
This is a big paper box filled with old blocks. Some part of me remembers my mom saying that the ones we had when we were little are valuable now. I might be imagining that, though. Either way, I hope they sell. All I know is that they were heavy as sh*t to carry around that house.
I went to two other sales in Warren after that one. The last one was the worst. It was a really clean old woman’s house. Those are the worst sales to go to–but this one was even worse because the company running the sale priced everything SO high and none of it was valuable! For example, they had these old McDonald’s collector glasses (worth nothing) and each was priced $12. WTF?! The funny thing is that the same glasses were at the first sale for 50 cents.
The middle sale was interesting, though. I found a Greek evil eye which I’ll write about in the future, because it was definitely a Fave Find.
All in all, a successful day, but I missed Erin.
Since I was in Warren, I went to Tringali’s alone. Once again, I bought a giant box of Italian pastries and just ate one before sitting down to write this entry. Life is so good.
-Sarah
Uhm. I don’t even know where to begin. I bought these weird old magazines because I thought they would contain funny sh*t but I had no idea what I was in store for.
Also, this is a real life conversation that took place between me and Adam after I found this ad:
Me (cackling): Is that too creepy and gross to post?
Adam: What? The Adult Babies thing?
Me: YEAH.
Adam (serious, and shocked that I’m asking): No! Of course not!
Uhhhhh… OK then!
-Sarah
[video]
I ended up having to sale solo yesterday because my mom ended up not being able to come, so I apologize for the lack of updates. However, I hope you enjoy this item that I found today during round 2 with Adam. More news about this weekend’s sales will be forthcoming.
-Sarah
[video]
In our “Rules of the Road” entries (ROTR) we will discuss some of our estate sale strategies. Full disclosure though, these are tips that we totally made up, and work for us like 63% of the time.
Fancy treasures are usually scooped up pretty quickly by dealers who are early to a sale. If you are like me and work in the mornings, you can’t be the first person in line. If you are like Sarah and sleep in, this is also the case.
The good news is that dealers rush through a sale pretty quickly so that they can move onto the next one. As a result, we have found some rare and lucrative treasures hidden away in the recesses of attics, basements, closets, and other neglected places.
This is a messy attic space from a recent sale we attended. It was disorganized and dark so a lot of people avoided it. I ended up digging around with my iphone flashlight and found an unused antique meat grinder still in the box.
In a similar circumstance, I reached far back into a messy closet and found two Coach purses. I paid $1 each for them. (I would have paid more but the seller said that all handbags were priced $1 and it was their fault for not finding these. I guess fair is fair.)
A good tip is to try and focus out all of the stuff that is plainly visible or displayed. (After you do a quick scan of course for things you might want!) The photo below is from the sale where I most recently found more MARX figures. I knew from everything ON the tables that this house had antique toys and collectibles, so I started focusing on what was UNDER the tables and in the basement cabinets. At this same sale, I opened some dresser drawers and discovered all of the antique irons that we previously blogged about.
My favorite thing to dig through is a huge pile of old-looking paper goods. People usually don’t want to sort through papers because chances are that everything is either dirty or ripped. In some cases though, things stay shocking well-preserved inside paper stacks. I once found a railroad ticket from 1848 that looked like it was issued yesterday. It had been tucked inside of an envelope.
I also recently found a copy of the 1968 Detroit Free Press that featured the Tigers’ World Series win. It was perfectly pressed between a bunch of old binders and random paperwork. I bought it for $1 and later sold it on ebay for $40.
So the moral here is to DIG! Open ominous-looking boxes, cabinets, bags, etc. The sellers working the sale will be sure to mark off any areas you aren’t supposed to search. They will tape shut closets and drawers if you are meant to stay out. Other than that, hidden treasures are only hidden because there wasn’t enough time or space to display everything for sale in the home. Sellers are usually excited to see what you’ve uncovered, and it means more profit for them in the end!
-Erin
Totally yours if you’re into it…
I had been looking forward to the fact that I’d have two entire days to go sale-ing with Erin for about a month. TWO WHOLE DAYS!!! Unfortunately, the sales last week were all sort of duds. It always works out that way, doesn’t it? I mean, don’t get me wrong. The home of the apocalypse preparer was definitely unique and entertaining, but while we found lots to write home about, we didn’t find an abundance of treasures.
On Friday, there were literally only three sales that were remotely worth going to. This is seriously unheard of. Usually we have to make hard choices about which we get to and which we have to skip. Anyway, one of them looked really good–we had been looking forward to this sale because the women at the paper ephemera sale had told us about it, and it was going to be a cancer fundraiser. The sale was a living estate sale–a dealer/collector with stage IV lung cancer wanted to raise money and also get rid of some of her collections to lessen the burden for her family when she eventually passed away. (I KNOW. MEGA SAD.) The pictures of the sale made it seem as if it were chock full of old, interesting items. And since the proceeds were going to a really good cause, we figured it wouldn’t matter if some of it was overpriced.
However, when we got there, it became obvious that this person wasn’t really a dealer–she was just a collector of old things. Some of these old things were cool, some of them were just garbage. Anyway, Erin and I each got a small bag of items–I found a bunch of individually priced, unused vintage valentines, and then a bunch of really cool, old postcards. Here are a few of my favorites:
I LOVE beets.
Kitty jam band.
Now this one is weird. Check out the message on the back.
Daddy, is this postcard to your daughter, or your lady? If it’s for your daughter, you’re a creepy dude.
Anyway, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them, but I have noticed myself buying craploads of vintage postcards lately. Sorry, Adam.
The other cool thing I got was this set of little toothpick girls.
I have no idea what they’re for or from, but they’re sort of cool.
When we left this sale, we were both shaking we were so hungry, so we decided to go somewhere nearby called Nana’s Kitchen (nothin’ but the best, high quality edibles for these ladies). On our way to find that place, though, we saw Angelina’s and decided to opt for Mexican instead.
Let me tell you, this was not a mistake. When we got to the door, I cheered gleefully…
because I love potato tacos! These definitely did not disappoint, and Angelina’s has some of the best salsa I’ve ever had. So good that I actually asked if I could purchase some to take home. Anyway, glad it’s Lent!
While we were eating, I discovered that we were right next to a mirrored wall, which is great for checking to make sure you don’t have cilantro stuck in your teeth. But doing this to your friend is always an option, too:
After leaving Angelina’s, we hit up Divine Cheesecake. It was really weird in there. They had three kinds of cheesecake in a glass case, and basically that was it. It wasn’t divine, but it was pretty good.
After the cheesecake, it started raining really hard. We went to a sale that was on the way back to Erin’s house. It ended up being awful and Erin wouldn’t let me hear the end of it because there was another one that was further away, but looked more promising. By the time we got out of the dud sale I made us go to, the other one was closed. Oh well, at least we had cheesecake.
I hope this week’s sales are more full of fun and excitement.
-Sarah
Update from Erin: First things first, the cheesecake was our greatest find of the day, although it sounds like Sarah would say the potato tacos were. I still vote for the cheesecake until the day when Angelina’s offers pierogi tacos.
The charity sale had some cool things, but my impression was that it was super picked over. We probably missed the real good things. I did find this salt and pepper set from Sea World, which is THE CUTEST THING EVER.
I have the set on ebay now, but I might ask Sarah to bid it up so I don’t have to part with it. I’m getting sad thinking about letting go of these whale friends.
I also got some random paper items, one of which is getting a lot of ebay interest. It is a “Humanoscope” from 1949. The drawings have cut out pieces that fold over in layers to show different parts of the human body.
Cool and gross all at the same time.
I also got a rare Apatosaurus figure from the British Museum of Natural History, made by Invicta Plastics. It is no longer in production and I figured that someone might need it to complete their Invicta dino set or something. I won’t post a photo just yet because I think this guy might end up being a money maker deserving of his own post.
In other news, I finally got the smell out of that clay cooker. I had to soak it over night with some baking soda and then dry it out immediately. So you can all breathe a little easier now (pun intended) knowing that I am not selling funky bakeware on ebay.
We were lucky enough to have TWO days of sale-ing this past week since Sarah was off on winter break from work. Thursday morning we headed out to a pretty promising Detroit sale. I say promising because it was advertised as being in Boston Edison neighborhood, which is crazy fancy. I got to film at a mansion there last Spring and the home was seriously insane.
When we arrived at the sale, we noticed two things. One, that we were nowhere near the Boston Edison neighborhood, and two, this bumper sticker:
It’s a little worn, but it says “PIMP PRIDE.” Holla!
The yard of the house signaled the treasures that awaited us:
If your guess is that this house holds bounties of jewels and gold, you’re wrong. If you think it might hold rooms and rooms of garbage, you are spot on.
It also held a crap-ton of mugs.
Here is a photo of Sarah looking through the mugs. There were a lot of mugs she wanted but couldn’t buy. For some ASININE reason, the mugs were all chained to each other and to the stand they were on. Unless you brought your bolt cutters, these mugs were for display only.
Some lady passed by and made a joke about Detroit having a mug shortage and now we know why. Har har har.
The mugs were only the first example of stockpiled items. Everything in the house came in bulk. Stacks of unopened charcoal, cleaning supplies, toaster ovens…
When we made it to the attic things started to make sense. This person was TOTALLY GEARING UP FOR THE APOCALYPSE. You need 80 toaster ovens because when the world ends, you can’t count on just one toaster oven. And you need a LOT of ketchup:
If you don’t have anything to put the ketchup on, at least you have a thousand mugs you can pour ketchup into and drink.
And you can salt the ketchup beverage with all the salt you’ve saved:
I was seriously shocked by this house. We’ve seen our fair share of crazy houses, but this took the cake thus far. I started getting creeped out, like I was in an episode of The Walking Dead. At one point, I was rummaging through a box in the attic and something fell out. The noise of it hitting the ground scared me so bad that I screamed.
Here are some survival barrels we uncovered. Government sanctioned of course:
This is not to say that we didn’t find ANY treasures. I found a little brass turtle box that is crazy adorable. I put him on ebay but am kind of regretting it.
He already has 2 bids though, so there is no turning back.
I also found this terra cotta cooker. I looked it up on ebay and they usually sell for between $20 and $30.
I have it listed now on ebay. Here’s the thing though, I think I have to take the listing down. I looked up online how to clean these things because it was all dusty. I scrubbed it with baking soda and hot water, and then it started releasing this INSANE smell. The filthiest dirt smell ever. A smell so bad that Zach woke up from a nap and was like, “WHAT IS THAT???” Anyway, I put the cooker inside a bag with a box of baking soda for two days. It still smells. It is now sitting on our back porch hopefully “airing out.”
I’ll keep you all updated if this thing suddenly starts smelling like roses.
-Erin
Update from Sarah: Erin’s right. This sale was crazy. The quantity of mugs at it was out of control. I have no idea how, but I was able to get one of the crazy chained ones off one of the racks. I was desperately trying to get one with a confederate flag on it off the same rack, but I was not successful. Erin was really embarrassed that I was trying to get that one off the rack because the sale was being run by an African American family. Come on. I’m sure they’ve watched the Dukes of Hazzard. Also, it’s not like I was going to keep it!
Anyway, here are the four mugs that I did buy. Adam loves the two old timey ones, and of course the Piston’s one.
I really don’t need any mugs, but when has that ever stopped me?
The other thing Erin didn’t mention about this sale was that when we got into the basement, there were even more mugs, along with an overwhelming chemical smell that immediately made both of us worry that we were being poisoned. We quickly left the basement.
I purchased a couple of other items at this sale, including this silver-plated Snoopy bank from 1958. I thought Adam would like it but in retrospect, I should have realized it was sort of gross.
One other, cuter Peanuts-themed item (we’re big Peanuts fans over here) that I purchased:
Unfortunately, Adam didn’t really like this that much either, but I think I do. I might put it in my office at work.
Besides all of the tempting ketchup, salt, and instant coffee, here’s another thing we saw there that we didn’t buy:
An old wheelchair that looks like something out of a Marilyn Manson video, carrying some broke ass lampshades.
After this sale, we went to a sale in St. Claire Shores that we were really excited to go to, but it ended up being bad because the people running it thought they knew some secret about how much things were worth, but really it was just a bunch of overpriced junk. I am ashamed to admit it but I bought these for $7.50:
I had to buy them. What they say is true.
Sorry about the animal hair in that photo. During my week off, this is what I was dealing with:
Isn’t she cute? She’s my new dog, Betsy. She deserves a moment of recognition on this world famous blog.
Erin and I also went to National Coney Island again, where I was able to make her buy me TEN bags of those coney chips because she owed me some money.
Tomorrow, I’ll update you all with how day two went. The highlight of the day may or may not have been a potato taco Lenten special.
When I expressed interest in buying this liquor cabinet, the look on Sarah’s face was priceless. So it’s a little gaudy, but that is why it is the best liquor cabinet of all time.
The price tag on this puppy was $200 which is crazy because no one could tell if it was even an antique. For all we knew, it was purchased at Pier One like last week. That said, I loved it and wanted it. I eventually haggled down to $150.
The inside of the case has carved slots for bottles. Luckily, this estate sale was selling some various alcohol products from the 60s and 70s. The Chartreuse has some stuff floating in the bottom of it, so I think it might be undrinkable. Zach and I did crack open some port wine from the 60s (marked on the bottle as already aged 30 years) at his recent 30th birthday party. It tasted like the 1930s, which means, delicious.
-Erin
Update from Sarah: Erin failed to mention that this was one of the houses that, if I had a time travelling machine (again, I hate time travel, so this is saying a lot), I would go back and photographically document its contents–it was decorated as if Liberace himself lived there. No joke. Also, this person LOVED opera, and so does Zach, so I refused to let Erin put the liquor cabinet in my car, because I wanted to make her go back the next day so that Zach had a chance to check out the goods. I think they ended up going back and Zach nearly had a panic attack because the house was so overcrowded with opera-and-gaud-loving vultures. Also noteworthy–at this sale, I picked up four small oxidized metal statues of cats playing musical instruments (those could double as a Thing that Freaks Your Husband Out) and a copy of In Defense of Food. Apparently, Liberace is health conscious.