Treasures are everywhere if you just look around you. Also, WORKS!
My favorite books when I was very little were these, written and illustrated by Joan Walsh Anglund, and I still own them:
My copies are falling apart because I read and re-read them so often as a kid. They’re worth a lot of money now, but of course not my copies, because of the condition they’re in, but I wouldn’t sell them anyway.
Two of my favorite things from sales are also Joan Walsh Anglund items. First, a small vintage doll:
And also this print that I found in a cracked frame (we obviously reframed it):
This is such a perfect illustration. Gorgeous colors, and it’s obviously fall. And look at how cute her outfit is. I purchased this about six years ago, but it wasn’t until this past December that I realized the print was part of a twelve print “sampler.” I found a complete set of all of the prints on etsy for about $15. Total steal. Three of the illustrations are Christmas themed. All of them are adorable.
I would purchase anything of hers at a sale that was reasonably priced and in decent shape.
This past Christmas, my parents and Adam surprised me with a variety of vintage Joan Walsh Anglund items, including vintage Christmas bulbs and some of her books. Aren’t they the best?
-Sarah
A pretty clear trend on some of our “Money Makers” is that we had no clue an item we bought would be so valuable. In our big scores thus far it has been all dumb luck. This edition is a sort-of exception to that rule.
My husband Zach had been perusing ebay and found a lot of old vintage stopwatches and one pocket watch. The listing was pretty non-descript, but when Zach looked closely at the photos of the items, he noticed an Omega timepiece. He knew that Omega watches were collectible and hoped that no other bidders noticed the pocket watch in the lot. Zach ended up winning the lot for $40.
The pocket watch was cool and in great shape, still ticking away. And sure enough, it was an authentic Omega.
The inside of the watch confirmed this further, and also gave a peek at the 15 jewels that keep the watch running. And by “jewels” I mean REAL jewels. Like mini rubies. Which is crazy.
The back of the watch had some interesting markings, so Zach did his research. Turns out that the weird little symbol engraved is known as a British Broad Arrow. It denotes “heraldry” (whatever that is) and is used on items of government property. This pocket watch was most likely issued to a military person around the time of WWII or shortly thereafter.
The watch floated around our old apartment and then followed us to our new home, but Zach quickly realized that an old-ass pocket watch isn’t very practical (that’s what iphones and fake Rolexes from Craigslist are for). So we put the watch on ebay. And Zach’s initial inkling was spot on–this watch was collectible.
25 bids and $150 later it was goodbye pocket watch.
Not bad at all considering Zach didn’t even have to venture out to a sale!
-Erin
OK, so I finally did it. I bought something so wacked out that it qualified for a Things That Freak Your Husband Out (TTFYHO) post. I don’t even know what I was thinking…
I found this bag of random vintage Santas in someone’s garage. I remember when I first started sale-ing that someone told me vintage X-MAS stuff was super collectible. I suppose this is probably true if you find such things ANYWHERE OTHER THAN SOMEONE’S FILTHY GARAGE.
I got the whole bag for $2 and figured at least one would be valuable. (I’m talking like $8 valuable.) I figured I could clean these guys off with a lint roller or whatever and they would be good as new.
Not true. They are gross. I threw them in the garbage, which is probably to the delight of Zach.
I did particularly like this guy though. He is obviously keeping a real secretive secret. Maybe he will share his little secret with all of his garbage friends. Or maybe he will be their SECRET SANTA. Ahahahahaha.
P.S. My what big hands you have.
-Erin
When Erin and I were at the paper ephemera sale on Friday, I left thinking I might be back the next day with Adam. Sure enough, when I showed him some of the pictures, he got really excited. He thought the saw some vintage typewriter that played music when you hit the keys in one of the pictures. I can’t remember what it was called. Anyway, it ended up not being what he was thinking it was, but he still found a lot of treasures. Also weird is that, just like at the House of Horrors sale, we had to stand outside in line on the second day. What up with that? It was freezing!
This time around, I got an old plywood puzzle (might sell it on eBay), two awesome vintage Sesame Street postcards, and a pack of old Cuban postcards:
The next sale we stopped at was the home of a U of M Literature professor, and it was just so sad, because there were books all over her home, many which were marked with loads of post-it notes. It was obvious that she had been teaching right up until her death. One of the rooms was just a reading room that was floor to ceiling shelving, mostly filled with canonical literature. The house and its contents were beautiful, but most of what was for sale was really pricey because it was all gorgeous and antique. I bought a few books and Adam bought an old wooden box for $2. I thought it was weird that I bought 7 books, all of which were $2, and the woman used a calculator to determine my total. Wut?
We went to a dud sale after that, where I bought some tissue paper (WTF is wrong with me?), and spotted this odd item:
A porcelain bunny with chest hair.
We went to the last sale of the day after that, and that’s where we found some cool stuff. Adam wanted me to purchase this, but I opted to just take a picture of it. It was a matted fold-out of four 8x10 photographs of this handsome man:
I also found about a dozen vintage 45s from Spain and France that look like they might be worth some cash! A few of them are Spanish versions of songs by Joan Manuel Serrat, about whom I knew nothing when I decided to purchase the records. They just looked cool. Here’s some pictures of them:
Before I try to sell them on eBay, I’ve been told by Adam that I need to take new pictures, because a wrinkly white background looks too “dirty and messy.” I was trying to show these weird record people that I’m being careful with their goods. Anyway, I hope they sell, because the actual records themselves are in perfect shape. Some don’t even look like they were ever played. Hopefully one day they will have their own entries on here as Moneymakers.
I also discovered this giant pile of vintage art journals, which seem to be part of a series of publications created by a group of Dutch art museums, including the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. I got the entire lot (I probably have 40 of them), but it’s hard to tell if they’re worth anything. There is one issue on eBay right now and it’s listed for $50 for one issue… so I’m not sure what I should do. Try to sell them individually or as a lot?
At this sale, I also found some very cute vintage Dutch postcards with kitties on them, some cool buttons, and the funniest valentine I’ve ever seen.
Burned by Larry! Dang!
Adam hit the motherload, though. I spied a box of really old Legos under this table. The guy wanted to $40 for them and Adam said fine right away. Anyway, it turns out that some really old (possibly the first ever) Lego boxes were inside the box, as well as some Lego CARS–apparently, before there were Lego guys, there were Lego cars. Anyway, Adam was really pumped.
See?
Tonight we figured out that they might be even more rare, because they might also be Dutch.
-Sarah
Ever since I saw this video, I’ve loved finding baby elephant figurines. Elephants are smart, compassionate creatures. And obviously they like having fun. Sounds like me!
Now, I don’t go crazy with these. I like ones from the ‘50s and '60s that look sort of like cute-ified real animals–not gross Pier One elephants. I only buy the extra cute ones.
Except for the one time I bought this guy…
and Adam asked me, “Why did you buy a statue of a weird, high elephant?!”
Anyway, this one is my all-time fave. He looks just like the baby in the video!
This little guy was in a set with two adults. First, I only want babies. No adults. Second, the set was overpriced. Third, the sale was junky so I just grabbed him and pretended I found him somewhere alone, since the majority of stuff in the house wasn’t priced. No harm, no foul. And I got my baby.
Finally, this guy was an exception to the no-gold-policy for decorative items (created and enforced by Adam). I made the exception because he’s so cute and happy. So far, Adam hasn’t objected.
-Sarah
So, because the snowpocalypse was a complete and total non-event, Erin and I were able to hit the road on Friday, and we managed to get out at a relatively early hour. The first sale we went to was a big ol’ dud, but we sort of expected that. The best thing was what happened when we walked in the door: An extremely flamboyant man greeted us, and then said to the woman working the sale with him, “See? I knew the schools being closed today was going to get us some extra traffic… the kids are out.” Now, it is not abnormal for people to think that we are extremely young (especially me–sorry, Erin), but not THAT young. So I said, “Oh. I’m thirty-three.” He tried to cover it up by saying “Oh, I KNOW! I wasn’t talking about YOU.” But it’s like… uh…then who were you talking about, bro?
Anyway, the sale was bad, but I bought some birthday candles. Because they are always things that Adam and I forget whether we have or not (when we’re celebrating a birthday), so now I can always think back to this crappy sale and remember that we do have candles, and I don’t need to buy more.
Erin purchased some old dishes that she thought might be valuable. I’m sure she will do an entry on those if they end up actually being good. She also found this, but decided against purchasing it, because the type of exercise it makes you do is far too strenuous:
I also bought an old Spanish language kit that contains records, which I thought was sort of cool. Anyway, we high-tailed it outta there, because we were really eager to get to the sale pictured here.
We arrived there, and as we suspected, the sale contained many amazing items, and many mysteries. One mystery: Why did this woman love ironing so much?
Those are indeed irons peeking out from every drawer.
As mentioned on Friday, Erin did hit the gold with Marx figures yet again, and at a sale run by the same women! She paid a hefty sum ($60) for her box of goodies, but I think she will make some good money on them.
Here are some pictures of the goodies at the sale:
What? You don’t want an armadillo bag?
I knew this sale was going to be good because it contained a ton of paper ephemera, and even though it was packed, it did not disappoint. I discovered a box overflowing with vintage greeting cards that all seemed to be unused and adorable. Of course, it was not priced, and knowing that these women sometimes like to overcharge, I worried about what she’d say when I checked out. Well, Erin’s habit of chit chatting people at these things worked for me. Erin blabbed on about how we love this company’s sales (which is true) and asked about upcoming sales. The lady was super chatty and friendly, which always helps when I am about to ask for a price on something.
For the greeting cards, I was expecting a crazy price like $80… She said, “You didn’t find any postcards in here? Nothing besides greeting cards?… How about $15?” Uh HELL YEAH. Anyway, I paid and high tailed it outta there. When Erin got in the car she immediately expressed disbelief in how cheap the cards were. I just kept staring at the box, saying, “I AM SO EXCITED.” Here’s a picture of the mass of them:
I purchased a bunch of other stuff at that sale, including some original Battlestar Galactica records that I thought Adam would want. Guess I was wrong about that one. And then I got this adorable thing:
Paper dolls in a very cool old tray/frame. $20.
The next sale we went to was the gross sale featured last night. I think it’s summarized pretty well there, but I can’t believe Erin passed up this gem:
She said, “That’s the kind of doll that would kill you in your sleep."
I purchased two packages of vintage Christmas present tags and immediately regretted it, just because having them in my hands made me feel dirty.
From there, we had to make a choice about which direction to go in. In the end, we picked the wrong way (East) because the sales in Warren that looked good were really bad (except for finding Mrs. Beasely, who WE SHOULD HAVE PURCHASED). But we did find two amazing things in Warren.
First, we found Tringali’s, which Erin told me I would not want a treat from–not because she had ever been there, but because she is from the area (sort of) and "it looks real old.” Ok, cool. Good reason.
ANYWAY, we pulled up and it looked like a typical old/established Michigan bakery. Of course, when we walked in, Erin immediately realized how wrong she was. We wanted ALL the treats. I basically got them all:
And they were delicious.
Don’t be alarmed by the quantity of treats in that box. That bakery is probably 50+ miles from me. I needed to stock up for the weekend. Erin is more sensible and just got this:
She then proceeded to leave in my box. So I ate it.
The last great thing we found wasn’t actually inside a sale. It was a bumper sticker on the car in the driveway of the last sale, obviously meaning that it was owned by someone who was working for the sale company. The sticker was a picture of the “shocker” symbol and said, “Two in the goo; one in the poo.” I tried to make Erin take a picture of it, but she refused.
The day ended crappy, because we were supposed to reconvene at my house to eat pizza, watch a scary movie, and post our goodies on eBay. But the roads got really icy and Erin witnessed a horrible accident, so she turned around and went home.
Instead I ate chili fries with my dog and sorted through my awesome cards.
-Sarah
Update from Erin: It’s true that I didn’t buy that exerciser at the first sale. I did test it out, and it did seem kind of hard. But I also didn’t buy it BECAUSE IT WAS JUST A LAZY SUSAN DISGUISED AS AN EXERCISER. I prefer my exercise gear to be truly innovative.
The dishes I bought at this sale were vintage Homer Laughlin china. I currently have them on ebay, so we will see how that goes. They are super pretty and made in the USA to boot.
At the second sale, I found the MARX figures that Sarah mentioned already. I am SO excited about them. I did pay $60 up front (which is terrifying) but I think it was a good investment. I emailed the guy who bought my last set of MARX figures to tell him I had found more in case he was interested. He said the following:
Wow! You are LUCKY! The metallic blue guys are GOLD! You will probably make a lot more money than you did on the last batch (which I loved). Don’t think I can hang with this lot! Thanks again (I will watch, though!)
-John
The metallic blue guys he refers to are a set of 12 cavalry men that came with only one of the MARX playsets. I guess they are super rare!
I’ll keep everyone posted on what they finally sell for.
Other things on my mind are how crazy that whole Mrs. Beasley doll thing was and how totally stupid I am for forgetting my lemon bar inside Sarah’s dessert box. I will have lemon bar nostalgia for at least a few days.
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This was one of the other cool things that I found at the sale where I purchased the red knickknack cabinet. I really love vintage cross stitch, and this one combines that charm with bathroom humor, which, if you know me at all, you know I also love.
Next time you’re in our downstairs bathroom, I hope you glance at that and feel anxious about finishing your business.
-Sarah