Dig This Treasure!

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-Erin

Whoa. I was just looking through tomorrow’s sales and discovered a sale where, I swear to god, the woman only owned purple clothing. 

Now, I think we all know who lives here: 

Am I right? 

-Sarah

After the new year, I met my friend Sarah in nearby Chelsea to check out a local antique store that neither of us had been to before. You may recall that we hit up another place in Chelsea a few months ago, and we ended up going back there, but first let’s talk about what we found at Chelsea Antiques. 

They had a nice variety of items, and most everything seemed to be decently priced (on the high end but not the highest I’ve ever seen). 

The really nice thing was that items were arranged well so that like things were together. They had a LOT of antique postcards which were fun to sift through. 

Sarah found that one and we could not stop giggling about it. What the hell does it mean?! 

I am certain that this is what goes through Adam’s head every day. 

I love seeing books like this. I’m sure the stories are full of hunting, sports, and farting. Right? 

They also had a few “new” items mixed in with the antiques. I liked this Autumn Mouse, preparing for winter: 

I also saw this cool thing that looked like something Erin would like, but $40 was too risky to take a chance. 

Good thing I didn’t buy it for her, because she told me it looked a little too Buddhist for her tastes. 

I did end up buying a few things. First, I found some postcards that I liked. They were all individually priced between 3 and 8 bucks… but I splurged. I can’t show you a few of them because they are gifts. I thought this image was so weird and creepy. I had to get it. 

Same with this one. 

I also found this cute wooden Russian girl for $12. 

She fits right in with my other wooden carvings. 

Before checking out, I noticed a bunch of jewelry by the counter so I started sifting through it. I found these cute vintage dog earrings:

…and then a pair of sterling native american earrings. The sterling ones were a little pricey ($20) but I really liked them. They were pretty tarnished but I was ok with that. When I went to check out, the woman asked if I wanted her to polish them for me. I said no at first but she insisted it would only take a couple of minutes. I reluctantly agreed, and she pulled out this tube of the most toxic smelling stuff ever. I stood there patiently while she polished them, wondering what the horrid smell was doing to my insides. When they were done they looked nice and sparkly, but I’m still not sure it was worth the brain cells lost due to the odor. 

When we left the store, we decided to hit up the antiques mall again because it was just down the street. I’m sure you’re shocked to hear that Baked Big Boy was still representin’. 

I did buy one item here but I’ll save that for another day. 

-Sarah

On Friday, Sarah and I decided to just hit one nearby sale because we weren’t sure if it was going to snow.  The photos for the sale looked pretty good,  but when we showed up, it seemed like everything had been sold already.  This is interesting because we later heard that a dude who was first in line for the sale walked in the house to mysteriously find several items from the sale photos already marked “sold” or missing from the house completely.  Not cool.

There were some old things, but also some pretty lame stuff.  And there was only one room so it felt very garage sale-y.

Someone please tell me how to know if a head vase is collectible!  These were all marked around $30, which seemed like a steep risk to take on trying to resell them. 

Same with Raggedy Anns.  Are these ever collectible?

The annoying thing about this sale is that the people running it clearly thought I was some sort of poor person vagabond.  EVERY TIME I touched something, before I could even focus my eyes to see it clearly, the people would go, “OH, THAT’S FIFTY DOLLARS."  The insinuation here is that I can’t afford that so I better hurry up and put the damn thing down.  It was very rude and awkward.  When they kept doing it to me, I would say, "Oh, OK” and then continue to fondle the item for many moments before putting it down. 

It happened with this tin cat toy thing that I thought was cute.  I later looked the thing up on ebay and it is definitely not worth $50.

I did end up buying one thing at this sale that was shockingly priced at a reasonable $5. It is a Fisher Price Happy Hoppers roll toy thing.  I figured Everett could play with it when he eventually starts walking.

We were pretty disappointed that this sale was a letdown so we decided to swing by that weird warehouse place where I bought the Pabst Beer Sign. 

I’ll let Sarah discuss this place more, but what turned out to be crazy was that any item we found to buy was either “going in an auction later that night” or “going up on eBay."  So basically, they opened this place up to the public and then wouldn’t let us buy any of their stuff.  Oy.

Things they probably would have let us buy include this guy, who is clearly craving a home in a garbage can:

And they might have let Sarah buy this frog she was OBSESSED with, but being a good friend, I wouldn’t let her buy it.

So gross.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Oh, so the truth comes out, does it? Erin told me that frog was cute but that it would end up in our next garage sale. What a liar! Here’s a cuter picture of it. 

It was soft and shaggy and unique. 

Erin started rummaging through this area behind a bar-like structure in the building and I questioned whether she should be there, but figured she was an adult. I spied these weird anti-drug posters from the ‘70s and admired them for a minute. 

I also admired these "cassingles." 

In all seriousness, there was a bag of antique photographs on a table and I asked how much they were. The guy at the place told me he had to call his boss and ask. When she returned his call, he informed me that they weren’t for sale–they were going to be sold at their auction that started at 5 p.m. Erin was incensed and then asked the guy, "Can you tell me exactly what is for sale in here?” and he told her that basically anything else in the building was up for grabs. WTF? 

So the best thing is that late Saturday night, I get a barrage of texts from Erin: 

Yes indeed you are reading that correctly–they are trying to sell those posters for $600. 

The joke was on us, however, when we looked at their completed listings. 

Excuse me while I vomit. 

They made sure to explicitly state that the penis pump AND sanitary underpants were both UNUSED. YEAH. RIGHT. Ughughghghghghg. 

In all seriousness… we might not want to know the answer to this question but… we sort of do. Why would anyone want old sanitary underpants? 

Ooowee do we have a tale for you.  This is quite a crazy one.  A few weeks ago, my mom won some old light fixtures for really cheap at the secret auction. She put a few of them up on eBay, and a few days later, was contacted by a woman who lived close to her who was very interested in one of them: 

My mom said that once they agreed to let her come take a look in person, the woman got to their house in record time–like she was hiding in the f*cking bushes or something. On her way there, she called my mom and told her it would probably be a good idea to take the chandelier off eBay, since she was surely going to make a fair offer. So my mom went ahead and did so. She figured she’d make a decent profit and not have to bother with shipping something so fragile. Worth noting: My mom also made a point to tell me that she kept hearing me in the back of her head saying, “Don’t be greedy, don’t be greedy” so apparently I am partially responsible for this as well. 

The woman offered her $80 for the fixture, and my mom accepted. She told my mom she was THRILLED to have it because it would fit in beautifully with her dining room decor. She told my mom she was recently divorced and was fixing up her new place. She also expressed interest in another light fixture my mom had, but my mom got a weird vibe and told her she wanted to leave that one up on eBay. 

Two weeks later, my mom received a message from another eBay user who had been watching that same light fixture, noticed it was taken down, and then noticed that a very similar fixture was posted by another user that was geographically close to my mom. He sent her the listing number: 

There is no question that this is the chandelier that my mom sold to the “poor divorced woman.” She cleaned it up, rewired it, and stuck it back up online. Yes, this increases the value of the piece. But by 800+ dollars? That b*tch! At the very least, she could have told my mom what it was and offered a fair price. If it’s really worth $950… fair to me would have been $200-400. People are often very kind on eBay. We have all had experiences where people contact us and share information about an item to help us get more views. 

I know all is fair in the world of flipping… but to me this was just such an amoral move. And a stupid one at that! The eBay user who messaged my dad is different from thomaslights (current seller), but the cell phone number the woman gave to my parents is the same number on the Thomas Lights Facebook page! My mom says she will never do something like this again. 

My mom is pretty over it, but Erin and I are OUTRAGED. I did message thomaslights and ask where they found such a rare chandelier. But no response yet. I also thought about doing a best offer of $80 and putting a note in that says, “Isn’t this what you paid for it?” It is also really entertaining to me how outraged Erin is by this injustice. 

We’re not really sure how to handle this whole thing, but it would be great for this woman to know how totally awful it is that she did this.  Seriously, so immoral.

-Sarah

Update from Erin: This situation has my blood boiling so badly.  I understand that sometimes you get a crazy deal on something because an ignorant seller didn’t take the time to do their homework.  But Sarah’s mom specifically put this on ebay as an AUCTION so that the item’s true value would be realized as people bid it up.  To ask someone to take down an auction because you will give them a “fair price” and then do the EXACT OPPOSITE is outrageous.  Like Sarah said, a fair price would have been a couple hundred dollars.  This lady would have a clean conscience and still make a profit.

Anyway, what do you guys think?  Maybe we are being too sensitive, but I think not, especially since the lady came up with a crazy lie about the whole thing.  She knows she was wrong.  Also, to have TWO EBAY ACCOUNTS so you can swindle people is a sign of the devil’s work.

Pardon me, but what a true ho.

Zach stumbled on this Craigslist gem and I am ever so grateful that he shared it with me.  I love everything about this ad–the Green Day records, the suggested collection price, the insistence on a bulk sale.  SO GOOD.

“I believe book price on everything could be over $750,000.00 and as high 1 million."  I believe in aliens and maybe yetis but one thing I REFUSE to believe is that these records are worth ONE MILLION DOLLARS.  Sorry. 

This actually makes me kind of sad, but also is completely astounding.  Anyway, hurry up and get on this people because HIGH BID GETS ALL.  Don’t forget to make an appointment though.  You can’t just randomly stop by on your way home from the grocery store with NINETY THOUSAND DOLLARS and expect to take home these records.

-Erin

On Friday, Sarah and I were eager to hit a sale in Farmington Hills because it had a bunch of Herend fishnet animals.  Ok, so I was more excited than Sarah, but she still seemed interested in the other items at the sale.  Everything in the photos looked high-end and collectible.  The sale was run by the same people who put on that amazing folk art sale where we scored some mega deals.

Sure enough, the person who owned this house had expensive taste.

That lamp was so badass, but it was priced $395 :(

As for the Herend I mentioned earlier, I didn’t buy any because it was all priced pretty close to retail.  I decided to return to this sale on Sunday when they were discounting.  Unfortunately by then someone had already scooped up all of the fishnet pieces!  That’s what I get for singing the praises of Herend on this blog!  Now everyone loves it.  Sheesh!

I did buy one piece of non-fishnet Herend.  This tiny rabbit box for $20:

I know, that is about the most precious thing you have ever seen.

One more story about this sale is that Sarah got busted by the police on our way home.  She made a questionable pass through a yellow/red light and a cop car started following us.  He didn’t put on his lights right away so Sarah and I were living in terror for a good couple minutes. 

Finally, the lights and sirens went on and Sarah and I sat in scared silence as we waited for the cops to approach.  I thought about asking Sarah what she was going to say to the cop, but I realized she was silently freaking out so I figured it best to just keep my mouth shut.  I’m sure she appreciated that gesture.

Then the weirdest thing happened and this young, cool dude cop strolled up and said all nonchalantly, “Watch those yellow lights ok?"  And then he started to walk away!  Sarah was like, "Do you want to see my stuff?” (meaning her license, etc.)  He said, “No, I already know who you are.”

So then the BEST thing happened.  I said really loudly and shocked to Sarah, “YOU KNOW HIM?!?!"  In my brain, they were like high school buddies or something.  Sarah pointed out that I was in fact the dumbest person of all time and that the cop simply meant he had already run her license plate and knew her name and info.

DUH.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Erin covered this sale expertly. The only thing I’ll add here is… yes, these people are very nice and get lots of very nice high end sales. But sometimes I want to take items up to them and say, 

For example: 

Yo, dawg. A full sheet set should cost about $10 at an estate sale. FORTY FIVE DOLLARS? And we all know that Style&co. is the cheapo Macy’s brand. It’s not like those are some high quality Calvin Klein sheets. The things that are most offensively overpriced at their sales are things like this! Everyday items that do not need to be marked up a billion dollars. 

I did buy one item at this sale. A very cute, super fat "art glass” bunny (that’s what it said on the tag.) It was marked $20 which is a little steep for a brandless bunny but it’s still pretty unique and cool. 

She fits right in among all of the other bunnies that live in our dining room. 

And thank god that officer was so awesome! I would have totally deserved that ticket because the light was right at the questionable level. And thank god ALSO that Erin made the wise choice to keep her mouth shut during the whole transaction (until the very end when she thought we were long lost homies)… it’s a true miracle that she didn’t say anything else. 

Ev didn’t come with us on our adventure, and when we got back, it looked as if he was pretty pleased with that decision. 

Also, I feel sad that Erin didn’t get any of her fishnet pieces. That baby bear was adorable. 

Wow… If only I could properly illustrate the extreme horrible-ness of the sales being offered these days. Erin and I had some time to go out on Friday. Erin didn’t have a sitter so baby Ev came with us, and so did our friend Jen. It was a horrible first sale-ing experience for both of them! We literally couldn’t find a single sale that seemed worth going to, so we decided to stay close to home and hit up a sale in Livonia. 

I noticed these cool old mugs but… they weren’t worth $40. 

Basically, there was nothing remotely good to be found at this sale. Unless you wanted some old Drano or a really scary clown candle. 

I did find one thing at this sale: A TON of oversized cash, yo. 

I actually knew Adam would be thrilled with this find. And he was. 

Anyway, Erin was really desperate for some good sale-ing and Jen was desperate for some action on her first trip out with us, so we went to the warehouse. Erin was acting all brave and ready to just go in there…until we pulled into the parking lot! At that point we decided that we needed to send Jen in as our lookout. She was to enter the warehouse and then come back out and let us know if the coast was clear. It’s worth noting that Jen had never seen an episode of Cash and Cari so she had no idea what Cari looked like. We showed her a picture and she went on her way. Erin and I anxiously sat in the car. 

She jumped in the car and told us that public enemy #1 was inside the warehouse. MAAAAAAN!!! We were bummed. That was our last option so no other sales were visited, and we’re hoping that this weekend’s offerings are a bit better. In the end, we had some good Mexican food and Everett was a little angel the whole time. Until we got home. He was p*ssed about the sales that day. 

-Sarah

In case you missed it, it was effing FREEZING (no joke) in Michigan this week. We’ve also had two giant snowstorms since the first of the year (note–it’s only the 8th!), so Erin and I haven’t had tons of time to get out and about. When we have had the opportunity to go to some sales, the selection is so bad that it’s not worth driving around in temps below zero. 

So in the meantime, enjoy a few different treasure-related posts by others that crossed my path this week on the Internet. The first, and my personal fave, was posted by our friend Becky today. It’s a bunch of pictures by Harry Whittier Frees, that are for some reason posted on an Australian news site. Here are a few of my faves. 

And here’s me, carting Erin around. 

This picture reminds me of one of my favorite children’s books, The Lonely Doll. 

I had never seen these, and I got so excited about them that I spontaneously purchased a $60 book of his photographs. Hope it’s good! 

The other link that was sent my way was this link (which you may have already seen) from Adam, about a 100 year time capsule unearthed in a church basement in Oklahoma. I think my two most favorite things discovered in this treasure chest were the awesome quilt of city builder signatures…

And then these letters from the blind in 1913 to the blind in 2013. SO AWESOME. 

Hope you enjoy these two posts as much as I did! Stay tuned for a Friday wrap-up. I discovered a sale that starts tomorrow that was listed as having Herend porcelain. Erin is PUMPED. 

-Sarah