Dig This Treasure!

You might remember my family’s trip to Holly, MI last year.  It was full of Dickens characters, steampunks, and Skookum dolls.  This year, we all returned to Holly and it was noticeably less full of all of the above.  Despite being advertised as the annual Dickens festival, there were very few Tiny Tims and Jacob Marleys.  It might’ve been because it was cold as, well, the Dickens.

Zach suited up in the Baby Bjorn because Holly isn’t suitable for strollers.  All of the stores are mega cramped.  

The baby seemed to love the bar, which is both adorable and unsettling.

I drank a fancy candy cane martini since Everett was eating formula this day.  I was very pleased about this.

Timmy, Lindsay, and I did end up antique shopping.  Holly really brings it hard when it comes to antiques.  They have some of the coolest stuff around.  

For some reason, there is a TON of Native American stuff.  All of it high quality.

Those moccasins remind me of that time I got in a fight with an auctioneer over moccasins.  Seriously, curse that dude.

I did buy a Native American item, but it is a Christmas gift for someone and therefore I cannot disclose it yet.  I’ll be sure to blog about it after the holiday.  

I really want one of these old German paper mache rabbits.  One day I will pony up and buy one.

Ok, so you should also know that Holly is apparently haunted.  So while I was shopping around for cool antiques, I kept running into this group of people who were ghost hunting.  This was frustrating for many reasons.  One, it was the middle of the day.  Ghosts do not come out and say hello in the middle of the day.  That is like Ghost Knowledge 101.  

And like I mentioned, the shops in Holly are super tiny and hard to maneuver.  I kept trying to look at things in glass cases inside the antique stores, and all of a sudden like 4 people are in the way trying to take photos of the cases because “you can see a ghost’s reflection in them!”  No.  That is a lie.  There is no ghost face reflection in these cases, just old sh*t that I am trying to look at and possibly buy.

The crowds tired me out, so I didn’t buy much.  I did get Timmy a baseball bank for Christmas, which I am disclosing here because he accidentally caught me buying it.  It kind of looks like this (I forgot to photo it before wrapping).

-Erin

Update from Sarah: First of all, Everett doesn’t EAT. He only drinks. Second, why did you not buy that Rasta Santa? He even has a sunburn from his most recent trip to Jamaica, mon. 

You may have noticed that we aren’t posting as much as we used to. Some of that is due to this lil’ man existing. 

But some of it is because I’ve been crazy focused on selling rather than buying these days. 

So exactly a month ago, Adam challenged me to a month-long eBay battle for the holiday season (in case you missed it, we’re trying to pay the $2,000 in medical bills that our cat racked up after eating cellophane). This was the challenge: we both sell as much as possible and the person who makes the lesser sum of money pays the person who makes the greater sum of money $100 when it’s all said and done. I’m not sure I’ve ever turned down a bet that I have a decent shot at, so I was game!

I recognized that Adam was really just trying to motivate me to purge, but I was fine with that. I thought I was clearly going to win, because little did Adam know, I had a stockpile of Christmas goods, just waiting to be listed. 

And that’s because… little did I know… Adam had a stockpile of video game systems, rare emo records, magazine back issues, Kickstarter products, Legos, and an iPhone to sell. 

So it sort of goes without saying–Adam is kicking my a$$ right now! If you have a heart and love treasures, please feel free to buy my sh*t. Perhaps your special someone loves The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and needs a new iPad case. Perhaps your BFF loves chihuahuas AND vintage photographs.

Perhaps you love the film adaptation of The Island of the Blue Dolphins. I even pulled out one of my favorite photographs and am willing to sell it for the right price.

Meaning, perhaps what you really want is to pay $150 for an old cabinet card. Hey now–don’t judge–I’m just going based on completed listings like it.

Whatever your taste, I can offer goods that will satisfy.

Our battle ends on Sunday so I’ll be sure to update you on who won on Monday!

-Sarah

I like to tell myself that I purposefully saved some of these sale-ing wrap-ups for busier times of the year, but the truth is that I’ve just been lazy. At the end of SEPTEMBER, Adam and I tried to stop at a sale in the late afternoon that was supposed to be open until 7. When we got there (literally at 3:55), there was a note on the door saying they were going to close for an hour and re-open at 5, when, at that point, everything was going to be half off. Because this was in the front of the house, I did make the choice to come back at 5. 

The sale was close to our house so that made it an easy decision. When I arrived back, there was a super long line out front, but I stuck it out. When I finally got inside, things were pretty picked over, but it was worth the wait. 

This is mainly because the house basically looked as if nothing new had come inside since 1974. 

There were lots of books but this guy was the owner of all of them, apparently. He had been behind me in line and was huffing and puffing the whole time, and was also located about negative 3 inches away from me at all times. This is one thing I will never understand–do people think that invading your personal space will get them inside more quickly? Anyway, he was not allowing me to get anywhere near those books so I had to get on with things. 

The thing I loved the most about this house were that the bedrooms of the kids who grew up there were completely untouched. That means that every single wall hanging and poster was still on the wall. My favorites, of course, were these handmade emo banners. 

The second one is courtesy of David Bowie. I wanted these banners so badly but everything was so old and dried out that as soon as you tried to remove it from the walls, it crumbled. 

I left with a few treasures, and also a lot of sadness because I’m sure the house was just completely packed earlier in the day, so I know I missed out on some cool things. But here’s what I did find. First, these cool old valentines. I featured one of these that looked like Adam the other day. 

I also got some cute flannel baby blankets (for our dog beds) and kitschy little books, including one of my faves by Joan Walsh Anglund. 

Finally, I got some great records for myself and Adam (the Zombies, what what!) and a cute illustration of a beaver or otter taking a bath.

Here’s something I passed on. 

I know, you’re shocked. 

-Sarah

Yesterday my parents surprised me with a gift to kick off the Christmas season.  It was this amazing Russian lacquer art pin.  I actually saw this pin LAST YEAR in Holly, MI (you can read about that trip here).  My parents snuck back and bought it to give me this year.  I know, seriously nice (and kind of insane).

I didn’t know anything about Russian lacquer art until I went to San Antonio last year and saw some elaborately painted boxes in an antique store.  The owner explained that they were hand painted in Russia using super fine horse hair.  The process was labor intensive and artists used magnifying glasses to create ultra detailed scenes.  Most lacquer art features fairy tale imagery.

Most boxes are pretty little, so you can just imagine the work it takes to create such intricate paintings.  Besides boxes, Russian lacquer art can be found on cigarette cases and pins.  

Antique lacquer art sells for big bucks, so keep an eye out!  Lacquer art however is still made today, so it is easy to buy an affordable piece should you want one.  Here is a sampling though of just how high prices can go on this stuff:

Neat, huh?  I love all of these pieces!  They are so gaudy, yet whimsical. 

-Erin

Shortly after Everett was born, there was a sale being put on by our favorite Ragamuffins, but it was really far away, so Erin passed on the opportunity and I went alone. It was a former antiques dealer, according to the ad, so I was prepared to find some cool stuff! 

I ran into my parents there, and they were in the market for “guy stuff”–so this sale did not disappoint. They bought some of those very trucks pictured above. 

The guy on the left is my dad, checking out some high quality items. 

My only complaint really, was that there was cool stuff–but it was all priced super high. We’ve had this problem with the ragamuffins in the past. The good thing was that there wasn’t anything I was dying to buy that was overpriced. If there was, I would have been really annoyed. For example, look at how some of this vintage Christmas stuff was priced: 

That flocked Santa is marked $25!! Now, if those were a bunch of knee huggers or Joan Walsh Anglund Christmas items, I would have been ticked. 

Another example: Playboy puzzles marked $20 each. No.

Actually, I shouldn’t say I wasn’t disappointed because I was. This person had a ton of books, but they were priced so outrageously that I didn’t get any. 

Promising room: 

Disappointing reality: 

Oh well! 

I also spotted these cuties but they were a little too dirty for me. 

I did end up finding some deals because the basement was filled with boxes and boxes of vintage Playboys–which I have admittedly vowed to stop purchasing. However, they were selling them for $1 each, and if you had patience, you could find some cool super old ones. So that’s what I did. While I was down there, this guy told me that if I put together a big box, they’d give me an even better deal. So I did that. 

You can see both the deal maker and some of the boxes of Playboys in the picture above. One thing I learned during this trip–a big cardboard box of Playboys is hella heavy! 

The ragamuffins ended up charging me $50 for everything in my box, and I made that up quickly by selling the two “Coca Cola” issues that I found. If you ever stumble across one of these and it’s priced cheaply (meaning less than $5 and it’s in good shape), snatch it up. 

I sold each copy of this for $35. I have a ton more old issues to sell, but the first lot did pretty well. It included issues from 1959-1962 and sold for $30. 

Cha-Ching! 

-Sarah

It’s been awhile since we’ve shared some items that were really tempting to purchase.  Ultimately, we left these items behind, but I’m sure they all found good homes…maybe.

This is either supposed to be a gold glitter angel or that girl from The Ring.  For sure, it is terrifying.  It is also garbage.  Literally, this is a piece of garbage being sold at an estate sale.

These guys look like some of the villains in the Sega version of Aladdin.  They would chase you with machetes.  Super rude.

Do you need a portrait of an old man?  No really, do you need a portrait of an old man:

What about a photograph of two babies?  Do you need that?

Ok, so we are all thinking it.  CHECK OUT THAT BABY ON THE LEFT.  Woo man!  Let’s just assume this is a bad angle.

FRAGILE.  It must be Italian.

There is no way this TV Tennis EVER worked.  EVER. 

Sarah painted this pig picture.  She did an okay job.

Ok and lastly, here is me taking a selfie wearing a bear mask.  I cannot believe I did this in public but the opportunity was too good.  The things I do for you guys…

-Erin