Dig This Treasure!

This past weekend Zach and I hit two sales in nearby Grosse Pointe.  Normally, sales in this area are overpriced but, since it was Sunday, we figured we could find some deals.  The first sale was actually supposed to be in the Boston Edison neighborhood of Detroit, but the address said it was in Grosse Pointe.  This was really confusing.  I LOVE going to sales in Boston Edison because all of the houses look like this:

I know what you’re thinking…THAT’S IN DETROIT?!  Yes, yes it is.  I filmed a “behind the scenes” making of a music video for a band in one of these houses once.  You can see it here if you’re curious about how baller these places are.

So basically, I was so excited to go to this sale because even if we didn’t find anything to buy, at least we got to scope out a cool mansion.  Turns out though that the company running this sale had simply removed items from one of these houses and stuck them all in a retail space in Grosse Pointe (hence the address confusion).  UGH.

Things were kind of thrown around and it was pretty cramped.  This girl was sitting on the floor right in one of the walkways sorting through tangled jewelry.  Since it was hard to move and because things were scattered everywhere, I kind of gave up looking.  We were about to leave when I noticed a box of old horse ribbons on the ground.

I love old horse ribbons because they are colorful and pretty.  I had a gut feeling that people must buy these and so I consulted ebay.  Sure enough, they do sell.  I bought the whole box for $12.  Did you know that there are all sorts of horse ribbon crafts you can make?  Indeed there are!

Here is a whole entry about these old ribbons from fellow antique blogger Mitzy from Mitzy’s Miscellany.  The best ribbon in my box was this super huge one:

After leaving this place, we hit one more sale nearby.  The house was gorgeous and they were selling mostly furniture.  There were some smaller items though, except that everything was priced extravagantly.

Even tiny decorative boxes were marked $50-$75 each.  Usually we see them for $5-$10.  Zach found this little plate he liked but it had two price stickers on the bottom.  One said $25 and another said $2.  I went to ask which price was correct, although I was SURE they would say the $25 one.

Lo and behold, the guy told me that this was only $2!  I realized then that maybe these people running the sale were willing to wheel and deal.  They did have a lot of stuff left in the house, and it was all mega overpriced.

Zach bought this old print for $10 and then I found this weird old plaque.  I wasn’t really sure what it was from, but I loved the look of it.  Give me some old metal and wood and I’m sold.  

I thought this would be great on a wall in our house.  I also thought it might be equestrian-related (I must have been on my horse kick from earlier), but after some googling, it turns out to be from a church mission group in the 1950s.  Here’s the thing though…this was priced TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS.  I know right?!  That is insane.  

I carried the plaque around for awhile and then got the courage to ask one of the workers about the price.  I was totally honest with him and said how much I loved the plaque, but that it was way too high for me.  I then asked him outright if they were trying to get rid of stuff or if the homeowner would rather keep what was left over.  He said that the owner was an interior decorator and would probably just keep everything.

He then told me that he could go $75 on the plaque.  I told him I didn’t want to be disrespectful, but that I could only be in on it for $25.  He gave me a pretty resounding “NO” but I could tell that the wheels were turning in his head.  I held onto the plaque and waited a few seconds until he said, “Ok ok, how’s $30?”  I took the deal.  I think this guy realized that he could get his commission on $30 or on $0 and he chose the former.

Driving home, I noticed that the little medallions on this plaque are stamped “SILVER” really tiny.  I don’t know much about scraping metals, but maybe that is why the thing was priced so high?  And maybe now I should scrap it instead of hanging it on my wall!  If someone is an expert on this, let me know.  My only experience with scrapping was that time I bought a Muffy doll accidentally wearing a real gold chain.

-Erin

Two Saturdays ago, I drove out to Grass Lake, where my friend Sarah lives, to check out some local resale and antique stores. She wanted to take me to one store in particular that’s located in (tiny) downtown Grass Lake, The Copper Nail. Before that, though, we had to stop at the Grass Lake Diner for breakfast. Look, all I’ll say is that I had the most amazing “toast” of my life. I don’t know how I didn’t take a picture, but I did find one online. Basically, they take banana bread or pumpkin bread and toast it so it’s nice and crunchy on the outside and cakey on the inside. Then they slather it in butter. So it looks like this: 

My mouth is watering just remembering it. 

When we finished breakfast, we went across the street to the Copper Nail and started digging. The store is community/volunteer-run and gives all of its proceeds to local nonprofits. Very cool. The store is a mix of vintage and new items, and the first thing I saw when entering was a rack of Halloween costumes. Nothing really struck my fancy, but I was a bit horrified by this:

… and then fortunately while recovering from that visual, I noticed a marionette hanging from a shelf.  

There were TONS of books at this store, which, as I’m sure you’re not surprised to hear, made me incredibly happy. I found some with pretty chuckle-worthy titles. 

They can? I guess they can. 

One nice touch about The Copper Nail is that they offer their guests cookies. Sarah said they’re normally homemade cookies, so she was disappointed by the selection that day, but free cookies are always good no matter their origin, if you ask me. 

Check out that moose butt. I just noticed it. 

I was hopeful that I would find some old paper goods, and got really excited when I spotted this Santa box, which I recognized right away as being a card or stationary box. 

While these Santas are super cute, all I found inside was a bunch of birthday cards with ducks on them. Whomp whomp. 

In the end, I did find some cool treasures. Here’s a group shot. 

A little bag of vintage cards, a Linus and Sally figurine, an adorable vintage Paddington for $1, a vintage pitcher, and a cool old copy of The Westing Game! I already have a copy of the other book, but I bought this one to stick in our neighborhood Free Little Library, which happens to be across the street from my house. Paddington will fit right in with the rest of the stuffed children’s book (and TV) characters I’ve got on one of my office shelves. 

I also purchased this ultra cute ceramic Christmas guy. 

He looks like he was made by someone at home with a kit–probably a lot like those Holland Mold heads I wrote about a few weeks ago. He was only $2. Adam was thrilled because we are super short on Christmas decorations. Right, Adam? 

I also purchased these two chalkware lambs to resell. 

Do you notice anything weird about one of the lambies? 

So let me explain what happened. After I paid, the nice little old lady who rang me up started wrapping my breakables in newspaper. But she was balancing the paper bag she was putting all in on a wobbly chair behind the checkout desk. When she was loading the last few items in, the bag tumbled to the floor (with all breakables inside) and Sarah and I just looked at each other and made an “EEEK” face. The lady took out the chalkware sheep and looked up and said, “Well. What do you want to do?” as if *I* had, through psychic powers, willed the bag to fall to the ground. I told her I didn’t want the sheep for $10 since one of them was now legless. They ended up selling them both to me for $5. 

Finally, check out this cute baby blanket with bunnies on it. I like buying cute, soft old blankets to put in the various pet beds around the house. Another habit that my husband loves.

As soon as I took this blanket out of the bag, Scout decided to kick back on it. 

If he looks a little somber, that’s because this picture was taken a day before we discovered that scout had eaten a 13-inch piece of cellophane that was stuck in his stomach. What happens when your cat gets cellophane stuck in his stomach, you ask? Well, you pay $1600 and then your cat looks like this: 

Now he gets to wear a more stylish, clown-like collar, and he seems to be doing a lot better. 

I know it seems out of place for me to be writing about this pet fiasco on a blog about treasure hunting and reselling but it DOES relate! The cellophane that Scout consumed was the backing from the adhesive on a plastic book mailer/envelope that I had used a few days earlier to ship something to an eBay buyer. So our family has suffered even MORE injuries from the treasure-hunting/resale business. 

This is getting a little long, so check back in a day or two to hear about the second part of our Grass Lake adventure! 

-Sarah

Last weekend, I went treasure hunting with a friend and picked up these adorable dolls at an antique mall in Chelsea, MI. 

I am pretty much obsessed with them. I saw them in one of the last booths in the mall and asked to take a look. They were marked $10 each, which did seem a teeny bit high, but they seemed so unique (and were so darn cute), I couldn’t pass them up. I’m not sure if these were made by someone or if they’re Japanese but there are no stickers or marks that indicate their origin. Here are some close-ups. 

“Hello! I’m so cute!”

“Look at our adorable matching booties!" 

I seriously can’t explain how much I love these ladies. 

They do look similar to Mop-Pets, but I don’t think that’s what these are. Their faces are painted–none of it is stickers, which is what other Mop-pets I’ve found have for eyes and mouths. If anyone knows more about what time period these are from (I’m thinking ‘40s and '50s based on the outfits) or who made them, please let me know! 

-Sarah

You’ve seen a lot of Sarah’s and my “fave finds”, but recently I visited my sister’s house and realized she had a whole treasure trove of amazing collectibles.  Lindsay has been mentioned on this blog before, and if you don’t remember, she is the penguin keeper at the Detroit Zoo.  Her vintage and antique collection is centered mainly on old Detroit Zoo memorabilia, and also general zoo related items.  I hadn’t been to her house in awhile, and was super impressed by the way she displayed all of her finds.

This old library cabinet is the perfect way to display all of her zoology books and collectibles.  Sarah and I see these cabinets all the time at sales and they are usually around $300-$400.  Lindsay lucked out and got this for free when she found it thrown out in the trash.  She painted it the white color I believe.

This shadow box has an old Detroit Zoo charm bracelet and vintage pins.  It also has old “zoo keys.”

“Zoo keys,” I believe, are from the 1960s or 70s and were given to children to use around the zoo in “talking storybooks.”  These “storybooks” were basically signs that played audio when a key was inserted.  Very cool and very cute!

Old programs are fun to collect but often hard to display.  They usually end up in stacks on a bookshelf or in a drawer.  Timmy displays old baseball programs in a table with a glass top so you can see all of the program covers.  Lindsay, as you can see, framed her programs.  

So what is Lindsay’s ultimate fave find?

This old scrapbook was put out by the Detroit Free Press.  It came empty, and each week children were encouraged to cut out different zoo photos from the Sunday paper to fill it.  Lindsay was lucky to find a copy of this in which some diligent child filled the entire thing!

I love this scrapbook because it is so indicative of a bygone era.  I imagine a little kid waiting for the paperboy to swing by so they could collect their next zoo photo.  Adorable.

Again, if you have a “fave find,” we want to hear about it!  Visit us on our Facebook page and post a photo!

-Erin

Last Monday, I met up with my parents and hit up the Secret Auction yet again (I have to work late tonight so I’ll miss it today… BOO.) Things were packed and hoppin’, as usual. Also as usual, there were lots of interesting, hilarious, and freaky things to see.

First up on the list of freaky: Old dentists’ tools.

I actually made a mental note to go back to this table later, but ended up forgetting. I was sure that I could have sold these items to some weird Marilyn Manson person. Now that I think about it, I can’t even believe I considered this because I hate the dentist and am terrified of going every time I have to.

Ok, back to the funny things for sale.

(He sounded like Satan when you pulled his string.)

That is a broken nutcracker that looks like a woman’s groin.

A wide array of off-brand toys, new in boxes.

So in case you’ve forgotten, the secret Monday night auction is different than most—they actually have three simultaneous auction’s happening, so if there are things going up at the same time that you want, things can get a little stressful! That happened really bad at the end of the auction. I really wanted this giant box of old stuffed animals in one booth, and then a big box of paper in another booth, so I had to tell my mom to bid on the paper for me if it went up for auction, while I went over and tried to win rubber faced Yogi Bear. Spoiler alert: SUCCESS!!!

Like this little buddy? He can be yours. All you have to do is bid on him.

Right when I finished winning Yogi Bear, I ran over to the other auction and was able to bid on my box of paper. I was a little nervous because there were two nerdy middle-aged men at this auction who were really ramping up prices. One of them, before that booth went up for auction, was talking to the other like he already OWNED the box of paper I was interested in. I looked at my parents and I was like, “Ok that’s it… I’m going home with that box of paper no matter what!” I didn’t want a repeat of the auction thievery that happened there before. Spoiler #2: I ended up winning the box of paper. Here’s one scary/adorable item that was in it.

I also walked away with this very awesome vintage Ben Cooper Dick Tracy Costume. It is also up for sale if you’re into that sort of thing.

I also won with this S&H Green Stamps poster, that I’ll sell eventually. Listen, I didn’t know what the hell Green Stamps were—I just thought it was super cool and it’s actually reversible but I forgot to take a picture of the other side! My mom schooled me about Green Stamps after I bought the poster.

Here is one other thing I wanted but forgot to bid on:

I thought this would be something that would freak Adam out, but no—instead, when he saw the picture, he seemed super sad that I didn’t buy it. WTF?!

-Sarah

P.S. Here is a picture of my favorite auctioneer, wearing a mullet wig that was up for sale.

Sorry it’s so blurry—I had to be incognito.

There have been a couple times on this blog that we caught some flack for using humor in regards to items at estate sales, and for taking photos inside of sales. Some readers have found our blog intrusive or insensitive. Sarah wrote an amazing post over a year ago, explaining that we are in fact not heartless.

We get it. Estate sales can be super sad. We’ve been to many sales that made us wonder WTF happened in the house. Those links are just a few examples. We’ve always acknowledged how sad and uncomfortable these sales made us.

Never has the sad aspect of estate sales been more evident to me than today. I helped my parents run an estate/garage sale at my grandma’s house. My grandma had been living with my uncle in the home, when he passed away unexpectedly and tragically. My grandma, who has severe dementia, is now living with my parents.

Kudos to Timmy who has been over at the house for weeks cleaning it out. None of us realized how bad of shape the home was in. The volume of stuff in the house masked the bad condition of the structure itself.

What was astounding to me at the sale today were people’s attitudes. I cannot tell you how many people walked up to me and before saying “Hello” instead said “Who died?” I wanted to strangle all of them.

It made me realize that there is this weird dynamic happening at estate sales. On the one hand, it is a totally natural thing for people to die. And sometimes they leave behind a lot of “stuff.” And really, it’s just stuff. This detached perspective is what lets us find humor in all the weird stuff we see at sales.

But sometimes “stuff” is more than just stuff. It’s memories. And the family selling all of it is painfully aware of this. My mom had to pull numerous items out of the sale today because they were so sentimental to her. A couple of times, I caught myself trying to rationalize with her that the items were just stuff, and it was important to sell them to get money for fixing up the house. Really, we’re both right.

I’m not entirely sure where I’m going with all of this. I do want to share with you guys this short documentary I worked on a few years ago about this issue. Sarah encouraged me to share it a long time ago and I never did. It’s all about our relationship with inanimate objects, whether we see them as strictly utilitarian or as something more symbolic.

You will probably all like it because it features Timmy.

And while I’m at it, here is another short doc about my personal relationship with “stuff.” It’s about hunting down a girl who stole my favorite stuffed animal over 17 years ago.

Basically, I just wanted to vent here that today was tough for me and my family. And I think I am not always aware when Sarah and I are out at sales how hard things are for those families. It is tough to reconcile the natural circumstances of life with all of the emotions that come with those circumstances.

So again, know that when we write this blog, we get it. There is both humor and heartache in the things we leave behind in life. All of which, is okay.

-Erin

P.S. Just to make sure I don’t leave you all terribly sad, here is a photo of Timmy accidentally imploding a snow blower today:

Two weekends ago, I went out to Portland for a short visit while Adam was at a conference there. It was my first time in Portland and it was very overwhelming. So many cool things to do/see/eat/buy! Unsurprisingly, I found lots of very cool vintage and antique shops, but one with some of the coolest items that I saw was Hoodoo Antiques. 

Most of the stuff in this tiny store was of the large/furniture/industrial variety, but there were some cool smaller items as well. 

I really liked these Winslow Health vintage educational posters made by Denoyer-Geppert. They were out of my price range–between $200 and $275, but I felt like that was reasonable for the condition they were in. It turns out that’s actually a little high… Oh well! They were still super cool. 

I talked to the guy who runs the shop and he told me that this “red” sign is the only thing that remains from an old grocery store (I think!) … I can’t remember exactly what he told me but damn that sign is cool. It was huge! 

I loved these old elementary school handwriting signs. 

In this picture with the scary alligator, you can sort of get a glimpse of the only thing I bought here–an old Anri mechanical cork. It’s in the lower right of the picture and looks sort of like this:

I have another mechanical Anri cork that my mom unearthed at my grandma’s before she passed away last spring. The guy only charged me $20, which seemed fair. The only other thing I was interested in was this squirrel nutcracker. 

I didn’t even ask about the price because it was so heavy (oh yeah, what was up with nothing being priced in this store?!), there was no way I was carrying that back home on an airplane. And it turns out they’re pretty easy to find on eBay. 

Stay tuned for more cool finds from Portland! 

-Sarah

A few weekends ago, Erin and I saw a listing for a really baller looking auction at an auction house that’s just a mile or two down the street from where I live. I had never gone but always wanted to, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Erin arrived first and warned me it was very, very crowded. It was even more crowded than I expected. While waiting in line for a number, I heard people saying that there was some other antique market that weekend, and there were probably a lot of out of town dealers there. Makes sense. The stuff for sale was all very high quality, and there were tons of gorgeous quilts, woven coverlets, and lots and lots of antiques and primitive items. I was sort of overwhelmed. 

Seats were a very hot commodity at this place, and Erin smartly and quickly grabbed two in the back. The auction started and here was our view. 

Right when the auction started, I said to Erin, “I think that’s ______ _______ (name of annoying auctioneer from previous post.)” He was dressed so differently and had such a different way about him this time, that Erin was in denial at first. But it was indeed him. They were doing this crazy thing (because there was so much stuff there!) where as soon as one auctioneer ended, the other would start on the next item. It made things move incredibly fast. 

I had my eye on a few items, but based on how high things were selling, I didn’t think I’d end up with them. One of them I was right about. 

I mean how freakin’ cool is that thing? Anyway, it sort of reminded me of the card catalog type thing I spotted at a garage sale in Charlevoix. Anyway, this sold for $600+. I did, however, score an old post office shelf that someone repainted a beautiful green color. 

I think I might set it long ways on top of my big desk in eBay World. Not sure yet. Right now it’s still in my garage. I paid $75, which seemed fair to me. 

It was a really long night with so much stuff… a lot of things that seemed interesting or bid-worthy just went so high so fast that we didn’t get a chance to even bid! I had seen an old folk art dog carving that I was determined to go home with. They ended up putting him up with a taxidermy mini horse toy like the one Erin had appraised at Antiques Roadshow. I will not even admit what I paid for these two guys but I did go home with both of them. The horse is terrifying looking and will be listed on eBay shortly. 

Awesome doggy! 

Freaky horse!

On my way up to the check out counter, I did spot a paper doll of Erin: 

Isn’t she darling? 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: The items in this auction were all from the same owner, a collector named Irene Marinovich, who clearly had good taste and lots of scratch.  You can look at all the items for sale here, although I don’t know how much longer that link will be up. Googling Irene, it looks as though she was an artist and jewelry maker who unfortunately passed away in March.

I saw several items that I was interested in, the first being this weird mosaic frog.  I think it’s a frog anyway.  It was made of cement and super heavy, so I figured it was some sort of lawn ornament.  

I think maybe it was art and not a lawn ornament because it sold for like $80.  That was one of the cheapest prices we had seen all night.  

This cool face was some sort of weird resin/wood blend.  I was kind of obsessed with it because the eyes were super real looking.  I thought this would be nice above a door frame in our house, but it sold for over $100.  

I was starting to feel like Sarah at the last auction we attended, when she kept getting shut out from buying things.  Hours into the auction I had only bid one or two times and came nowhere near winning anything.  The only success I had had was buying snacks for Sarah and I all night long.  Here’s how it looked around my seat at the end of the auction:

To be fair, I think one of those chip bags wasn’t ours.  It just snuck in with ours to make me look bad.

Ok, so here we are.  I am getting kind of bored and antsy.  Sarah has had success but it has come at a price (literally, not figuratively).  There was one more item I was interested in.  It was this weird art bowl thing from some artist in the 80s.  I just liked the design.

The auctioneer had stuck this bowl in a box with a bunch of other pottery, so I was bummed because I figured that would make the price jump up.  So the whole lot goes up for sale and the price starts at $50.  No one bids.  He drops down to $25 and I throw my hand up (that was the lowest price he was dropping to all night).  

And then, like a true miracle, NO ONE ELSE BID.  The lot was mine, for a mere $25.  I was shocked.  

When I got the box, I saw that mixed in with my bowl were three pieces of Pre-Columbian pottery.  I am not particularly interested in stuff like this, but it was pretty neat looking.  I thought Zach might want it, but he encouraged me to put it on ebay instead.

I was hoping on ebay that I could just make my initial investment of $25 back.  Turns out though that this stuff is Jalisco pottery, from that region in Western Mexico.  I instantly had over 10 watchers in the first hour, and two bids soon thereafter.

There are five hours left on the auction and I have nearly doubled my money.  SO COOL.  I have no clue what this will sell for, so I will have to keep you posted.  I do know that I have had a bunch of people message me about it, so I have my fingers crossed.  One dude asked me to end the auction and let him buy the pieces outright.  No way man.

So after all, totally worth going to this place, even if our not-so-favorite auctioneer was there.  Oh, and I almost forgot, look at this doll of Sarah I saw there:

She has on her “fancy” dress.