Dig This Treasure!

You might remember my trip to Canada last year, and if so, you will be pleased to know that Zach, my parents, and I made the trek again last weekend.  Again, let me reiterate that I LOVE Canada.  I love the people, the Coffee Crisp bars, the weird fake play money they have, the accents, and of course, the antiques.  For some reason it seems like I see the same ol’ treasures at antique markets here in the States, but as soon as you hit the ones in Canada, you see all sorts of things you never knew existed.

Before I tell you about our trip, I should mention that Zach almost ruined it for us.  Since I got pregnant, he vowed not to cut his hair or beard until the baby came.  As a result, he looks like a serious crazy person…at least customs thought so.  In Michigan we get enhanced drivers’ licenses that let us visit Canada.  This apparently wasn’t enough to get Zach in.  They asked for extra identification and his birth certificate, which he didn’t bring along.  They then grilled him about ever living in other countries (he hasn’t).  You could tell the customs dude was profiling him pretty hard, maybe assuming the beard meant he was Middle Eastern.  Anyway, Zach got asked a million questions about where he was born and such and such, until finally they let us through.  Thanks a lot Zach.

Here is a reference photo of Zach, just for good measure.  (He found this hat at the Duty Free shop later that day.)

So on we went with our trip, our first stop just outside Grand Bend at Dale’s Antiques.

Pregnant lady crossing.  Move it or lose it:

There were a lot of interesting things here at Dale’s, but I actually didn’t buy anything!

Mellow Man Ace was Zach’s nickname in high school.  Also, are those cigars in that dude’s pocket?  They look like blood test tubes. 

I actually LOVED these pigs, but I knew they would probably freak Zach out.  Plus we are low on wall space in the house.

I also liked this rubber-faced chicken.  I thought I could probably sell him on ebay.  The guy selling him though wouldn’t barter at all, and so I passed on him.  Plus he was a little dirty and someone had cut off the felt crest from his head.

What do you guys think?  Should I have bought him?

Our second stop of the day was at a place called The Pinery.  It is much bigger than Dale’s but is more flea market than antique market.  If you need healing crystals, butter tarts, and wolf t-shirts, this is your place.

Or if you need “little nugget coats” apparently.  Also, WTF is a nugget coat.

I did find two things to buy here.  The first was this soldier for Zach.  He’s just cruising along in his big wheeled military vehicle.  It kind of looks like a monster truck.

This soldier had a price tag of $10 on it and when I went to buy it, the seller was all angry because he said it was mis-marked.  He said it should have been priced $45.  I just kind of stood there dumbfounded with a $10 bill in my hand.  After a quiet standoff, he took my ten dollars and I slowly backed away.

The second item I bought was this knit baby sweater, which is clearly not antique or collectible.  It was however made by a grandma, so that makes it old by proxy.

Here are some things I did not buy:

Seriously, more wasp nests.  Is there a secret cult of people who collect these?  I really don’t get it.  What’s the buzz all about?  Har har har.

I’ve always loved these old horse racing games. This would look so nice on a pedestal and with a glass dome over it.  

No one else really found anything to buy.  I think my mom bought some Zucchini bread.  Zach bought some booze at the Duty Free Shop.  And Timmy, well, he bought us all lunch.  Thanks Timmy.

-Erin

Two Fridays back, the sale listings looked awful, so Sarah and I contemplated staying home.  We eventually decided to suck it up though and find some garage sales.  You all remember how entertaining that was last time…

Before the garage sale-ing, however, we did stop at one estate sale that looked kind of not-horrible.  It turned out to be, well, horrible.

Everything was really Hallmark-y, but like the dollar store version of Hallmark stuff.

It was like the Boyd’s bears strolled up into town and took this home by force.  Except that it wasn’t really the Boyd’s bears, but instead their creepy backwoods cousins who you don’t normally invite over for Thanksgiving dinner.

To be fair, I did buy two Waechtersbach mugs to go with my Christmas set.  They were 50 cents each which is a steal.

We hightailed it out of there and, while driving, saw this sign:

A 4 day vintage market?!  That is EXACTLY what we need!  What sounds better than some sort of market filled with old treasures that probably occurs only once a year and is therefore filled with only the finest of goods?!

When we followed the signs to the “vintage market”  we found more signs (the ones you see above).  Here, let me zoom in more:

Well, sh*t.  Turns out, our “vintage market” was the name of a party store and they had some MAD DEALS on ribs.  When I realized what was happening, Sarah refused to believe it.  She was so heartbroken.  She tried to convince me that these were different signs than the original, but there was no denying the truth:

So after this huge failure, things were looking bad.  We started driving in a neighborhood after we saw a garage sale sign, and came upon this:

A big ol’ trash heap, and a metaphor for how our day was going.

But then things started to turn around.  We rolled up to one garage sale and it looked really good!  It was like our own private “vintage market” tucked away in this grandma’s garage.

There was a huge table filled with old, really collectible pottery.  The first thing I saw was that she had a Van Briggle vase.  I was familiar with the brand because of Antiques Roadshow and knew that some pieces sold for thousands.  It turns out that the pottery actually belonged to the old woman’s friend, who proceeded to tell Sarah and I all about his pottery collecting.  

The Van Briggle piece he had marked $50, which was too risky for me to buy.  I looked up a few similar pieces on ebay and they all sold for around $100.  After last week’s ebay disasters though, I wanted to take a less expensive risk.  I decided to buy three pieces of Roseville Mostique pottery for $5 each.  Very reasonable.

We’ve seen Roseville pottery a lot at estate sales, and I’m not a huge fan of it.  I know it is really collectible though, so I figured I could flip this set pretty easily.  

And, I did!

The pottery guy at this garage sale even gave me this McCoy cookie jar for free!  I had been looking at it and he decided I must take it home.  Ok!

So our luck was definitely changing!  It even continued when we visited a nearby thrift store.  Thrift stores are something Sarah and I barely dabble in, although we have many blog friends who do their picking exclusively at these places.  Maybe we should go more often, because there are certainly great deals to be had!  You might as well call me Macklemore because I loved this thrift shop so much.

I got a whole garbage bag full of baby clothes for $30.  Some still had the tags on them!  And there was a bunch of Ralph Lauren stuff in there.  (Also, can you tell I’m ready to pop?  My face looks like a marshmallow.)

So cute.  

I think Sarah bought these shoes:

Or maybe she didn’t.  I can’t remember.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I definitely bought those shoes for my next trip clubbin’. They are the perfect mix of sexy and schoolgirl. Ok, I’m lying. I did end up finding a nice lightweight cotton Land’s End cardigan and some books at the thrift shop, but that’s about it. Oh and this t-shirt for Baby Everett.

Erin and Zach LOVE cute little t-shirts with sayings on them like this, so be sure to send all your hand-me-downs their way.

The first estate sale was such a nightmare. It was one of those sales where you’re looking around for ANYTHING you might possibly want, and coming up shorthanded. For example, I actually considered buying this. 

Then I saw it was marked $20. 

The garage sale was the surprise of the day–Erin passed on the Van Briggle vase but I thought about it for a while and remembered how valuable Arts & Crafts stuff can be, so I asked if he would go lower than $50. The lowest he would go was $45, so I took the chance. It was a really beautiful piece, even though I don’t even really care about pottery! 

I looked it up and ones like it seemed to sell for $100-150. So I listed it at $155 and let people make offers. After a couple of days, someone swooped in and the rest is history! 

The only thing that Erin forgot to mention is that the guy selling the pottery drove and parked THIS THING in front of the house! 

Overall, it was a very strange sale. 

Right before I broke my toe, one of my best friends told me that her mom (who I know pretty well) had a bunch of stuff at home that she was interested in getting rid of, that once belonged to her mother and aunt. I agreed to help her out by looking at the stuff and listing those things that were valuable (while taking a small cut of the profit).

I started listing some of the items last weekend. She had this cool, super old B.F. Goodrich rubber hot water bottle that had really lovely advertising (the box was in great shape, had all it’s paperwork, etc.) I didn’t think it was worth anything but Adam insisted that someone would want it because it was in such good shape and the advertising was so clean. 

I got it all set up and took out all of the attachments, etc. I don’t know if I’m dense or naive or both, but I almost died when, while taking pictures, I noticed this: 

In case you have poor eyesight, that says, “Douche and enema pipes and fittings for syringe use.” I’m not sure WHAT I thought all of the piping and attachments were for (filling the water bottle?!) but I had NO CLUE. 

I had just handled said attachments and so I promptly ran downstairs screaming, “ADAM! ADAM! ADAM!!!!” I explained what had just occurred and he said, “You didn’t know that’s what that was?!” NO I DID NOT. 

Also, another lesson was learned. That sucker sold for $41 and had a ton of watchers/bidders (including someone named something like RonPoo567… no joke), so apparently people like to collect old enema bags. Don’t think I’ll be selling another one anytime soon, though. 

Stay tuned–I’m selling a lot of other cool things for my friend’s mom so I’ll feature those another day. 

-Sarah

When I saw the listing for a “Collector’s Dream” sale, I had a good feeling in my gut that I might score some treasures.  The photos in the listing showed lots and lots of porcelain, and it looked high end.  I had my fingers crossed that there would be Herend-aplenty and that it would all be priced to move.

When we got to the sale, the Lord himself might as well have opened the doors for us, because I was like 99% sure we were in heaven.

The majority of the sale was porcelain, but they also had Limoges boxes, nutcrackers, vintage Christmas and Easter decorations, collectible pottery, and more.

There was also some random stuff, like this giant box of snow owls.

Anyway, I first zeroed in on this white Herend rabbit.  I normally only collect Herend fishnet pattern pieces, but I have always wanted this white rabbit.  He is seriously so adorable.  

They had him priced $45, which is about what he sells for on ebay.  I, of course, wanted a deal though.  While looking at him, a woman came up and asked if she could help me.  I told her that I am a Herend collector and love this rabbit, but would only be interested in him for $30.  She said that was fine.  I was thrilled.  Here he is now next to one of my other Herend rabbits:

The lady helping me mentioned that there were some other Herend pieces floating around, which I had missed on my first pass through the place.  She pointed out a small Herend trinket box and larger serving dish.  Both were in the Rothschild pattern, which again, I don’t collect.

What I do know about the Rothschild pattern is that a lot of other people collect it.  I checked ebay and saw that both of these pieces should be an easy sell.  However, the serving dish was marked $110.  I decided to push my luck again and ask the woman for a deal.  I told her that I was interested in the dish but could only offer her $50.  She said yes!  I was thrilled again.  As for the trinket box, I paid the full sticker price of $20 because I didn’t want to haggle with this poor woman again.

Both pieces are up on ebay, so we will see how they do!

I also bought some paper mache Easter eggs, which I’ve already packed away in our Easter decorations box.  Here is a photo I pulled offline though.  They are really similar.

I got 6 of them for $10.  

I’ll let Sarah tell you all about her huge scores at this sale.  She had quite the motherload.  Before that though, I’ll mention that we did hit one more sale this day.  It was awful.  You can probably tell by the decor:

Sorry Betty Boop collectors, I will never understand you.

Oh, also!  It was Sarah’s birthday, so we got manicures.  

Sarah is way older than me so I sometimes forget her exact age.  I think she just turned 44, but I am not sure.  Also, I made her this cake:

She really likes beagles.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I told Erin she couldn’t post the original version of that picture of me at the nail salon and her photoshopping made me laugh until I cried. Amazing. 

I already posted about my favorite find from the porcelain sale–the frog crossing sign. I also found a bunch of items to resell–the coolest and possibly most profitable of which are all of these Fisher Price Little People things. 

They had these things marked incredibly reasonably. I bought a farm, village, house, merry-go-round, and school bus, all for about $40. I grew up playing with Little People and now they don’t make the little ones anymore (I guess too many homies choked on them?) but Adam and I might keep the house for our future children. This won’t be the first time I’ll have kept something for my non-existent children. 

I also found this Italian made Pinocchio to resell,

and an adorable Pewabic tile. Mine looks just like that one but it’s blue. 

I also bought this little car from a huge mess of Department 56 Snow Village stuff. 

We had snow village stuff when I was growing up and this little car was my favorite piece. It was only $2. 

Here is one really cool thing at that sale that I didn’t buy. 

I didn’t buy it because it was $1200. It’s by C. Jere, who is a famous mid century sculptor, I think. Check out this amazing sculpture by him of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Wowee Zowee. 

The second sale we went to was the absolute worst. Everything was overpriced and stunk like cigarettes. For the first time in my life of estate saleing, I had to THROW AWAY something I bought when I got home. 

I bought this baggie of dolls because there were some Playmobil guys in there. When I opened the bag, all of the dolls smelled so bad. They are PLASTIC and smelled like smoke. WTF?! I should have known, though. Here’s what the rest of the sale looked like: 

I don’t know if you can make out that sticker well enough, but that is a $3 sign that says Help Retarded Children. 

P.S. I turned THIRTY FIVE, not 44. 

On Friday, Adam and I went to the wedding of a family friend, and it was held at The Henry Ford. If you’re not from Michigan, you might not be familiar with this joint, but it’s a museum filled with lots of industry-related old things. The reception was awesome because it was basically in the middle of the museum and you could go look at whatever you wanted! So that’s what we did. 

This is what I take out on the town when I’m feeling really fancy. 

This is what I take out on the town when I’m not feeling fancy. 

Obviously since Henry Ford was so into cars, there are a lot of cars in this museum. Here are some cool ones. 

Hey now! Another Bugatti! 

This is what I drive when I wear my robot suit. 

Ok, this is really my favorite car there. Besides of course, this one. 

Bring back the Escort, b*tches! The Focus sucks! 

Ok, there were many other things at the museum besides cars. Like trains.

And Holiday Inn signs and fake rooms.

A furnished cabin.

An old camper

The first wireless remote (an awesome invention, I must say.)  

This cute soldier doll (seriously I wanted to drop an elbow on the glass and take this guy.) 

A giant McDonald’s sign, and a little diner. 

A fake gas station where I seriously tried to use the ladies room. Thankfully nobody was around when this occurred. 

Lots of Mold-A-Rama machines (I made a Rosa Parks bus).

A Game of Thrones chair (looks like something Zach and Erin would own.) 

This chair that gave Adam a boner. 

This cool stuff. 

A bunch of steampunk things.

And finally, my favorite, the Wienermobile. I’ve been watching a lot of The Price is Right. What do you think of my modeling skills? 

Because my husband is a 5th grader, he made me pose for this photograph: 

As you can see, I am not very pleased. 

-Sarah

Ok, so last week I had some crazy bad ebay luck.  I’m going to blame this on bad karma I racked up by telling this guy on my street that he “looks more pregnant than me.”  (I’m huge.)  I know, I know, so awful.  In my defense, his dog chased George and I across the street and this is the second time it has happened.  This guy refuses to leash or fence his dog.  And he told me to “Get a Life,” when I asked why he can’t restrain his animal.  Before you all give up hope on me, I am remorseful and did cry about it.  ANYWAY, that still didn’t stop the bad ebay karma.

The good news is that my bad ebay luck has some good lessons for all of us.  So hold on to your butts, here are my takeaways:

The first item that was a huge bust for me was this Captain Hook marionette.  You may remember him from this sale.  I paid $10 for him and he sold for $8.  While only $2, a loss is a loss, and losses add up.  The lesson here is that condition matters…a lot.  When I saw this guy at the sale, I thought he had the right amount of age and wear to make him look extra vintage-y cute.  

Except that I didn’t notice he is completely missing his left hand…you know, the one with the hook…the one that makes him CAPTAIN HOOK.  Oy.  Seriously people, take the extra 30 seconds and look things over closely.

Last week, I also bought this cool porcelain bathing beauty lady.  She had this mark on the bottom which I figured I could just google and find the maker.  No such luck.  This mark proved impossible to locate.  I spent $20 on her and she sold for $26.  Not a loss, but I really thought this lady would end up as one of our “money makers.”

The lesson here is that if you don’t know what you have, no one else will.  I couldn’t properly advertise this item on ebay because I didn’t know the maker.  To top it off, I didn’t even realize that this was actually The Little Mermaid, which one of our readers pointed out to me in our comments section.  A double whammy.  I could have taken this to a porcelain store, or asked about it on a message board before I listed it, but I got too hasty.

Ok, so seriously, know what something is before you buy it.  Or try REALLY HARD to figure out what something is before you list it.  I bought the metal sign (?) above for $10 and it sold for $9.99.  Again, I didn’t know what I had.  This thing is obviously Stag Tobacco related, but is it a sign?  Or is is an uncut sheet of metal used to make tins?  Is it a mold of some sort?  Who the hell knows.  I sure as heck didn’t, and I paid the price for that.  

Are you feeling bad for me yet?  This is a lot of ebay failure for one week.  Hang in there, I’ve got more.  I bought these Ohio State glasses for $3 each and the pair sold for $6.99.  The lesson here is to know your buyer.  I bought these because Ohio State stuff is usually mega collectible.  What I didn’t realize though, is that it is specific Ohio State stuff.  

You see, mostly men collect sports stuff.  And I’m sorry to generalize, but it seems to me that men like old ticket stubs, programs, pennants, etc.  Not drinking glasses apparently.  So my cups just didn’t appeal to collectors like other memorabilia would have.

So to top it off, I also sold a pair of candlesticks for $9.99.  I paid $10 for them.  This was particularly frustrating to me because the same pair had sold the week prior on ebay for $40.  I blame this on my bad karma.  I also blame my karma for the fact that one of the candlesticks broke during shipping, and I had to refund the buyer.

Seriously, some bad buys (and bad luck) here!  I hope all of you are having much better ebay successes.  And to save my ego, be sure to take a look here, here, and here for some of my greatest ebay sales.  Trust me, I used to be the ebay master.

-Erin

Happy Labor Day, all! To get the party even more pumped up on this national holiday, I’m going to talk about garden signs and lawn ornaments. 

A few Fridays ago, Erin and I hit up a sale that we’ll update you about soon. It was held in a commercial space (we’ve been to sales there before) and there’s an outdoor area. While I was out there, I spotted a bunch of terrifying lawn ornaments. Here’s the best one. 

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted this totally adorable sign: 

Is that not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?! 

Here it is, guarding an area in front of my home where I DO find frogs (ok, toads really) on a regular basis: 

I was actually reluctant to put it there because I thought someone might steal it but I don’t think my neighborhood is filled with garden art thieves. YOU NEVER KNOW, THOUGH. 

Here’s another related fave that I also found at an estate sale a few years back. I drove to this sale in BIRMINGHAM (note, far from my house) just to get this guy specifically. Shockingly, he was still there when I arrived to take him home. 

This hedgehog was brand spanking new when I bought him but is now a little rough around the edges. He’s got a hole in his nose and my 14-year-old dog pees on him on a regular basis. But still–adorable. 

And just for fun, check out two of my other faves. 

Neither of these were found while treasure hunting. I picked up the frogs at my local TJ Maxx (I’m a Maxxinista) and the singing cats were gifted to me by Erin from a MAIL ORDER CATALOG for my birthday a few years ago. Fun fact: both Erin and my mom bought me the same lawn ornament for my birthday that year. This is how you know you are super cool. 

-Sarah