Dig This Treasure!

I got pretty wrapped up in all the Royal Baby hoopla, and was probably more excited than anyone when HRH Prince George FINALLY showed up on the scene.  At some point during all the fuss, I realized that there are probably Royal Baby collectibles!  And yes, there are!  And even better for me, most of them are porcelain!

Royal Collection Trust issued a bunch of baller items that you can buy to commemorate this important birth.  My favorite is the “loving cup”:

So cute, right?  It totally has a unicorn on it.  Here are some other options for purchase:

Seriously, such good design here.  I love all of these things.  

So after looking at all the new Prince George items, I got to wondering if there are vintage Royal Baby items from past births.  Yep, there are.

This sign is adorable, but also, there is no way that Royal Babies eat “milk food.”

Prince William paper dolls?  Yes, sign me up.  Also, that pram needs more gold on it.  Totally not royal enough.

This spoon is cool and reminds us of the better days, pre-Princess Diana Beanie Baby :(

Not creepy at all, and definitely not creepy to own.  Hurry up and bid, there are only 20 days left on this auction.

The most common Royal Baby souvenirs are collectible photo post cards.  You can find all sorts of these on Etsy and Ebay.

You can apparently find these on cardcow.com too, which is obviously where I stole the first two images from.

-Erin

Hey everyone! If you were one of the Herend winners, please be sure to check the spam folder in your email. We’ve had a couple of winners tell us that that’s where they found the message from Herend asking to confirm a shipping address/choose a color. Thanks!

-Sarah

Zach and I took a short trip to New York City this weekend.  We wanted to sneak in some freedom and fun time before the baby comes in October.  NYC has got to be my favorite place on Earth (Zach’s too), and even though we only had a couple days there, we made the most of it.

We spent our first day visiting Rosie Pope Maternity (shout-out to Bravo TV fans), perusing fake goods in Chinatown, and going to the bar with friends.  Sunday, however, was dedicated to treasure hunting.  We started the day at a street fair near our hotel.  I bought some of these embroidered pillow shams (a zebra and giraffe).  Supposedly they are handmade in Kashmir, but that is probably a lie.

You might remember that last year Zach and I visited Brooklyn Flea.  This year, we decided to check out GreenFlea in Manhattan.  It wasn’t as large as Brooklyn Flea, but ended up having really great treasures.

Zach spotted David Fricke of Rolling Stone magazine fame.  This was actually the first of two celebrity sightings, as Zach inadvertently found a seat by Andre 3000 later this day at the airport. 

David Fricke wears flip flops.

Some of the best things at GreenFlea were:

This INCREDIBLE Skookum doll.  I actually missed this when walking around and Zach brought me over to it.  When I saw it, I hoped so badly I was going to get an amazing deal on it.  So far, I have never paid more than $30 for a Skookum.  The woman selling this though wanted $200.  

These silver and bakelite bugs.  The old man selling these actually makes them himself! They were each around $200, which was out of my price range.  I would have bought one in a heartbeat though, as I am always looking for nice pins for my Fall jackets.

These shadow boxes.  SUCH A GOOD AND SIMPLE IDEA.  This person buys old lead figurines (just like Zach collects) and then mounts them in shadow boxes.  Very cool.  Here is another one, but with old razors:

This giant metal horse head.  The woman selling this said it came from a kids’ ride-on toy from the 30s.  I would have liked to buy this for the nursery, but it was $75, which seemed steep.

This HERWI nodder made in Germany.  Clearly this is really old, but does anyone know if it is valuable?  I couldn’t find anything on ebay.  Asking price was $40.

We ended up buying only a couple things.  First was this super old Santa figure.  It seems to be carved out of wood, or some sort of chalkware type material.

It was $5. Also $5 was this lead soldier Zach found:

Zach also found the last two items we bought.  First was a cool Andy Warhol card from the 80s.  We haven’t found out much info on the company that put this out, but it seems to be some sort of super tiny, independent erotica place.  I’m only saying that because there is stuff on the back of the card about sex.

The last purchase was this old business card.  Zach couldn’t pass it up because of the hilarity.  When he asked the price, the man selling this said, “Hmm, I don’t know…it could be valuable.”  That is always THE WORST thing to hear a seller say, especially when something is clearly not worth much.  Zach bartered him down to $1.

Eleanor was real sassy.  Just like David Fricke and his flip flops.

I should also mention that at this flea market I ate the best treat of my life.  It was a waffle with nutella and ice cream.  Seriously so boss.

Until next time New York!

-Erin

While I’m stuck being semi-reclusive (and I have a job where I have partial summers off), I’ve decided that I need to try to list as much as I can on eBay before I have to go back to work in the fall. There have been many occasions where Erin and I discover that we have something valuable that we had no idea was worth anything, and that’s what this post is about. 

Sometime in the winter, Erin and I hit up a sale where I spotted this very cute handmade toy ark. 

The top opens up and holds all of the little animals, and the bottom also opens up and reveals a tiny staircase and more storage. It’s so cute. I bought it for $15 and thought I might keep it, but then realized that one Noah’s Ark is enough. (You’re welcome, Adam.) 

One of the reasons I bought it, was that it was marked “Made in Germany” on the bottom. I’ve learned from my mom that things made in Germany or Sweden are often very collectable and people running sales often don’t know this because there are so many new cheap reproductions. Anyhow, in the process of looking this up before listing it, I was very pleased to discover that some of these old handmade German arks are worth LOTS of money.

I’m not going to count any eggs before they hatch, and I don’t think mine has as much character or age as some of the others I’ve found, but there are already 32 people watching this thing. So I’ll keep my fingers crossed!

In the meantime, check out some of the coolest ones I found while doing my research. 

I want them all!

-Sarah

Sorry to leave you all in suspense!  I got in late from a trip to New York this weekend.  Here now are the winners of our HUGE Herend giveaway!  Herend will be contacting all winners about receiving their prize.

Lauren M. of Utah

Suzanne C. of California

Bette W. of Washington

Jennifer Rachel M. of Texas

David F. of Michigan

Hilary R. of Nebraska

Tiffany L. of Florida

Again, thank you to Herend for your generosity!  To check out all of their collectibles, visit HerendUSA.com.

Congratulations to all the winners and stay tuned for our next giveaway!

-Erin

Did you remember to enter our HUGE HEREND GIVEAWAY??? If not, you have until this Sunday! Follow the link to get the instructions and to enter. Winners announced Monday!

-Erin

Last week, Erin wrote about that awesome folk art sale we went to twice, and I wrote about one find that ended up making me some serious money. But I forgot to tell you all about the cool things that I bought to keep!

The first day we went there, I was really overwhelmed because things were priced on the high side and there were so many things I wanted. I came away with two dog carvings. Erin spotted both of them for me. I love this one so much:

Looks like a Brittany Spaniel, and that’s close enough to a beagle for me!

The other dog statue I think Erin also found, and it’s mechanical:

When you turn the crank, the dogs mouth opens and closes, and his tail spins. Adam loves anything mechanical in nature, so I thought he might like it but I was unsure of the face. He ended up loving it, so score for me!

I also bought this two-drawer box. I’m not sure how old it is but I really like it and will probably put it in my living room and keep junk in it.

I’m sure Adam is thrilled to hear that.

On the day we went back, I mainly bought stuff to resell, and once I saw that the woman there was making deals, I stepped up my game. I came away with a poster I saw on the first day that I thought was funny.

I also bought this doll that was priced $95, but sold to me for $30.

I also bought these adorable wool dolls to resell. Here’s a picture that I took of them cuddling.

Besides the Tigers slides that I sold, the case of slides I purchased also had a ton of other slides in it, and I sold the case and slides for $150. I separated the slides into groups by theme—adults, kids, cars, etc. So that was my most fruitful purchase. If you ever see a bunch of those slides for cheap, snatch ‘em up! People collect them. Here are a few of my favorite pics from the group.

Love me some kids being weirdos.

Finally, Adam dropped some major bones at this sale. But we’ll save his find for another day, because it was really unique and interesting!

-Sarah

Adam and I met up with my parents at our old fave Tecumseh auction on Sunday, and I’m still kicking myself for this one. Toward the end of the auction, they put this big box up and said it was a “stimulator”… it just looked like a big meter/reader in a box–that you’d measure electrical current with or something. The bids started low and my mom turned around and said, “I think that’s a shock therapy machine!" 

I thought she was full of it but it turns out, she was right. A guy and his wife who were sitting next to us won the thing for $300 and told me it was the one thing they came to the auction to buy. When they were given the box, I asked what it was and the told me it was a machine to give someone a lobotomy. I think you’ve got that a lil’ confused, brosef.

Anyway, I knew what he meant, and I had also heard one of the auction helpers say he saw one like it sell on eBay for $999.99. I also ignored this because the people who work at that place often have no idea what they’re talking about. That’s what makes it so fun. 

But it turns out that he was RIGHT! One identical to it sold for a grand a few days ago!

Here are some more pics so you can check it out… 

So, the moral of the story is… keep your eyes peeled for old medical devices! 

-Sarah