Dig This Treasure!

Yesterday, Sarah and I took a break from setting up our garage sale (which FYI is TOMORROW in Livonia, in Old Rosedale Gardens). We headed out to Troy for what looked to be an insane hoarder sale. We’ll be doing a longer entry on this sale next week, but for the time being, all you need to know is that the whole sale pretty much looked like this:

[Editor’s Note: I just noticed that brown bear face-planted in the foreground of this photo, and am now dying laughing.]

Anyway, at this sale, I noticed these things, which I called “art capes”:

These are like little plastic apron shirts that I remember wearing in kindergarten while painting. Or at least I remember something similar to these…

Anyway, I said to Sarah, “Did you see those adorable art capes?” I thought Sarah was going to explode or punch me or maybe start seizing from disbelief. She yelled out, “ERIN!”, which sounds like “AIRRRRR-INNNNNNNN.” You know, like a really calm and collected person speaks, except not.

Sarah went on to explain that these are actually Halloween costumes from the 80s. I didn’t believe it. Sarah is 7 years older than me, so she DOES know more about the 80s, and yet still, I am still skeptical.

If these are costumes, they’re lame. And I feel bad for any kid who had to be these instead of a ballerina pig like I was.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Can anyone else back me up here? These were costumes, right? ALSO, Erin said absolutely nothing to me about wearing something similar in kindergarten, so I think she’s trying to cover her ass.

On Monday night, I called Cindy and zz popps to see if they were going to their secret auction. They were, so I hopped on board! Normally on Monday nights, I get my fitness on (Turbo Kick, WHAT UP?!) but I decided that treasure hunting was going to take priority. 

In case you didn’t read the other entry about this auction, it’s a little different than most. At any given time there are THREE different people auctioning off items, so it’s a little stressful, but in a good way. You might remember that last time, I scored a GIANT lot of Muffy bears and made a small fortune off of those. Well, here’s what I saw when I walked in on Monday: 

I’ll be frank—I was almost trembling with excitement when I saw all those Muffies sitting there, waiting for their new (temporary) home with Mama Sarah. Right away, I ran over to my mom and exclaimed something like, “Awwww sh*t, look what I found!!!!” and showed her that picture on my phone. I mean what’s the likelihood of that happening twice—the only times I’ve ever gone to this auction?! 

There were other cool things up for sale in the other areas—mainly in what my parents called the “guy area.” In the “guy area” there’s an auctioneer who mainly sells old toys, tools, and other collectibles. While I was looking at things in this area, I stopped to check out this thing of marbles: 

Because I’m a dummy, I did not realize that this jar did not have a lid, so I proceeded to knock it over when I grabbed it to take a look. Fortunately, only a few were lost in the abyss. I also saw some other interesting items for sale:

Lots of early ’70s heads up in the mix. 

That buddy knows what’s up. Also, for a while my mom wanted one of these lightening rods for her garden (?! I know!) but thankfully she changed her mind.

After dumping the marbles, I high-tailed it outta there, and headed back over to Muffy-ville. It felt like I had to wait FOREVER for them to put them up for auction and in the meantime, my mom stopped over and won this terrifying thing: 

The funny thing is that my mom sent me this picture and the name of the file is Jiggy, but his name is actually Zippy and apparently he was from Howdy Doody. You’re welcome, mom. Anyway, I think she paid $3 or $5 and it looks like she will definitely make a profit! Also, people would NOT stop commenting on this purchase. 

After getting Zippy, my mom went to another auction area and I was left to stress on my own about the bears. They started with the ones in boxes like this one: 

There were six of those, and I got them for $3 each. I got a little worried because I thought, “Are they going to sell ALL of those Muffies one by one?” I wanted to maximize profit, of course, so I wanted them to be sold in a lot! Well, spoiler alert: In the end, I got that GIANT group of bears for $10. YES YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY!!!!!!!! Here’s the big pile of bears: 

I was seriously so pumped. 

A few minutes later, a guy came up to me and said, “You’re the girl who won all those teddybears. Whachoo gonna do with all those bears?!” I should have been a smartass but I told him they were semi-valuable. He then proceeded to talk my ear off about how one of his friends has a huge collection of Shirley Temple dolls that she’s willing to part with. Cool story, bro. I didn’t bite and then he said, in a very annoyed tone, “I’m trying to give you a hint here.” I said I didn’t get what he was saying (even though I did, I just didn’t want any more dolls after scoring 30+ teddy bears!) and he proceeded to call the woman on the phone and hand me it! WTF?! It was so weird! Thank god the reception in that joint is terrible because the call dropped and I was able to get out of that one. I told him that I really wasn’t interested and he gave me the most “you are a fool” look I’ve ever seen, but then insisted on giving me her number! In retrospect, maybe I should have called her, though:

There are lots of other Shirley Temple dolls that aren’t worth nearly that much, so I’ll just hope THOSE are the kind she owns. 

Right after this wacko encounter, the area with all of the cool older antiques started getting put up for auction and I won this egg scale that I had my eye on. 

My mom won a bunch of other cool things: 

Chalkware! 

Cool old tin toy made in Italy. 

And a tin sign. I am not sure whether or not this is actually old or if it’s a repro. 

My mom also bought some not so great stuff: 

The biscuit tin had potential but I think it’s missing it’s glass window. Still, maybe she’ll resell it. One like it resold for a decent amount but it was complete. 

I think the big winner of the night was zz popps. He bought a Federal Sign & Signal Beacon Ray for $80. Apparently it’s the same emergency light they used on Hawaii 5-0.

There are different models of these beacon emergency lights, but one identical to my dad’s sold a few months ago for $500! We’ll see what happens. 

All in all, a very fun night! The only regret I have is eating Nachos and chocolate cake for dinner. At one point, a lady next to my mom was raving about the homemade frosting on the chocolate cake, so I tried it.

Betty Crocker all the way!!! Still delicious. I shouldn’t be surprised, though. At the end of the evening, they put out all of the hot dogs that did not sell in a paper basket and people can come up and grab one for free with their grubby little fingers. 

Utterly disgusting. And that’s coming from a true hot dog lover. 

-Sarah

The rumors are true.  Dig This Treasure was lucky enough to snag some press passes to the Detroit stop of Antiques Roadshow.  If you’re not familiar, Antiques Roadshow is PBS’ highest-rated ongoing primetime series, in which guests are invited to bring their dusty old treasures in for appraisal.  The show is best known for surprising antique owners with high-price valuations for items the owner believed to be worthless.  

The Detroit event had 28,922 ticket applications, with only 6,000 tickets being issued.  Each attendee is permitted to bring up to two items for appraisal, which meant that over 10,000 appraisals were expected this day.  Which also meant, long lines…

Luckily, after checking in at the media area, we were escorted by Roadshow aficionado Peter, who whisked us right past the 2+ hour wait.  (Sorry everyone!)

They call this first waiting area –yes, it’s only the first–triage.  Once you get through triage, you must show your appraisal items at this table:

The Roadshow person working here will decide which category of item you’ve brought.  There are 22 categories.  I asked Peter if there is a sort of “catch-all” category for items that don’t fit into the other categories.  Kind of like ebay’s infamous “Other” category.  Surprisingly, Peter said no.  I assume this means that Antiques Roadshow has seen every sort of item under the sun, even the weirdest of the weird.

Peter had us pull out our appraisal items.  All three of us (me, Sarah, and photographer extraordinaire Zach) had items in the Toys & Games category.  I also had some folk art, and Sarah had some jewelry.

After getting a category ticket, guests approach a line of Roadshow workers.  They are there to guide you to your next line of waiting.  Here, you will wait to meet the Roadshow appraisers (of which there were 70 at the Detroit event).

All of the appraiser tables are arranged in a circle.  This is by far the most chaotic, and yet most interesting, part of the Roadshow.  The lines are pretty haphazard and we heard lots of tales of line jumpers.  At the same time, this is the best area to scope out what other people have brought.

Don’t worry!  We will have a whole entry tomorrow on other guests’ items.  Anyway, this waiting area was also the best place to see all of your favorite Roadshow appraisers.  They are hard at work looking at each item, researching it if necessary, and then calculating their best price estimate for the item. [Fun Fact: All of the Roadshow appraisers participate on their own dime!  The exposure is good for their appraisal businesses.]

We stepped up to the Toys & Games appraisal table.  I had brought a weird sort-of-taxidermy toy horse that I bought last year at a Brooklyn, NY flea market.  I knew that it wasn’t worth very much, but I was super curious as to how old it was.

Appraiser Julie Scott figured the horse wasn’t really that old, perhaps only a few decades.  She also humorously said that it looked like the horse had its “neck smashed down with a hammer” because it wasn’t anatomically correct.  The horse was in fact made with real horse hair, and Julie explained that the very best and oldest toys like this one are made from fetal horse skin because the hair lays nice and flat.  My horse was made from an older horse.  Julie also suggested that the horse may have come from Mexico.  In the end, she said it was worth about $45, which means I definitely overpaid (I bought it for $70).  Whomp whomp!  I still love this weird little guy and his gnarly neck.

Zach had brought a box of his lead soldier collection.  Julie seemed much more interested in these toys than my horse.  She began to rummage through the assortment.

The soldier on horse above was estimated to be from the turn of the century.  Zach also bought this at Brooklyn flea last year.  Julie said it was worth about $50, which is exactly what Zach paid for it (the seller originally had $150 on it).  In fact, a few of Zach’s soldiers were worth between $35-$50 each.  The more common ones he had were about $10 each.  

Julie liked the soldiers, but was clearly more interested in the lead Santas that Zach had.  She said that his large skiing Santa (made in the USA) was from the 1920s, and his sledding Santa was from the same time, except from Germany.  Each were valued at around $50, which is great because we got them for way, way less.

I’ll let Sarah go over all of her appraisals.  She had one at the Toys & Games table too, and after that, we headed to the Folk Art appraisal area.  I had brought my coveted whale tooth scrimshaw to be examined.

We walked up to the table and lo and behold, there was Wes Cowan from PBS’ History Detectives!  I told him that we were big History Detectives fans, and he kind of chuckled at that.  Otherwise, Wes was all business.  I pulled out my scrimshaw and he asked me what I knew about it.

I explained to Wes that the tooth was supposedly from the 1920s, and supposedly from a MSU Zoology professor’s collection.  I told him how I bought it at an antique festival, to which his eyebrows sort of raised.  

Wes then proceeded to essentially “school” me about my scrimshaw being illegal.  The problem here was that my scrimshaw was indeed on a real sperm whale tooth.  Most scrimshaw nowadays is on plastic fake teeth.  You see, in 1973, sperm whales became protected, and the selling of their ivory was banned.  Only ivory, and thus scrimshaw on real ivory, that is at least 100 years old can be sold legally.  Wes had serious doubts that my piece was that old.  In fact, he couldn’t really tell how old it was at all–just “not that old.”

I had secretly feared that my scrimshaw was illegal when I bought it, but had held out hope that it wasn’t.  I felt like a real bad kid getting caught smoking outside of school or something.  I felt like Wes Cowan himself was ashamed of me.  This didn’t stop me, however, for asking how much this illegal scrimshaw was worth.

Turns out that the appraisers cannot appraise illegal things.  That would be like me taking a giant bag of cocaine up to Wes Cowan and asking him how much the going street price was on it.  Wes did eventually reveal to me though that if a dude came up to me in an alley on Cape Cod, opened his jacket and had illegal scrimshaw, he would probably want “a few hundred dollars.”  Fair enough…at least if I illegally resell this, I’ll make a profit.

After our appraisals, we got a peek at some of the actual TV show taping.  The way this all works is that everyone who attends Roadshow gets an item or items appraised, but not all of these appraisals are on camera.  Producers are flagged down by appraisers when a particularly interesting item comes up to the table.  The item’s owner gets whisked away to hair and make-up, and the appraisal ends up being filmed on a tiny set near to the appraisal tables.

The individuals chosen for filming are super lucky!  Only about 50 appraisals are filmed, and remember, there were about 10,000 appraisals done this day!

After peeking at a few of the filmings, we caught up with some Roadshow attendees to ask all about their items and how their appraisals went.  Stay tuned for all of that goodness! 

-Erin 

Update from Sarah: Ok, so I knew nothing about Antiques Roadshow before this trip, so my mind was a little blown. First off, I’ll just say THANK GOD for Erin. She is so good at talking to strangers. Here’s proof:

That was about 30 second after meeting Peter the tour guide. Look! They’re already BFFs!  I know this is poor quality but I had to share. Pictures on iPhone were prohibited except for in the triage area, so I took a couple of pictures while I was allowed! (After the triage area, we had Zach as our pro photographer, so thanks to him!)

Anyway, Erin’s excellent at talking to strangers and I am not. She kept whispering things to me that I should ask during my appraisals, and asking if she was talking over me. Heck no! I don’t do that well in crowds of people in big open spaces like that–my eyes dart around and I have no idea what to look at–so I was just trying to keep cool and calm while there were 8 zillion people around.

Oh also, one other thing–I felt REALLY BAD about getting to skip that insane triage line. But also very grateful! You should take another look at how crazy it was. 

Oh well! Guess everyone just has to deal with it when there are world famous bloggers in the hizzy. 

Here’s the first item that I had appraised:

That adorable bunny that you see is Bunnykins, my dad’s stuffed animal from childhood. My dad gave me Bunnykins before I can even remember–I’ve had him for what seems like forever, and I’ve always kept him on my dresser. I love him. But I don’t know anything about him, so I thought I’d have someone give me the lowdown. 

Julie Scott (I just wrote Jill Scott and then remembered THAT’S A RAPPER) also did Bunnykins’ appraisal. 

She looks a little pissed here, but rest assured, she loved Bunnykins. I learned a few things about him. He was made after WWII–probably around 1952 or 1953, which makes sense. He’s also not made of mohair, which I thought he was. He’s synthetic. But she did say that dressed bunnies are very collectible, and that he is VERY cute. True dat. Also, he’s worth about $90. Even with his to’ up feet! 

The second item that I brought with me was a diamond ring that I inherited from my mother-in-law, who passed away two years ago.

It was her grandmother’s engagement ring, and it is absolutely gorgeous, and I am blessed to have it. She wanted me to have it in case Adam and I ever had a daughter, so that it could keep getting passed down. I got it appraised the year she gave it to me, and I just wanted to know more about it. This baller, Kevin Zavian, did my appraisal and he sounded like a true New Yorker. 

He told me that it looked like it came from the early 1900s–between 1910-1920, and that it is interesting because the prongs/setting are platinum, but the band is 14k gold. Usually platinum is matched with 18k gold or higher. He thought that maybe the band was added later–possibly in the 1930s, meaning the top was probably originally on a necklace or brooch. He also told me that retail, it would probably run about 3K less than what it appraised for when I got it appraised! Oh snap!

This disappointed me at first, but then Erin explained that an insurance appraisal is different than the sort of appraisal he was doing. Also, he estimated the number of karats in the ring incorrectly, and I only know that because of the previous appraisal. Anyway, it was fun to talk to him about the ring but he sort of made me nervous with all of his do-dads and special eye pieces. Also, him and Zach bro-ed down about watches. Apparently, Kevin is a “watch guy” so it’s his favorite thing to appraise. Cool enough! 

Stay tuned for more exciting Antiques Roadshow tales! 

You may remember that a month or so ago, Erin and I found a secret auction where they were selling lots and lots of dolls. My main purchase that I thought might make me some cash were these creepy doll heads for $10. 

I finally sold them last week and let me tell ya, it was awesome. People started bidding them up really early on, and right away I was amused by some of the buyers’ eBay names. My favorite, by far, was “ArtsyFartsyFairy,” and she ended up winning the auction. Part of my theory about why these sold for so much was that a week before that, I had gotten a new iPhone because zzPopps accidentally broke my old one during our garage sale. Check out my baller eBay pics! 

My other theory was that crazy doll ladies wanted these for parts–especially the sleep eyes inside. I’ve sold some really old sleep eyes for quite a bit of money in the past. Here’s what the ones looked like inside these doll heads: 

All of them had these eyes and they were all in great shape. Anyway, at the end of the auction, here’s what I made: 

Awwwww yeah! 

I emailed ArtsyFartsyFairy and asked her what made these heads so desirable, and here’s what she said: 

To learn more about Shirley’s Junque Jarz, check out her blog. But here’s a picture of one of them: 

Anyhow, here’s proof that people will buy your stuff on eBay and do all sorts of wonderful things with it! 

-Sarah

Dig This Treasure is headed to Antiques Roadshow today!  

There are a few other amazing antique events happening also, so we wanted to be sure to share (with the fellow Michiganders on here).  

Head over to Midland for one of the LARGEST antique shows ever!  The Michigan Antiques and Collectibles Festival with over 80 acres of vendors!  Happening today AND tomorrow.  Here’s our DTT entry from last year.

Also this weekend is the Greenmead Antique Festival, in Livonia, MI.  This is happening tomorrow (Sunday) only.  Here is our DTT entry from last year.

So happy hunting everyone!  And maybe we will see you today at the Roadshow!

-Erin

Nothing looked too fab on Friday, but hey, who are we to complain? We started our morning at a sale in West Bloomfield that looked interesting, because it was a living estate sale (I think?) at the home of a local AM radio DJ. 

The guy had some cool stuff at his house, but the problem was that it was all a little too pricey or a little too big (furniture, etc.) 

We had a discussion with a stranger about who this is. Conclusion? Not Gandhi. 

That’s all the big stuff. Now on to the cool, pricey stuff: 

Doesn’t that look like the inside of a cottage in the English Countryside? Or a J.Crew catalog in the ‘90s? 

Anyway, it was a mishmash of stuff, but the sale had started on Wednesday so it was a little picked over. Speaking of mishmash, here’s what I ended up with: Erin found me a big bag of old baby shower cards, a Henry Rollins book, a vintage Cape Cod pennant, and this awesome lamp that Erin tried to talk me out of: 

Yes, it’s a glass block on top of a planter. Someone made this thing. But I really liked it! Also, Erin is a liar. She told me my hair looked good, and CLEARLY that is not true. 

Also, here’s the super cool pennant: 

Looks sorta dinky here, but it’s decent sized.

Next up on our list was a sale that possibly had Herend porcelain. Erin thought it might be knockoff but we were so close that we decided to stop by. When I saw the signs for the sale, I said, “Oh no! It’s _______ Estate Sales?! They’re the worst!” but like I said, we were there so we had to go. When we walked up to the sale, the woman who owns the company was right outside the front door smoking a ciggy. She’s about 1000 years old and said, “come on in, girls” while blowing smoke in our faces. The good thing about this is that Erin’s baby got it’s daily dose of nicotine, which it normally has to get by chewing Nicorette in the womb. I know–complicated. 

Anyway, everything in this house was either terrifying, or insanely overpriced, or both. An example: 

Here’s another: 

This is my fave find of the day, though: 

Adam actually refused to believe that Erin DIDN’T buy this. 

We high-tailed it outta there and got our Ellen’s Bakery and Cafe on. While we were here, Erin asked me what gazpacho was. This is what their “Rockstar” cookie selection looked like after Erin and I had at it: 

The only other sales we had planned on going to were out in Rochester Hills, which was a half hour from where we were at, so we decided to find some garage sales nearby. Right away, we discovered that it was the city-wide Sylvan Lake garage sale that day, so that worked out well! 

Many of these sales ended up being sort of duds, but I did find a few treasures. My favorite is this group of Del Monte plush fruit that matches the cute Christmas ornaments Erin found last month.  Here’s Erin carrying them all for me, like a true friend: 

Adam was not happy about this acquisition. I have other stuffed food items in my living room so these guys will fit right in. 

We also found a sale where a young boy had a really baller snack stand outside. When we drove up, Erin exclaimed something like, “They have good snacks!!! THEY HAVE NACHOS!!!” I scolded her only because we had literally eaten about 10 minutes prior to the snack bar sighting. She claims she was just excited by the exoticism of finding nachos at a garage sale, but I’m not sure I buy it. Now I know what I’m getting Erin for Christmas. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: I can’t believe Adam thought I would EVER buy that scary lion “art doll.”  Does he not read this blog?  Does he not realize that in like 96% of all cases, it is Sarah buying questionable items and not me?  So rude.

Case in point, I really tried to talk Sarah out of buying that lamp at the first sale.  It is literally one of those basement window blocks that someone glued to something like a Harry & David leftover gift thing.  I knew my efforts were fruitless though because Sarah does this whole routine when she tries not to buy something but then totally buys it.  The psychology always ends up that she can carry something around and sometimes put it back, but if something is on a table and she has to walk away from it, she just can’t.  It’s like leaving a fallen soldier.  She can’t walk away.  I assume this is because she has a good heart, and not because she is a hoarder.

Sarah covered how awful the second sale was, so I’ll move on.  

The community garage sale seemed really promising.  But then it wasn’t.  I noticed Sarah’s increasing brutality as we scoped out each house, and decided that I had to start secretly filming.  The results are a truly amazing peek into our DTT adventures:

The nachos moment is captured on there.  And let me say that I DON’T EVEN EAT NACHOS.  I was just so amazed that someone was selling NACHOS AT A GARAGE SALE.

Also, that Ryobi tent house is where Sarah found her little stuffed fruits…so someone owes Ryobi tents an apology.

So what did I find all day?  Besides a Myst video game for my Nintendo DS (holla to the nerds!) I found some great fake vegetables to jazz up my vintage scales collection.

Here are some sexy lady shoes that I did not buy:

Look at those heels behind the flip flops.  I’m like David After Dentist…is this real life?

-Erin

And the winners are…

Well, first of all, thanks to everyone who participated in our first ever DTT prize giveaway.  

Keep an eye out in the future for more giveaways and even bigger and better prizes.  (Or maybe we will start buying and giving away things from our “Hard to Resist” entries…)  

Ok, so let’s get on with it.  Sarah and I drew names randomly for our winners and here are the results:

Digthistreasure.com website winner: Eddie Mitchell!

Tumblr winner: lezzomatic

Congratulations!!  We hope you love your Beefy as much as we do!

Six or seven years ago, I used to substitute at a local public library to make some extra money, and they’d occasionally give me random projects to work on while I was there. One night, my project was to go through the vertical files and recycle anything that could be replicated or found online. 

In case you’re wondering what a vertical file is, it’s this: 

If this doesn’t look familiar to you, then you’re young.

If it does, you’ll recall that basically a vertical file used to be a library’s way of keeping current background information on a really wide variety of subjects all in one place. Libraries don’t really need these anymore because the Internet is so awesome and radical. One exception to this would be an archive–many archives still have vertical files. 

Anyway, I felt totally unqualified to do this job but went with it. I looked at the existing pile of recycling that someone before me had already started, and found some serious treasures! I asked if I could take anything from the recycling piles and the full time person I was working with said sure. These posters are one of the treasures I found, and they’ve been on display in my kitchen ever since. 

These were published by…

The United States Beet Sugar Association, which still exists! 

Look at that molecule of sucrose! So cute! 

-Sarah