Dig This Treasure!

On Saturday night, Zach and I went with my mom and dad to the Plymouth auction.  The photos online looked REALLY bad, so our plan was to go to the auction, make sure there were no good items, and then go out to dinner instead.  When we got to the auction, my mom, Zach, and I all breezed through pretty quickly.  We were ready to abandon ship as soon as we got there.

I did like that little mini doll trunk in the photo above, but I wasn’t willing to wait around 3 hours to buy it.  

Someone PLEASE fill me in on what these old punch board things are (the “Hit and Win” thing above).  Sarah and I have seen these before and are so confused by them.

So anyway, the three of us are ready to leave, and I noticed Timmy over in a corner, kind of lingering, and looking around for the rest of us.  I knew instantly that he found something.  His excitement could not be contained, even though he tried really hard.  He was looking around all paranoid-like, as though Homeland Security was watching him and the items he was looking at.

So what did he find?

This old Art Ross NHL puck in mint condition.  You might remember that I found one of these pucks at an estate sale for $2, and sold it on ebay for over $200.  And mine had a scratch in the orange decal!  

At this point, I went and told Zach and my mom that Timmy found a treasure and now we had to stay.  There were some grumbles, but we all knew that there was no leaving.

I did end up making a purchase.  Zach wanted this lead Indian figure:

And it just so happened that it was bundled with an item I wanted, plus two other lead figures:

Of course, I wanted that donkey.  He opens up and is a secret treasure box:

I paid $29 for the whole lot, which is fine because Zach was willing to pay $25 alone for the Indian.  I almost had the bunch for $15 but then some guy jumped in and kept bidding me up by $1.  We kept going back and forth and I wanted to yell to him (he was across the room) “BRING IT.  LET’S GO.”  I thought that would be funny, but it would most likely not be had I really yelled it.  

So in addition to Timmy’s puck, there were two other items he wanted.  A Gordie Howe collectors’ plate and a plastic baseball cup (I think from the 1960s).  The cup had my dad’s favorite baseball player on it, whose name I now have forgotten.  The auctioneer miraculously put all three items together in a lot.

And then the bidding started.  I was so nervous for my dad that I was shaking.  I know, so lame.  I just really wanted him to win that puck!  At $27 the bidding fizzled out, and Timmy was victorious.  His max was $150, so I am sure he would have won no matter what, but it was AWESOME to see him get this so cheap!  

I was standing in the back of the room (away from my dad) while the bidding was happening.  When the lot ended at $27, this guy next to me said how my dad had just overpaid and obviously “that guy” doesn’t know the Gordie Howe plate is only worth 10 bucks.  Of course, when this guy was saying this to me, he didn’t know that the winner was my dad.  I said back to him, “Hmm, you know, I think they were bidding on that puck more so than the plate.”  In my brain, I was smiling. 

I saw this guy then go up to my dad later and ask him about the puck.  Now–this is important–my dad made a cardinal sin.  HE TOLD THE GUY WHAT THE PUCK WAS WORTH.  Not smart.  You have to keep these secrets to yourself, or next time, that puck won’t be going for a mere $27.

The last thing I will mention is that a woman brought a ferret to the auction.  A LIVE FERRET.

That’s a photo of her kissing it.

-Erin

Like Sarah mentioned, things have been crazy in our real lives, so sorry for our random postings! Don’t give up on us, we will be back in order real soon.

Last Friday, we weren’t able to go out sale-ing, but Sarah and I did manage to get together for one sale on Saturday. We picked only one sale to attend because it was the ONLY one that looked remotely good. Seriously, I don’t know what is going on, but the sales as of late are just awful. Here’s what we look like every week when we read through the sale listings:

SAD AND CONFUSED. Where are all the good sales at?!

Anyway, the sale we hit Saturday was advertised as a mid-century modern “timecapsule.” When we showed up, there was a line outside. We were so shocked because 1. it was like 2pm on a Saturday and 2. it was FREEZING outside. Here’s Sarah about to cry as we were waiting:

(Interlude from Sarah: Erin thinks she is soooooo slick trying to sneak in a terrible picture of me. Thank god I actually added to this entry and got it out of there.)

When we got inside, we had to put on little hospital bootie things so that we didn’t track mud everywhere. I instantly realized that this sale was going to be out of our league. And it was.

That’s an $1800 silver bowl. And here’s some fish that were like $400 each:

Everything in the house was high end. It felt more like a museum than an estate sale. I don’t know if I even touched one thing.

I did find a bunch of little Dansk paperweight animals that were cute, but they were selling each one for $25. I noticed that I could get them WAY cheaper on ebay, so that was annoying, especially since this was the second day of the sale and things should have been cheaper.

I also found this book, which is basically my life story:

Am I constantly thinking about buffets? Pretty much, yes.

I didn’t buy anything at this sale, so I’ll let Sarah indulge you with her purchases. I did however buy an amazing smoothie at Swirlberry, where we hung out after this sale for awhile. Maybe we will start a blog all about going to Swirlberry instead of estate sales, because Swirlberry never lets us down.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: This sale really blew. I purchased a couple of books…

Oh my god I just noticed the author’s name. OH MY GOD. I’m not sure I’d trust her judgement on this topic—it’s an advice book for boys on how to solicit dates with girls.

I also bought this adorable “Jingle Pup” hat that ended up being too small for Betsy.

Anyone have a tiny dog who needs this?

The only cool thing in this house was a darkroom in the basement.

This made me sad and jealous. I used to have a darkroom in my parents basement when I was in college, because I was mega into photography. I still have my enlarger and other stuff… but I haven’t used my manual camera in years. Oh well.

As mentioned, on Monday night I went to an auction with my parents and scored a boatload of Muffy VanderBear and Hoppy VanderHare dolls. Before I tell you the tale of this auction, I need to share one more thing related to the Muffies. This is, by far, the most adorable thing in the lot of stuff I purchased. It’s a Muffy BATH TUB!!!! 

Once again, proof that Erin and I were destined to be BFFs. I mean, if I’m being completely honest, I would have DIED if I had this stuff as a kid. It’s just so stinkin’ cute.  And look at the inside of the bathtub!!! 

Anyway, my parents go to this auction every week, and it’s pretty far from where I live, so I’m not normally able to go. But this week is our winter break at work, so I’m free like a bird. This auction house has auctions all of the time, and the Monday night auction is actually three different auctions going on simultaneously. My parents like going because you can get some great treasures for very little money. It is a very odd auction because it really is a mix of valuable/quality stuff and just plain old junk. 

As soon as we got there, I was overwhelmed. 

It was impossible to really capture the number of people who were up in this joint, as well as the quantity of crap there for sale. That picture above does not do it justice but it’s the crowd of men around the “man sale” area–I guess one of the auctioneers is always selling man stuff. 

What they do is they start at the front of the room and work their way back. It was a little stressful to try to pay attention to what might be coming up in each of the three places. I was also worried at first that I would never find my mom and dad again but then I realized that my mom was wearing the same color vest as a crossing guard in elementary school. 

There she is, inspecting a high-quality wooden basket. 

I spent most of my time between the Muffy sale and the middle sale, which was a mish-mash of stuff. The mish-mashy sale was lots of typical estate sale stuff–glassware, figurines, some paper, etc. But then they also had things like this:

Fun fact: I owned both of these Barbies when I was a kid, and they came with a Barbie and the Rockers record. 

I ended up missing a lot of that auction, because I spent so much effing time waiting for those Muffies to go up on the auction block! That auction was being run by the son (I think) of the main auctioneer on that side of the room. Besides the Muffies, there were more Beanie Babies than I’ve seen in my life. When the son went to put the Muffies on the auction block, the dad stepped in and was like, “No way, I’m not selling those as a group.” I wanted to cry. It was about 110 degrees in the joint, and I had worn my down coat inside. (Excellent decision on my part.) As I stood there and sweat bullets, the auction guys started separating all of the Muffies and beanies into piles that they were going to choice out. First I won the bin with some of the Muffy furniture and stuff still inside, and then they started choice-ing out the plush lots. I was the ONLY PERSON who bid $5 and nobody bid me up. I bought all of the Muffies that they had just separated out, but then after I did that, people bought some of the groups of beanies for way more. I have no idea how or why it went down like that, but I’m not complaining! 

While I was fighting off grandmas for my scores, I missed out on some adorable wooden dog head bookends that went up in the other area. Probably for the best. I also missed out on a box of cards that someone probably spent too much money on. 

Early on, I had spotted an old E.T. lunchbox in the “man sale” area.

I really love E.T., which I think I’ve mentioned in the past. I ended up winning it, but then afterward realized that I don’t really need an E.T. lunchbox, so I’m reselling it. It’s in really awesome shape for its age. If you’re a fan, please buy it! 

One thing that I did not buy, which I’m now regretting, was a Show ‘n Tell phono viewer for Adam. It looked like this: 

It somehow plays records and projects images. I have no idea how. He had never heard of one, and seemed pretty bummed when I told him I stopped bidding at $35. Oh well, you win some you lose some! What I bought him instead was an old parking meter. No joke! I thought he might want to tinker with it. 

Finally, at the end of the sale, I won two really nice vintage quilts. 

My mom ended up with an '80s Spuds MacKenzie Bud beer sign. I have to admit that I laughed at her when I found out she bought it, but it’s actually got bids on it already! My dad bought three little children’s books that ended up not being valuable. Oh well! But he did do an awesome job of carrying all of my items to the car for me! 

One final weird thing about this place. This is the sign you see in the women’s bathroom: 

-Sarah

Update from Erin:  One day I will go to my parents house and photo the obscene amount of Muffy Vanderbear stuff I have packed away in their basement.  My Aunt Cathy used to gift me Muffy things for every birthday/holiday/etc.  It was such a delight.  

Anyway, I wanted to comment on this entry because I noticed a photo in our DTT dropbox that I am assuming Sarah took at this auction.  I think she forgot to include it in this entry.  The photo is so magical that I had to add it in:

Brilliant.  

Things have been a little hectic in our “real” lives lately, so we apologize for the sporadic updates. That should change soon. While we work on some updates from last weekend and last night, I thought I’d share what seems to be a pretty awesome find that I scored at an auction last night. I went to a secret location with my parents (I’m keeping it secret so that nobody finds out about their spot) where I saw this amidst a bunch of random stuff.

Inside, this tote was filled with a crapload of Muffy Vanderbears and Hoppy Vanderhares, which we’ve discussed a few times in the past. I won the whole box of stuff for $23, which was a steal, since grandmas all over the land buy these things on eBay. Here they are on my kitchen table, waiting for their photo ops.

You’ll be unsurprised to discover that Erin was a huge fan of these bears and rabbits as a child. She actually tried to talk me into keeping this lot in case I “have a daughter someday.” No thank you.

-Sarah

A few weekends back, I went with Timmy to “The Super Auction” being held in Ann Arbor. The auction was in a giant pole barn on some farmland, and was actually several different auctions all happening at the same time.  Timmy of course went to the sports auction, while I minced around at the others.

I should note that my dad isn’t crazy about us calling him “Timmy” on this blog.  I learned of this recently, but told him that the readers would have a hard time following along if I suddenly started calling him “Tim.”  Anyway, here he is picking up some of his winnings:

There were lots of great items at this auction, and prices seemed to be pretty high as a result.

That box of arrowheads in the photo above sold for over $500!  

I didn’t stick around to see what that casket sold for, but no bones about it–it probably sold for lots. 

One of the auctions taking place was all pottery.  Pottery is actually something I could see myself collecting.  I just don’t know enough about it yet.  

Most of the pottery was Roseville, which Sarah and I have seen at estate sales before.  I can’t say I’m a Roseville fan.  It seems kind of boring. 

I did see two non-Roseville pieces right away that I loved.  I couldn’t make out the signature on the bottom, so I asked someone to look at the auction catalog.  Turns out, these are made by Common Ground Pottery, and more specifically, a man named Eric Olson.

Gorgeous, right?  I liked how these looked kind of Art Nouveau.  Unfortunately, I didn’t buy either of these.  Each vase sold for $275.  This price is actually pretty good, because looking elsewhere, Common Ground stuff usually sells for over $500.

I started an ebay alert for Common Ground pottery on the off chance that someone is selling some cheap.  Otherwise, it will remain a holy grail.  One day, when I am rich, after buying Sasha dolls, I will buy Common Ground pottery.

Here are some other amazing examples I found online:

Ok, and to finish up, here are my dad’s auction treasures in the back seat of his car:

He seriously spent about 5 minutes flipping these around to find the safest travel position for each one.  

-Erin

In last Friday’s entry, Sarah mentioned some adorable, arguably overpriced dolls she saw at a sale.  Megafan Alison (my characterization–I like to assume we actually have megafans) emailed to let us know that these dolls were “Sasha dolls.”  (Thanks to Organtitus who also left us a comment with the same info.)

Here are the dolls that Sarah loved:

I actually love these dolls too, but didn’t see them at the sale.  The $300 price tag would have deterred me anyway.  Sarah contends this is a pretty hefty price, which it is, but they seem to sell for way more on ebay.

Those are the highest of the high prices.  Some Sashas sell for about $150-300.

Ok, so let me back up.  It turns out that Sasha dolls are Swiss, made by a lady named Sasha Morgenthaler.  She wanted to create dolls of all races and ethnicities.  She created one-of-a-kind dolls, and eventually more affordable mass-produced dolls.  To me, this all sounds like a precursor to American Girl dolls.

The main thing you need to know about Sasha dolls though are that they are adorable, and they all kind of look homeless.  I like that.  It’s charming.

After learning about Sasha dolls, I tried finding some that look like Sarah and me.  I found Sarah immediately, and was delighted!  It looks just like her!

I had a harder time finding a doll that looked like me.  I assume this is because I am a very unique and special person, kind of like a snowflake. The best I could find was this:

Close enough.  My hair is lighter in real life now than from when this pic was taken, but oh well.  Also, I’m frowning because I was standing next to a man dressed like Ebenezor Scrooge.

Ok, so should I get rich one day, my first purchases will be Sasha dolls for Sarah and me.  My next purchase would be these little boots for my Sasha doll:

Next, I would buy a miniature laptop and ipad for our Sasha dolls.  

I might even buy my Sasha doll its own baby Sasha doll to push around in a stroller:

The options are endless, which is why I now love Sasha dolls.  Seriously, give me a little Sasha doll that looks just like me, watches Court TV all day on its own little TV, and eats like little mini pizzas.  That’s what I want.

-Erin

A few months ago, I found an adorable little figurine of a teenage girl talking on the phone, but she was cracked, which broke my heart. Shortly after, I created an eBay alert for “girl on telephone figurine” and have since started my very own collection! I’m sort of bummed that I have to rely on eBay for them (I like the serendipity of sales!), but what can ya do?

This little blonde is the first that I purchased and she’s by far in the best shape. She’s also of the “Lego Japan” variety, which are my favorites.

Since starting this search, I’ve discovered that the teenage girl on the telephone is a theme that many other makers also used–it seems to have been popular in the 1950s. After finding the blonde girl, I obtained my very own solemn girl on the phone–just like the one that I had noticed back when I first posted about these!

If you look closely, her nose is jacked up, which wasn’t part of the description. The seller gave me a partial refund, which was nice.

Next up was this totally awesome bank! I got it around Christmas, which I remember because Erin secretly told Adam to get it for me, and he got all annoyed that I bought it for myself. Oh well! I didn’t want to risk having someone else swoop in and get it!

The last few of these I just purchased recently. These two came in a lot together. Obviously I only wanted the femme-y boy, because the girl is  clearly undergoing an exorcism. How else would she get into that position?

Look at that nerd!

TERRIFYING.

Ok, and finally, here are my favorites. They are just so dang adorable!

They’re not salt and pepper shakers, so I’m not sure why this person had two of the same figurine, but they sure are cute!

There are two more Lego girls (like the first one I found) that I received in the mail last week, but that story is an entry of its own, so I’ll save it for another time.

-Sarah

Last Friday, Erin and I were pretty excited because there were two sales that seemed sort of promising…FINALLY. We ventured out a little late, as Erin mentioned, but got on our way shortly after noon and headed to Fraser, which is really far away. 

When we got to the house, we had to park in a parking lot behind it, and walk through a very, very muddy backyard to get inside. The house was on a main road, so I realize that this makes sense, but what does not make sense is not laying down some cardboard or something so that people didn’t have to track mud into the house. Turns out that it didn’t really matter if mud got tracked through the house, because it was in pretty rough shape. Here are a few examples: 

That is a ceiling, if you can’t tell. Lookin’ good. Here’s what that wall looked like from afar: 

That is no environment for newborns! 

This sale looked enticing because there were a lot of old toys and dolls, but they were outrageously priced. For example, I really liked these guys: 

But guess how much they cost, each? If you guessed $20 you are wrong. They were each marked $375. Crazy times. There was an employee in each room of dolls, monitoring the situation. There were no thieves in these rooms–just crazy old ladies speaking to the dolls. At one point, I did find an exact replica of Baby Erin. This doll manufacturer must have obtained some photographs from her parents of her as an infant–it’s just so spot on. 

Not tired of looking at dolls yet? Ok! 

Shortly after we took this picture, a lady holding a different doll turned around and exclaimed to us, “This baby has a penis!” Ok, awesome.

How many people do you think this baby has killed?  

There was even a man doll playing air guitar. 

And some terrifying baby masks that I tried to convince Erin were “sort of cute." 

As you can see by my arms, I found a bunch of records at this sale. They were all children’s records, and I asked if I could just buy two whole cases of them because I’m always too lazy to sort. Many of them were Peter Pan records from the ‘50s and '60s, which ended up being super awesome. The coolest ones in the bunch, though, were these picture discs: 

Overall, the sale wasn’t fabulous, but it was definitely an interesting house with some crazy stuff inside. And I was happy with my purchases.

After we got out of Doll Land, I convinced Erin that we needed to pick up some cupcakes, since we were near my favorite cupcake place in Michigan. Just a word to the wise–lemon yogurt cupcakes ARE good. Next, we hit up a sale that Erin was excited about but based on the pictures, I was not. I ended up buying a children’s book and a small vintage piggy bank. I don’t think Erin bought anything at all. Whoomp Whoomp. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: The first house had some cool stuff, but it was all just so filthy.  It made me sad, and annoyed to be honest.  A man working the sale told me that some of the dolls they had there were worth up to $2,000 each, so I can’t understand why you wouldn’t try to take care of them.  Oh well, things happen.  

Sarah didn’t mention that the house also had a Doo-Wop motif, which was interesting.  Look at that plastic diner food in the corner.  

I unearthed a great treasure pretty early.  It was hiding in a box under a table, or else it surely would have sold before we got there.  At the time, I didn’t know if this was a Rushton bear or not, but really hoped it was.

I put this guy up on ebay and explained that I didn’t know the maker.  Silly me, it said "The Rushton Co” RIGHT ON HIS CHIN.  I didn’t even see it.

This guy is doing amazing on ebay right now, currently selling for $74.99.  And he has 34 watchers!  The auction ends tomorrow, so I will keep you all posted.  I only paid $3 for him!!

I should also note here, that while doing some rubber face animal research, I found the best blog all about them.  Everyone should check out Grubby Rubbers.  This girl’s collection is seriously incredible.  She has about 500 old rubber toys in her collection.

Ok, so back to the sale.  At one point, we were in the basement, and it was just a nightmare.

You could hardly move, and everything was so dusty.  I started to feel all asthma-y. And then I got MEGA thirsty.  Just then, I looked over and saw this hiding among all the treasures:

A giant bottle of Coke!  I laughed mightily to myself when I saw that.  Also, how did that man get back there?  A true mystery.

Later in the house I found Mrs. Beasley.  Remember her?  Sarah and I were fools for not buying her the last time we came across her.  This time, when I found her, I scooped her up immediately.  I will have her up on ebay shortly, but in the meantime, I am trying to get her hair in order.

Her hair was sticking straight up, so I wet it down and then made that little Beasley-bonnet.  Hopefully her hair will stay down when the bonnet comes off so that I can sell her.  

The last item I found was for keeps.  This stuffed Santa is hilarious and adorable.  He was pretty grody, but I washed him.  He was $3.

His hands move up and down, so he kind of looks like he is raising the roof when they’re up.

I didn’t buy anything else.  Not even this baby doll that looked exactly like Sarah:

Those eyebrows are spot on.

The second sale, like Sarah mentioned, was a total bust.  They were trying to sell this old washing machine, which was cool, but useless.  And totally huge.

They were also selling this “Merry Christmas” garland that only had the letters “M-E-R-R-Y C-H-R.”  I wanted to take this up to the people running the sale and say, “Excuse me, but you are literally selling a piece of garbage at this sale.  This piece of garbage literally has a price tag on it.”  Astounding.

They were also selling this:

Although, I shouldn’t be too hard on this one.  All you need is a really giant button and that doll is as good as new.

-Erin

Like I mentioned, I hit up an early sale last Friday while Sarah was at the doctor.  She and I met up later for some very interesting sales, which we’ll cover in another entry.

Besides the moccasin slippers, I bought lots of cool things!  The whole house was full of quality items, namely glassware and pottery.

I know what you are thinking, “how pricey!”  Luckily, not everything at the sale was priced so high.  These dishes though were handmade or something in Sweden.

More dishes!  And look at that gorgeous hutch!

And this one!  See what I mean?  Everything here seemed like good quality.  I was having a lot of fun looking around.  

You can’t really tell, but that is a really tiny couch.  It was so cute.  I assume it is for dolls.  It was only like $30, which seems reasonable for something like this, but it was also in bad shape.  Plus, I have no use for it, so I moved on.

I did end up finding this great Crown Devon mug, which I bought for $3:

When you look inside, there’s a little frog!  In fact, when I went to check out, the woman running the sale exclaimed, “THERE’S A FROG IN THERE!”  She sure got a kick out of it.

I have this up on ebay now, and usually these mugs sell.  However, no bites yet!

I also found this enamel on copper plate for $2.

When I first saw it, I got excited that it might be by Miguel Pineda.  Here’s a plate by Miguel that I watched on ebay for a long time, but never bought because it was $400:

I should have known that my turtle plate wasn’t a Pineda piece…I don’t think there are a lot of turtles in Mexican folk art.  It turns out though that my plate is by a mid century artist named Annemarie Davidson.  I have the plate up on ebay now, and so far it is selling like a champ.

Next up, I bought this reproduction cast iron Coca Cola man.  He was $5, and I saw that others sold on ebay for over $25.  I figured this was an easy resell, so I bought him.

He’s selling on ebay too at the moment!

Here’s a thing I didn’t buy at the sale, and kind of wish I did:

I don’t know what I would do with that little guy, but he sure is hilarious.  I’m not sure of his original use (why the long neck?!) but he would make a good shelf prop.

-Erin