Dig This Treasure!

I mentioned yesterday that I’d be saving a few of my favorites from the Canadian auction to be featured on a rainy day. It’s not rainy but it’s frigid, so that works. 

At one point during the auction, they did a “choice out” of a bunch of different Jesus-y items. This might be obvious but when they say they’re going to choice out a bunch of stuff, it means they’re taking things that are similar and letting people bid on their choice among those things. They do this on jewelry a lot of the time. People often end up taking a bunch of the items, or all of them. For example, those tapestries Erin won were things she was the high bidder on a “choice out” auction. She paid $15 for each of the ones she chose. I’m explaining this because I didn’t quite understand it the first time I was at an auction. Then again, as Erin often points out to you all, I’m pretty slow. 

Anyway, as far as religious themed stuff goes, I’m not normally super into it, but I spotted an amazing vintage Virgin Mary plaque among the others. It looked like something that you would find in Lafayette’s apartment on True Blood. Here’s Lafayette:

Here’s Lafayette’s apartment: 

 Here is my plaque: 

She would fit right in in that Virgin Mary shrine on the back wall. 

The style that this statue/plaque was made in was really familiar to me but for the life of me, I could not put a name to it. After some brief searching around, Erin and I got to the bottom of it. 

It seems like Erin’s consultation of this new search service, goodle, is what worked so well for us in solving the mystery.

Ok, all kidding aside, this is an “Immaculate Heart of Mary” statue. We tried googling things like “Mexican Virgin Mary” and “Our Lady of Guadalupe” and finally I said something like, “but what’s the virgin mary called with the HEART?!” I consulted Google and Erin consulted Goodle and we hit the jackpot. 

Anyway, needless to say, Adam does not like this statue. I think this is because our house is not decorated like Lafayette’s apartment (YET!) This wasn’t a surprise for me. After I won it (for a mere $5!), I sat back down in my seat and Erin and I kept commenting on how awesome it was. Then we both looked at each other and said, “it can be a thing that freaks your husband out." 

-Sarah

Last Wednesday, I somehow convinced Erin to go with me to an auction in Windsor, Ontario. If you’re unfamiliar with the area where we live, Windsor is just across the river from Detroit. This wasn’t the first time one of us had dug for treasures internationally, but it was the first time we had gone to an auction in Canada, so we weren’t sure what to expect. Turns out, Canadians don’t like spending a lot of money at auctions, which was awesome for us. 

I reminded Erin to write down some directions since you quickly lose cell service once you cross the border. She obeyed. 

I’m particularly thankful that she added this extremely important step: “Straight into tunnel.” I think we might have missed it if she hadn’t written it down. 

Turns out, Erin gets the heebie jeebies in tunnels. She kept breathing deeply and asking me if I thought there was too much carbon monoxide in the tunnel from cars idling. 

Does that look scary to you? I didn’t think so. 

Once we convinced the border agent that we weren’t drug smugglers, we were on our way. When we arrived at the auction, it immediately seemed different than other auctions. Then I realized this was because the auctioneer had a Canadian accent and kept saying DOLEars, instead of dollars. 

Here are some pics of the offerings: 

Cool table with a built-in ashtray on top that you can’t see. 

Erin was obsessed with that hideous chair. I have no idea why or how. 

Action shot of me investigating stuff on the stage. 

So I really don’t know what this place was, but there was a stage at the front of the room with this rickety old rail-less set of steps leading up to it. The auction started at one side of the room…

…and all of the stuff was on tables along the outer edges of the room. As it progressed, they finally got to the front where the stage was, and Erin was obsessed with watching the employees have to carry these trays of breakable items down that rickety old staircase. It was actually pretty insane. 

There’s an example. The woman is holding a tray of breakable figurines that she brought down from that stage behind her. Every time someone had to walk around with one of these trays, it was was like watching a person balance a crystal vase on their head. You were basically wincing the whole time, hoping they didn’t drop the tray.

Here are some pictures of some other items that were up for grabs: 

Boom boxes. 

A vibrator. Look how pumped he is to be displaying that thing!

Ok in all seriousness, we both came away with some cool stuff. One of the first things I noticed that I wanted was this vintage wall hanging of a boy eating corn on the cob. I thought it would look adorable in my kitchen. 

Of course, I left with this little dude in my possession. It has a little hook on it where we could hang keys, so it’s also useful! And Adam likes it! Double win. 

This auction lasted forever because there was so much stuff, and the auctioneer milked every last dollar out of people. He started getting annoyed that people wouldn’t bid high, but it’s sort of like, if you immediately let on that you’re willing to sell things low, why would we bid high?! 

Anyway, I also ended up with an old, pretty minty copy of Abbey Road. I thought it might be worth a lot but it’s not a first pressing. If you ever stumble across a copy of Abbey Road that is in good shape and the back cover looks like this, grab it.  

The two things of note on this are the “misaligned apple” and the lack of “Her Majesty” listed on the sleeve. Some also claim that first pressings are missing “Her Majesty” on the record sticker. Mine doesn’t have these things, but it’s a really nice copy of the record and I only paid $10 for it so I’m happy. 

I also purchased a box of records and one of the best covers was this: 

I’m a little ashamed of the quantity of stuff I came home with. A lot of it was stuff that came in lots and I only wanted one thing out of the bunch. Oh well, the rest can go in the garage sale. 

Overall, I had a blast at this auction. It was really good people watching and I got some cool stuff. A few of the items I’m going to save for future posts because I love them so much. 

Hopefully Erin will update you all about the fight she got in with the auctioneer over a pair of dirty moccasins. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: That tunnel is so scary because it is under water…a whole giant lake of water.  One day that tunnel will collapse because you shouldn’t build tunnels underwater.  You shouldn’t even build tunnels through mountains.  In fact, everyone everywhere: STOP BUILDING TUNNELS.

When we walked into the auction I was excited that there was so much stuff.  I instantly fell in love with some old tapestries that were described as “Egyptian.”  I don’t know if this is true, but I ended up with them.  I paid $15 each, which is pricey, but I knew there wasn’t much else in the auction I would end up buying.

Look at that cute little frowny person!

The next tapestry had a fish design.  It’s pink, but I still like it.

I appreciate these because 2 years ago I took a weaving class and it was so hard.  I made a tapestry that was about 5 inches wide and 3 inches tall and it took about a month to finish.  Oy.

I was laughing so hard at the workers carrying huge trays of breakable items because it reminded me of Food Network Challenge.  If you aren’t familiar with the show, then this joke is lost on you.  Basically, on that show, people spend about 8 hours making huge elaborate cakes, and one is chosen as the best.  However, before the cakes can be judged, they have to be carried to the judging table.  The whole thing is unnecessary, but the precariousness of it all creates some mega drama.  Here’s a clip:

Total bummer.

So anyway, a while into the auction, Sarah and I were super thirsty.  The problem was that neither of us had Canadian money to buy drinks (we planned to pay for our purchases on our debit cards).  The snack bar didn’t take debit card, so I decided to go cash out all my purchases, and while doing so, have the cashier tack on the cost of 2 drinks to my total.  She did this, and then handed me the following:

I looked at her confused.  What the hell is 2 pop?  And why is it on this paper?  Of course, this was my token of sorts to go collect my beverages.  Very funny.  Also funny is that “2 Pop” was Sarah’s rap name in high school.  

I got my 2 pop and joined Sarah back at our seats.  Now, this part is important: Because I cashed out, I no longer had a bidder number.  That was ok because I didn’t plan to buy anything else, that is, until some great old moccasins went up on the auction block.  I had obviously overlooked them.  I didn’t take a photo, but the moccasins were similar to these I found online:

The auctioneer started at a price of $30 for these moccasins, but no one bid.  He then went down to $20, and still no one was bidding.  At that point, I chirped out a, “$10???” asking him if he would sell them for $10 since no one was bidding.  Now let me say, that ALL NIGHT LONG people were doing this sort of thing.  The auctioneer would be stuck at $10 with no bids, and someone would yell out, “$5?” and he would accept their offer.  He even went as low as $3 on many items.  

In my case though, he looked at me, ignored me, and then continued to repeat, “$20? $20? $20?”  Still no bids.  I scrambled to get Sarah’s bidder number from her, and then I raised it and said, “I’ll take them for $20.”  I said it like this because he was looking away from me, and I was trying to get his attention.  When he heard me, he set the moccasins back on the table and then snapped at me, “TOO LATE.”

I was so angry.  This was super rude and idiotic.  All night long this auctioneer was milking extra dollars out of people.  One person would be bidding at $5 for something and he would incessantly repeat “$6? $6? $6?”  This drew out the auction process too long, and the crowd was getting annoyed.  The auctioneer was apparently also annoyed, considering how he reacted to me.

I approached the auctioneer after the auction was over.  I first said to him that I was very sorry if I offended him by offering $10 for the moccasins, but that I did so because other people were making offers all night.  He claimed that he didn’t even hear my offer, which is strange because later in our conversation he referenced me making this exact offer.  Whatever.  I asked if I could buy the moccasins and he said no (of course) and I explained that it was sad how spiteful he was acting.  He told me that the moccasins are “worth WAY more than $20” and I reminded him that that was HIS price he tried to auction them for.  

It was clear our conversation was going nowhere, and I knew from the get-go that he was not going to sell me those moccasins now, or ever.  I let him know one more time that it was sad how an item that would be cherished by someone was now going to sit unsold, and that I’ve never seen someone make it so hard for me to give them money.

He said that he will auction these moccasins again in the future if I want them, but I don’t know if I will go back.  Actually, who am I kidding?  I will probably go back.  GIMME THEM MOCS.

So again, the Plymouth auction treated us very kindly.  Remember all the way back in September when Zach bought a cast iron bank for $17?  It looked like this:

Well this guy had been living on our bookshelf since then, that is, until Zach did some research on it.  It turns out that this bank was made by the J & E Stevens company around 1872.  J & E Stevens are best known for making some of the earliest mechanical banks, which fetch incredible prices on ebay:

These mechanical banks are also some of the most faked out there, so be careful!  

J & E also made still banks though, and many looked like tiny safes.  Early versions opened with a skeleton key, and later the safes had combination locks.  

Zach bought our particular safe bank at the auction simply because he liked it.  This is an example of one of my 2013 antique buying strategies.  I’m going to buy things that I like, even if I plan to sell it.  If it doesn’t sell, I have something to keep that I like.  At the same time, chances are that if YOU like it, someone else out there might like it, and it will probably sell.  It’s a win-win.  

In this case, Zach bought something that not only he likes, but A LOT of people like.  And a lot of people collect.

Here’s what the bank sold for:

Can you believe it?  This was really exciting.  I’m not sure what he is going to do with the money, but I hope it involves buying like 20.88 more J & E Stevens banks at $17 each.  (Yes I did the math.)

And while you’re here, I’ll give you the duck decoy selling price I promised last week.  

I want to double my money on everything I sell, all day err day.

-Erin

So after our excursion last Friday, we decided to check out a Doug Dalton auction in Romulus.  You might remember this same auction from that time Sarah bought a million dolls and I got my heart broken by some paper mache Halloween decorations.  

As usual, the items at the auction looked high-end, and we were particularly excited about a mass of duck decoys they had to offer.  I wanted to get to the auction early specifically to research and examine all of the ducks, considering I won the lottery last time I bought a duck decoy.  

Sarah, however, had another goal in mind–washing her car.

That’s right, there are riches to be made, and Sarah wants to wash her car.  Mind you, her car is filled with estate sale treasures she bought weeks ago, so cleaning her car is not a priority, JUST WASHING.  So we did that.  She tried to convince me to drive her car through the wash for her (she was scared) but I refused.  I’ve watched enough People’s Court to know what happens when you drive your friend’s car into a car wash and accidentally destroy it. 

Anyway, this hilarious sign greeted us as we exited the car wash.  And also, look in that foggy mirror, there is TOTALLY a ghost child standing on the left side just below the white part.  Spooky.

So on to the auction we went, and luckily we did have some time to inspect the goods.  From my last duck victory, I learned that it is important for the duck to be hand carved, hand painted, and signed by the artist.  The older the better also seems true.  And the duck should be in good shape, unless it is super beat up and thus “primitive” looking, which some people also collect.

I ended up buying the two ducks below, as a pair, for $100.  

They are signed with the name Hoffman, and a tag on them indicated that they are from the “Walter Snow School.”  I have no idea what this means, but Walter Snow decoys seem to fetch high prices.  I figured any connection to him would help.

At first when I won, I panicked a bit.  I was caught in the moment and really should not have bid so high.  My last decoy was only a $10 investment, and therefore much less risky of a buy.  I started to worry that I seriously overpaid.  

[Spoiler alert: I didn’t overpay!  These ducks are doing swimmingly on ebay, and I will post an update with their final selling price.]

The rest of the auction looked just ok.  It was mostly guns and man-stuff.  Sarah visited a separate toy auction in the back of the room, so she will update you on that.  

Here is a sea monster we didn’t buy.

The gun on the left looks like a dueling pistol!  Zach has two replica dueling pistols, so I thought that getting him a real one would be cool.  But then everything started selling for really high prices and I knew it was hopeless.

I also got excited because there were old instruments, which I also sold recently and did well with.  That red Gibson guitar is apparently very collectible and Zach told me to try buying it.  It was in bad shape but still ended up selling for $475.  Obviously, I was not the buyer.

And if you think that is a high priced item, listen to this…we totally got to watch a saxophone at this auction sell for $4,000!  It was incredible.  People started cheering and clapping for the winner.  The saxophone, a Selmer Mark VI, must be like the holy grail of saxophones.  Look at what some recently sold for on ebay:

So crazy!  

The other crazy part was that this saxophone probably would have gone higher than $4,000 but the auctioneer did not see a woman in the back of the room trying to bid.  He closed the auction at $4,000 and the winner was some guy up front.  The woman came running up and started arguing with the auctioneer.  I felt bad for her though, she clearly had her hand up and was trying to bid.  At that point though, there is nothing you can do, and all auctioneers have signs up saying they are not responsible for mistakes.  Whomp whomp.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: My car was so dirty that I could barely see through the windows. I also have an unreasonable fear of drive-thru car washes because I had a bad experience in one once: I stepped on the brake and you would have thought I set off a nuclear bomb considering how the guys at the place were yelling at me. So I really wanted to get my car washed while Erin was with me, so she could talk me through any traumatic events or scolding that might occur. My car was so clean after this wash that at the end of the auction, we walked up to my car and I thought it wasn’t my car. I actually asked Erin, “Is this my car?” True story. 

This auction was so crazy packed with people. Obviously there isn’t a lot of entertainment in Romulus on Friday night. 

Ok so first, I don’t know what Erin is talking about with that gun. I’m pretty sure you cannot buy a gun unless you have a permit. While I am writing this, Erin is texting me, trying to tell me that that isn’t true for guns more than “100 years old.” I told her it sounded like she was making sh*t up. 

During the duck decoy auction, I bid on and won a “primitive” looking duck. I spent $50 on him which is a lot, but I figured that if he didn’t sell, he was cool enough to keep. Here he is. 

He’s sort of leaning back in that picture so you can see the thing underneath–it’s made of some metal and old nails. He already has a few bids, so I think at the very least, I’ll make my money back. 

The normal auction was boring me, so I went in the back room where they were auctioning off old tin toys and trains. I’m not sure why Erin didn’t come in there. I bought a few things, the most promising of which seems to be this old Western Pacific tin train, made in Japan. 

It’s not getting much attention on eBay so far, but I’m still hopeful. One just like it sold for $132, so I’m not sure what all the homies are waiting for. 

After the toy auction ended, we stuck around to see some of those instruments sell for a ton of money. One correction–that sax sold for $4400. I only know this because there was another guy bidding on it who actually plays them, and he was in line to pay right in front of me. He had stopped bidding at $4000 and was super pissed about not winning it, because the guy who did win it was going to resell it. I guess that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. 

We got a fairly late start on Friday due to the fact that I have a real job with real hours that need to be really worked in real life. There weren’t any exceptional looking sales (or even GOOD looking sales) once again, but we made it work.

The first sale we stopped at was very close to Erin’s house, and was clearly a “man sale.” But that’s ok! There were some cool things to see, along with a lot of chaos.

Cool things:

Chaos:

This guy obviously worked on cars, and possibly even planes. He had a lot of old literature on both of these things, but the space was so destroyed and crowded that it was hard to get a really good look without wondering if some structure was going to collapse on your dome. Erin decided to take a chance.

I saw a little crawl space that was filled with boxes and other nonsense. Of course, rather than sacrifice myself, I pulled Erin into the room and told her to get in there because she’s smaller than me. She obeyed and even had a mini flashlight. (Sidenote: I HATE when guys whip out their Maglite minis at sales. They’re always the SAME kind of guy–big, scruffy, and wearing dirty Hanes sweats. Do you think you’re on Storage Wars or what?)

Anyway, she pulled out a dainty keychain light (which is acceptable) and got down to business. She found a treasure of her own that I’ll let her tell you about, but she also unearthed this decent sized box of pictures and other paper.

She also found a few 8 mm and 16 mm films but the woman running the sale told me that she must have missed those–the family wanted to keep any and all movies (but apparently not still pictures?) I didn’t let her know she missed them because they were in the deep dark depths of the dirty crawlspace. But it left me wondering what was on those films–something scandalous, or just family memories?

I ended up getting the box of stuff for $10, which seems reasonable, though I haven’t looked through it yet. Erin spotted another big stack of photos in the garage, and the guy out there sold them to me for $5. All in all, an excellent deal.

One last thing that Erin considered buying:

The next sale on our list was out in Warren. We made the trek because it looked packed. Turns out, it wasn’t packed at all, and instead was primarily filled with cheap garbage. HOWEVER, I found one box of absolutely incredible items at this sale. I’ll maintain the suspense by first showing you some items that we did not buy:

Uhm. What? Wait… now that I think about it, why did I not buy this? Actually, I’ve got a new New Years Resolution: From now on, buy any and all ‘70s resin figurines with sad and/or nonsensical sayings on them. We see them so often that I think it’s a sign. We need to start collecting them.

I’m not positive but I think these guys are made of cotton balls.

We were LOL-in’ about that cover and byline for a good while.

Ok, so here is the gold that I found:

Ok, so I realize that for everyone else on Earth, this looks like kindling for your fireplace. However, this box of books made me squeal with glee. I’m a librarian at a university and I manage a children’s and YA collection. Some of the books in this box are things I’ve never even heard of. I think I might feature one of them every so often on here because the summaries on the back covers alone are amazing.

It turns out these are a combination of “problem novels” and “female junior novels,” all ranging from the late '50s through '70s. I know this thanks to my friend Amanda who is a children’s lit professor who wrote her dissertation on NEGLECTED female junior novels. There were a few books in this lot that were things she’d never even seen in paperback!

So if you couldn’t already tell, this was really exciting for me. It’s just another example of the serendipity that sometimes happens–connecting you with a perfect item. I could tell that Erin was pretty much like “WTF” about my excitement, but she hid it well, and I applaud her for her efforts there. 

The other thing I purchased at this sale was an antique 8x10 wedding portrait:

Isn’t it so cool? Also, there was a little note tucked inside that made me feel better about purchasing more old pictures of strangers.

Apparently even the previous owner had no idea who these people were.

-Sarah

Update from Erin: If Sarah sticks to her resolution of buying all 70s resin figurines, there are going to be a LOT more TTFYHO entries.  I feel like a better 2013 resolution for Sarah is to buy NOTHING from the 70s.  In fact, I was watching Market Warriors last night on PBS and the challenge this week was to buy stuff from the 70s and resell it at auction.  Everyone on the show lost money…like a lot of money.

Anyway, the first sale on Friday was pretty grody.  I came out of there covered in dust.  Like Sarah mentioned, my trek into the crawlspace was fruitful.  I found a bunch of boxes and inside one was an old Gruen automatic watch.  

What is so amazing about this watch is that it sat so long without ticking (decades for sure) and the metal hands left little tarnish marks on the watch face.  But because I had jostled the boxes in the crawlspace around, the watch started ticking again and was running great when I discovered it.  How automatic watches are able to do this is beyond me…even more incredible than putting a man on the moon.

I paid a mere $5 for the watch, and it is blowing up ebay now.  

Also, why didn’t I buy that dog portrait?!  UGH.  It was so great.  I will kick myself over this for a long time.  

The second sale was my worst nightmare.  There was nothing for me to even look at while Sarah practically read each book she found cover to cover.  I kept mincing around behind her like pacing animals do at the zoo when they are bored.  I’m sure she appreciated it.  

Our day didn’t end here though, stay tuned for a report on the auction we attended later that night.

-Erin

So I’ve never hidden the fact that I LOVE me some Native American art and artifacts, as long as they are authentic and not stolen Indian designs made in China.  In particular, I really like Inuit art.  I’m no expert, but a lot of it seems to present everyday, mundane life in more meaningful and whimsical ways.  And a lot of it has animals in it, particularly whales and narwhals (always cool).

Until recently, my closest attempt at owning Inuit art was this book I bought on ebay.  It was essentially a catalog of Inuit art that I would never actually own.  

I considered at one point cutting out and framing the photos in this book, which would probably end up being sad and embarrassing.  Is that some original Inuit art on your wall?! No? You cut it out of a book?  That’s sad.  Go buy yourself some Inuit art.

Around the time Sarah and I started getting into auctions, I discovered that there are live auctions online!  This seems obvious, but was actually a huge epiphany for me.  And sure enough, there was an online auction scheduled out of Vancouver featuring ALL Inuit art.  I was thrilled.

I figured this would be my chance to buy a piece more affordably.  Pieces on ebay always sold for high prices or were listed expensively to begin with.  Maybe I could catch a deal in this live bidding.  

The items up for auction were all great.  There were sculptures, fabric art pieces, prints, and more.

I zeroed in right away on the piece below:

It’s called Fox Traps and Anxious Hunters by Jamasie Teevee.  It’s a lithograph (#22/50) from 1976.  I entered a pre-bid of $150 and went to bed (the sale was happening on Pacific Time and it was getting late).  Sure enough, when I woke up the next morning, I had an email saying I was the high bidder, and the bidding ended at $120!  SO AWESOME.

Jamasie Teevee died in 1985, and all of his prints I’ve found for sale are listed for upwards of $400.  I feel like I got a really great deal, and a really amazing piece of art.  I’ll cherish it for a long time to come!  Now I just have to find me a narwhal sculpture like the one above…

-Erin

P.S. LOOK HOW CUTE THAT WALRUS IS.

Update from Sarah: Oh my gosh! I heard the story of the Inuit art print but have never seen it or a picture of it until now. It is so stinkin’ cute. I’m actually really jealous of this.

The Plymouth auction hadn’t been in action since before the holidays, and the crowd last Saturday showed just how excited everyone was for its return.

Zach, Timmy, my sister Lindsay, and I got there super early and snagged some third row seats.  The people in front of us had a clever way of saving their seats:

There were not enough chairs in the place to accommodate the crowd, and I am pretty sure there wasn’t enough oxygen either.  It was hot and stuffy, and very very loud.  The chaos was clearly annoying the auctioneer, and he would repeatedly yell for people to quiet down or to move away from the front tables.  Most of the time I had no clue what was being auction off, and in deja vu of last week, kept asking my sister.  She usually had no clue either.

For the most part, everything was garbage.  Actually, I shouldn’t say “for the most part,” I should say for the WHOLE PART everything was garbage.  We stuck around though.  Even if we didn’t buy anything, this auction is always entertaining.  In fact, our favorite “regular” was mincing about, wearing his pajamas and talking in a volume similar to when your ears are completely plugged up.  I think he ended up buying a box of markers or something.  

Zach ended up with some cool woodblock prints that he has already framed and hung up in our bedroom.  These were a steal at $5 for the whole lot.  No one else even bid against him.

He also bought this old “camel saddle stool” which I am not going to pretend I know anything about.  From what Zach has said, these stools are modeled after actual camel saddles, and were popular in home decor during the 50s and 60s.  Zach set a limit of $30 on this item, and luckily he won it for $27.50.  

It is all leather on top, which we have since cleaned and polished.  The stool is now being used as a footrest in our living room.  To be honest, I was skeptical of this purchase, but now that it is clean and has a nice spot in our house, I am on board.

Timmy bought some diecast toy car that was sold during the 2003 All-Star Game.  He actually worked this particular All-Star Game for the Detroit Tigers, and wanted the car in commemoration.  It came with a World Series car, which he is going to sell on ebay.  

Lindsay ended up with 2 giant boxes full of Beanie Babies and Beanie Buddies.  If I had known she wanted Beanie Babies, I definitely have some to offer.  Remember this?

At some point, everyone was ready to get the hell out of there…except me.  I had been holding out all night for one item, and I was NOT going to leave without it.  FINALLY, after being at the auction for almost 3 hours, and watching people pay $9 for scissors, my item came up.  And I won!  Here’s what I got for a mere $5:

A whole bunch of ornaments that look like Chicken McNuggets!  If you recall, I had my first ever McNugget a few weeks ago.  I can’t say I am a huge fan of real nuggets, but these ornaments are the cutest!

So overall, a fun night.  Not the most lucrative or unique treasures, but treasures nonetheless!

-Erin

Erin convinced me to hit up an auction in Tecumseh with her on Wednesday night. This auction wasn’t at the same place we auctioned at in Tecumseh before. However, I had been to this place with my parents earlier in December, I was just a slacker and never wrote about it. Anyway, the auction did not look good in the pictures, but I figured I would humor Erin.

Erin was late, so on the way there we had to hit up Micky D’s because we were starved. When we got there, I was still finishing my filet-o-fish and I thought Erin was going to blow a gasket while waiting for me. She was so eager to get in there.

Can you blame her?

Ok, in all seriousness, this auction was probably the worst thing I’ve ever been to. They were auctioning off stuff that I doubt would sell even at a thrift store or get taken out of a garage sale’s free box. It was crazy. For example, many of the items on this table were marked as being from the dollar store.  

Despite these truths, there were two things that I was coveting at this sale. First, these guys, which were not there when I was at this joint with my parents:

I wanted them so bad. But I think they’re now a permanent part of the ambiance there.

Second, I REALLY wanted this battery operated cat.

I thought she would be an excellent white elephant gift. This past year at the holiday potluck Adam and I host, Erin’s husband Zach brought the best white elephant gift: Christmas Cat. He found this gentleman at a flea market and there was a serious war over him during the white elephant exchange.

I am confident that my cat will surpass Christmas Cat as Most Desirable White Elephant Gift. I won her for $2, a serious steal, and when we got her back to my house and Adam put some new batteries in her, let me just say–she blew our minds.

Despite the lack of treasures at this auction, people were pumped to spend between $1 and $5 for loads and loads of garbage. That includes, unfortunately, both Erin and myself. For some reason, I thought it was a good idea to buy two hula hoops. 

I also thought it was a good idea to buy a box of Halloween plates without looking at them closely first. They were chipped, made in China, and not even safe for microwaves or dishwashers! We ended up giving them to a man who was buying things to furnish his sister’s home. He told us that she had nothing, so he was trying to help her out. On the ride home, Erin was doing her sob story thing, feeling bad for the woman. But I just finished reading The Glass Castle, so I put it in perspective for her. After all, having someone’s old coffee mugs and chipped Halloween plates is better than nothing. Right? I don’t know. Maybe not.

Anyway, the guy who runs this joint is my favorite guy. At one point, he put a toaster cover on his head because he thought it was a hat. Anyway, the combination of his mic not working half the time and the items all being garbage caused me to have to ask Erin, “What is it?” over and over again.

Erin ended up scoring the only real treasures of the night (besides my cat), and I’ll let her tell you about them.

-Sarah

Update from Erin: Apparently it takes 30 minutes to eat one Filet-O-Fish.  I wouldn’t know because I would never eat one.  Sarah forgot to mention that she left remnants of this fish burg in my car near the foot heater, and once it got reheated hours after we left the auction, my car smelled like a swamp.

So yes, this auction was pretty junky, but I still had fun.  Everything was entertaining.  As she mentioned, every time a new item came up for auction, Sarah would instantly say, “What is it?”  EVERY TIME.  And then I would have to be like, “Oh it’s a stack of wooden bowls but 4 are cracked,” or “It’s a pile of 3 teddy bears that say ‘Mommy’ on them.”  Near the end, I just started saying, “It’s garbage,” every time.

Except these plates.  I didn’t buy them (for fear they would be a TTFYHO), but they sure are cute.  

I was also entertained because the the auctioneer kept inventing words.  At one point he auctioned off some ceramic Christmas Village knick-knacks and described them as being from many different “scenaries.”  He also kept calling VHS tapes V-S-H, which is an honest mistake, but still funny.  And, he kept lying!  Sarah got suckered into buying some “cast iron spurs” for $10.  The auctioneer even clanged them together while suggesting they were heavy and solid.  When Sarah won the spurs, they weighed about the same as a paper clip (not cast iron).  Luckily, they let her return them.

I won a few cool things, perhaps the only cool things at the auction.  First up were these old antique skeleton keys.  

I’ll probably put them on ebay, although they would look really nice hanging on the wall, or in a cabinet, especially if I found one of those big old key rings for them.

I also bought this polar bear sculpture because it looks like Murano glass.  Even if it isn’t Murano, art glass in general is popular.  The fact that this sculpture is animal related definitely doesn’t hurt either.  This guy is also really heavy, which I think is a plus to collectors.

I hear that in real life polar bears are mega ferocious.  In fact, I think my sister told me about some guy at a zoo who got eaten by one after he climbed in the exhibit to snuggle it. 

P.S. Sarah thought those Blues Brothers would fit in my little 4 door sedan.  Thankfully they weren’t auctioned off this night.  Look at how huge those things are compared to the doors below!  I can’t imagine trying to move them, let alone “just sit them in my back seat” like Sarah suggested.

I’ve mentioned my love for vintage wrapping paper a few times in the past. My collection is pretty impressive, and I’ve had lots of sellers ask me what I do with it when I buy it. Isn’t that a dumb question? I use it, of course!

I don’t just like cute wrapping paper–I like weird wrapping paper too. 

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know I have a habit and history of freaking my husband out with some of my estate sale finds. Normally this is not intentional, but it was my husband’s birthday this past Saturday, so I had the opportunity (responsibility, really) to pull out some of my best stock and get a good reaction. This is what I chose. 

I was SO excited to give Adam some presents wrapped in this stuff. Naked baby dolls. Baby dolls buried under toy trucks. Fake mice. Stuffed monkeys. Toy soldiers. Can’t get much weirder. And it’s an actual photograph printed on the paper. Totally amazing. 

Maybe I have high expectations but I was SO disappointed when I gave Adam his gifts and he didn’t even give the paper a second glance! He just ripped them open! I guess I have to find something even creepier for next year. 

OR, it’s possible that we’re just swapping roles. This is what was inside one of the packages (he asked for it, and please note that he is 33 years old): 

Who’s freaky now?

-Sarah

Back a few weeks ago, we wrote about a sale where there were lots and lots of magazines and books. In one of the boxes of books, I found an old oversize envelope filled with papers and photographs, so I just grabbed it and put it in my box of stuff. I forgot about it until recently, and when I finally looked through it, I got really sad. Here’s what was inside the envelope: 

Yes, there are lots of photographs, but if you look closely, every single one of them has been torn up and then re-taped. There’s a high school diploma that’s in the same condition. Here are some close-ups: 

It just makes you wonder what happened…

I realize it’s a little weird that I like other people’s old photographs (I especially like pictures of kids with pets), but I wasn’t expecting to find something so sad when I emptied that envelope of stuff. I guess that’s the price you pay for nosing into other people’s lives. 

On the bright side, it’s good that someone took the time to tape all of this back together.

Then again, I don’t know if that makes it better, or even more sad. 

-Sarah