Dig This Treasure!

Last week I mentioned that I started unloading the big Christmas guns, and it made me remember a story that I think I forgot to tell from a while back that recently ended very happily for me. 

Late in the summer, the same day I found my first ever vintage girl on the phone figurine, Adam and I went to a sale that was at the home of the couple who used to own the Little Professor in downtown Dearborn. I was excited because there were a lot of old posters and books at this sale, as well as some old Peanuts items, but we quickly discovered that the people running this sale were totally nuts. I gathered a bunch of books I wanted to purchase, none of which were priced, and the women running the sale proceeded to start looking them up on eBay, Etsy, and AbeBooks. WTF?! 

Right before leaving, I found a small box of a bunch of old wooden West German Christian Ulbricht Christmas ornaments in the basement. Here is one of them:

Pretty cute, huh?

Knowing how they were pricing items, I had pretty low expectations–I figured she was going to ask me to pay $100 for them. But no, instead, she tells me that the whole box is a dollar! I quickly said OK and when I got outside, simultaneously cheered and cursed her for being so stupid. 

These ended up being a great buy. Not only did I get to keep some adorable ornaments because there were multiples of many of them, but these suckers sold like hotcakes. I sold three of them about a month ago for $35, one a few days ago for $12, and then last night listed the rest. Literally minutes after listing the remaining ornaments, this happened:  

Some lady swooped in and bought all of them for about $50 total. That brings my profit to a whopping $96. 

I have a pretty good eye for these things because my mom and grandma love(d) wooden German and Swedish Christmas decorations. I have a really soft spot for them too–they’re so cute. I think the woman running this sale thought that these were those cheap ripoffs that are made in China that you can buy at the dollar store. The ones that are authentic will usually be marked with the maker name or country, so keep your eyes peeled! 

Merry Christmas to me! 

-Sarah

Alright, so there’s been a lot of auction talk around here.  What can I say?  We have auction fever.  There are lots of reasons to love auctions, the least of all being that we’ve found some excellent resale items.  Auctions let you sit on your butt and buy stuff while eating popcorn, and it satisfies natural competitive urges.  If you haven’t been auctioning yet, check out auctionzip.com and find one near you!

As we’ve mentioned before, one of the best auctions we know happens every Saturday in Plymouth.  Timmy is so hooked on this auction that he pretty much calls every week to ask if we are going to it.  Last Saturday, he and I went alone, and ended up cleaning the place out.

We made sure to get to the auction really early, and got seats in the third row.  With our game faces on, the auction started.

Tim and I had both written down several items of interest, and kept our notes out to keep track of what we wanted to bid on.  This was smart because I then had a list to consult while looking up similar items on ebay.  One of the items I had noted was an old trumpet by the brand CG Conn.  I thought to myself, “What if is this is a super rare trumpet brand…I better look it up!”  And here is what I found in ebay completed listings:

Those are some high priced trumpets!! I knew that I would be bidding on the one in this auction.  I just hoped no one else had looked it up.  

The trumpet did not go up on the block until the auction was nearly over.  In the meantime, Tim was busy building an arsenal of purchased goods around our feet.

He bought a Tigers baseball bat, some old cricket paddles, two vintage football plaques, a pencil sharpener, a giant bag of old hockey ticket stubs, and who knows what else.  I bid on some old poker chips for $7 which came with an old galvanized watering can and tiny metal oil can.  We were running low on space, and I was about to bid on a giant trumpet in its case.

Luckily, the guy sitting next to us was really polite, and turned his legs out into the aisle so that we could pile stuff up in front of him too.  I will say though, that I thought this man was going to try and kidnap my dad and keep him like a pet hamster or something.  He talked his ear off all night about how he was the first person to sell Beanie Babies at Gibraltar Trade Center and now he is so rich, how he gets into Maple Leaf Gardens for free, how he’s played cricket and is really good at it, and on an on.  I thought at some point he was going to announce how he was once President of the United States.  I ignored most of these tall tales and kept my eyes locked on the trumpet.

So at one point, a bongo drum went up for sale, and no one bid on it.  Not even for $5.  So when this happened, the auctioneer threw in the trumpet WITH the bongo.  I had let my gaze wander for a minute, and didn’t notice that the items had been bundled.  Suddenly, I realized that the trumpet had been moved next to the bongo, and started to bid.

There was only one person bidding against me.  And he was relentless.  As we got up around $80, I started to panic that I would lose out.  I didn’t want to spend over $100.  At $85, the other guy bowed out, and I was victorious.

As soon as I won the trumpet, I told my dad to go grab it for me because he was closer to the aisle, and I was trapped by all of the stuff we had bought.  He had been gabbing away with his new buddy and didn’t notice what item I had actually won.  So Tim wanders up to the front table where the auctioneer is laying out some Harley Davidson ornaments he is about to sell.  My dad then proceeds to START GRABBING AND LOADING UP the ornaments, right as they about to be auctioned off.  The auctioneer looked at him and watched for a minute, totally confused at what this madman was doing.  He then said to my dad, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”  

My dad responded that his daughter had just won these items, and he was picking them up.  It was so hilarious and embarrassing.  I rushed up there to alert him that I did not in fact buy these Harley ornaments, but had actually won the bongo drum and trumpet to the right of him.  It was really the best, and we laughed about him doing this the whole night.

Also, the guy who was bidding against me came over and said, “You must have done your homework.  That is a VERY rare trumpet.”  I told him, “Yes,” and then offered him the bongo as a consolation prize.  He turned down the bongo, and was a good sport about the whole thing. 

The trumpet is up on ebay now, and has two days left in the auction.  It is already bid over the $85 I paid.  And look at how many watchers there are!  This is a record for me.

I hope that this trumpet just explodes with bids in the next few days!  I saw on a message board that this particular trumpet in MINT condition is worth about $900.  Mine is definitely not mint, but is pretty good for its age.  

I was so content after winning the trumpet that everything else I bought after was just icing on the cake.  I won a Limoges box for an incredible $5!  I don’t think anyone looked at the bottom to see what it was.  This is actually the second time I have bought a Limoges box super cheap at this Plymouth auction.

The night ended with even greater success for Tim.  He had been waiting all night to bid on a game used UHL jersey.  My dad used to work for the Motor City Mechanics hockey team, which was part of the UHL.  I asked him how high he would go to win this jersey, and he told me $100.  I speculated that it probably wouldn’t go up that high.

And I was right.  The bidding started on the jersey and my dad was the ONLY person bidding.  He won it for a whopping $5!  He was stunned, and elated.

The Plymouth auction is truly the greatest honeyhole.  No need for you all to rush out and start going to it though.  Stay home on your Saturday night, or go to the club.  Maybe take up crafting.  Anything except going to this auction.  I’m even thinking of banning Sarah from attending. Hey, I gotta protect my territory ;)

-Erin

Right before Thanksgiving, Sarah found a listing for an auction in Toledo and convinced me that we had to go.  I had just started feeling ill the day before the auction, but went anyway.  It was my last hurrah before I was laid out for a week with a sinus and ear infection.  I’m glad I sucked it up and went though, because it was fun!  And we got treasures!

There was a lot of glassware and furniture.  Everything was old and collectible. 

There was an entire set of Johnson Brothers “The Friendly Village” and some “Game Birds” plates, which I ended up winning.  

One of the coolest items at this sale was an old tapestry of George Washington.  I wanted this so badly!! It ended up selling for like $400 though.  Here it is while up on the ol’ auction block:

I did make one large purchase here; a $500 Confederate bond.  I paid $100 for this because it came with a Certificate of Authenticity from Sotheby’s from when it was originally sold.  I also bought this because I had recently sold Confederate bills on ebay and did really well on them.  If you remember, I bought these bills for $1 each.

Anyway, the $500 bond I bought was HUGE, and will look really incredible framed.  I don’t plan on selling it, and will most likely gift it to my father-in-law (I hope he doesn’t secretly read this blog).  I saw some collectors’ blogs listing its value anywhere from 300-475 dollars.

The best moment of the auction was when Sarah bid on and won an antique stereoscope.  It was a tough battle for her, with someone else in the audience bidding her up relentlessly.  When she finally won the item, and the auctioneer brought it over to her, she looked up at him with exasperated doe eyes and said:

“THANK YOU. I DROVE ALL THE WAY FROM MICHIGAN FOR THIS.”

I died instantly.  All the way from Michigan?  Toledo is like 15 minutes from the Michigan border.  I exclaimed, “OH YES, ALL THE WAY FROM MICHIGAN.”  This set off a chain of giggles among the patrons and auctioneer, and Sarah and I laughed about it several times during the ride home.  

Listen people, she may not be the smartest, but she has a good heart.  And a good eye apparently, because those stereoscopes can be quite valuable.  I’m sure she will tell you all about it.

Another great moment was after the auction.  Both of us were starving, but the only place nearby was this:

It was immediately clear that Inky’s would only be one of two things: REALLY REALLY good, or REALLY REALLY bad.  When we walked in, there was a lot of signage referencing Inky’s award-winning pizza, including hand-drawn illustrations by children celebrating said pizza.  For a reason unknown to both of us, we didn’t order the pizza.

Instead, Sarah ordered lasagna and I ordered a manicotti (which for the record is a cannelloni but with cheese not meat–I had to ask).  Here is what we got:

This is the sauciest sauce fest I have ever seen in my life.  I even think that the tablecloths are red because people spill sauce all over them.  There was no way to contain the sauce.  There were no sauce levees.  

We both ate what we could and then asked for carryout boxes.  The waitress scooped our food into the containers and then proceeded to scrape every morsel of sauce off the plates and into the containers too.  Each box weighed like 16 pounds.

-Erin 

Update from Sarah: I did a really bad job of photographically documenting both the auction itself and my purchases, but I’ll summarize them for you anyway, using stolen photos from the Internet. The first thing that I bought was a group of Josef Originals birthday angels like this one: 

I overpaid for them but that’s because I was confused and thought they were these birthstone dolls, which look nearly identical but are more collectible: 

OH WELL! 

As Erin mentioned, the main reason I wanted to go to this auction was that there was an antique Monarch stereoscope and stereoview cards up for auction. I don’t have a picture of it but it looks just like this: 

Isn’t that totally rad? Anyway, I won it after a drawn out battle with another guy who I swear was just trying to bid me up like Dave on Storage Wars. Then, as she also mentioned, I said a really dumb thing that I still can’t stop laughing about. I couldn’t believe how bad she made fun of me in front of a group of strangers for that, though. She’ll get hers.

The stereoscope came with a big group of stereoviews, some of which I’ve already sold on eBay. The really awesome part is that one week later, I went to an auction with my parents and found ANOTHER stereoscope that was in much better shape, so I’m going to sell the first one. In case you’re totally confused, a stereoscope is basically an antique Viewmaster

but you have to manually change each card/slide (two images per card make one 3D looking image.) 

I also ended up with a Victorian photo album on a stand, and an old school desk. I thought the school desk could be used as a table because the seat part folds up, but so far it’s not been a very good investment. Cool looking but not at all practical.

One final piece of information: This was the second auction we’ve been to in the span of a month where Erin ended up having a crush on the auctioneer. In both instances, the man was a middle-aged dad wearing a grey sweatshirt and stonewashed jeans. Maybe I’ll get Zach a pair of these for Christmas: 

I have been meaning to update y'all on how my greeting card sales have been going. I mentioned that I hit a greeting card jackpot a month or so ago… The cards from that group were all in excellent condition–most of them were still inside their envelopes. So I think that might be why I ended up profiting so heavily!

The oldest cards I found were from the ‘30s and '40s and were super cool. They sold for $76. Another similar lot sold for $63 from another sale that I found right around the same time. This is a picture of my favorites from one of those groups… I can’t remember which one:

I figured out via extensive eBay research that used cards sell best when divided into lots of things that are similar. In the 1950s and '60s, it was super common to have cartoon animals on cards–even for adults. For example, a husband and wife would be represented as a cartoon bear husband and wife. So I separated the cards into groups of animals. This lot was just a mixed lot of different animals and sold for $36:

The most desirable lot of cards, for whatever reason, was this lot of bird and bunny cards:

There’s no denying that these are adorable… but they sold for $113!

I sold a lot of cards like the ones above that were all puppies and kittens for $41, and also decided to separate out the children’s Christmas cards from the lot, and those also sold for $41. I did the same with the valentines:

They sold for $26… And then I sold cards with just girls and boys on them… which sold for $27.

So if you’ve been doing the math on that, that’s a whopping $424! I spent about $160 at the sale where I found these cards (on everything I bought–not just the cards), so that’s definitely  a profit!

I still have a ton of other cards from this sale that I’m going to maybe sell individually because they’re mechanical. I’ll be sure to feature some of the coolest ones on here as I go through them.

-Sarah

Consoling with pizazz.

-Sarah

Last Friday, I saw a listing for a sale that sounded amazing and awesome.  It was described as being on 12 acres and packed with antique delights.  I thought the sale looked so good in fact, that Sarah and I should make a special effort to leave extra early that day to get to it.  Sarah seemed to disagree:

The “look at my horse” part was related to the cast iron horse I blogged about the other day.  At this time, it was blowing up on ebay.

Anyway, we did end up going to this sale.  And Sarah did end up being partially right.  The sale was not 12 acres of treasures after all, but it was still a really great sale (Sarah will disagree on this part).  There was a lot of glassware/dishware, including Wedgwood and Johnson Brothers.  One of the “Game Birds” plates I featured on Thanksgiving was found at this sale. 

There was also cool taxidermy to look at, although it was priced really high.

And check out this pool!

That’s a big ass pool.  You could look down on it from nearly every room in the house.  

Anyway, the first item I found to buy was this old baseball game for my dad.  I don’t know why I didn’t just buy it and give it to him for Christmas.  Instead, I stupidly sent him a picture of it and said, “Do you want this?”  He was all excited and said that he did.

I also found these amazing bisque chickens from Germany.  Their legs are springs so they bob up and down.  They are in the kitchen near my egg scales. I am crazy about them.

I would love to have a whole army of these little chickens.  And maybe other farm animals with spring legs.  The man running this sale only charged me $2 for these, which was astounding because he was SUPER GRUMPY.  People kept asking him prices and he would exhale really loudly each time before answering.  He would then tell them some crazy price.  

After leaving this sale, we made our way to Huntington Woods.  I was leery of this sale right off the bat.  This bumper sticker greeted us:

WTF?  I don’t even understand what that means.

The inside of this sale actually felt like taking a beating.  It was really filthy and I instantly had asthma.  

Look at that poster hanging on the wall.  It was one of those old cat ones that says, “Hang in there!”  I felt like it was cheering me on, even though I was suffocating and my skin felt all itchy.

Oh hey, a car:

At one point during this sale, I saw some containers I thought were filled with old buttons.  I had found a similar container elsewhere that WAS filled with buttons.  When I opened these containers though, I found some super old rotten corn flakes.  Needless to say, I didn’t buy anything at this sale.  One cool thing I did see though were these old ticket stubs.  The person who went to these shows wrote on the back of each ticket who played:

Sarah got in a fight at this sale, so I’ll let her break that insanity down for you.  I also think she bought stuff here, which is even crazier than the fact that she got in a fight.

-Erin 

Update from Sarah: The first sale was seriously the worst. The guy who runs the company hosting the sale is such a turd. He prices things SO insanely high and is, as Erin described, ultra grumpy when you approach him or ask him anything. Hey bro! Answering my questions is your job! Erin doesn’t remember, but she left another sale he was running empty-handed and annoyed after he told her some crappy repro she was interested in was $100 or something insane like that.

I didn’t mind going I was just so confused about why Erin was so obsessed. The pictures looked bad to begin with, and the sale was no better in person. I bought three old books–two of them were Nancy Drews. I haven’t figured out if they’re first editions or not (they look like it!) but I’m going to be super careful before listing them because one time when I accidentally listed a Hardy Boys book as a first edition and it wasn’t, the Hardy Boys Police (eBay Unit) came after me hardcore.

Anyway, as I was saying, the sale was the worst. Here is proof:

These masking tape signs were all over the house and most of them said, as this one does, “Watch U Step.” Excuse me?

Actually, this one that was taped to a chandelier made me laugh.

I really like the added touch of the smiley.

Erin forgot a sale we went to in between the two she wrote about. I have two things to say about this sale. The first is that we each paid $15 for an item of clothing, which I believe is unprecedented. Erin bought a pair of pink Minnetonkas and when the woman told her they were $15, Erin looked at me and asked if she should buy them. The women said to her, “They sell these for $59 in Petosky. They’re worth it.” Oh really? You go to Petosky for your Minnetonkas? Because I just go to Marshall’s. I bought a Ralph Lauren sweater, but again, $15 is extremely and insanely expensive for an estate sale.

The second thing I’ll mention about this sale is that I spotted this silver rabbit platter that looks strikingly like kokopelli!

Of course I couldn’t remember that word, so I stared at the plate and excitedly said to Erin, “Look! It’s the Native American pipe man!!!!!” She had to sort of calm me down because the sale was high end and I was REALLY excited about spotting the pipe man, so I think she was a little embarrassed.

Erin is actually right about the last sale. It was dirty and gross, but I got a bunch of old photographs for $15. I haven’t really looked through them yet so I don’t know if they were a good buy. I also got this old set of J.D. Salinger paperbacks that’s in great shape, so that was a good find.

She did forget to mention the wonderful art throughout the house.

I’m not sure who would want to document a woman’s body in that position, but there you have it.

Check out the creeper.

Ok, so the “fight” that Erin mentioned was not really a fight… more of an “altercation.” Erin’s pictures accurately represent the condition of the basement of this house. I was unprepared for what awaited me down there, so when I got to the bottom of the stairs, I just made a sharp right and went into this room of junk. There were art supplies and boxes and just CRAP all over. I was really overwhelmed and saw this wicker hamper filled with old books in front of me. There was a woman nearby bending over a box on the floor.

I picked up one of the books in the hamper and she WHIPPED around and said, “HEY HEY HEY that’s all mine! OK, WHERE IS IT?!”–meaning, “Where is the book that you clearly just stole from me?” I was sort of stunned because as soon as she whipped around, she startled me and I had put the book back down immediately and raised my hands. I then looked at her and demonstrated how I had picked up the book and set it right back down, saying, “That is exactly what I just did. I’m sorry. I had no idea that this stuff was yours.” She said to me, “Oh, yeah because it’s not obvious!!!” Uh…. whut?

I said, “It’s really obvious that an overflowing basket of books belongs to someone when you’re in a hoarder’s basement?” She said, “That’s what I’m saying! Don’t you think it looks a little out of place?!?!” Clearly she thought that her items looked particularly special and not junky. I just stared at her in disbelief and then left the room.

Hopefully this weekend our adventures will be filled with less confrontation and kokopelli and more treasures and misspelled signs.

In honor of Black Friday, I decided to pull out all of the Christmas-themed stuff I had and get it up online. I succeeded in breaking my current eBay item world record:

60 items, what what?!

If you’re interested in some Christmas gear, be sure to check out my auctions. I’ll give you a little taste of what’s up there. Let’s start with the cute things. I’ll begin with my favorite:

Is that not the cutest little blue-haired angel you’ve ever seen? She was in her original packaging and I removed her for her photo shoot, so she’s pristine. Bid away!

Next up are all the knee-huggers I’ve accumulated over the past few months. This cute guy already sold,

…but there are more where he came from!

Here’s a RARE snowman knee hugger:

I had also forgotten that I had a bunch of these Steinbach ornaments that are fairly collectible. I found them back when I found my beloved stuffed deer head:

I also had a ton of Hallmark Keepsake ornaments and other Christmas stuff that I found at the Best Sale Ever. So much that I had forgotten about half of it. Here are some highlights:

Good ol’ Charlie!

Look at little Pinocchio!

First edition Robert Sabuda…

And a terrifying nutcracker.

I’ve also got these cute old ’60s ashtrays up (I’m pretending they’re trivets):

And finally… I am selling the drugged reindeer:

I am sad to see them go, but they deserve a life outside of my spare bedroom.

-Sarah

Sarah alluded to the fact that I was a “lucky b*tch” when I purchased an antique cast iron horse at the soggy-underpants-on-the-concrete auction we attended recently.  Her assessment, while harsh, is true.  I am indeed a lucky b*tch.

The auction was high-end, and people were bidding like crazy on everything.  I figured I would go home empty handed.  I did start to raise my hand for a Tiffany Lamp that I thought was selling for $25, when really it was selling for $2500, but luckily I caught myself.  Finally, an item came up that I was willing to spend more on and win.  It was a cast iron horse still bank/door stop.  It was huge and heavy as hell.

This guy had everything going for him.  There are cast iron collectors, there are still bank collectors, there are door stop collectors, AND there are horse collectors I could sell this to.  

For some reason, I have been operating under the belief that I paid $65 for this guy, but I found a receipt when cleaning out my purse that said $85!  What happened at this auction was that the auctioneer would speak so quickly, and people were bidding so rapidly, that you would raise your hand for one price, but be counted for the next highest bid offered.  It was insanity.  For days after the auction, I sulked about the fact that I had seriously overpaid for this horse.  Here’s a text between Sarah and I where I complain about it, and Sarah kindly reassures me:

Well, as it turns out, I wasn’t so “dum” after all.  That horse sold for some mad cash!

$300?  I was so shocked.  And happy.

I messaged the woman who bought the horse to ask about her motivations, and here is what she said:

Hi Erin - The horse is beautiful, in wonderful condition and is an extremely rare shape. The detail in the mane, the tail and the musculature make this iron animal very special. I collect the smaller cast iron bank horses. But this clydesdale a great surprise when I saw it and I knew I’d own it. The price I ended up paying is comparable to a cast iron boston terrier doorstop I own. And finally, I am a horse person; I ride and have loved these animals all my life. “Clyde” will be loved and will guard a prominant door in my home. Thank you for selling him. Catherine

She named him Clyde!  I love that.  And I love when this whole estate sale/treasure hunting/ebay thing we have going helps people to unite with items they might never have found otherwise.  And when it makes us some serious cash, things are even better!

-Erin