Dig This Treasure!

Well, Friday started out great–when I stopped at the credit union to get some cash before driving out to Erin’s, a man with a gold tooth told me that I was a “gorgeous woman.” Can’t get much better than that. I also parked behind this person.

Good thing he’s from Ohio and not Michigan because that’s what *I* wanted for my next vanity plate. 

Like last week, this week’s sales didn’t look amazing, but there were still a few that we wanted to check out. When I got to Erin’s, she told me that she had spotted a secret/rogue sale near her house, so we stopped there first. All signs pointed to it being fabulous… 

…but in the end it was not. 

The best part of this sale was that it was being run by a cute little old lady and someone who I assume was her daughter, and they had all of her little old lady goods displayed on these tablecloths: 

Next on our agenda was a sale that looked like it had some potential, but again, it ended up being not that fantastic. I honestly didn’t find anything except for a few old brochures/cards. Here is one cool thing that Erin spotted in the basement rubble…it’s a decanter: 

We felt a little discouraged after this, but still went to two more sales. The next sale was in Dearborn Heights and was ultra depressing because it obviously was not an old person. I don’t know why but the sales where it’s obviously a foreclosure or huge family accident or something are always most depressing to me. Also depressing was that these people had horrible taste. The first sign: 

Everything in this house was cheap and made in China. Also, they had more pillows than any house I’ve ever been inside, but strangely neither of us took a picture of them. Here is one other gross thing Erin did capture, though: 

I bought four children’s paperbacks (Ramona the Pest, etc.) for our neighborhood Little Free Library and the woman running the sale charged me $2 for them even though the sign said they were 25 cents each. I asked her about this and she told me that the “really skinny ones” were 25 cents, and the rest of the paperbacks were 50 cents. Man, they were really trying to get any pennies they could. 

The last sale of the day ended up being the best. Once again, the sale was listed as being in the Boston Edison district of Detroit, but it was really…not. Still, worth going to! So here’s what the house looked like on the outside: 

Like many old houses we’ve been to in Detroit, the first and second floors were in good shape, but as you progressed up or downstairs, it got progressively less inhabitable. The people who lived at this house, I believe were a professor and a social worker, from what I gathered after asking some of the estate sale company employees. They had a lot of really nice stuff, and then a lot of areas that you could tell they just hadn’t even gone in for decades. 

Here is a room of books that made me happy: 

Erin was very impressed with the carved wood throughout the house: 

While Erin was exploring the third floor of the house…

…I was exploring the basement. 

When I first got down there, I noticed that it looked pretty hazardous, but I couldn’t help myself… I had to go inspect some of the rooms that were back there. Right away, I noticed a milk crate that was full of family photographs and scrapbooks, and many of them were extremely old. As I tore through some of the surrounding piles of junk, I found more and more and just kept piling them on. I was so excited because of the sheer quantity. One of the rooms that was behind the area pictured above was an old darkroom that nobody had touched in many, many years. Here is a picture that Erin snapped of me, demonstrating where I so badly wanted to get: 

Back behind all of that rubble, I could see about four or five paper boxes filled with old paperwork and who knows what else?! 

There was just no way for me to get over to those boxes when there was that much debris in the way… For the rest of the day, I kept thinking about what might have been inside those boxes. So disappointing!

Anyway, when I got upstairs with my enormous stack of photographs, I was ready for some sad news. A lot of the stuff in the house was priced fairly high (despite those photos, they owned many nice things), and since there was so much stuff in my crate, I expected the worst. But the guy sort of gave it a cursory glance and told me $20! I was so excited, I wanted to do a dance. 

So I spent my Friday night looking through someone else’s family history. I’ll write more about what I found in those boxes some other day because there were some REALLY cool photographs, but I’ll leave you with the most horrifying find: 

I got a serious wave of heebie jeebies when I found this–it was wrapped up inside old tissue/butcher paper so it was a real surprise. The good news for me is that people collect these things, so if you’re into that sort of thing, bid away!

-Sarah

Update from Erin: I loved that first sale!  Sure, they had like 2 things for sale, but how can you beat free cookies and coffee?  There was even a cute grandma who followed us around and tried to sell us things.  I found a Waechtersbach teapot for $3!! 

$3 is a SERIOUS steal.  This pot on ebay is worth about 25-30 dollars.  If you don’t remember, my mother-in-law got me hooked on this dishware when she gifted me some a few years ago.  Every Christmas, she buys me a few more pieces.  I even found a bunch of this set at “Best Sale Ever” so my collection is getting pretty huge.

Sarah also found this trivet for me to buy.  It was something ridiculous like 10 cents.  Zach and I vacationed in Cape Cod for our honeymoon and have the biggest crush on Nantucket.

The second sale had a lot to look at for sure, but I only bought a couple old Disney plates to sell.  And for the record, I liked that decanter Sarah mentioned earlier because it looked like an awesome 80s computer.  But then it was all political and I backed off it.  Still cute though!

And also for the record, that Corvette at the third sale was a baller ass ride.  I thought I made a superb joke about it just needing a new windshield (the windshield was a large decal sticker with bubbling from age, but this made the windshield look cracked). Sarah didn’t seem to laugh.  

And alas, the final sale.  I had a blast at this one.  The house was COOL. The furniture and decor reminded me of our own house, only more upscale.

Well, except for the random Taz poster.  People sure do love them some Taz.  Are there any anthropological or cultural studies on the love of Taz?  I’d totally read that shit.

At this sale, I bought some bubble wrap, a tablecloth, and a cast iron still bank that looks exactly like George.  I splurged on this for $20, which was fine because I had barely purchased anything the whole day.

It looks just like him!  I can’t believe it.  This little buddy doesn’t eat mail and dig up the lawn though…or pee on the bed.

-Erin

The sales last Friday didn’t look all that spectacular, but we still decided to venture out. The first sale that we went to was actually the sale in Redford that Erin hit with her sister and dad the day before. It was packed with stuff and they were discounting, so I wanted to check it out. 

Right away I saw all those dolls, but even though they were discounting, they were still pretty overpriced. I found this mug but then decided that I really didn’t need it (you’re welcome, Adam) since it was grungy and I don’t smoke: 

Still, I love the idea of a person in the ‘70s taking a coffee/cig break and then going back to work upon seeing that message at the bottom of the mug. 

The basement of this sale was a Christmas wonderland: 

But nothing was all that fabulous. 

In the end, I came out of the sale with a few cool things, including a really old bakelite View-Master (probably a 1950s version) and a stack of reels. If you’re interested in things like that, I’m selling them online. I already sold the Las Vegas and Mexico reels. I also found a bunch of Dakin Dream Pets that were reissued. Each of these cost me 75 cents and Organ bought one already! I’m selling the others together in a lot. Aren’t they cute? 

I found some other cool stuff at this sale, including a C3PO charm from 1977 that I thought was rare but actually isn’t that rare, and then this pin, which is amazing: 

Apparently people are willing to spend up to $30 on these wizard pins. 

Here is one thing I did not purchase at this sale: 

And here is one thing Erin wanted to purchase for a White Elephant gift, but I talked her out of it (it was priced too high!): 

(Worth noting: In my folder of images right now, this image is named “Mythic Creature.”) 

Erin had an extreme tragedy happen at this sale, but I’ll let her tell that story. 

We only went to one other sale, and it was a major disappointment. Let me show you why: 

1. People getting pervy with Barbies.

2. Weird babies with nylon heads. 

3. Bed covered in cheap stuffed animals and blankets. 

4. Garden sculpture of 1950s Bart Simpson. 

I found a stack of black and white pictures at this sale, including some weird ones of a paraplegic. 

Erin and I went back and forth about possibly going to an auction that was in Stockbridge that night. We decided against it and I was going to meet my mom and her friend there instead. My mom called me when she got there to warn me that it was in the middle of nowhere and you had to drive on lots of dark, dirt roads to get there. Doesn’t sound like my idea of fun on a Friday night, so I passed. In retrospect, I should have gone because my mom found a lot of cool stuff and nobody was willing to bid over $7 for any of it! She got me a box of very cool old cards and I’ll post about those in the future. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin:  I was so excited to be back at the Redford sale, because there were a few things I saw the previous day and hoped would be discounted.  I immediately grabbed this huge stack of handmade pottery dinnerware and serving pieces.  The set was originally marked $40, but this day it was 50% off, AND the woman running the sale said she would give me another $5 off because I didn’t want the mugs in the set.  If you can’t do math, that’s a total of $15 for a whole bunch of awesome ceramic plates.  I was walking around the rest of the sale fantasizing about what I could make and serve on them at the holidays.

The rest of the house was insanely picked over and I only ended up finding this ceramic Cornucopia in the garage.  

I bought those adorable glass pumpkins on ebay specifically for the purpose you see here.  So fun.

Ok, so the checkout for this sale was set-up in the driveway outside.  Sarah and I head out there, and just as we do, there is a giant gust of wind followed by a HUGE crash.  Like people always say in traumatic events, everything happened so fast.  I was looking around confused at what exactly HAD happened.  Clearly a bunch of breakable stuff had just broke.  

As I am thinking about how bad this sucks for the people running the sale, I hear Sarah say, “OH ERINNNNN!”  in a really distressed and pitiful way.  It took me a second, but I realized that she was saying this because IT WAS MY HANDMADE POTTERY DISHES THAT HAD JUST CRASHED TO THE GROUND.  The woman running the sale had taken them from me while I was shopping, and set them out on a stepstool/ladder thing near the checkout.  When the wind blew, the ladder fell over, and so did my beautiful plates.

This is just a small portion of the damage.  Sarah contends that I proceeded to stand over the crash site wide-eyed with sadness for the next few minutes.  At some point, she told me to back off because clearly I looked like a crazy person.  I was obviously suffering from some serious PTSD.

I will never forget those plates.  Never.

The next sale, like Sarah said, was gross and sad and weird.  And even though Sarah and I love buying us some dolls lately, we passed on all of these:

These dolls were the kind that they sell on QVC in the middle of the day.  The kind of dolls that have elaborate personal histories and personalities.  The kind of dolls that kill people for fun but no one ever catches because, “Hey I’m just a doll! I can’t kill nobody!”

I did buy one thing at this sale, which is this amazing Mexican lawn ornament.  I saw things similar to this when I was in San Antonio last month, but I couldn’t fit them on the plane home.  This guy was also featured in my Halloween post the other day, but I’m going to be keeping him out all year long.

-Erin

Last week was chock full o’ sales for me, as I ventured out Tuesday and then again on Thursday with my sister Lindsay and dad Timmy (and again on Friday with Sarah).  Timmy was super excited because there were like 6 sales within a 5 mile radius on Thursday, so our prospects for treasure looked good.

The first sale was in Redford, and was actually a repeat of a sale that happened a few weeks ago.  This time, there were even MORE items, and the basement was opened.  I forgot to take pictures at this sale, so here are some I pulled off estatesales.net:

This sale had some GREAT dolls, but they were all priced pretty high.  I carried one around for awhile, but it was $70, so I don’t know who I was kidding…I put it back eventually.  As you know, Sarah and I are on a doll kick as of late, which has been SUPER successful for both of us.  Here’s what I ended up selling that little “idiot doll” for last week:

The first item I did find to buy was a Stangl pottery box.  One of my newer estate sale tricks is to buy things that I personally like and would be happy to keep if they end up not selling on ebay.  

The box did sell after all.  I paid $4 for it and it sold for $20. 

A funny thing happened when I was looking at this box.  I was all alone in a bedroom, examining the piece.  A window near me was open, so I could hear people outside.  All of a sudden I hear a woman ask one of the sellers about a particular item, and the seller responds, “Oh, I think it is in that room right there where that MAN in the plaid shirt is standing.”  Upon hearing this, I look down at my shirt, and I AM WEARING A PLAID SHIRT.  And I am alone in this room!  I AM THE MAN IN THE PLAID SHIRT.  Hilarious and sad.  To be fair, my hair was up in a bun this day.

I think my sister had the best scores at this sale, but I can’t remember all that she bought.  I know she found a Rushton rubber face squirrel and an old Monchichi monkey.  

At the next sale, everything was super high end, but the prices were fair.  My sister found a super cool item and was nice enough to give it to me:

This is a Knight head wine stopper, but when you lift its little face shield, you can pour the wine out through the spout!  How cool is that?!  I can’t wait to use it.

We stopped at a few more sales which were duds.  I did make one final purchase, which was a piece of cast iron enamelware.  It was brand new!  

These things are on Amazon for $120, and the lady had a price of $45 on it.  I bartered her down to $30 after explaining that I love rabbits and showing her my rabbit tattoo.  Embarrassing tactics, but they worked.  She said she would make the deal because I was “cute.”

I didn’t tell her that earlier in the day someone mistook me for a man.  

-Erin

Last Tuesday I noticed that there was a rogue estate sale happening about a mile from my house.  The listing said it was the home of a former antique dealer so I figured I better go check it out.  I don’t know what the deal is lately with lines, but here again I was stuck in a long one.  

I chatted a bit with some old men behind me and then noticed that Sarah’s mom had herself arrived at the sale.  I joked that I was going to steal all of her treasures before she could make it in there.  Maybe I cursed myself by doing that, because when I got inside, there were actually very few treasures to be had.

There was a lot of nice Christmas stuff, but everything was priced high.  This one case was filled with all old milk glass bulbs, which are super cute.  I would want a whole bucket of these things though to decorate with, and at $6-$8 each, that wasn’t going to happen.

Here is a picture I pulled off ebay to show you just how cute these things are:

Can’t you just see like a whole big basket of these on a table as decoration?  Too cute.

I did find a set of nesting bowls that had a knockoff Spode design.  They were priced $25 for the set which is outrageous.  One of the women working the sale told me that the set with Spode, hence the high price, and I kindly told her that I didn’t think it actually was Spode.  She then changed the price of the set to $8 and I bought it.

I also bought some salt and pepper shakers to replace the turkey ones I ruined last week.  I think one of these birds is a turkey, but I am not sure what that other one is doing.  Is he a puffer bird or holding an egg?  Not sure, but I liked these a lot. 

I was about to leave when I saw this small box tucked under table.  It was filled with paper items and old Victorian Christmas cards.  Zach loves him some old-timey Santa images, so I started to rummage.  Behind all of the cards I found some old Canadian and Bahamian money.  In my head I thought, “Oh hey wouldn’t it be SO COOL if there was like a bunch of Confederate money up in here?!”  

I joke often about finding a Confederate money jackpot (along with Princess Diana beanie babies and solid gold bars), but I have never actually seen Confederate money in person.  Yet sure enough, as I rummage a little further, there are TWO Confederate bills.  I about died.  I thought FOR SURE I would never be able to walk up to the register and buy these for a reasonable amount, so I tried not to get too excited.

I took a stack of cards and the money up to the register and asked the woman how much everything was in that box I had just looked through.  She said $1 each and then proceeded to count my stack of items, including the Confederate bills.  A total of 9 items from the box meant $9.  I was thrilled.

You would have thought that my Powerball numbers had come in or something.  I was about to call up my boss and quit my job.  I was sure I was so rich.

So after some research, this money is in fact real.  But it turns out that Confederate money is actually not THAT valuable.  Some is, but the two bills I have are about $40-$50 each.  Definitely worth the $2 investment, but I won’t be retiring any time soon.

At least I can now say though that I did stumble upon some of this money, and one day hopefully the Princess Diana and gold bar stash too.

-Erin