Dig This Treasure!

A few Saturdays ago, Adam and I ventured out to Wayne, MI to check out a sale that looked really weird and cool. The person had a ton of letterpress equipment and ephemera, so of course Adam wanted to check it out. It did not disappoint. 

The house was full of stuff, and the draw for me was that the listing said there were “1,000’s [sic] of books.” They weren’t lying. There were TONS of printing history, book design, and font books, and there were also a ton of chapbooks. Adam explained to me that people who are hobby printers used to make books periodically and then trade them with other hobbyists. Pretty sweet! Here is an example of a small one that a guy designed for H.P. Lovecraft’s poem, Saturnalia. 

I bought a bunch of books like this one, and the really nice thing about this sale was that they had everything priced really reasonably. 

Here are some pictures of all of the printing stuff the guy had: 

Inside those drawers are a bunch of tiny letters like this: 

There were so many drawers full of letters. 

I actually have no idea what that thing is but it’s large and heavy duty looking. 

Out in the garage, we spotted some other cool stuff:  

We bought a couple of drawers in the garage. Adam defied his own rule by purchasing something that doesn’t really have a place to go on our walls yet. 

The other really exciting (if you’re a nerd and a librarian) thing we scored was some old kik-steps. I don’t have a picture of them but they’re waiting in our garage for a major cleaning. We found three of them and they were all priced between 6 and 8 dollars. They are super useful so  we got them all. I already have a red one that Adam got me. It looks like this: 

Now we will have one for each floor of the house, and the garage! My mom had a good idea–it would probably be really useful for weeding. I told her that if this turns out to be true, she can have one. 

I actually went back to this sale on Sunday because everything was half off, and I kept thinking about all of the cool chapbooks that I had left being. Tomorrow I’ll post about those, as well as the cool posters and other ephemera we found. 

-Sarah

Pretty much every Sunday Zach and I go out to breakfast at a place called Thomas’, mostly because I am addicted to their pancakes.  Last week, after breakfast, we decided to stop at a random estate sale nearby.  It was advertised as being 50% off everything, so it was definitely worth a look.

The house was completely full of random treasures, without any real rhyme or reason.  These people collected a little bit of everything, which was great!  

I know Sarah will look at the above photo and ask why I didn’t buy her that little German ornament guy in the middle.  She collects these, but I forget their names.  I didn’t buy this one because he was broken.

Most of the items in the house were unfamiliar to me, and I didn’t have the best reception on my phone to look things up.  Because of the discount pricing though, I took a chance on a few items.  The first was this old puppet, made by Hazelle’s.  I found out later he was called Teto the Clown.

I also found this cool punched tin box.  I don’t know how old it is, but regardless, it’s interesting and pretty.  I decided to try selling it, but knew I was happy to keep it if it got no bids.

I think maybe it’s a mailbox or something!  It mounts to the wall.  And for the record, it did get bids on ebay, so so much for keeping it.  Teto the Clown sold too.

Zach had the best find by far.  A piece of Native American pottery by artist Sally Garcia.  Neither of us knew of her when he found this piece, but after doing some research, it turns out she is rather well-known.  She is credited “as the first pioneer of hand etchings on ceramic pottery.”  Her large pieces sell for hundreds and even thousands of dollars.  The piece Zach bought is pretty tiny, and had its original price sticker on it marked $84.  He ended up paying $15 for it.

We both love this piece so much and will probably keep it forever. Definitely a fave find, so kudos to Zach for eyeing it!

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I’ve never met another person so addicted to mediocre pancakes. Why didn’t you buy those HO cars? 

Erin and I went out sale-ing today (Thursday) with her dad, Timmy, who has been featured on our blog in the past. Her dad loves treasure hunting too–he’s a pro. Anyway, I was charged with making our list of sales as usual, and unfortunately I served us up with some real duds. 

We decided to start in Detroit (almost to GrossePointe) at a house that was advertised as having a lot of nautical themed items, because it was on the water. Unfortunately, it didn’t really have a whole lot going on. I came out of there with this big bag of overpriced vintage cards, but I didn’t mind too much because I enjoy going through them. However, when I asked the younger kid working the sale if he’d go lower on the price, he said no and that that was a “great price” for what it was. Uhm, no it’s not. 

After paying too much money for those cards, we stopped by a weird sale being held at what I think was a vintage resale shop closing down, called Little Vera. Sounds like the same girl who runs Good Girls Go to Paris Crepes was a partner in this store–their original location was next door to the shop. 

I found a few cool looking comic books for Adam to look at and then me to resell, along with a first edition Nightmare Before Christmas book… not sure if either of these things are worth anything, but I figured they’d be fun to look at regardless. 

Then we went to a house where I came out with nothing except two free cookies (I know–weird but good.) Here is something that I did not buy, but that Erin and I laughed and laughed about: 

After leaving this dud, we went to lunch and had some delicious food. The last sale on our list was in West Bloomfield, and it looked like a “man sale”–meaning, there were a lot of electronics in the pictures. However, I convinced Erin and her dad that this would be a good sale to go to because of the sheer quantity of items. Turns out I was wrong about that, but I did find some crazy stuff. First, an x-rated puzzle: 

I also found a bunch of records for Adam. I told him that I just looked for the weirdest looking ones and bought those. 

I also bought this record, and it turns out not only does Adam already own it, but so does Zach. Anyone else dying to take this off my hands?

Here are some items at this last sale that I did not purchase: 

Even though there weren’t a lot of treasures to be found, it was still a fun day! 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: “Dig this Dud” was a joke from my dad, who kept saying that we should change the name of the blog.  He only found 2 treasures yesterday and calling them “treasures” is quite a stretch.  He got a box of old paintbrushes (that he can use “for glue”) and an old San Francisco bank because he is going there in September.

I was equally empty handed.  My only good find was a pair of vintage Clubmaster Ray Ban sunglasses that I got for $5.  Unfortunately, they have prescription lenses, so I have to get those replaced before I can sell them.  They sell for quite a bit, but I might also keep them because they are adorable and fancy.

I am kind of glad we went to the first sale even though it was a letdown.  The house, as Sarah mentioned, was on the water.  This was the coolest.  Waterfront property in Detroit?  So cool.  The house itself was for sale, at a mere $92,000.  Here is the backyard with water access and a boathouse:

And as for the last sale, I’m not sure if Sarah captured its essence well enough.  Every room was literally boxes and boxes of broken electronics pieces, other junk, and records. They only had a portion of the house open for this weekend’s sale and it was so packed that I can’t imagine what’s waiting in the other rooms. Also, the homemade video tapes that Sarah showed were in full effect.  We’re talking hundreds of tapes.  This is just a sample:

All of the boxes on the left were tapes, just FYI.  Anyway, I didn’t buy any of these because I don’t actually know what a VHS tape is.  I only watch my programs on giant laser discs.  

There were also thousands of cassette tapes for sale.  Again, I don’t know what a cassette tape is, but they were selling them for $2 EACH, which seems slightly unreasonable.

Update from Sarah: Turns out that the x-rated puzzle was missing pieces so it wound up in the trash. Adam still managed to put together part of the woman side, though. Can you guess which part? Also, when he was sorting the pieces, he exclaimed, “Found a testicle!" 

Time again for one of my truly favorite entries–items that we found REALLY hard not to buy.  Sort of.

First up, this adorable bear with a not so adorable hygiene problem.  Not sure how much bear diapers cost, but if they are anything like baby diapers, then I don’t want to know.

Next up…this sign:

A little presumptuous, no?  Shouldn’t it say something like, “Santa, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP HERE!”  If I was Santa and I saw this sign, I’d be like, “Yeah right suckers.  This year I DON’T STOP HERE.  Y'all got punked.”  

And then I would get that diaper bear to pee on the sign.

Ok, one more…

Wut?

-Erin

Sarah and I stopped at a random estate sale in Midland, MI on our way home from Traverse City a couple weeks ago.  It was nothing to write home, or blog, about.  For example, here is an empty Spode box they were trying to sell for $1.  

It kind of looks like there is something inside, but that is the plastic packaging.  Trust me, I checked.

What I also found for $1, and decided to buy, was a rubber face plush Rudolph.  I’m not entirely sure why I grabbed it, but I think because it was old, and because so far I had found no other treasures.

He is kind of cute, but kind of looks like he might kill you while you sleep.  For $1 though, he was worth a shot.

So it turns out that Rudolph man sold for FIFTY DOLLARS on ebay.  I couldn’t believe it when he got 1 bid, let alone enough bids to get him to fifty bucks (ha, bucks…no pun intended).

I did some research on old rubber face toys from the 1950s and 60s, and it turns out that they are quite collectible!  Some of the most well-known of these toys were by Rushton Toy Co.  Here are some examples from a fellow treasure hunter’s blog:

What I also found out in my research is that Sarah actually owns a Rushton Toy Co. Santa Claus, and she doesn’t even know it!  She got him at a sale recently (maybe even the same one I got my Rudolph at).  

I think she will be happy to know that he is most likely a money maker too!

-Erin

Update from Sarah: WHOA. Erin is the best. That is totally my bro! Actually two that are identical to him sold for the higher end of that range up there, so I’m gonna keep my fingers crossed! Double win because it could actually also be featured on Things That Freak Your Husband Out. So Adam will be thrilled if it is no longer hanging out on our kitchen table.

Strange coincidence: I also discovered The Rushton Toy Co. today–I was browsing eBay to try to figure out why Erin’s reindeer sold for so much. Check out THIS one. 

Last Friday, Sarah and I got off to a really rough start of our estate sale day.  George the otterhound got neutered earlier in the week, and since then had had reoccurring problems and like 26 trips to the vet.  This morning he had messed with his stitches again and things “down there” were looking pretty awful.  Like a good friend, Sarah agreed to postpone our treasure hunting and go with me to the vet.

After peeing in the vet’s lobby, trying to bite the vet (to be fair, he touched George’s incision), and about 2.5 hours of elapsed time, we took George back home and our estate sale day finally commenced.

The first sale was in Dearborn Heights and I didn’t buy anything.  I remember thinking, “look at all this stuff.”  It was just that–stuff.  In fact, all the sales this day would turn out to be mostly “stuff.”  This photo was from the second sale, which I believe was in Livonia.    

At this second sale, my mom and sister met up with us.  They had just come from a sale in Farmington that was selling a bunch of penguin stuff.  My sister is the penguin keeper at the Detroit Zoo, so she was pretty excited.  My mom was excited because she bought some Chico’s shirts at the sale.

Anyway, at this sale I only bought a huge stack of padded mailing envelopes.  Again, a letdown.  Here’s Sarah rummaging through more of the “stuff”:

I did find a stack of photos that I was quickly obsessed with.  How cute is this dog?!  You can tell he was so loved!!  The pics made me think of Georgie back home, and how I should forgive him for almost biting the vet.

The last sale was in Northville and was advertised as having “bling watches.”  When we got there, the two guys running the sale were young hipsters.  I asked them about the bling watches and they said that each watch originally retailed for $1,100.  It is true that “1100.00” was written in pencil on the inside of the box, but I told the hipsters that this had to be in pesos.  

They had two of these watches for sale, each around $100, which they admitted was absurd.  The watches were stainless steel, made in China, and in some hilariously janky “JustBling” boxes.  They were also crazy huge.  Oh, and for the record, WTF is up with those bands in the box?!?!  Yes, let me put a pink fake leather band on my bling watch.

I mean, who knows really, maybe those are real diamonds.  Maybe we missed out on the best purchase of the year.  

At this sale, I did make two good finds.  The first is a Wagner Ware ice cream or candy scoop, which seem to be pretty rare.  It was priced $2.

I also found this old cast iron dog hidden in the basement.  Those hipsters charged me $1 for him, which is a steal.  I didn’t know much about this guy at the time, but it turns out that Boston Terrier cast iron doorstops and banks are very collectible.  I put him up on ebay and he instantly had over 10 watchers and 4 bids.  

There are apparently TONS of fakes and new reproductions of this type of cast iron terrier.  I’m hoping that the interest my little guy has generated so far means that he is in fact real.  I put up a million pictures of him in the listing, and described him in detail, so I’m sure someone will let me know if he is fake.  Right now he is at $15.

The last thing I will mention about this sale is that I loudly referred to a terrarium as a TERRANIUM, which everyone in the immediate area found quite hilarious.  Idk what a terranium is, but my guess is some kind of dinosaur.

-Erin

P.S. Shout-out to mom Joan for taking all of us out to eat after the sales.  We went to some Irish pub place and I ordered fish and chips.  This was the first time I have ordered fish and chips since I was like 5, so it is therefore notable.  Also notable is that it gave me a crazy stomachache and I forbid Sarah from saying the words “fish” and “tartar sauce” for the rest of the day.

Update from Sarah: Erin’s got herself all screwed up here. The dog photos she posted were from the first sale. Now, let me just say–this sale looked like it was probably good the first day. I really wanted to go to it because there were a lot of black and white photographs in the pictures of the sale. But George had to go and screw up my plans to get there early. Regardless, I still came out with a box full of interesting treasures for $10. Here’s a picture of one of the treasures: 

I didn’t even know this treasure was in the box of stuff, which is pictured here: 

I had found a really large box of papers and old travel brochures, and basically just threw anything that seemed remotely interesting into a smaller shoebox. I ended up finding a bunch of greeting cards in the envelopes they were sent in, so that was pretty cool–I can add them to the big lot of used cards I’m going to list on eBay. I also found lots and lots of travel ephemera and TONS of letters. It was really interesting to go through, but also very sad. 

The second sale was full of a bunch of stuff, but nothing too incredible. I got a Knickerbocker bear whose music box doesn’t work, some old children’s books, and a bunch of vintage napkins and plates. Look how cute: 

The last sale was sad, but I did find a Soul Hits of 1967 CD, and I can’t stop listening to this song in my car. One of the best ever. The CD also contains many other great Motown hits. The other thing I got was this weird milk glass mug for fifty cents: 

I can’t think of anything else that happened that we’re leaving out. Sales have been pretty dud-y lately! Hope that changes this coming weekend! 

About a month ago, we dedicated two posts to the Best Sale Ever, where I found a buttload of Joan Walsh Anglund items–specifically books. Remember? I posted this picture: 

I am still not finished selling everything I bought at this sale, because the quantity of things is just so overwhelming. However, I have, I believe, sold all of the Anglund items I plan on selling. And because of this, I would like to brag about the total amount of money I made.

Now, let me say this. I had planned on keeping one copy of each book–especially those that were duplicates. But then, the more I thought about this, the more I realized that was stupid. I don’t really need to own all of her books. And there were a lot that were really religious that I knew I didn’t want. I mainly like her illustrations, and I already have a set of her prints and copies of her older, more classic books. 

I also honestly had no idea what I had before I was able to start sorting it and listing it all. Some of the books had “Autographed Copy” stickers on them and others were signed but I didn’t realize it right away because they did not have the stickers. I also ended up with a TON of first editions. Needless to say, I quickly discovered that I am not by any means the only person who enjoys these adorable illustrations, and everything I listed quickly had watchers and/or bidders. So I ended up selling most everything that I wasn’t in love with. 

The biggest surprise ended up being these teeny tiny miniature books–The Christmas Cookie Book and The Christmas Candy Book, which are apparently extremely rare. I had two copies of each! To see how small they are–in the picture above they are the green and red books in the top row. 

One woman purchased 10 of these books. She sent me a very nice message and told me she has an entire bedroom in her home decorated with Anglund stuff for her granddaughter. So cute. It’s nice to hear from friendly people–it helps balance out the not-so-friendly ones. 

Anyway, let’s cut to the chase: 

Those are just a few screenshots that capture the vast quantities of cash I made off of these seemingly valueless books. Keep in mind that most of these are small books–about 4" x 6" or so…or smaller! 

Grand total sales just on these items: $595.00

(And in case anyone is wondering how much I’ve made on all the rest of the junk from that sale… I just totaled it up: $450.) 

CHA CHING. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: Sarah, I need to borrow exactly $1,045 which happens to be the total price so far on all this stuff you sold.  If you say you don’t have it for me to borrow, then you are 1. a bad friend and 2. a liar.

I rejoiced today when I realized that I purchased something that I could feature in “Things That Freak Your Husband Out.” It’s been so long. 

The other night, I was scrolling through the sales for the week and I thought I spied a stuffed animal deer head on the wall in one of the pictures. I couldn’t find the picture that I thought I’d seen when I tried to go back and find it. I figured I just looked at whatever it was wrong/was hallucinating. When I arrived at this sale, the stuffed deer head was the first thing I spotted, and I got SO excited when I saw that it was marked $10. I don’t care what you say–that’s a steal. It was also hand made by some company in Vermont. 

Here it is in my back seat.

(Also, FYI, yes those are cupcakes that he’s guarding.) 

And here he is, watching over the library in our home: 

I replaced this horrifying painting that Adam loooooves (it’s actually sort of cute, but this looks way better) with the deer.

Adam has been watching Batman movies at the theater since 6 p.m. so I don’t feel too guilty.

-Sarah