Dig This Treasure!

As mentioned, Sarah and I hit the road last week for a mini vacay up in Traverse City, MI.  We were sure that many antique stores, yard sales, flea markets, and more awaited us.  It turns out though that most of the antique stores in Northern Michigan have gone out of business.  And for whatever reason, there wasn’t a single estate or yard sale!  What a true bummer!  

We did manage to find some treasures though, as well as wacky things that I’m sure Sarah will blog about at some point.  

One antique store we did find was in downtown Traverse City, and was 4 floors of high-end collectibles (including antique gynecology tables.) Unfortunately for us, we arrived there 10 minutes before they were closing.  Before being kicked out, I spotted some old chocolate and ice cream molds:

Of course, I particularly liked this rabbit one, but it was too pricey.

Having a glimpse at this store made us plan a special return visit.  A couple days later we made the ½ hour drive back to Traverse City (we were staying in nearby Cedar) to find us some treasures.  When we got there, the store had closed early BECAUSE OF A PARADE.  Usually I love parades, but not when they ruin our fun.  We were so disappointed.  

I convinced Sarah that we should hike our way through the parade and its crowd to another antique store nearby.  Luckily, it was open.  They had some neat items, particularly this giant bear skin rug:

I was also pretty obsessed with this bird basket, but it was expensive.  I also don’t have any birds to put in it.

I ended up buying a sterling silver rabbit ring.  I think Sarah bought some earrings.

No one bought these little mermaid cat statues though.  Whomp whomp.

-Erin

Update from Sarah:  I was very bad about taking pictures everywhere we went, but Erin summarized our disappointment fairly well. What the “antiquing” experience did affirm for me is that I love estate sale-ing and don’t really care for antique shopping. It’s so hard to get into it when you see the prices on stuff that we normally see at sales for about a 10th of the price. 

I did purchase a cute pair of sterling silver heart earrings and a copper piggy bank. The earrings were totally overpriced but I hadn’t really purchased a lot for myself on the trip, which is abnormal for me. So I splurged. 

In a day or two, I’ll give y'all an update about one “antique store” that found in Northport that contained countless gems. In the meantime, check out this treasure that Erin decided to pass on: 

Me, Erin, and my mom had an extensive argument about whether this was a beaver, squirrel or chipmunk mask. Feel free to weigh in. 

Sarah and I hit a pretty crummy sale the week before our Traverse City trip, and it was such a letdown that we didn’t even blog about it. Sarah did find this t-shirt, but it was too dirty to buy:

There was one pretty great “Hard to Resist” item at this sale. A giant animated Uncle Fester candy bowl. You could tell it was broken. His eyes were rolled back in his head and stuck that way.

I think this is Uncle Fester. Maybe it is just some creepy man candy bowl. Regardless, I took this photo, chuckled to myself, and walked away. Later, Uncle Fester reappeared in the arms of a shopper! I was so glad someone was actually buying him.

There he is peeking out of that lady’s shopping basket!

Too bad this story has an unhappy ending though. When this lady went to check out, the sales people informed her that Uncle Fester cost TEN DOLLARS. I have a hard time believing that he EVER cost $10. The shopper was equally shocked by this price and sadly decided to pass on the purchase.

I’m hoping that Fester was too hard for someone else to resist, but I’m not holding my breath.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Good god why didn’t you crop my head out of that first photograph? Also, these pictures don’t accurately capture how dirty that shirt was. I was reluctant to even touch it and I’m not typically grossed out by dirt. 

Remember the House of Horrors saga?

So a few weeks ago, I was in San Francisco for six days because Adam was attending a Nerd Conference. I kept reminding myself that Organ and Becky live out there and finally, the night before leaving, remembered to ask them if they were free to meet IN REAL LIFE while I was out their way. 

They both enthusiastically responded with a YES, and I was pumped. We decided that we’d meet up for brunch on our last full day there (Saturday), so I had the entire week to be nervous. In the meantime, Becky was incredibly helpful and kept giving me tips on where to go to eat, what to see and do, etc. Like my own personal tour guide. I’ve been to San Francisco four other times, but this time I checked out some new places thanks to her suggestions. 

By the time Saturday rolled around, I was pretty much hyperventilating. Adam even said today that he doesn’t think he’s ever seen me that nervous. I don’t know what I was so nervous about. I wasn’t nervous about them being weirdos–I was worried about my ability to converse with semi-strangers. I felt like I was going to a job interview or blind date or something and was destined to fail. Anyway, in typical Sarah fashion, I walked into the restaurant, saw them immediately, hugged them and shouted, “I’M SO NERVOUS.” They were both sweet and gracious and we all sat down together and ate some food. 

I don’t have a lot to report, which I realize is boring. We ate and chatted about normal everyday stuff. It was pretty much like getting brunch with some friends you haven’t seen in a while. A little nervy but totally normal and homey. They were seriously two of the kindest, funniest, sweetest people I’ve ever met. We truly have two new friends!

Proof that stalking people on the Internet works: 

-Sarah

Before I went out of town, I listed a ton of items on eBay. I think at one point I had nearly 40 things up, which is a serious record for me. I’ll post an update sometime soon about how crazy my profits have been from the Best Sale Ever, but in the meantime, allow me to tell you the tale of my most recent eBay interactions with a Terrible Human. 

A while back, I had purchased an old looking Hardy Boys book, just because it seemed to be in good shape. And it was cheap. Here’s a picture of it: 

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I know nothing about Hardy Boys books. I listed this book starting at $7.99 (clearly someone’s life savings) and stated in the listing that it might be a first edition, but that I was uncertain. The copyright page said 1941 and that’s it. It didn’t have a reprint date. Once again, I know nothing about these books and it looked just like a first edition that had sold previously. 

Within a matter of hours, I received this message: 

If you’re thinking, “Nice attitude, bro!”…so was I. There are a number of ways to let someone know that there is an error in her listing. He decided to take the Cocky Hardy Boys Expert route.

I have been known to flip my lid pretty easily (I know you are all shocked to read that), so I thought about what I should say in response (instead of my initial, “F U, dude”), so I wrote this: 

Minutes later, he responded again: 

When I received this it made me seriously LOL. Now this dude was being the Hardy Boys Police. A truly noble undertaking. 

In the end, I just blocked him as a buyer/bidder, and told him he sure had a lot of time on his hands. 

Not nearly entertaining as Erin’s crazy eBayer from last week, but still worth the tale. Who knew that Hardy Boys collectors were so militant? 

-Sarah 

So Sarah and I are up in the Traverse City area this week on vacation, and besides eating deep fried Oreos, we are also busy treasure hunting.  We’ve found many blog-worthy things up here, so stay tuned.  In the meantime, I saw a “holy grail” item in person today that I will be thinking about for a long time…

While in Leland, MI we saw this tiny store called Tampico.  It turned out to be my dream come true, which Sarah was certainly thrilled by.  She finally left me at the store to go venture elsewhere because I had basically set up residence.  

The store was mostly Zuni jewelry which I am obsessed with, as well as Mexican old pawn pieces and newer Michigan fossil jewelry.  I was chatting with the owner about Zuni earrings when he mentioned a super rare Zuni fetishes necklace he had in the back.  

I had seen Zuni fetishes before, and was actually looking at some in this store.  I had never seen a fetishes necklace in person though.  Ok, so before we get into that…

Zuni fetishes are little carved animals (out of fossils, mother of pearl, corals, rocks, etc.) that represent guardian animals and important tribal icons.  They are cool and adorable.  The necklace this man had was owned by an important member of the Zuni community, and it was made from fetishes collected for years by her family.  He bought it out of her estate for an undisclosed amount, although I saw a price tag on it that said $980.

I obviously cannot afford this necklace so it will remain a holy grail for now.  However, while in the back of the store looking at this, the owner mentioned some other Zuni jewelry he purchased out of this estate.  He had yet to sort and price it, but agreed to show me anyway.  I instantly fell in love with some handmade sterling and turquoise earrings.  He offered them to me for $70, which is a steal.  I’ve seen smaller and less impressive Zuni earrings for about $125.  

Here they are:

They’re larger size, about 2 inches long each.  And they look very cool on.  After I bought them, I kept telling Sarah that I was “happy as a clam.”  They really made my day!

-Erin

Last Saturday, Zach and I went out to breakfast and happened to pass by an estate sale.  We only had $2 in cash on us, but I convinced him we should stop anyway.  

In the basement of the sale, I saw these huge boxes of vintage Christmas decorations, so I started to rummage.  One of the workers hurried over pretty quickly and informed me that I couldn’t look in the boxes because they were selling them as “grab bags” for $1 each.

This was intriguing to me.  I had already seen some of the contents before I got busted, so I decided to take the $1 risk.  I chose the largest, and heaviest box to buy.

On the top of the box it said something about being “all I need” to decorate multiple rooms.  It also had a hilarious never-ending list of the years this box was used as storage.  I figured I had made a good choice. If this box really had everything needed to decorate, then it must have the best and most cherished items in it.

When I opened the box, there was nothing spectacular at first.  A lot of garland and plastic holly type stuff.

But then I started finding some cool things buried in the box!  First were these angel figures, marked JAPAN on the bottom.

These have got to be worth my $1 investment!  I’m guessing that Sarah might even want them because they look like her style and they are playing musical instruments.  If she shows some interest, then I’ll wrap them up for her and count the days until December. Or she can pay me $1 now and have them…

I then found these candlesticks.  I could tell from the tarnish that they were silverplated, which was confirmed when I googled the maker’s name on the bottom.  These things are HEAVY!  Almost 3 pounds EACH!

I don’t think silverplate is super valuable or anything, but again, definitely worth my $1!

-Erin

Here’s some more ebay greatness:

Watch it pal.

-Erin

Sarah was on vacation again last week so I hit some sales with my parents.  I convinced them that the sales out in Dearborn looked good, but Timmy was protesting the 20 minute drive.  He finally caved, and good thing, because we all found treasures.

The first sale seemed pretty crummy at first.  A lot of average housewares just piled up.

After walking through the house and finding nothing, I noticed that I had not seen my parents in awhile.  Turns out that they were in the garage, uncovering a motherload of old pharmacy items.

Joan is a pharmacist, and she decorates her office with old pharmacy collectibles.  So needless to say, we were all excited for her.  She had a huge pile of old medicine bottles, pharmacy posters and calendars, mugs, bookends, and more.  The best find was probably this giant gallon bottle of Paregoric, which is tincture of Opium.

It’s not nearly as old as the other medicine bottles we found, but you have to admit that a gallon size OPIUM bottle is pretty awesome.

Timmy found some old Tigers items, and I bought a couple rabbit knick-knacks.  I also left this sale with purple stuff all over my hands and face that would NOT wash off.  It was some sort of lavender dye that must have been in with the pharmacy bottles.  I had to walk around all day with my Grimace stains.  This photo is post hand scrub:

At the next sale, I was the one who hit the motherload.  I bought a huge stack of old photos for $5, a few of which were bulge photos! I’m hoping that when I sell them on ebay, they will get lots of interest.

Since we were in Dearborn, my parents insisted we eat at this bar Miller’s.

Apparently it is famous for burgers.  It should be famous for crazy small beers.

My mom’s beer on the left is in a juice glass, and mine was slightly larger.  Anyway, the burgers and onion rings were AWESOME.

All in all a successful day!  Timmy even left lunch and ran down to an antique store where he found a super old Red Wings pennant from the 1930s!  The oldest he’s ever seen!  

-Erin

I’m back!

I need to start this entry by giving props to Erin who has basically been running the show here for the past few weeks while I’ve been out frolicking around on vacation. 

At the end of the first Cash for Gold entry, I mentioned that one of my finds was a Fave Find. When we were at the sale where Erin found that clover necklace, she came up to me and showed me this: 

What you are looking at is a box of adorable, miniature stuffed basset hounds. These little dudes were made at some point by Applause for Hush Puppies. They are still twist tied to the box they came in. I don’t think you could find something cuter. So thanks, Erin. And they were a steal at $6 for the set. 

I know that I have written about how I love finding items at sales that resemble my pets, and Erin actually questioned my judgement on these items (in terms of how well they actually resemble my pets), but in this case, I think I’m spot on: 

That’s Max, who we think is half Beagle, half Basset. Isn’t he so sweet (when you’re looking at him on the Internet and can’t smell his breath)? 

-Sarah