Dig This Treasure!

It’s time again for some items that were seriously hard to resist purchasing.  

Alright, so people say Psycho is a movie classic, but have you seen Psycho II?  Oh you haven’t?  You say that no one saw Psycho II?  Hm, ok.

What about some “art” that we found at a garage sale?  I call it Devil in a Pink Dress.

I love this little raggedy ass doll.  Look closely, he has a random plastic baby leg glued to his right hand.  I don’t even want to guess what he did with the rest of the baby.  AMIRITE?

Alright, and here is the deal on the last HTR.  When Sarah and I hit up that ice cream place awhile back, they had all these INSANE ice cream flavors.  Not insane like Jalapeno or the Lemon Basil that Sarah got…I’m talking truly insane.

GROSS.

-Erin

Gosh, last Friday seems like it was so long ago. Erin and I have been spending so much time prepping for this garage sale that I can’t even remember much about the day. 

I do remember we started in Farmington Hills, where there was a sale with no pictures. Now, these are incredibly hit or miss. But sometimes they’re great because all it means is that there are some older people running the sale who have no idea about technology and they have a ton of treasures in their home. But the serious collectors don’t come, because if they can’t see pictures in advance, it’s not worth their while. I can remember a couple of sales that lacked pictures where I found some seriously cool stuff.

Unfortunately, this sale was not of that variety. Instead it was this little old lady and her daughter, selling a bunch of household items that were generic and cheap. The woman had clearly been moved into assisted living or was in the process of doing so. However, this sad tale is not without its highlight: When we were in the basement, Erin made a friend. This crazy woman was talking to us NONSTOP about whether we had been to any other sales that day, if we found anything good, etc. Then she picked up a pair of exfoliating gloves and proceeded to tell us about how she loves finding them at sales because she uses them to clean her body, and then throws them in the wash, and then uses them to clean her house–especially the bathtub. We escaped as quickly as possible. 

I am racking my brain to try to remember where we went next…I have no idea. I have this picture as proof, though, so it wasn’t good:

Anyway, onto the more memorable moments: At some point, we ended up at a sale that was in a sort of bougie house that contained some cool items. There was a lot of modern/mid-century art, books, and records. But it was abundantly clear that the guy running the sale was a tool and a half. He was wheelin’ and dealin’ the whole time, and his phone kept going off and he would say things like, “This thing’s gonna sell no matter what, so it might as well be YOU who gets it.” Anyway, I found some Stevie Wonder albums, a Disney picture disc, and some books that looked interesting, but absolutely nothing in the home was priced except the artwork and furniture. Speaking of which, here are some pics: 

For some reason I was really interested in that head statue but I think it was marked something crazy like $300. Ugh. 

Anyway, I got to the front of the line after some waiting and had approximately 6 records and 5 books. While in line, Erin and I were guessing how much he was going to ask for all that crap. $30? $60? And we were also guessing what I’d actually agree to pay. Anyway, he looked at my stack of stuff and was sort of distracted because he was talking to a long lost chum that he ran into. So he said, “Fifteen bucks.” I said ok right away and then he started backpedaling, saying he didn’t see the records. He went on to tell me that the records were $5 a piece. I just looked at him and said, “But…they’re not worth that,” and he told me that people had been telling him that all day. HA! Anyway, he said $30 for all of it and I said no, but that I’d pay $20. He said $25 and I just kept saying no… so he finally agreed! Score! The worst part is that none of what I bought was worth anything, but I did get a couple of cool things that I’ll hang on to, including an illustrated copy of Jane Eyre. Which I’ve never read, and I was an English major. Whoops. 

The next sale we hit up was run by the same company, and as soon as we walked in, we saw our favorite phone talker. Greeaaaaat. Just like the last sale run by this company, nothing was priced except big ticket items. Right away, I saw an adorable old teddy bear. I was shocked that Erin didn’t spot him right away. I also found some pretty cool stuff in the basement of this sale, including a few old children’s books that might be worth a few bucks (and had their Detroit Hudson’s price tags still attached–so frickin’ cool!) and some knee huggers! 

When we were ready to check out, the woman did the same thing as last time: “What’s up?” Uhm isn’t it obvious that I want to buy these items? Anyway, first thing she looked at was the teddy bear. She scrutinized him and said, “40 dollars” because he might be “worth $300.” Uhm, that raggedy ass teddy is not worth $300. Trust me. I told her that was fine–I didn’t want him for that much. At some point she actually looked these bears up on her iPad, even though I was insisting that I was not buying him to resell. Eventually I made it out of there with all of my finds (including Mr. Tedders) for a total of $55, which seemed reasonable to me.

Once we got out of this sale, we were starving (shocker), so we looked for the closest place. Erin refused to eat fast food so we stopped at some place called McVee’s. It ended up being a typical bar/grill, filled with barflies in the middle of the day, and the menu sounded better than the food tasted. When I’m really hungry, I often can’t make up my mind, so I order everything I might possibly want. In this case it was waffle fries, a Chicago dog, and mac & cheese:

Oh, and a beer. Totally not excessive. Also, for the record, I only ate about 1/3 of this food. Worth noting: Erin was totally reasonable and got a beer and a BLT:

And now she’s blonde. Clearly trying to slowly become me.

We also indulged in a crappy dessert that looked excellent on the menu, and Erin wasted some money playing Keno. Actually, she may have made two dollars.

The last stop of the day was a sale in Detroit that looked like it was really packed. I’m not sure how they did not capture the fact that this was a true hoarder sale in the pictures, but they managed to fool us. The only thing I can say about this house is that it was insanely depressing and gross. It was obviously an older Russian or Czechoslovakian woman living there, and she liked to keep stuff. Lots of it:

This is actually the attic, which, because it was 95 degrees out on Friday, was about 110. I could only stand up there for about five seconds.

When I showed Erin this picture, she almost cried:

The basement was, by far, the worst:

I did find a little bin filled with vintage cards down there, so I purchased that. Another fun fact about this sale was that there was a full human poop floating in the toilet in the bathroom.

After this depressing and horrifying sale, we called it a day as far as sale-ing goes. We stopped at a nursery I needed to go to to pick up some hydrangeas, and then lost some money at the casino.

-Sarah

Update from Erin: There are so many things I love about Sarah’s description.  First of all, I can’t believe she hasn’t read Jane Eyre.  That is my favorite book of all time.  Second, Sarah scoffs at paying $300 for original art and yet she will pay $15 for a Sesame Street cookie jar…BEST.

While phone lady was busy trying to charge Sarah $40 for a bear, I was busy paying a mere $8 total for some vintage Chanel No. 5 and a Tigers World Series newspaper from 1968.

Both are currently blowing up the ebays.  

The hoarder sale was the worst.  So heartbreaking.  We breezed through it pretty quickly because it was actually sort of dangerous.  I got hit on the head with a box while rummaging around in the basement.  I did end up buying a gold Raymond Weil watch for $20 because I thought Zach might want it.  It’s a little small for him, but it looks like we can sell it easily:

On Saturday night, Zach and I decided to head to an auction in Plymouth.  This particular auction happens EVERY Saturday in Plymouth and is similar to waiting around to bid on items that you could buy at any thrift store.  Once and awhile though they have some interesting things, as evidenced by this boar head we bought there last year:

When we first walked into the auction, they were busy selling some Hawaiian shirts.   Then they moved on to this giant box of silverware:

We passed on the silverware, but were definitely interested in another item.  You can see it there in the background of the above photo.  Ok, here’s a close-up:

This is a human skeleton that a local family LITERALLY KEPT IN THEIR CLOSET since 1919.  Zach and I aren’t normally in the market for such items, but we knew that antique skeletons were pretty valuable.  We consulted ebay and saw that a similar skeleton (namely with brass fittings) had sold for $1500.

We decided that we would bid to at least $300.  This seemed reasonable to us because we once got two antique wardrobes for $30 total at this place.

Turns out we were totally wrong about getting the skeleton for an equally cheap price, because as soon as the bidding started, it sailed right past our $300 limit.  It eventually sold to some hairy man for $1300.

We left the auction empty handed which was probably for the best.  We don’t have any closets that can fit a human skeleton.

-Erin

On Thursday last week, Timmy came over to help me set up a new glider we got for the backyard. I should say here that he was none too pleased that I mentioned on this blog how he wears ankle socks with loafers. He insists that he only did this “one time”, but I am still refusing to issue a retraction.

Anyway, after setting up the glider, we headed out to a sale in Taylor. It turned out that the sale was inside the Taylor Trade Center which is a flea market disguised as an antique mall. I was a little wary at first when I saw the list of upcoming events to be held here:

TWO reptile expos? Also, what is “clash wrestling”???

If that wasn’t my cue to make a run for it, these things should have been:

You’re selling photos of high school girls? Alright, that’s not totally creepy and/or possibly illegal. Cute pom pom shoes though.

We found the estate sale inside this place and it was basically a bunch of tables with random things all over, most stuff was still inside boxes or wrapped up. Here’s Timmy doing his thing:

I actually found some shockingly good treasures here, mostly these old ass dolls from Germany and Japan. I have no clue what they are, but they’re all stamped.

I also got this hand turned wood bowl from Vermont, and a cool little box of mini perfumes from France:

I also got a giant box of baby doll clothes from the 1950s and some old welding/steampunk goggles to sell. For all of this stuff I paid $20 total, which is AMAZING.

And don’t worry about Tim, he got an old baseball pin from 1937 and was as happy as a clam.

-Erin

I wasn’t going to go sale-ing on Friday because, as I mentioned, I still had tons to do for my charity relay on Saturday.  I am SO glad I decided to go though!  We headed out to a house in Royal Oak that was formerly home to a professor.  The house was gorgeous, and packed full of really interesting things.

I wanted this chair so bad:

You can’t really tell, but that chair was HUGE.  It would never fit in my car or our house really.  Here is what I did take home though:

This bell jar is really large and heavy.  I found it hidden under some stuff in the basement of the sale and the guy working down there told me it was $6.  At the time, it had some old coral in it, but I later found a giant Abalone shell to put in it.  The shell was $2 I believe, which is a steal.  I love both of these items so much and am happily displaying them in our living room.

I also found some weird old glass photo plate.  It seems like an old negative but on glass.  This is probably a super common thing that I am just uneducated about.  Anyway, it is from 1905 and has some sailors on it.

And by “sailors” I guess I really mean fishermen.  

The last item I will mention had some drama attached to it.  It is a little brass bust of George Washington.  I figured Zach would want it, so I asked a lady at the sale how much it was.  She said $5.

I wasn’t sure that I wanted to pay that so I set little Washy back down.  As soon as he hit the table, the woman exhaled really loud and frustratedly, like I was totally wasting her time.  I ignored it and moved on to look at a desk and as soon as I touched it, the woman snapped at me, “THAT’S SOLD!”  I apologized and said that I didn’t see any sort of SOLD sticker on it, and she informed me that that was because there was no sold sticker on it.  Uh, ok.

I had made an enemy.  Not sure how, but I did.  By the time this lady rung me up later, I had picked back up the little Washington.  As she was writing down my items, she wrote,  "Jewelry $5.“  Now, I hadn’t bought any jewelry so I thought maybe this was a mistake, and I asked her about it.  She exhaled her hatred for me again and then announced that the "jewelry” was the little Washington statue that she had CLEARLY ALREADY GIVEN ME THE $5 PRICE ON.  I apologized to her, even though I think it is totally fair to assume a brass statue is NOT jewelry.

-Erin 

Update from Sarah: Erin has a terrible memory. Worse than mine, which I didn’t even think was possible. The professor sale was the second sale we went to, unless she found something out that I didn’t know. She didn’t even mention the second sale!

The first sale was cool, though. And don’t you think it’s obvious that the woman just wanted Erin to wear that bust around her neck, Flava Flav style? Anyway, these people had a lot of very old, nice things. They also had a lot of very old, not as nice things. Once again, the whole basement was covered in books and they were all pretty damp. Not a great idea. Especially since all of the books were either older or actually antique. I did, however, find some good treasures in the basement. I found a stack of memorabilia from the Mission Inn in Riverside, CA. At first, I put all that stuff back where I found it, but then I looked on eBay and Mission Inn memorabilia seemed like it might be collectible.

Also, while I was in the basement I noticed this woman sorting through an enormous stack of cards. I just sort of hung around the area for a while because I couldn’t tell which ones she was keeping and which ones she wasn’t. After a few minutes of just lumbering around, I decided to act like a human and actually ask her if any of the cards were ones she didn’t want. Turns out the big stack were ones she didn’t want! Score. Here are some of them:

I also found a cool wooden box that I forgot to take a picture of, and two really nice quilts for our couches. Here’s one of them after one of my dogs “made her bed” on it:

After this sale, we hit up a garage sale run by four women who were a little older than us. They had some cute stuff for sale but after leaving, I was shocked by the fact that I had spent $12 there. I guess ultimately it was worth it, though, because I found this: 

Felted Mr. Toad Christmas ornament?!! Heck yeah. I bought him even though he was $2. 

After this sale, we hit up Treat Dreams in Ferndale. I was really excited for this because I was fiending for something delicious to eat, but was then sadly disappointed by my choices. It’s my own fault. I really wanted something fruity and got salted caramel and lemon olive oil as my two flavors. I was so annoyed with myself that Erin finally convinced me to go back up and get the sorbet. I got some coconut lime sorbet that was so terrible. It was like… pure ice with coconut flakes in it. It tasted like nothing. Anyway, next time… if there is a next time… I will go with my gut and get something good. 

The last sale of the day (the one that was in a professor’s home) was a sale in Palmer Woods. Erin was shocked by this neighborhood. It is fairly strange–a gorgeous old neighborhood in the heart of a very not so great area. I bought some books, a piggy bank, and a couple more quilts. Here is an obese cat sitting on one of them: 

I had Thursday and Friday off this week, so Erin and I had maximum fun times. We got started bright and early on Thursday morning, and the first sale we hit ended up being a story on its own. So today’s entry will just be about this sale. 

The pictures of this sale looked amazing–it was incredibly full and looked fairly disorganized which is always a plus (more chance of finding a hidden treasure). The sale was out in Royal Oak, and as soon as we pulled up and started walking into the backyard, we noticed this guy that we’ve written about before–most descriptively in the Goonies Poster entry. We both groaned and said something along the lines of, “Oh God… THAT guy…” but it wasn’t until we got back into the garage and started browsing around that we realized that he wasn’t a shopper–he was running the sale. I wasn’t really sure if that was going to end up being a good or bad thing, and at first, I wasn’t sure if it was his house of treasures that he was selling or what. After a few minutes, I realized that he was actually liquidating someone else’s estate (he kept referring to this person as an antique collector but she seemed to be a cross between that and a garage sale junky.) Here’s an example: 

Anyway, first thing that caught my eye in this monstrosity of a garage was a giant bin full of pins (shocking, I know). Here are my finds from that: 

I really love “no teeny weenies”… What is that even from?! I also love the two pins about French.

There was so much stuff at this house, I was really going crazy with joy. After being there for a few minutes, I said to Erin, “This is my favorite sale.” She said, “I noticed.” I already had quite the armload of items, including this adorable Michigan-themed cross-stitch: 

After perusing the junk in the backyard and garage, I went into the screened-in porch that led to the interior of the home. I was filled with glee when I discovered that almost the entire porch was filled with vintage glasses–another thing that I have way too many of. Anyway, I only bought a few, and the coolest thing was that some of these Detroit News glasses that Adam and I have at home. I’ve never seen them at another sale. It only made sense to increase our numbers there. 

I also found this glass for my father-in-law, who is always leaving notes around his house, reminding himself to take pills: 

Can’t get any weirder, or more perfect than that. 

Another great thing that was in the screened-in porch: 

So the porch actually led right to the stairs to the basement, which sadly, neither of us photographed. But we should have. It was jam-packed with stuff. Mainly books and magazines, some of which just seemed sort of…damp. Someone needs to contact all of the collectors of the world and let them know that basements are bad places to store paper material.

Anyway, I quickly snatched up some vintage scouting magazines (not sure if they’re worth anything but thought I’d check)… but then noticed a sign that said that magazines were $3 per issue. WTF?!!!! I put those magazines down. I kept walking around and noticed an ENORMOUS box of vintage Playboy Magazines. At first, I just figured it was a lost cause since a) they were so pricey and b) the man running the sale is sort of crazy. But then I figured I’d go out and ask if they’d take a flat price for the whole lot. I went outside and asked the guy’s poor wife if they’d take a flat price and of course, she had to check with him. I also mentioned that they weren’t worth $3 per issue. The guy said that there should have been a price of $75 on the box. I just stared at him. Then he said, “For you, I’d take $50.” Sold, crazy man! 

Anyway, here is a picture of just SOME of them… Notice that there are also piles on our liquor stand. 

I hope the pervs come out in full-force and snatch these suckers up! Turns out they’re mostly from the mid ‘70s to early '80s but I did find one issue from 1958 up in there. And, based on yesterday’s entry, they will provide us with hours of amusement, if nothing else. 

Inside the house, the guy had two women working a cash register, and outside, his wife was (wo)manning another. In retrospect, I should have done all of my checking out with those ladies inside, because they were giving deals left and right. It was like they knew that the guy was being unreasonable about some prices, and they would just sort of wink and give you deals without asking. They did give me deals on a bunch of vintage (we’re talking '80s) earrings–I absolutely love finding tiny earrings at sales. Some of the best here include the ducks and the corn: 

Anyway, the inside of the house was just as packed as that picture of the garage, and even though it was sort of chaotic, either the woman who lived there or the sale guy had arranged everything into different themed rooms. Here’s Erin digging through a room filled with books: 

When we were in that room, I almost had a panic attack because I’m sure there are a ton of valuable things in there…but how in the world do you find them? 

Here’s another themed room–the stuffed animal and toy room: 

In this room, I found some adorable vintage budddies: 

I also found this terrifying monkey that reminded me of one just like it that I had as a child. I believe I got mine the one and only time I went to the circus. I think the fur on it is rabbit fur: 

Don’t worry–I didn’t buy him. But does anyone else remember these scary monkeys? 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: This sale was definitely Sarah’s favorite.  It had the perfect storm of smut magazines, stuffed animals, and pins that Sarah might or might not ever wear.  Speaking of pins, not sure why she passed on this one:

I’ll say up front that I was super distracted last week while we were sale-ing.  I had tons to do for a Relay for Life event happening on Saturday.  My mind kept rehashing all the things that awaited my responsibility, so my energy for digging through this sale was low.  By the time we got to the living room, Sarah had two full boxes of stuff and I had literally nothing.

Then magically, I was rewarded for my total laziness.  Sitting right on a table in the middle of the living room was a vintage Detroit Red Wings hockey puck.  I knew instantly that it was super valuable.  My dad taught me when I was younger and we would go to sales, that I should always look out for the infamous “orange octagon pucks.”  These pucks were made in the early 1960s for game use by the NHL.  They are super rare.  Here is a glimpse at some recently sold on ebay:

I grabbed the puck immediately and called Timmy.  He couldn’t believe it.  He kept saying “DON’T SET IT DOWN.”

I went to ask THAT GUY how much he wanted for the puck, bracing myself to be ripped off.  He told me that the puck was supposed to go with some street hockey stick so I need to go look for that.  I told him I didn’t want the stick but he made me look anyway.  After casually glancing around and finding no such stick, he agreed to sell me the puck for $2.  DEAL.

My next interaction with this guy was not such a deal though.  As we were leaving, I saw this gravestone rubbing kit–essentially some giant paper and a block of wax to capture artwork off of old graves.  I asked one of the women working how much it was and she said that it was bundled in with two framed pieces of “rubbing art” for $75.  

Now here’s the deal, I am all about bundles, but this one made NO SENSE.  The “rubbing art” was not gravestone related but instead two dancing Japanese ladies.  And they were silkscreened, not rubbings.  The woman agreed with me and said we could go ask THAT GUY for a price on just the rubbing kit.

He refused to separate out the items, even after the woman helping me said he was being ridiculous.  When I went to leave though, he offered me the kit for $25.  I politely said no thank you but he really wanted to argue with my apparently.  I said I could find it online and under his breath he said, “Good luck paying the outrageous shipping charges.”  Anyway, here is the EXACT same rubbing kit on Amazon…with free shipping.

We’re working on updates from this past weekend, but in the meantime, it’s time for a sexy post, thanks to my husband.  

This morning when I went downstairs to make coffee, I discovered this note that Adam had left me, noting that his letter “got printed”… 

I was still half asleep, but quickly realized that he was not serious. (Or was he?…)

Here’s what the letter says in closer detail: 

I bought a really large lot of vintage Playboy and Penthouse magazines on Thursday, and left the really ragged issues without covers for him to peruse. He’s definitely found some gems in them, but this is the best so far. It’s from the letters page of an issue of Penthouse from the late ‘70s. 

-Sarah 

Sarah messaged this morning to alert me to a secret message hidden in a sale listing for today.  

“COME DIG FOR A TREASURE”….alright Edmund Frank & Associates LLC, we’re onto you.  You want to lure us to your sale?  We’ll bite this time, as it appears that you have an assortment of desirable items that I assume will all be reasonably priced.

Here is the exchange Sarah and I had after I looked at the secret message:

Wish us luck today on our sales!  And if you don’t know who BTK is, then read this truly terrifying Wikipedia article.

-Erin

We’ve mentioned a couple of times before that there are certain items we feel weird about reselling, either because the items are arguably creepy or culturally sensitive.  I recently found myself in another one of these situations…

A local record store bought an abandoned storage unit (a la Storage Wars) that was filled with thousands of vinyl records.  The purchase was seemingly unremarkable, as this is a common way for record stores to bulk up their inventory at a low upfront cost.  Turns out, though, that these records comprised the personal collection of legendary hip hop producer J. Dilla, who was best known for his work with A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes and Common.  Dilla died in 2006 at the age of 32 from suspected lupus.

The record store began sorting through the records and placing them in small quantities on their shelves.  They marked the records with stickers indicating which ones had belonged to Dilla.  In a matter of days, the store was inundated with calls and social media commentary from Dilla fans, many of whom were outraged that the store was selling the records without tracking down Dilla’s family first.  As fast as they appeared, the records were pulled off the shelves.    

As it turns out, Zach had bought a couple of these records for his own collection.  Our curiosity got to us pretty quickly and we decided to list one of the records on ebay just to see what it would sell for.  We started the auction at $14.99, the price Zach paid for it.  Here’s how things ended up:

We definitely were NOT expecting that.  The auction blew up in the final minute, jumping from $60 to $180.  

So since Zach is saving up for a super baller watch, we decided to list more of the records.  It went pretty well.

The key here is that we were the beneficiaries of dumb luck.  Zach happened to buy some of these records before they were pulled off the shelves, and for whatever reason, we were the only ones who thought to put them on ebay.  At some point, the records will be re-released by the record store, and since there are 8,000 records in total, there is no way they will garner such high prices again.  Totally right place, right time.

-Erin