Dig This Treasure!

Saturday turned out to be extra special because Sarah and I went sale-ing with Adam and Zach, the first time we have all sale-d together!  We headed out to Royal Oak for some pretty promising sales.

I don’t remember much of anything about the first sale because I am not entirely convinced that they had anything for sale at all.  Oh, except this:

Story of my life little ape man, story of my life.

Also, what company makes SAD animal plaques?  So weird.

The second sale we hit will be forever memorable.  I knew we were in for some total insanity when I saw the signage at the door.

Did these people really install security cameras at an estate sale?  Or were we just under the surveillance of the Sharpie marker cameras they drew on these flyers?  

Also insane was the long-ass line out the door to this sale.  It was 2:30 on a Saturday (the last day of the sale) and there was a line.  This is unprecedented.  They must have so many treasures that the sale is endlessly packed with visitors.  Spoiler alert: not true.

The “Gatekeeper” as she will be called, monitored the flow of shoppers with an eagle eye.  We waited at least 10 minutes before Adam and Sarah were allowed to pass the holy gates into the sale.  Zach and I stood there another 5 minutes before we spoke up. We had now been standing there for 15 minutes and had not seen ONE person shopping inside the house.

Yep, that is the Gatekeeper herself blocking a completely empty room.  I told her that I felt SUPER CONFIDENT that I could navigate that room without bumping into anyone or anything.  She didn’t believe me.  We watched that empty room for a few more minutes as the line grew behind us.  Finally we were allowed to enter, and we got to see the precious treasures that the Gatekeeper had been protecting.

Wait, what?  You threatened us with hand-drawn video surveillance systems for this?  

I ended up buying a vintage Basketville basket and a gold-plated Christmas ornament of the White House.  Total investment: $1 and lots of frustration.

The last sale was in Birmingham and we were pretty skeptical because it was run by those teenage vagabonds we mentioned previously.  Things turned out pretty good though.  I found some really excellent treasures and the boys running the sale gave me some deals.  

I picked up this tiny Reuge music box.  It was originally priced at $35 but I got it for $10.  It already has some bids on ebay.

This sale had a lot of legitimate Native American art, and I found this really nice handmade basket.  It was a total steal at $2.

And by far the best purchase of the day was this set of Le Creuset cookware.  I got the whole set for $25 and look how it’s doing on ebay so far:

Hooray!

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I’ll take full responsibility for choosing some real duds (on my end)… There were SO MANY sales last weekend but I picked some pretty bad ones on Saturday. It was fun anyway, but I wish I had found more treasures. Also worth noting was that Saturday was our 5th wedding anniversary. Erin and Zach’s was on Monday. Hooray for all of us. 

First, Erin is wrong–she didn’t even find that ornament at the sale that made her so mad. She found it at the first sale. So I’m not even sure she bought anything at the sale that made her so angry. I’m trying to remember if I even purchased anything worth mentioning at the first sale. I did find a really nice vintage velvet clutch for $1. 

The surveillance sale truly was insane. Also insane was seeing Erin get so aggro with the people manning the door. Usually it’s my job to yell at people. Anyway, she was real mad. Adam and I got in first so I had some fun walking by her and Zach, saying, “We’re taking all the treasures.” They were so engaged in arguing with the woman at the door that they didn’t even hear me, but obviously, there were no treasures. 

HOWEVER. The guy who lived at this home had worked at Jacobson’s which some of you might remember. Evidently, he worked in the greeting card department (ok, probably the Holiday Dept.) because he had TONS of greeting cards all over the house. They were all modern–no vintage cards to speak of–but they were selling them for 4 for $1. I cannot explain the quantity we are talking about. And I don’t know what happens to me but when I see greeting cards, I want them. Because I’ve found some really crazy ones. And there were just so many, I knew I wouldn’t have time to look through them. So I decided to ask if they’d sell them all to me for a set price. Anyway, as a sidebar, let me say that their “surveillance system” consisted of staffing each room with a middle-aged woman who looked like she listened to the Moody Blues and toked the reefer who followed you around like you were trying to steal junk. There were no cameras. Because, uhm, that would be crazy. So anyway, I asked the woman who had been watching me like a hawk if she worked there. Of course she said yes. I then asked if they’d sell the cards as a lot and she told me I’d have to talk to “Angel." 

I went upstairs to find this person and she was on the phone. When she got off the phone, she and another of her employees went downstairs to assess how many cards we were talking about. When she saw the quantity, she started acting like there was no way she could think of a price for all of them. I said, "Well, I’m just assuming you want to get rid of these.” She looked at me like I was crazy and said, “Well, yes we do but they’ve been really popular.” Now, this was the LAST DAY of the sale, at about 3 p.m. You’re gonna tell me that in the next hour, you’re going to get a rush of crazy scrapbookers who want your gross ‘90s cards? C'mon now. Anyway, she said that I could have this one medium sized group of them for $10 and I said, “No–I mean all of the cards.” You would have thought I had asked her to recite pi. Finally I said, “I was going to offer you $40 for all of them.” Needless to say, she was pleased with that figure and they quickly helped me to gather all of the cards together. On my way out, I said, “Thanks for agreeing to let me take all of these!” and she said, “Oh you’re welcome, I’m happy to get rid of them.” Uhm excuse me? Two seconds ago you were acting like I was trying to rob you!!! 

Since purchasing these cards, I’ve realized that they were not a wise investment, but I’m hoping to offload them at our upcoming garage sale, which is just a few weeks away!

At the last sale, I found nothing worth mentioning, but I’m glad that Erin was the ultimate treasure winner. Adam found nothing at any of the sales and was very saddened by this. Boo f'in hoo. I made it up to him by giving him a fancy nerd watch later that evening for our anniversary. 

I was unable to go sale-ing on Friday, so Erin and I decided to go on Thursday instead. There were tons of sales, but I had to work until the early afternoon, so we only made it to a few. I started off the morning in an awesome way–working from Erin’s house & cuddling with her usually shy cat. Proof that Sebastian loves me the most: 

We were able to get rolling as soon as I was finished working, and we started off at a sale located pretty close to Erin’s house. It didn’t look too promising from the pictures, but they had listed that they had a bunch of HO slot cars, so I was interested in stopping by. 

When we arrived, the first thing we saw was a bunch of jewelry, and I scored by finding some pretty cool cat earrings (but not cat lady cat earrings–they’re cute), along with a baggie of various pins. I don’t know what my deal is with pins. I cannot resist them and I need to start resisting, because the quantity I now have is out of control. Anyway, this is one of the cuter ones in the bag–an Idaho potato! Get it? 

It’s hard to tell how big that is from the picture, but it’s pretty tiny. Also, Erin kept talking about this pin so maybe I’ll give it to her one day. She even asked about it when I saw her again on Saturday. Get a room with the potato pin, Erin. 

A little while later, I watched on as Erin riffled through the slot car stuff–they had two boxes of stuff and it was all sort of crappy and they had it marked $300 for the two boxes! WTF?! Anyway, Erin didn’t notice that sign and started tearing through the boxes. After watching her and laughing to myself for a few moments, I let her know that she should probably stop doing that since it was being sold as a lot. 

The person who lived at this house loved cats, and had many cat-themed items. I will admit that I purchased some of these items, but I am too ashamed to show our dear readers what those items were.

The only other real item of note that I found that I’m pretty pleased about was this: 

Original Gizmo!!! He looks a little rough in the picture but he really just needs a good run through the gentle cycle. 

Besides many cat items, the person who owned this home also had a lot of old computer stuff, including the following, which I’m mainly posting for my brother, whose first computer was a C-64 if I’m remembering correctly: 

Snokie? Who dat? 

I also somehow managed to spend about $40 at this sale–probably because everything was overpriced and I cannot resist original items from the ‘80s. 

On the way to the next sale, Erin asked me what took me so long, and then started grilling me about what I had purchased. I mentioned that I found “vintage Harry Potter wrapping paper” and then we both started cracking up. What I meant was that it was old–probably from around when the first book came out… but that was 1997. Which definitely does not make it vintage. 

I’m having a hard time remembering where we went next, but I know it was in Warren. There were multiple sales in Warren, which always excites me because it means we can stop at Tringali’s. 

So I think the next sale was what I’ll call “The Tacky Sale” because everything in the home was tacky. 

I think that’s supposed to give the illusion of a horse in a stable. 

You can’t really tell the scale here, but that is a gigantic cocktail glass that says “I BET YOU CAN’T.”

Here are some authentic, hand-crafted Native American items. 

What any classy lady needs: A Wal-Mart Shopping Fund jar. 

If these items were not enough to convince you that it was the tackiest sale ever, hopefully this will: 

Still not convinced?…

Nothing like some old lady’s panties for $.50 a piece. 

The worst part of this sale was that there was a young woman, probably my age, walking around the sale and excitedly pointing out every item in a loud, southern drawl. You would have thought she was taking a tour of the Queen of England’s home, she was so impressed by all of these items. She was most excited about this book. I’m not joking. 

Anyway, I left this sale with a vintage Stroh’s beer stein and some weird thing for Adam that’s not even worth trying to explain. Erin left with some extremely overpriced tissue paper that I’m sure she’ll say more about in her update. 

The last sale we went to was the most interesting of the day, by far. It was at the home of the former President of the Scarab Club. Turns out she was the president back in the late '70s, and was quite the artist in her day. I purchased some pretty cool stuff a this sale, including a Masonic Bible in its original box, some vintage National Wildlife magazines that seem like they might sell, and some adorable K-Mart wall art from the '60s. 

They were sold as a pair, but I really wanted the one on the right, because it’s just so damn cute. But I am also really interested in/do research on bedroom culture, so I just sort of fell in love with both of them immediately. 

I found one item from my youth (and, as it turns out, Adam’s as well): 

As well as this item–also from Adam’s childhood:  

And finally, a miniature roulette game! To add to my tiny home casino. 

We tried to go to one last sale where I had spotted a Mrs. Beasley doll in the pictures online, but some asshat dropped a bunch of lumber in the middle of the road, so we were delayed and didn’t make it in time. 

But all in all, it was a pretty eventful, interesting trip. We topped it off by stopping at Tringali’s, where Erin and I decided that no matter what it is you’re asking about at an Italian bakery, the answer is always “cannoli cream." 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: The first sale was pretty unremarkable, except for the outrageous prices.  For awhile, I carried around a Pachinko machine from the 1970s still in the box.  It was an American version though, and made of plastic.  On ebay it only sold for about $15 out of the box.  They were asking $25 for this one, so I dumped it pretty quickly.  I ended up buying a Christmas pin featuring a fuzzy bear on ice skates.

The "tacky sale” as Sarah named it, was really painful.  I am generally a big fan of Native American artwork and jewelry, and I have a good amount of it at home.  However, I have never and will never claim to know a ton about Native American culture, or be one of those white people who claim to have a distant Native grandmother.  There are a lot of white people like this, who say that somewhere down the line they have Indian blood and blah blah.  Then they collect a bunch of things made in China that feature dream catchers and noble Indian warriors and other stuff that is probably sacred and shouldn’t be on a plastic picture frame.  

Like this giant resin wolf marked $100.  Worst.  Also worst was that I went to buy some half-used wrapping paper and a little package of tissue paper.  The seller lady was looking around all frantically for someone to help her because there were no prices on either item.  She finally came up with the price of $3, which is crazy, and I asked if she would take $2, which is still crazy.  These were clearly 50 cent items.  She accepted my offer, but then said, “I’ll probably get in trouble for this.”  Uh, no, you definitely won’t.

Whew, ok. This entry is getting long.  Bear with me because the following is pretty sweet.  At the Scarab Club sale I found a TON of Laurel Burch earrings and bought them for $1/pair.  The earrings have DAYS left on ebay but are already cleaning up:

I’ll keep you posted on what these end up selling for!  

Lastly, it is important to note that I found a super amazing treasure that is not for re-selling.  It is a Pendleton knockabouts coat and it was MADE for me.  Here I am after a nap, modeling said coat:

Only $10!  When I tried it on at the sale, all these ladies were like, “OHHH you have to get that! It’s sooo cute.”  Sarah agreed (which is rare) so I bought it.

Update from Sarah: Just wanted to add two things after reading Erin’s update: First, I hope none of you with Native American blood are offended by Erin’s strong stance on the issue. This includes my sister-in-law, who is actually very white, but does have Native American ancestors. However, she does not keep plastic statues of wolves or canoes in her home to represent that heritage. Second, WHO in God’s name is crazy enough to get into a bidding war over those ugly Laurel Burch earrings and why wasn’t I smart enough to find them? 

While we work on wrapping up our reports from this past weekend (two days of sale-ing what what!!!), we have yet another Hard to Resist post for you. I have to admit, when Erin first suggested we start this feature, I wasn’t on board. But now I am. Because there are so many things that are hard to resist. 

We see a lot of ugly things in the homes we enter, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what would possess anyone to purchase either of these items the first time. Someone’s really going to buy them a second time? 

First up, a simultaneously scary and fancy plastic grandma:  

Now, if that’s an enigma, the next item is the eighth wonder of the world. I found this item at the sale where we had to wait for an hour before being rung up, and I actually forgot about it until the end of the day. I immediately began laughing when I thought of it, and I asked Erin, “Hey did you see that cellulite baby at the first sale?” She also started cracking up, and said no, and so I decided to show her it while she was driving. 

I made sure to wait until the vehicle was stopped, because I knew Erin was going to die.   We were both laughing so hard we were crying. I seriously can’t remember laughing that hard in a long time. Look at that thing! 

For the rest of the day, I addressed Erin as Cellulite Baby. She wasn’t pleased. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: Sarah did call me Cellulite Baby all day, but then later that night I got this text from her:

Disclaimer: I wrote this post like a CRAZY LONG TIME AGO.  Long before our tragic break-up with RePurpose sales.  I’m posting this because it is interesting, funny, and involves my dad, who is the best person of all time.

—————————————–

Cash & Cari has come up a few times on this blog already, mostly because we cannot resist the cameras and the cameras cannot resist us. The cameras also cannot resist my dad, Tim.

After my taxidermy fox purchase on the show, I got a call from one of the producers. He asked what I did with the fox (made mad cash), if I was going to come to future sales (yes), and what types of items I look for at sales (Zuni jewelry, total garbage knick-knacks, and re-sellable odds and ends).

At this point I decided to pitch my dad for a future episode of the show. He’s the total package–a super savvy collector who drives a hard bargain but also wears ankle socks with slip-on loafers. He’s funny, he looks like Santa, he takes iphone lessons at the Apple store, and HE WAS IN THE MOVIE WHIP IT. I could go on and on.

Anyway, my dad DID end up on Cash & Cari. And it turned out to be truly awesome.

I had mentioned to the producer on the phone that my dad collects vintage baseball memorabilia, specifically anything Detroit Tigers. They ended up inviting him to a sale that had a set of seats from the now-defunct Tiger Stadium.

The ensuing interactions between Cash & Cari and my dad were hilariously scripted and kind of awkward. They told him when and where to arrive at the sale and how to “scope out” the Tiger Stadium seats. He made several passes by the seats (on camera) and then was told to wait while a meeting with Cari was orchestrated.

The seats were marked six hundred dollars, which is pretty insane.

So Cari comes over and my adorable dad is all like, “Yeah, these are cool, but I would have to offer you a lower price on them.” He then goes on to explain that Tiger Stadium had a capacity of over 50,000 people and that all of the seats were auctioned off when it closed. That’s a lot of seats. These ain’t no royal thrones. You get the idea…

In addition, my dad already has Tiger Stadium seats. He got them for $275 at the original auction. He’s totally into having some more for his little baseball cave at home, but $600 would break the bank. He offers Cari $200.

From this point on, my dad is forever branded as a “lowballer.” The narrator even says this on the resulting episode.

Timmy-I-tried-to-rip-off-Cari-on-national-television. That’s my dad.

Cari says no to the offer and my dad goes to leave. The producers intervene and tell my dad to come back to the sale the following day. The storyline will be that my dad cannot resist him some stadium seats. He must have them. He will arrive back at the sale and try to lowball Cari again. This time, though, he will be victorious.

So my dad comes back the next day and haggles on-camera again. Cari shows him an iPad with an ebay listing that is selling similar seats for $499. My dad tells her that the seats in THAT listing are special VIP seats that were available in smaller quantities, hence the higher price. (This whole exchange ends up edited out of the episode).

Then, Cari sells my dad the seats for $225. In the episode that aired, the seats were listed as having an original selling price of $400, NOT $600. I think the producers realized that the original price was way-off and tried to correct how that might look. This is good because my dad looked like a little bit less of a lowballer…still a lowballer though.  Even the narrator called him a lowballer.  

Here is my dad in his purchased seats, throwing an American flag baseball in the air. I wish he was wearing a hat made out of apple pie.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: If you watch this episode, you can see the $600 price tag at one point. 

Some more sale items that we found terribly hard to resist:

Here are some California Raisins for sale…well, 3 Cali Raisins and a giant brown California Turd.  

Here’s a binder with info all about birds.  Adorable for sure, but I’ll stick with a more traditional birdwatching guidebook.  I don’t want my Cowbird looking too much like your run-of-the-mill Robin.

Speaking of guidebooks, is your internet television just too damn confusing?  Look no further…

Lastly, you’ve heard us profess our love for Hugglets before, but we’ve never actually seen the larger Hugga Bunch version at a sale…until now…

Terrifying.  Also, why is her diaper ravaged?  The elastic was all stretched out.  Gross.

-Erin

So I was in Columbus Thursday through Saturday for a nerd conference. The first night we were there, two friends from work and I went to the art museum downtown and on our way back to our hotel, I spotted this sign: 

Needless to say, I was filled with glee. First, I hadn’t expected to be able to do any treasure hunting while I was out of town, but this was just a few blocks from my hotel, so it was totally feasible. Second, that sign makes the sale look pretty awesome. Doesn’t it? 

So Saturday came around, and when I had a few moments to escape, I walked down to the church where the sale appeared to be being held. Now, this sale was going on at the same time as the Columbus Marathon, so traffic around the area was crazy, but there were only a handful of cars parked in the church parking lot. For a minute, I got scared that the sale had been postponed because of the race. To make matters worse, I couldn’t seem to find any indication of where I should enter the church–no signs or directions of any sort besides the sign above, which was pretty far from any entrance to the building. I finally walked around the side of the church and saw a small sign on a door that said, “Rummage Sale, downstairs and to the left." 

I got inside and very quickly realized that this sale was not going to exceed or even meet my expectations. There were about 10 old women and men there to "run” the tiny sale, and my heart immediately hurt. The first thing I saw was a table full of 1970s cookbooks for individuals with diabetes. From there, it just got worse. (I know what you’re thinking–how is that even possible?)

For example, I could have walked away with this treasure… 

…which actually could have been featured in a Hard to Resist post of its own. 

One question: WHAT IS THAT? 

Or, I could have walked out with this great find: 

Yep, that’s a jean-donning crotch-shaped planter. 

Or, finally, I could have selected from a wide variety of walkers: 

They also had a nice selection of folding canes. 

Anyway, as it turns out, I left with three items for a total of $4. A handmade shoulder/messenger bag (not pictured), and then these two items, which may or may not sell on eBay: 

I thought about keeping the pepper lights but… it’s really not necessary. 

-Sarah

I can’t believe I have waited this long to blog about one of my absolute favorite treasures…my collection of vintage flatware pins.  The history on these pins is fascinating, and their semi-rarity makes them fun to collect.

Flatware pins, most notably “spoon pins”, became popular in the 1940s and 50s.  The pins appealed to new mothers and brides-to-be, and represented an era of celebrated female domesticity.  Spoon pins were given to future brides when they registered for wedding gifts at a department store.  And many of these brides gave spoon pins as gifts to their bridesmaids.  Knives and forks made their jewelry debut once the spoon pins were well-established in popularity.

I first found out about flatware pins in Bust Magazine, in an article about girly collectibles.  When I saw the pins, I knew that I HAD to have them.

My parents found me a set on ebay (shown above) and surprised me at Christmas.  I later found three more spoon pins at antique shows and estate sales. 

You can come across these pins at sales, although ebay is a sure bet if you are looking for one quickly.  Sometimes, you will be lucky enough to find a pin that is stamped with a flatware company’s name on the back.  These pins were made by flatware companies and given to purchasers of their sets.  I have one pin stamped “Towle” and it is all sterling silver.  Definitely one of my favorites.  I also found this rare horsehead pin and paid a mere $10 for it:

-Erin

Last night, I dreamt a fabulous dream. When I woke up, I felt great. That’s because I didn’t realize it was a dream right away. Anyway, I dreamt that one of the things my dad gave me to sell was a vintage Sesame Street figurine of some rare, not very well known characters. I put it on eBay and I looked at the listing the day before it was supposed to end. It was at $10,000!!! I sort of freaked out at first because I worried that whatever I had was not actually what these people thought I had. But then after some further research, I realized that I DID actually have a real version of this highly desirable item. I was filled with glee when I realized that because my dad and I have the arrangement we do (he splits the profits with me), I was going to make FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. I woke up before the listing ended, but this dream has taught me a few things: a) I am insane, b) I am greedy, c) I need to find this figurine.

-Sarah