Dig This Treasure!

So two weeks ago, if you remember, Sarah and I didn’t have the greatest of estate sale days…or so we thought at the time.  I didn’t buy much that day, but one of the finds was a giant lot of old plastic figures (cowboys, indians, horses, army dudes, random animals, etc).  

At the time, I kept kicking myself for how much I paid for these things, which was $25.  I felt like I was taking a big risk on re-selling them for any sort of profit.  I listed them on ebay a few days after purchase at a starting price of $19.99, hoping I could at least make back some of my initial investment.  

When I bought the figures, I tried to haggle on the price, and the woman selling them said no because there were a lot “MARX” brand toys in the lot.  I told her I had no idea what the meant, and proceeded with the sale.

Well, apparently MARX figures are SUPER COLLECTIBLE.  Over the next few days, I had numerous bids on ebay and messages from people asking me to send them more detailed photos of the pieces.  I knew something was up, so I started researching what I might have that was of so much interest here.

I realized quickly that I had posted this photo in my ebay listing, and assumed that the MPC meant MARX brand.  It does not.  It is some other undesirable manufacturer.  I panicked that I actually didn’t have any MARX brand here, and thus lied to my numerous bidders.  

But I did have MARX figures, and in some crazy alternate-reality-world I was temporarily living in, I had some of the RAREST MARX figures.  

I had a little Davy Crockett man, from one of the earliest MARX Alamo playsets.  He was only around for a little while before they started making a different, more common Davy.

I also had what are called “put-to-gether cowboys” or “swoppets” in which the torso and legs of the figure are separate and you can swap them out.

The collectibility of my set was seemingly endless.  I had benefitted from someone throwing all of these figures together into one giant pile, mixing several valuable items together that were never originally in the same set.

Over a couple beers, I read and read.  My figures were collectible because they weren’t painted, because many were light-colored, because they were clearly not reproductions, and because they were a mix of all types of figures.

I had reoccurring dreams about this lot, in one of which I payed off my student loans with the profit.  In the end, these guys sold for $100.01.

I messaged the winner of the auction and asked him what made this particular lot so valuable to him.  I thought maybe there was one figure I had not seen in my research that was the holy grail of MARX collectibles.  Here is what the buyer said:

I’ll bet you were shocked! You probably spent $10 for the bag, right? Well, chances are, unless you get really lucky, you will never get a buy like this again! You will be one of ‘us’, people who are 'hip’ to the profit margin on these guys. Do NOT, however, buy just any bag full of toy soldiers. The VAST majority of what you will find at flea markets, garage and estate sales, are garbage from China…like most stuff from over there, mass produced and definitely INFERIOR! Actually, it was the age of the stuff that attracted me. Most of it is from the '60s, the golden age of plastic toy soldiers and playsets. I am 55, so was right in the middle of it. I have loved these figures all of my life, and have collected them as well. I have a full basement of them as a testament to my devotion. These figures are timeless, and although many of us who grew up with them are no longer around, there seems to be a renewed interest in them. Something about miniature figures facinates people (doll houses, train sets). If you really would like a good resource, get the book 'Toy Soldiers’ by Richard O'Brien-it is the bible on the subject. Hope that helps, and good hunting! Can’t wait to get my fix!!!
John

I was really excited by John’s reply. He sounds a lot like my dad, who got me into collecting and has his own basement of treasures. And I was glad to know that these little guys were going to be proudly displayed amongst their fellow plastic friends. All in all, one of the coolest finds I have made.

-Erin

The injustice of this is extreme: I love snow storms. I’m seriously obsessed with them. But why does one have to fall on sale day? The sales tomorrow look amazing… LIKE THIS:

Look at that stack of vintage cards!!!

Will we travel through treacherous conditions to find treasures, or will we stay home snuggled in our jammies? Only time will tell.

(Don’t worry, mom(s). If it’s bad, we will stay home.)

-Sarah

I actually found these earrings at an antique show, not an estate sale, but I’m blogging about them because they turned out to be quite the find. I fell in love with them right before my honeymoon and imagined myself running all over Cape Cod as a newlywed in these earrings. They were priced $115 but I negotiated down to $75.

The earrings are marked Erica Courtney on the back, of whom the seller knew nothing about. I started researching her and found out that she is a pretty famous jewelry designer in Beverly Hills. Apparently a lot of celebrities wear her designs.

I was super curious if these earrings I bought were made by the same Erica Courtney I was reading about online. I called her office and left a photo on her facebook page. Her assistant called me back a few days later and told me that these earrings were an early piece by Erica and that they originally retailed for $500. The Facebook photo I posted also received a response:

“Ethnic glam” collection? Holla!

-Erin

Update from Sarah: You paid SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS for those things? They look like a pair of boobs or devil eyes. Weirdo.

The sale where I obtained this antique cabinet is probably the best estate sale I’ve ever been to. At some point, I’ll write more about my other finds from that sale–it’s one that I actually went back to the next day with Adam, and I think I spent over $200 there. That’s a lot for an estate sale. 

Anyway, Erin and I both wanted this cabinet but I prevailed. It cost a mere $25. My dad has a cabinet like this where he keeps little knickknacks and items that are meaningful to him, and my brother has one as well. I love the color red (much to Adam’s chagrin) and so it was perfect. I’m not sure what Adam loves more: the flowered wrapping paper that serves as the backing inside the cabinet or the antique cat print on top of the cabinet. It’s a tough call.

Some of the other things in there are also from sales: a pewter cat statue, porcelain panda and giraffe figurines, and the Little Red Riding Hood carving mentioned on Valentine’s Day. The dolls were made by my grandma (dad’s mom) when I was little, and the postcard is a cool old print of someone’s stuffed animals drying on a clothesline. Right up my alley.

-Sarah

Update from Erin: You didn’t buy that porcelain panda at this sale.  That panda was mine originally and I was going to throw it away or donate it, so of course Sarah took it. In fact, I remember a whole box of stuff I was taking to Recycle Reuse that I let Sarah dig through first.  I am sure Adam is thrilled to hear that.

Update from Sarah: I said from sales. Not that sale. Was it originally from a sale? I’ll bet it was! But honestly, I forgot I found it in that box. Thanks for reminding me. There was some nice stuff in that box! Also, why would you ever throw away a cute panda? 

So, the first house we went to on Friday was in Dearborn, and even though we didn’t find extreme treasures, we found something amazing: A crazy 1960s beauty salon in the basement that was stuck in time! Here’s Erin gettin’ her hair did: 

On the right, you’ll notice the reception desk, and then the hair washing station. 

Here is Carmen’s 1955 Diploma from the Virginia Farrell Beauty School… (diplomas are one of the saddest things we see at sales… diaries being the worst.) 

Here are a few more shots of the entire salon: 

I was the first one into the basement, and I could hear Erin at the top of the stairs gabbing away with a stranger, so I was like, “Erin! Get down here!” She told me she immediately thought that I found an extreme treasure that she was missing out on. When she realized what it was, she decided that an old beauty salon was an even better treasure. 

We both found a couple of things and started checking out. Erin bought an antique baby scale (?!), a meat grinder, a Christmas coffee mug, and a box of Bakelite sockets. The woman running the sale was skeptical of Erin’s purchases, and said something like, “you have an interesting selection of items here.” When she found the Bakelite sockets, I think she started catching on to Erin trying to make some mad cash. So Erin said, “No… we just like to find weird things at sales. We have a blog!" 

Anyway, this conversation went on and on, and Erin started holding up a line of people, which made her start sweating. The woman wrote down the name of our blog (WHAT WAS ERIN THINKING?!) and Erin told her that we could sponsor her sales with a banner. WHAT. THE. HELL. When we got outside, I told her that she should always be thinking of a good reason to want something valuable to tell sellers when they ask. A reason besides reselling it. Like making an art project out of it. 

I bought an ugly table cloth and a creepy old doll. In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t bought either of these things. The one thing I will say is that Erin chatting these people up made them give us deals and start opening up to us, so I’ll give her that.

The house after this was the Grey Gardens house, and then we had to make a decision. There were two sales left on our list–one was closer, but ended sooner, and we were starving. The other was all the way in Utica, but it was open until 5. We decided on the Utica sale so that we could eat before. 

The Utica sale was another Cash & Cari sale. It looked sort of interesting, but nowadays their sales are always incredibly overpriced, so I was skeptical. We arrived and there were a crapload of people in the house, which immediately made me want to die. Also, the stuff in the house was abundant, but all gross and tacky. This person had a weird assortment of collections. It was like he/she decided to collect EVERY thing that they had a single item of. Shot glass collection? Check. Barbie Collection? 

Check. 

Beer tap collection? 

Check. 

Lava lamp collection? 

Check. You can’t get much worse than a lava lamp collection.

Also, the prices on all of this garbage were insane. I don’t understand what’s happened–less than a year ago, her sales had stuff that was totally reasonably priced. I can’t believe anyone was buying anything. For example, there was a "Canadian Barbie” that I picked up because I have a friend who is Canadian, and I was like, “That might be cute…” But no… It was marked $75!!! That thing sells on eBay for between 25 and 50 bucks. WTF?! Cari is gettin’ a little too big for her britches. Also, one of her employees was in the Barbie room showing another employee a video of the largest blackhead ever being popped. I realize this is something I would do, but still–real professional, ladies.

At this point, I wanted nothing more than to warp home. Instead, we had to drive for an hour in rush hour traffic. 

By far, the best treasure of the day was finding that Better Made (Adam pointed out that their website is bmchips.com… bad choice, guys) and National Coney Island have collaborated to make these: 

If you know me, you know that chili fries are my favorite food. Erin was back on the east side of town on Saturday, so I made her pick up five more bags of them. Adam and I keep eating them, exclaiming, “they taste JUST LIKE chili fries!" 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: Ok, I did buy an old baby scale.  But how is this not adorable?  I am going to try and sell it, and if that doesn’t work, it is a cute thing to have in a nursery.  

Sarah kept pointing out that this scale is all dirty, which is true.  Obviously, though, she has never heard of a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

Let me also say that I do indeed have a hard time being put on the spot by people, be it at estate sale or the gas station.  Sarah knows that I always get roped into long conversations with strangers, which is probably why the Jehovah’s Witnesses know my name and visit every other day.  Bottom line: I am too polite.  So yeah, I did say we would be willing to sponsor an estate sale with some sort of banner.  But why not?  I have never had a giant banner for anything before.

And I need to point out that this cavorting did lead to some good discounts for us.  I got these old welding glasses for free at the sale.  And they already have 2 bids on ebay.  (Steampunks will buy anything labeled "steampunk”.)

I also got this adorable thing for Zach because he actually wears tie pins and cuff links.

I don’t know why you would want to mix ashes will all of your valuables, but maybe it is an old-timey thing.

The last thing I will say about this sale is that I was OBSESSED with this old metal tray table.  It was part of the beauty salon stuff.  The industrial look of it was just really neat.  In the end, I had no place to put it in our house, so it got left behind.

Our sales this week were pretty interesting, not really because of our purchases but because of the weird-ass houses we visited.

The second house we visited on our journey was in Bloomfield Hills, and by all appearances, was about to be one of the fanciest (and largest) homes I had ever entered.  This was pretty much true, until things got weird.

Turns out that this house was the PLAYHOUSE of a larger home behind it.  In the 1960s, it was finally separated from its master home and sold as a residence itself.  The first sign of its former playhouse glory days was the front entry:

Looks normal enough, but this entryway used to be a POOL!  Check out that tile floor.  The drop-off on the right was the deep-end.  And check out the former pool wall and drains:

The first few rooms of this house were really impressive.  They had a tavern, a wine cellar, and a crazy opulent ballroom.

As we got further into the recesses of this house though, we started noticing a severe change of scenery.  Things went the way of Grey Gardens pretty quickly.

An upstairs bedroom had a once-beautiful atrium with a hot tub.  It now looked like the apocalypse had set in and people were long vanished from these parts:

The carpet in nearly all of the upstairs’ rooms was either horrifically stained or looked like this:

To be honest, it was just WEIRD.  I looked at Sarah and said, “Something is not right.” The house felt increasingly sad, and creepy.

We found out before leaving that both owners of the home were still alive, but had moved into a condo after getting Alzheimer’s.  The home was a fading testament to their high-style living.  

Again, it all felt very sad.  But it also felt just really, really weird.  Who leaves behind a gorgeous mansion to sit and decay?  Where was their family?  We didn’t get answers to those questions, but here is what we did get (not much):

I found a cool hand-painted Mexican plate for $5.

And a book about the wilderness because I am OBSESSED with anything relative to Into the Wild.

Everything else in the house was too weird, too dirty, or too expensive.  I was really happy with my 2 finds though, and at seeing the inside of this wild home.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Erin’s description is perfect. Also, the house started having a grody smell after a while and my gag reflex started kicking in.

Another thing–I tried to buy the sellers’ magnifying glass by accident. What can I say? It looked cool and was left sitting there on a table with other old things! 

I did find some cool vintage sheets that say “SLEEP” all over them: 

They smell pretty musty but you can tell they’re clean and aren’t stained. I need someone who can sew to make me a little throw quilt out of them. 

I also got a little gnome Christmas ornament and some greeting cards to add to my collection. 

We went to two other interesting houses on Friday that I’ll post about ASAP. 

P.S. Look at the giant chip in that plate Erin bought. WTF? 

I don’t know much about this bell except that it is heavy (brass?) and I paid $20 for it. It appears to be German based on the writing. A similar one recently sold on ebay for $89.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Do you ring this in the evening when you have finished preparing Zach’s five course meal?

Update from Erin: *Six course meal.

In this edition of Things That Freak Your Husband Out, take a look at my new buddy!

Isn’t he a beaut?

Ok, I loved this dog from the moment I saw him in that crowded, dirty sale last Friday. First, I love dogs. Second, this dog looks sort of real–and he’s smiling. Third, he’s a great color. Fourth, he was marked $6–a true bargain.

At first I left him there because I thought, “Adam will kill me.” But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that he really needed a better home and it was worth the risk. Erin also encouraged the purchase.

He was sitting on a table with a bunch of junk, including a sealed ‘80s porno (VHS) that a dad kept trying to cover with other items to keep his son from seeing it (I forgot to tell you about that, Erin). Anyway, that’s no life for a beautiful dog like him. So I saved him.

-Sarah

Update from Erin: I don’t recall “encouraging” the purchase. In fact, I recall telling Sarah to NOT buy the dog, but instead go take a photo of it so people could see an example of the junk she tries to buy.

Update from Sarah: You said, “You need to either go take a picture of it for the blog, or buy it.” If that’s not encouraging, what is?

For older editions of TTFYHO, look no further than here and here.