Dig This Treasure!

Two weeks ago, Sarah and I hit the streets again after a brief hiatus.  There was a sale nearby run by one of our favorite companies. When we walked in, I was very excited. The place was packed and everything looked pretty neat.  

I was interested in those old glass pharmacy bottles in the photo above, but they were $5 each.  That seemed a little steep.  They sell on ebay for around the same price, so I would have needed to buy the whole box for cheap.  I moved on.

There was an abundance of Native American items at this sale.  Many of them were legit (they had a gorgeous Zuni fetish necklace but the string was broken and the beads were loose.)  That said, they also had some super wacko sh*t like this:

To Sarah’s delight, there were a million books.  There was even a light up sign that said, “BOOKS.”

Look at that baby bump!!!  Adorable.

Ok so Sarah totally wanted that big sign.  It was marked $150.  It should’ve been marked like maybe $50.  Sarah had me text Adam to ask if he would be down with her buying it.  This is how it went:

Whomp whomp.  No sign for Sarah.

Sarah did buy a boatload of thing she will update us later on.  I ended up buying just one thing, a piece of Hadley Pottery with an Indian chief on it. 

Our friend Jen was with us at this sale and when she saw me carrying this around, she questioned whether I was buying it to resell.  I shushed her instantly.  Man, what a noob!!  I told her to never let on that you are buying stuff to resell.  If you do, you’re pretty unlikely to get any deals.  This company in the past has been really awesome about discounting for us, so God forbid we jeopardize that.  Next time, Jen stays in the car.

-Erin

Sarah and I have been super lazy bloggers, but luckily our disciple Zach has been much more proactive.  Husband Zach collects and resells vintage watches, so lately he has been scoping out estate and garage sales in hopes of finding some. 

On Sunday I got a Facetime call from him, which looked like this:

He explained that he bought this doll because it was only $1 and he thought it might be valuable.  I told him I thought so too!  At least more than $1 valuable!  Zach also bought this crazy Knickerbocker doll because he knew we had blogged about that brand before:

This doll is amazingly weird.  It is a baby and a Santa.  A Santa Baby…like the song, except I don’t think the song literally meant a baby that is also Santa.  Anyway, we are going to stick it on ebay and see what happens.

So while on this call, Zach explains that this sale he was at had tons of old train stuff but he didn’t know what to buy.  He described this “service station” thing and I convinced him to go back and buy it.  It sounded like something we should take a chance on.

It turned out to be way cooler than I imagined while talking to Zach on the phone:

I could tell this was crazy old because it was wood and not tin.  It was in great shape.  After doing some research, we figured out it was made in 1949 and sold at Sears.  It is up on ebay now and already has a $50 bid.  It has 18 watchers too, so hopefully it will go a little higher.

So then flash forward to today and Zach gets home later than usual after work.  Turns out he had stopped at an estate sale.  I was just about to nap with Everett when Zach informed me that I REALLY needed to get up and go to the sale he was just at.  “It was like a hoarder and there was all this stuff and I know we could resell some of it and blah blah…”

Well, his assessment was right on.  This place was packed.  And the stuff was good.  The prices seemed fair.  I had apparently taught Grasshopper well.

They even had a doll of Sarah’s future child there:

Check out those teefers.

I ended up buying the following:

An Ohio Art tin buggy which seems like it should be an easy resell:

A cool old ice bucket by Hazel Atlas Glass company:

And this hilarious watch which was only $1.  People like Duran Duran don’t they?!

(Zach seemed very skeptical of this purchase.)

I will probably go back tomorrow with Sarah because there were other things I was interested in but wanted to wait and barter over.  Prices today were pretty firm.

When Zach was at the sale, he got this cool toy wagon for $15.  It was really dirty and he cleaned it all up.  It is all wood and super cute.

So good job Zach!  You have officially earned the ranking of DTT Scout.  We are so proud :)

-Erin

A few weeks ago, Organ alerted us to a seriously amazing eBay store. 

What’s so amazing about this store, you ask? Well, the people running it have decided that including people with their items is the way to go. I can’t say they made the wrong choice. When we looked at the listings, Erin and I were dying laughing. 

I especially love the older lady in these pictures because she sort of looks like my maternal grandmother, and she ALSO sort of looks like Maxine. 

Anyway, here are some of my favorites from their listings a few weeks ago. 

Tag teamin’ it! 

There she is… Miss Amerrrrrricaaaaa…. 

Plate boobs? 

Anyway, I hope nobody thinks we’re being mean here. It was just too hilarious to not post these pictures and hey, they’re already on the ol’ Internet! 

To wrap this up, I will leave you with this listing–you have to read the description to realize how incredible it is. Have you ever seen a more apologetic eBay listing? Also, there are THREE WATCHERS. 

Mad props to Organ for passing this our way! 

-Sarah

We were able to get out on Friday and hit up a sale that was listed as a “time capsule” sale at a 90-year-old’s home. The listing said she never threw anything away. Hmmm…

We got there and I’m sure you’re shocked to hear that it was a letdown. 

Yes, that there is a toilet in the middle of a sunroom. 

Don’t get me wrong–this was clearly a grandma’s house. But there wasn’t very much cool stuff, and when there was, it was insanely overpriced. 

For example, that little tin stove was marked $75…

…and this cool life-sized wooden nativity was marked FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS. 

There were also a decent amount of “hard to resist” items up in this place. 

Excuse me?

Erin now has head lice. 

Ok who can tell me WHAT this creature is? 

While I’m doing a lot of fun-making, I will say that this trip was not without a wonderful, fabulous surprise. When I walked in, I quickly noticed a shoe-box overflowing with snapshots, and another large box of photographs below the same table. I asked the people running the sale what they’d want for all of the pictures, but I was prepared to hear a crazy number, considering the way some things were priced. The guy said, “I don’t know… ten bucks?” I thought I heard him wrong so I said, “Are you serious?” (I know, really smooth of me), and he said yes. SOLD! 

That’s me with my giant bargain! 

Even though the estate sale wasn’t super fruitful, I did get to eat at my FAVORITE Mexican place (Zumba in Royal Oak if anyone local is curious) and we had another fabulous surprise that I can now safely share. I’m pregnant and found out we’re having a BOY! 

I got the news about there being no genetic problems and the sex (there’s a new blood test they can do if you’re an old lady like me) on Friday right before I left to drive out to Erin’s. Erin and our friend Jen had been demanding a gender reveal once I got the news, so here is a picture of them later that night, cutting open cupcakes that contained blue frosting. Is there anything better than the expression on Erin’s face? 

Nope, there isn’t. 

So now you know the real reason we’ve been terrible bloggers lately. I’ve felt like puking approximately 20 hours a day for the past two months, and Erin is a full time worker and full time mom. So please don’t stop checking back! The morning sickness is easing and the summer is sure to provide lots of adventures and lots more time for blogging. And the baby’s nursery is going to be what is currently “eBay world” so there will be LOTS of selling going on in my house. 

-Sarah