So full disclosure, Sarah and I were famous estate sale-ers way before this blog.  Back in October we were featured on the “hit” (debatable) HGTV show Cash & Cari.  The premise of the show is that treasure broker Cari Cucksley runs estate sales and viewers watch as she sells off goods to weirdos like us.  

By chance, Sarah and I rolled up to a sale in which Cash & Cari was filming. The house was jam-packed with knick-knacks, but nothing that interesting or collectible. Originally, we left the house (me empty-handed) having avoided the cameras. 

Before we left, I checked ebay quickly to get the prices on antique taxidermy. The basement of the sale had several vintage animal mounts, all priced pretty low. I worked at a natural history museum in the past and knew that old taxidermy could be really collectible.  (It can also contain high levels of arsenic, so there is a trade off.) Seeing that I could make a good profit on an antique fox mount, I convinced Sarah that we had to go back into the sale.

Here is a photo of me grabbing the fox mount, and Sarah running away in absolute horror. She kept yelling that I had to put the fox in the trunk, which I thought might damage it.  

As soon as I grabbed this fox, the cameras were on us. I am sure the producers on set were thinking “what the hell is this girl going to do with that fox?” In fact, I know they were thinking this because they eventually asked me. I put on some charade about thinking it was cool and putting in my house, all because I felt bad about admitting that I was going to resell it.  Sarah, of course, hoed me out…on camera.

Cari and her crew were cool with me reselling the fox. They were also cool with making me look like a true freak on camera. I was positioned in the sunlight outside, posed with the fox on my lap, and asked to stroke the fox’s fur whilst smiling at the camera. I was totally down with this.

So after my interview and foxy photoshoot, Sarah and I left, cracked up for awhile in the car, and headed off for more treasure hunting. Here’s where things get good…

So we’re driving, and probably arguing about where to eat lunch, when we pass some creepfest flea market. We decide to stop. I say to Sarah, “Hey wouldn’t that be crazy if we walk in and there is like a taxidermy man and all he has been pining for is a fox mount?”  

And lemme say, it was as though Jiminy Cricket himself was waiting for me to say this, and at that moment, we walk in and see a GIANT taxidermy hut. I approach the man, tell him about the fox in my backseat, and he is out the door to the parking lot. Peering into my car, he pulls out a wad of cash, hands me $60 and says he’ll take the fox.

I was kind of shocked at how fast I owned the fox and then didn’t own the fox. I wasn’t sure if I got the best price I could, so I started getting cold feet. The man told me to walk around the market with his $60, think about it, and then tell him if I changed my mind about selling the mount.

I decided to not change my mind. I had cold hard cash, got rid of a possibly arsenic-tainted animal, and was going to be on HGTV. Here is the dude who bought the fox:

And yes, that man is holding a little plastic Sumo man. I did not sell it to him.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: That was such a fun day. That man had the fakest chompers I’ve ever seen.