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?