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.