Dig This Treasure!

Last week I mentioned that I started unloading the big Christmas guns, and it made me remember a story that I think I forgot to tell from a while back that recently ended very happily for me. 

Late in the summer, the same day I found my first ever vintage girl on the phone figurine, Adam and I went to a sale that was at the home of the couple who used to own the Little Professor in downtown Dearborn. I was excited because there were a lot of old posters and books at this sale, as well as some old Peanuts items, but we quickly discovered that the people running this sale were totally nuts. I gathered a bunch of books I wanted to purchase, none of which were priced, and the women running the sale proceeded to start looking them up on eBay, Etsy, and AbeBooks. WTF?! 

Right before leaving, I found a small box of a bunch of old wooden West German Christian Ulbricht Christmas ornaments in the basement. Here is one of them:

Pretty cute, huh?

Knowing how they were pricing items, I had pretty low expectations–I figured she was going to ask me to pay $100 for them. But no, instead, she tells me that the whole box is a dollar! I quickly said OK and when I got outside, simultaneously cheered and cursed her for being so stupid. 

These ended up being a great buy. Not only did I get to keep some adorable ornaments because there were multiples of many of them, but these suckers sold like hotcakes. I sold three of them about a month ago for $35, one a few days ago for $12, and then last night listed the rest. Literally minutes after listing the remaining ornaments, this happened:  

Some lady swooped in and bought all of them for about $50 total. That brings my profit to a whopping $96. 

I have a pretty good eye for these things because my mom and grandma love(d) wooden German and Swedish Christmas decorations. I have a really soft spot for them too–they’re so cute. I think the woman running this sale thought that these were those cheap ripoffs that are made in China that you can buy at the dollar store. The ones that are authentic will usually be marked with the maker name or country, so keep your eyes peeled! 

Merry Christmas to me! 

-Sarah