We got a fairly late start on Friday due to the fact that I have a real job with real hours that need to be really worked in real life. There weren’t any exceptional looking sales (or even GOOD looking sales) once again, but we made it work.
The first sale we stopped at was very close to Erin’s house, and was clearly a “man sale.” But that’s ok! There were some cool things to see, along with a lot of chaos.
Cool things:
Chaos:
This guy obviously worked on cars, and possibly even planes. He had a lot of old literature on both of these things, but the space was so destroyed and crowded that it was hard to get a really good look without wondering if some structure was going to collapse on your dome. Erin decided to take a chance.
I saw a little crawl space that was filled with boxes and other nonsense. Of course, rather than sacrifice myself, I pulled Erin into the room and told her to get in there because she’s smaller than me. She obeyed and even had a mini flashlight. (Sidenote: I HATE when guys whip out their Maglite minis at sales. They’re always the SAME kind of guy–big, scruffy, and wearing dirty Hanes sweats. Do you think you’re on Storage Wars or what?)
Anyway, she pulled out a dainty keychain light (which is acceptable) and got down to business. She found a treasure of her own that I’ll let her tell you about, but she also unearthed this decent sized box of pictures and other paper.
She also found a few 8 mm and 16 mm films but the woman running the sale told me that she must have missed those–the family wanted to keep any and all movies (but apparently not still pictures?) I didn’t let her know she missed them because they were in the deep dark depths of the dirty crawlspace. But it left me wondering what was on those films–something scandalous, or just family memories?
I ended up getting the box of stuff for $10, which seems reasonable, though I haven’t looked through it yet. Erin spotted another big stack of photos in the garage, and the guy out there sold them to me for $5. All in all, an excellent deal.
One last thing that Erin considered buying:
The next sale on our list was out in Warren. We made the trek because it looked packed. Turns out, it wasn’t packed at all, and instead was primarily filled with cheap garbage. HOWEVER, I found one box of absolutely incredible items at this sale. I’ll maintain the suspense by first showing you some items that we did not buy:
Uhm. What? Wait… now that I think about it, why did I not buy this? Actually, I’ve got a new New Years Resolution: From now on, buy any and all ‘70s resin figurines with sad and/or nonsensical sayings on them. We see them so often that I think it’s a sign. We need to start collecting them.
I’m not positive but I think these guys are made of cotton balls.
We were LOL-in’ about that cover and byline for a good while.
Ok, so here is the gold that I found:
Ok, so I realize that for everyone else on Earth, this looks like kindling for your fireplace. However, this box of books made me squeal with glee. I’m a librarian at a university and I manage a children’s and YA collection. Some of the books in this box are things I’ve never even heard of. I think I might feature one of them every so often on here because the summaries on the back covers alone are amazing.
It turns out these are a combination of “problem novels” and “female junior novels,” all ranging from the late '50s through '70s. I know this thanks to my friend Amanda who is a children’s lit professor who wrote her dissertation on NEGLECTED female junior novels. There were a few books in this lot that were things she’d never even seen in paperback!
So if you couldn’t already tell, this was really exciting for me. It’s just another example of the serendipity that sometimes happens–connecting you with a perfect item. I could tell that Erin was pretty much like “WTF” about my excitement, but she hid it well, and I applaud her for her efforts there.
The other thing I purchased at this sale was an antique 8x10 wedding portrait:
Isn’t it so cool? Also, there was a little note tucked inside that made me feel better about purchasing more old pictures of strangers.
Apparently even the previous owner had no idea who these people were.
-Sarah
Update from Erin: If Sarah sticks to her resolution of buying all 70s resin figurines, there are going to be a LOT more TTFYHO entries. I feel like a better 2013 resolution for Sarah is to buy NOTHING from the 70s. In fact, I was watching Market Warriors last night on PBS and the challenge this week was to buy stuff from the 70s and resell it at auction. Everyone on the show lost money…like a lot of money.
Anyway, the first sale on Friday was pretty grody. I came out of there covered in dust. Like Sarah mentioned, my trek into the crawlspace was fruitful. I found a bunch of boxes and inside one was an old Gruen automatic watch.
What is so amazing about this watch is that it sat so long without ticking (decades for sure) and the metal hands left little tarnish marks on the watch face. But because I had jostled the boxes in the crawlspace around, the watch started ticking again and was running great when I discovered it. How automatic watches are able to do this is beyond me…even more incredible than putting a man on the moon.
I paid a mere $5 for the watch, and it is blowing up ebay now.
Also, why didn’t I buy that dog portrait?! UGH. It was so great. I will kick myself over this for a long time.
The second sale was my worst nightmare. There was nothing for me to even look at while Sarah practically read each book she found cover to cover. I kept mincing around behind her like pacing animals do at the zoo when they are bored. I’m sure she appreciated it.
Our day didn’t end here though, stay tuned for a report on the auction we attended later that night.
-Erin