Dig This Treasure!

I briefly mentioned a purchase I made at this sale, but promised a full rundown.  So here it is…

If you remember, I had planned to return to this sale on its last day and hopefully score some deals on Herend porcelain.  When I saw that the Herend was all sold, I had to come up with a new plan.  I was prepared to spend around $200 on Herend, so I figured, what the hell, might as well take a chance on something else.  Except I didn’t want to take a $200 risk on something non-Herend…

I ended up taking a $90 risk on this piece of Moorcroft pottery:

The photos don’t even do this justice.  It is handpainted and crazy beautiful.  The shiny glaze makes it look extra fancy.

Before this sale I had never even heard of Moorcroft pottery.  I did some brief research on it after the first day when Sarah and I visited the sale.  From what I can gather, Moorcroft started in England around the turn of the century.  Early pieces are crazy valuable because they are made by the founder William Moorcroft.  Later pieces are made by William’s son Walter and are still collectible, just not as pricey.  From what I can tell, Moorcroft is still made today.

Here’s what we’re dealing with people:

That’s some expensive-ass pottery.  $90 certainly seemed like a good investment.

I decided to buy this particular piece because it was the pomegranate design and I read that that style was highly desirable.  I also bought this piece because as I was looking at it, this dude started hovering near me.  He was staring at the bowl like it was a giant glass of water and he was in the Sahara.  Finally he said to me, “Are you going to buy that?"  I said I wasn’t sure and he asked to look at the bowl.  He explained that he was a Moorcroft collector and this was an excellent piece except that it looked like it had been repaired.  Really?  There were absolutely NO signs of this.  Not one line or discoloration that suggested the piece had ever been chipped or cracked. 

I walked around for awhile with the bowl and saw the guy staring at me and following me.  Then another guy, who had seen our interaction, came up and said, "I hope you know that that guy wants you to put that down.  He’s trying to convince you not to buy it so that he can."  So that was the final straw.  Of course, when you know someone wants something you have, it makes you want it more.

I did actually start to fall more and more in love with this bowl and even considered keeping it.  It was like a repeat of Little Dummy, where I decided I might be too in love with something to sell it, even though I knew I was probably going to make a lot of money.

In the end, I did sell the bowl, and I did make money:

Turns out though that the bowl might have once had a lid, which was now missing.  Two separate people messaged me to say that.  If it had a lid, the piece would have sold for twice as much.  Whomp whomp.

Overall though, still a good investment and return.  So keep an eye out everyone!

-Erin

Yesterday my parents surprised me with a gift to kick off the Christmas season.  It was this amazing Russian lacquer art pin.  I actually saw this pin LAST YEAR in Holly, MI (you can read about that trip here).  My parents snuck back and bought it to give me this year.  I know, seriously nice (and kind of insane).

I didn’t know anything about Russian lacquer art until I went to San Antonio last year and saw some elaborately painted boxes in an antique store.  The owner explained that they were hand painted in Russia using super fine horse hair.  The process was labor intensive and artists used magnifying glasses to create ultra detailed scenes.  Most lacquer art features fairy tale imagery.

Most boxes are pretty little, so you can just imagine the work it takes to create such intricate paintings.  Besides boxes, Russian lacquer art can be found on cigarette cases and pins.  

Antique lacquer art sells for big bucks, so keep an eye out!  Lacquer art however is still made today, so it is easy to buy an affordable piece should you want one.  Here is a sampling though of just how high prices can go on this stuff:

Neat, huh?  I love all of these pieces!  They are so gaudy, yet whimsical. 

-Erin

So upon my return to sales with Sarah, I mentioned I found a really amazing treasure. I spotted it at the home owned by a former antiques dealer from Germany. When I first saw this, I thought it was an old metal mold.

And then I realized that it was a tiny replica of an iron maiden!  So creepy!  But also so cool!  I love antique metal items and miniatures, so this was right up my alley.  I was concerned though that it was a little too gruesome to have in our house.  I consulted Zach on this:

He was obviously on board.  I paid $22, which turns out is a great deal!  Look at this other one that sold on ebay:

I don’t plan on selling mine, but it is good to know that if one day I do, it’ll be filed under our “Money Makers” category.

Do you have a “Fave Find?”  Perhaps your own miniature torture device?  Tell us about it on our Facebook page!  

-Erin

Two weekends ago, I went out to Portland for a short visit while Adam was at a conference there. It was my first time in Portland and it was very overwhelming. So many cool things to do/see/eat/buy! Unsurprisingly, I found lots of very cool vintage and antique shops, but one with some of the coolest items that I saw was Hoodoo Antiques. 

Most of the stuff in this tiny store was of the large/furniture/industrial variety, but there were some cool smaller items as well. 

I really liked these Winslow Health vintage educational posters made by Denoyer-Geppert. They were out of my price range–between $200 and $275, but I felt like that was reasonable for the condition they were in. It turns out that’s actually a little high… Oh well! They were still super cool. 

I talked to the guy who runs the shop and he told me that this “red” sign is the only thing that remains from an old grocery store (I think!) … I can’t remember exactly what he told me but damn that sign is cool. It was huge! 

I loved these old elementary school handwriting signs. 

In this picture with the scary alligator, you can sort of get a glimpse of the only thing I bought here–an old Anri mechanical cork. It’s in the lower right of the picture and looks sort of like this:

I have another mechanical Anri cork that my mom unearthed at my grandma’s before she passed away last spring. The guy only charged me $20, which seemed fair. The only other thing I was interested in was this squirrel nutcracker. 

I didn’t even ask about the price because it was so heavy (oh yeah, what was up with nothing being priced in this store?!), there was no way I was carrying that back home on an airplane. And it turns out they’re pretty easy to find on eBay. 

Stay tuned for more cool finds from Portland! 

-Sarah

While I’m stuck being semi-reclusive (and I have a job where I have partial summers off), I’ve decided that I need to try to list as much as I can on eBay before I have to go back to work in the fall. There have been many occasions where Erin and I discover that we have something valuable that we had no idea was worth anything, and that’s what this post is about. 

Sometime in the winter, Erin and I hit up a sale where I spotted this very cute handmade toy ark. 

The top opens up and holds all of the little animals, and the bottom also opens up and reveals a tiny staircase and more storage. It’s so cute. I bought it for $15 and thought I might keep it, but then realized that one Noah’s Ark is enough. (You’re welcome, Adam.) 

One of the reasons I bought it, was that it was marked “Made in Germany” on the bottom. I’ve learned from my mom that things made in Germany or Sweden are often very collectable and people running sales often don’t know this because there are so many new cheap reproductions. Anyhow, in the process of looking this up before listing it, I was very pleased to discover that some of these old handmade German arks are worth LOTS of money.

I’m not going to count any eggs before they hatch, and I don’t think mine has as much character or age as some of the others I’ve found, but there are already 32 people watching this thing. So I’ll keep my fingers crossed!

In the meantime, check out some of the coolest ones I found while doing my research. 

I want them all!

-Sarah

Six months ago, I found an Arranbee “Dream Baby” doll at a sale, and took a chance on it for $50.  At the time, I think I referred to this doll as a “dumb little idiot” because it looked really funny without its dress on.

This dummy grew on me though, and I started to really love it.  I bought it specifically to sell, but I remember waiting to list it on ebay while I decided whether to keep it.  This was REALLY strange for me, because I have never been a doll person, not even as a child.  I’ve only bought one other doll to keep, and eventually sold it after a month or so after falling out of love.

But there was something about this Arranbee doll that I loved.  I think it was its cute little face and weird little teeth.  And it also has something to do with its stubby little body.

Look!  Someone even put a tiny handmade diaper on it.  Probably a child in the 1920s or something.  So cute.

Ok, so I am dragging this out, but here is the deal.  So six months ago, despite being in love, I sold this darn thing on ebay for a whopping $250.  The money made my love affair less important to be honest.  I was thrilled.  I packed little dummy up in a million pounds of bubble wrap and shipped him off to California.

But then, little dummy came back.  Because little dummy’s stupid little dumb eyes fell out of its skull while being shipped to California.  The doll had “sleepy eyes” which opened and closed, but the jostling around of transit had loosened them.

Luckily, I had paid for insurance with USPS, so I filed a claim and got reimbursed the full $250.  That way, I could refund the buyer, and still have made my sale profit.  

I wasn’t sure what to do with little dummy when he came back all eye-less.  But then I found a doll hospital in Berkley, MI.  The doll ended up staying there FOR FOUR MONTHS.

And then yesterday, little dummy came home.  I started singing that Eminem song that goes, “Guess who’s back?  Back again…”

So what will happen to the Dream Baby now?  Well, it’s back up on ebay of course!!  That’s not to say I didn’t struggle for a good half day on whether to keep it…

-Erin