Dig This Treasure!

…Maybe?…

I know it’s been quite some time since y'all have heard from me, but I have to tell you about something crazy I just found in eBay World (new location: basement!) tonight. I decided to look at the abundance of home movies/8mm film I had down there, and finally get rid of it. As I was sorting through it all, I found this: 

I KNOW. 

So I yelled to Adam to come take a look. He has a manual 8 mm projector so he busted that out and discovered that it’s probably some footage from one of their 1964 Olympia Stadium shows in Detroit.

Adam could ID the base drum and some other stuff. 

The seats these people had were far away and the quality isn’t fabulous but… we shall see if there are any takers! 

For good measure, they decided to also include film of the Beatles performing on TV, as well as their children dancing. 

Totally awesome. 

If you know a Beatles fanatic who would be interested, spread the word! 

-Sarah

I’ve always stayed away from buying vinyl records because they seem notoriously worthless on the resale market.  Most sell for only $1 each, and even if you have a more valuable one, the record grading scale is super subjective and finicky.  On top of that, they’re also impractical to listen to nowadays, so you’re only selling to true collectors (who, like mentioned, are annoying and finicky).

Recently though, my interest in records has peaked. The first thing that changed my mind about these otherwise frisbees was friend Organtitus selling a Misfits record he bought in the 80s…FOR OVER $600.

AND IT WAS IN BAD CONDITION.  Wow.

Then, Zach went to Dixieland Flea Market to shop for old watches and stumbled on this:

And this:

Both of these albums are super rare.  The first is The 13th Floor Elevators debut album in Mono, which is apparently important to collectors.  This record in mint condition sells for over $1,000.  Zach’s copy had definitely seen better days, but for $20, it was worth buying for sure. 

What’s funny is that Zach looked right over this record because he wasn’t expecting to see it.  When looking at record collections, you expect to see the usual 3 Dog Night, Pat Benatar, and Wings albums.  You don’t expect to see a super rare and valuable album…especially not at Dixieland. 

The second album is the Silver Apples self-titled debut album.  While not particularly valuable, it is MEGA rare.  Again, this isn’t in great shape, but it was $2. 

Zach ended up selling The 13th Floor Elevators album for $100, even though the jacket was taped and the album had scratches.  Amazing.

And get this, the other day I was watching American Pickers and Mike Wolfe bought a copy of the Beatles’ “Yesterday and Today” album with the rare “butcher cover.”  The album was pulled for its controversial cover, but supposedly 100 copies still float around in existence today.

Mike paid $500 for his copy because it was pretty beat up, but this record can be worth as much as $15,000.

So what is the most rare record?  Or perhaps the most valuable?  Well, in 1999, a copy of John Lennon’s and Yoko Ono’s “Double Fantasy” sold for over $400,000 at auction.  The reason?  It was autographed by Lennon just hours before his death.  And who did he sign it for?  None other than this eventual murderer, Mark David Chapman.

Ok, so one last record thing.  Check out this super corny deleted scene from High Fidelity. It features most of the rarest records out there. It also features the corniest content of a movie scene possibly ever.

-Erin

Wow, we have really gotten caught up in the magic of summer and are behind in telling you about our various adventures over the past few weeks.

About three weeks ago, I tagged along with Cindy and zzpopps to the secret far away auction. When I first stepped into the place, I saw this pinball machine that had obviously been sold at a previous auction.

Adam is super into pinball machines and has two vintage machines that are in various states of disarray in our basement. I momentarily convinced him that I watched this one sell for $40. I am so mean. Anyway, that was a bold faced lie. I have no idea what it sold for, but I’m sure it was not $40 since homies will pay that much for a janky Transformer at this auction. Adam also wants everyone to know that that is NOT an official Beatles pinball machine—such a thing does not exist. But it is the only unofficial one that does exist. #immarriedtoanerd

The auction was packed with treasures that night, mainly on the “man stuff" side of things.

I saw that Vernors crate right away and knew I had to have it. I love me some burny ginger ale. I ended up with it but not without a fight. More on that in a minute.

These bats might have been worth something, but Erin is the resident sports memorabilia expert—not me.

While there were many cool things, there was also, of course, a plethora of things to laugh at.

Bedtime Bubba is a sassy, redneck bear for children to snuggle with at night. Here’s a picture of the back of that packaging that I snagged from eBay.

Look close. There is a lava lamp and a weird pudgy purple guy. WTF?

Check out those fancy magician hands.

First, let me show you two things that my mom bought. It’s been so long, I can’t remember anything else that she got!

I thought she was insane for purchasing this (I actually bid on it FOR her because when it came up, I didn’t think she was paying attention! Little did I know, she almost bid me up on it), but actually it seems like Cindy had some good Spidey sense that night. Here’s a similar one that sold:

My mom also got this adorable Horsman Mickey Mouse Club doll:

So cute! I don’t think she’s tried to sell either of these things yet.

So back to my Vernors crate. There was a woman at this auction who I’ve seen almost every time I’ve been there. Well, homegirl has the same taste as me apparently, because every single thing I wanted ended up being the same thing SHE wanted. My parents were laughing at me for getting so annoyed but it was CONSTANT. Anyway, when those crates went up for sale, I just let her go hog wild and take as many as she wanted. I just kept hoping she had no interest in Vernors and I was right. I ended up with that Vernors one and this Pepsi one:

They both came in handy because by the end of the night, I had a lot of stuff!

Every time I’ve gone to this auction, the very last thing the “man stuff" auctioneer sells are big box lots of various things. Until this visit, I hadn’t paid much attention to this area, but this small box of old advertising ephemera caught my eye. I liked these ice cream labels the most:

The way they do the box lots is they separate it into areas, letting people choice out boxes that they want—the highest bidder takes as many boxes as he/she wants for the price they win at. Anyway, right before the box lot auction started, my mom and I noticed that there was a big box of old half-filled apothecary/pharmacy bottles. Well, I was the high bidder at $25 and it was one of those “going, going, gone" moments and at the last minute, the Auction Thief swooped in and stole it from me. I was so annoyed that I just let her have it, hoping that those bottles weren’t what she wanted. But OF COURSE they were! Oh well.

In the end, I won the advertising lot:

And some boxes of books, and then one other box of really random stuff that happened to have an old Pelouze scale inside. I didn’t even notice the scale at first but I sold it for $22 the other day. I also discovered a little box of old soda and beer labels. I looked online and it seems like these don’t really sell, and I can’t figure out why in the world not, because they’re so cute!

Also, who can tell me what these are?

They’re big—like coasters. Is that what they are? There are smaller ones that I think are milk caps, but what the heck are these?

Ok, one final cute thing I found in one of the boxes that I won:

You may think it’s crazy to buy a big box of crap when you only know that there’s one good thing inside but hey, that’s what Goodwill is for! I figure I’ll find some neat stuff along the way and then just send the rest on to the next treasure hunter. I also got a couple of boxes of children’s books that I’ve sorted through—there were a few really good finds and the rest I just donated.

By the time we finished up that night, the place was totally empty!

I thought my dad was going to have a nervous breakdown when he saw how many boxes I purchased. ZZ gets a little agitated when it comes to packing cars. Thankfully, it all fit just fine!

On my way out, I was once again tortured by the sight of this amazing piece of furniture that’s always there when I go there. It seems like it’s sold because it has a sticker on it but I don’t know why it’s still always there. It looks like it was used in an art classroom.

If it was for sale and I had 1) a moving van and 2) some big, hunky men to move it for me, I’d snatch that thing up in a heartbeat!

-Sarah