Dig This Treasure!

When I saw the listing for a “Collector’s Dream” sale, I had a good feeling in my gut that I might score some treasures.  The photos in the listing showed lots and lots of porcelain, and it looked high end.  I had my fingers crossed that there would be Herend-aplenty and that it would all be priced to move.

When we got to the sale, the Lord himself might as well have opened the doors for us, because I was like 99% sure we were in heaven.

The majority of the sale was porcelain, but they also had Limoges boxes, nutcrackers, vintage Christmas and Easter decorations, collectible pottery, and more.

There was also some random stuff, like this giant box of snow owls.

Anyway, I first zeroed in on this white Herend rabbit.  I normally only collect Herend fishnet pattern pieces, but I have always wanted this white rabbit.  He is seriously so adorable.  

They had him priced $45, which is about what he sells for on ebay.  I, of course, wanted a deal though.  While looking at him, a woman came up and asked if she could help me.  I told her that I am a Herend collector and love this rabbit, but would only be interested in him for $30.  She said that was fine.  I was thrilled.  Here he is now next to one of my other Herend rabbits:

The lady helping me mentioned that there were some other Herend pieces floating around, which I had missed on my first pass through the place.  She pointed out a small Herend trinket box and larger serving dish.  Both were in the Rothschild pattern, which again, I don’t collect.

What I do know about the Rothschild pattern is that a lot of other people collect it.  I checked ebay and saw that both of these pieces should be an easy sell.  However, the serving dish was marked $110.  I decided to push my luck again and ask the woman for a deal.  I told her that I was interested in the dish but could only offer her $50.  She said yes!  I was thrilled again.  As for the trinket box, I paid the full sticker price of $20 because I didn’t want to haggle with this poor woman again.

Both pieces are up on ebay, so we will see how they do!

I also bought some paper mache Easter eggs, which I’ve already packed away in our Easter decorations box.  Here is a photo I pulled offline though.  They are really similar.

I got 6 of them for $10.  

I’ll let Sarah tell you all about her huge scores at this sale.  She had quite the motherload.  Before that though, I’ll mention that we did hit one more sale this day.  It was awful.  You can probably tell by the decor:

Sorry Betty Boop collectors, I will never understand you.

Oh, also!  It was Sarah’s birthday, so we got manicures.  

Sarah is way older than me so I sometimes forget her exact age.  I think she just turned 44, but I am not sure.  Also, I made her this cake:

She really likes beagles.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I told Erin she couldn’t post the original version of that picture of me at the nail salon and her photoshopping made me laugh until I cried. Amazing. 

I already posted about my favorite find from the porcelain sale–the frog crossing sign. I also found a bunch of items to resell–the coolest and possibly most profitable of which are all of these Fisher Price Little People things. 

They had these things marked incredibly reasonably. I bought a farm, village, house, merry-go-round, and school bus, all for about $40. I grew up playing with Little People and now they don’t make the little ones anymore (I guess too many homies choked on them?) but Adam and I might keep the house for our future children. This won’t be the first time I’ll have kept something for my non-existent children. 

I also found this Italian made Pinocchio to resell,

and an adorable Pewabic tile. Mine looks just like that one but it’s blue. 

I also bought this little car from a huge mess of Department 56 Snow Village stuff. 

We had snow village stuff when I was growing up and this little car was my favorite piece. It was only $2. 

Here is one really cool thing at that sale that I didn’t buy. 

I didn’t buy it because it was $1200. It’s by C. Jere, who is a famous mid century sculptor, I think. Check out this amazing sculpture by him of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Wowee Zowee. 

The second sale we went to was the absolute worst. Everything was overpriced and stunk like cigarettes. For the first time in my life of estate saleing, I had to THROW AWAY something I bought when I got home. 

I bought this baggie of dolls because there were some Playmobil guys in there. When I opened the bag, all of the dolls smelled so bad. They are PLASTIC and smelled like smoke. WTF?! I should have known, though. Here’s what the rest of the sale looked like: 

I don’t know if you can make out that sticker well enough, but that is a $3 sign that says Help Retarded Children. 

P.S. I turned THIRTY FIVE, not 44. 

On Saturday, Sarah and I had big plans to attend the Michigan Modernism Expo, but on the way there we saw a sign that said “AUCTION TODAY.” Sarah turned her car around so fast that I assumed we were driving on two wheels momentarily.

It turns out that the auction was already in progress, and had been for about an hour. This was slightly devastating because everything left at the auction looked really good, so I assume the items we missed were also really good.

The auction was nearly all dolls, which was fine with us. Last time we went to a doll auction, Sarah cleaned up. And twice I have had crazy luck with dolls. First with a lot of dolls that included a German “dream baby” and the second time with an Arranbee doll with Armand Marseille head that I sold for $250.

Both of us blew our lids with excitement when we saw this Sasha doll still in the box. Since we learned about these dolls, we have both wanted one. Remember my fantasy about buying a mini ipad and moccasin boots for the Sasha doll version of me?

This was a “Sasha baby” and not really a “Sasha doll,” but you’ve got to start somewhere right? Because I am such a good friend, it was decided that Sarah would get to bid on this. Unfortunately it sold for like $90, and she didn’t get it :(

We also zeroed in on some Storybook Nancy Ann dolls. Somehow Sarah caught on to these being potentially valuable, and I started researching on my phone to confirm that.

So it turns out that some Nancy Ann dolls ARE mega valuable.

And others, not so much.

I figured out that the bisque dolls in general were the more collectible. The later plastic versions seemed pretty worthless. And it was important that all of the limbs be jointed. Other than that, it seemed like a crapshoot.

Only one of the Nancy Ann dolls at this auction was bisque and jointed, so I took a chance on her. And it seems like my dumb doll luck may have struck again.

Apparently silver shoes on a Nancy Ann doll are very rare. In addition, she has what are called “molded socks.” See those bumps above her ankles? Most of the dolls were smooth, but some had these socks, which were often painted white. In some dolls, like mine, the sock marks are there, but the white socks never got painted on.

Of course, I didn’t know any of this, but when I listed her on ebay, a kind Nancy Ann fan messaged me to tell me all about her. So cool!

I should mention one non-doll item at this auction that sold for some mega bucks. It was this weird mirror sculpture thing. I took a photo of it when we first got to the auction thinking it would make a good “hard to resist” item.

Well, the joke was on me, because this thing was made by Curtis Jere, the moniker of two famous mid century artists. It ended up selling for $700!!

You know what didn’t sell for $700? This box of doll heads:

[Editor’s Note: Sarah ended up buying these!]

-Erin