Dig This Treasure!

If you haven’t read part one of this entry, you can do so here.  If you have read it, you know that my weekend of estate sales had started out rather interestingly.  It is always memorable when you enter a particularly horrifying home.  That said, nothing could have prepared me for the house Zach and I visited on Sunday.

The sale was listed as an emergency one day event.  There was not a clear explanation of what the urgency was, but I assumed the house needed to be cleared out quickly so it could go up for sale.  Sorry to say, however, this house won’t be on the market anytime in the near future.

When we walked in, I was astounded.  “Shocking” is an understatement.  This was the worst I had ever seen.

I hate using the phrase, “the pictures don’t even do it justice,” but it is true.  They really do not begin to describe what it was like being in the house.  You could not see the floor in any rooms except the bathroom and kitchen.  It smelled.  It was filthy.  And it was really, really effing sad.  There were TONS of children’s items.

It was just so, so awful.  Zach left as soon as we walked in the house.  I assume most people did. 

My strategy for the sale was to completely ignore everything out in the open.  I would literally skip whole rooms.  My assumption was that most of the things on the floor had already been rummaged through, and if they weren’t, then they were most surely broken from people trampling all over them.

If an area wasn’t already searched or trampled, then it was full of porn that no one wanted.

So instead, I looked for areas of the house that had not been accessed.  There were several crawlspaces upstairs, as well as parts of the basement completely blocked by debris. 

The guy in the photo above could not fit completely into that crawlspace.  When he moved out of the way, I climbed in and started moving boxes out of the way so I could get fully inside. 

This old trunk was empty, which was a huge disappointment for all my effort. 

I did find tons of boxes, however, that had not been touched in decades.  A lot of it was cheap Christmas decorations.  I found some baby shoes from the 1950s still in their original boxes and ended up buying them.  I also found old games, practically new.

There were also old children’s records, which I later sold on ebay for $25.

In the basement, I moved some boxes and climbed under a giant table to access an area previously blocked.

This guy is like WTF are you doing.

My efforts paid off though because I found some neat jackets stored inside sealed garment bags.  This meant that they were not completely filthy like everything else in the house.

Well, this shop jacket IS filthy, but at least not from the house itself.

I also found these old Detroit bank bags and a baseball for my dad.

The downfall in my strategy is that people started to notice, and would then try to follow me into crawlspaces or other tight areas.  This was super stressful because I am claustrophobic and also did not want to share my finds.  There was one lady at the sale who would snap at people who even glanced at her pile of items.  In general, she was just being a loud bully.  When she tried to climb into the crawlspace with me, I informed her that 1. there was no room, and 2. there were already people in line waiting to get in the crawlspace after me.

The bully explained that that’s “their problem” if they want to wait, and that she was “coming in.”  NOPE.  NO YOU ARE NOT, SALE BULLY.  I told her that she needed to “cool her jets” (God, I am such a mom), and that I could tell she was very excited but that no, I was not letting her in with me.  She was pissed but eventually gave up.

I just kept throwing things in bags I had found along the way.  I had old Disney drinking glasses, old hotel barware, old McDonald’s cups, some Christmas garland from the 1950s, a baseball bank from the 70s that will go to Timmy, plus all the stuff you see above. 

I paid $40 for everything, which turned out to be a steal.  Most of the items have already sold on ebay.

So that’s it.  Pretty remarkable if you ask me.  You really never know what is behind closed doors, even in today’s overshare culture.  And while interesting, I am hoping to avoid another sale like this for awhile.

-Erin

I am one of those people who is totally cool with listening to Christmas music the day after Halloween.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving, but I see no reason that it cannot be celebrated concurrently with Christmas.  Christmas is basically a season–there’s Spring, Summer, Fall, and Christmas.  Oh, you’re saying that it is technically still Fall and that Thanksgiving happens in the Fall?  OK, let me revise.  There are only three seasons–Spring, Summer, and Christmas.  Halloween marks the end of Summer.

Thankfully, there are many people who agree with my cult of Christmas ideology.  One of them, Rachel Lutz, from the Peacock Room in Detroit, recently held a vintage Christmas ornament sale.  By “recently” I mean the sale was on November 7, smack dab in the Christmas season.

The sale was held in the lobby of the Park Shelton apartments in downtown Detroit.  In case anyone is worried about whether Detroit is actually on its way back, please review that last sentence.  There was a VINTAGE CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT SALE IN DETROIT.  We back baby, we back.

I got there about an hour after the sale started and it was pretty much cleared out.  People were super upset about this.  What do you expect though?  This was the first year for the event and everything was priced reasonably.  Each ornament was 50 cents-1 dollar.  Some were $5.  People snatched up handfuls and handfuls.  There was no way that the organizers could have anticipated the demand.  Anyway, the people whining are not true Christmas lovers, as they were not acting at all in the Christmas spirit.

Some rarer items were priced high, but still reasonable. 

And then there was this monstrosity:

I mean, it is kind of cool.  Just a lot going on.

I ended up buying lots of things, mostly plain ornaments.  Mostly Shiny Brite brand.

This old German garland was my best find.  It is mega old.  At the latest, it is from the 1920s, but perhaps from the turn of the century.  This photo does not do it justice.

I am hoping to get a tiny vintage tinsel tree to display all of these pieces, so hopefully at a sale soon I can find one.  If not, I will buy a repro one from Target or something.  Now that I think of it, that might be the better idea.  Some of those old trees are flammable. 

Some are even “non-inflammable.”  Whatever the hell that means.  Here is one I saw on Craigslist.

Non-inflammable?  So…flammable? 

-Erin

…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 broke Erin out of Baby Jail on Friday while Granny Sandy watched lil’ E. We were both thrilled to see each other–while I love that baby, it’s just not as fun to estate sale without Erin there to harass me the whole time. 

We started out afternoon off right–by eating some garbage at Daly’s. Be sure to click that link if you want to see the jankiest website ever created. When it was time to get moving, we kept it close, just in case there was a baby emergency, and stopped by three sales in Livonia. The first was pretty grubby.

I stumbled upon this award winning title but decided to pass.  

Basically, everything was yucky.

I did find one treasure–a 1943 Esquire Vargas pin-up calendar, that’s complete and in good shape. I spent $40 which seems like a good investment. 

While in the basement, I started hearing some commotion above me on the main floor. The old lady running the sale had a really loud smoker’s voice. She yelled downstairs like a lunatic, “RALPH! HAVE YOU SEEN THE CALENDAR?????!!!!” as if some crazy ninja had come through the house and stolen it. I meekly let Ralph know that I had the calendar in my hand and planned on buying it. Ay yi yi.

Next up on our agenda was a sale that was at the home of an antiques dealer, who seemed to specialize in linens. Neither of us collect fancy linens but it seemed worth stopping at. 

That’s the linen room, and there I am, lookin’ like a big dummy (but sporting my cute buffalo plaid coat from last winter.) Shockingly, I have sunglasses on my head. I swear, one day I’m going to just do a post of all of the pictures of me on this blog with sunglasses on my head. It could be pouring rain and I think the picture would still have me with sunglasses on my head. 

Right away, I spotted these adorable Holt Howard Santa mugs inside a china cabinet. I bought them, so here they are. 

Are they not the most adorable? Anyway, as I was carefully removing these from the cabinet, I somehow knocked a tiny port wine glass off the shelf and it shattered all over the floor. It’s amazing how much attention you can attract by breaking glass inside a stranger’s house. (Note: I immediately offered to pay for the broken glass but the woman running the sale was very nice and told me not to worry about it.) 

The sale contained a mix of modern and antique goods…with some general garbage mixed in. 

Those were some awesome masks–but the set was marked $25 and it was too steep. They were made on really heavy boards, but still…too risky. 

I found a few other items at this sale but that was mainly when I went back the next day to pick up something that I’ll feature another day as a Fave Find. When we went back, I realized I hadn’t gone into the garage at this house and out there, I found a handful of very cute little dudes to put in my mini holder. 

The cutest is that teeny tiny kewpie. 

I also bought these cool Duralex mugs (set of 6) to resell. One of them had some very prehistoric dead bugs inside. 

Anyway, while I was trying to check out, the woman from the estate sale company kept talking to me about how I had a “great eye” and kept talking my ear off about it. I just thanked her and nodded politely because I got the impression she thought I had never been to an estate sale. 

The last sale ended up being the most fruitful, and it was a total accident! When we first got there, we had to walk down this super long driveway to get to the house, because it was in the middle of some woods. Here’s the first thing that caught my eye. I wanted Erin to buy it because she wears pins a lot, but she didn’t. 

The house backed up to a gorgeous wooded area with a little stream running through it. 

That picture doesn’t even really do it justice. It was so beautiful. 

I made my way upstairs and found a room of old children’s books, toys, etc. I noticed a box of old films right away and asked how much they were. The guy there said $5 for the whole box. I was super excited but didn’t want to lose my cool. I then noticed this packet of stuff that was marked $15. Inside, I noticed these old brochures about the Detroit Free Press, but then I saw that there was a record inside. 

WHOAAAAAA! You can listen to both of these things here. 

Anyway, while I was looking around, the guy in that room asked me what sorts of things I normally look for, and I told him paper, photographs, books, etc. He said, “Slides?” and I about leaped with excitement. I told him yes and he said he was going to check to see if there were any left. I expected him to bring down a little box of slides but when I turned to look for him, I saw him coming down the stairs with an enormous stack of carousels. 

I felt a little overwhelmed because, as he was walking, I could hear another guy asking him how much he was charging for the slides. The estate sale guy was pretty good at reinforcing that he was bringing them for me to look at, but the other guy was just relentless. As soon as he put the slides down, the guy zoomed over to me and was literally ON TOP OF ME, breathing down my neck. I don’t do well with people invading my personal space to that degree–especially when they seem to be interested in stealing my amazing merch–so I was not very friendly. He proceeded to grill me about what I was going to do with them, where I sell them, and how he could find my listings! WTF?! I asked if he wanted the slides and he said that he didn’t–he just knew the guy who lived at the house. It came out that he was just a neighbor, and in the end, all I could picture was a peeping tom, staring in this poor old man’s windows.

In the end, I was successful in buying ALL of the slides. 

And the man charged me ONE DOLLAR per carousel. Yeaahhhh! 

The only other thing I purchased at this sale worth mentioning was this awesome photograph of a girl and her great dane. 

I can’t reiterate how fun it was to get out with my homegirl. I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder! And for all you baby crazed folks, here’s a current picture of Everett, chilling in his Mamaroo. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: I really did feel like I was breaking out of Baby Jail.  I felt like I was a wanted felon on the run and at any moment I would be picked up and escorted back to my house.  This was seriously like the third time I had been out in public during the last month.  It was amazing.

I didn’t buy anything at the first sale because it was indeed yucky.  At the second sale, it was the best ever when Sarah broke that wine glass.  I heard a huge crash in the kitchen area and immediately exclaimed, “Rut Row!”  (You know, like the Scooby Doo version of “Uh oh!”)  I then thought to myself, “Oh man, Sarah is right in the middle of that melee.” Then I realized that Sarah WAS the melee.  So good.  You could tell she was mortified.  

I did buy an amazing treasure at this second sale, but I will detail it in a “fave find” entry.  At the third sale, guess who was there to greet me:

Can you believe it?!  Those same g*ddamn snowmen came out to welcome me back to sale-ing! 

This last sale was seriously fun.  The house was like a weird dollhouse with a million tiny rooms.  There were also multiple levels of the house all separated by tiny half staircases.  And some rooms were too small to even stand up in.

I ended up buying two old, framed photographs.  I am going to display these at Easter.  They bring me such joy.  

I also found one of those old Detroit Zoo scrapbooks as shown in this entry.  I paid $1 for it and my sister said I could resell it easily.  It is in perfect shape.

All in all a great day!

This past weekend Zach and I hit two sales in nearby Grosse Pointe.  Normally, sales in this area are overpriced but, since it was Sunday, we figured we could find some deals.  The first sale was actually supposed to be in the Boston Edison neighborhood of Detroit, but the address said it was in Grosse Pointe.  This was really confusing.  I LOVE going to sales in Boston Edison because all of the houses look like this:

I know what you’re thinking…THAT’S IN DETROIT?!  Yes, yes it is.  I filmed a “behind the scenes” making of a music video for a band in one of these houses once.  You can see it here if you’re curious about how baller these places are.

So basically, I was so excited to go to this sale because even if we didn’t find anything to buy, at least we got to scope out a cool mansion.  Turns out though that the company running this sale had simply removed items from one of these houses and stuck them all in a retail space in Grosse Pointe (hence the address confusion).  UGH.

Things were kind of thrown around and it was pretty cramped.  This girl was sitting on the floor right in one of the walkways sorting through tangled jewelry.  Since it was hard to move and because things were scattered everywhere, I kind of gave up looking.  We were about to leave when I noticed a box of old horse ribbons on the ground.

I love old horse ribbons because they are colorful and pretty.  I had a gut feeling that people must buy these and so I consulted ebay.  Sure enough, they do sell.  I bought the whole box for $12.  Did you know that there are all sorts of horse ribbon crafts you can make?  Indeed there are!

Here is a whole entry about these old ribbons from fellow antique blogger Mitzy from Mitzy’s Miscellany.  The best ribbon in my box was this super huge one:

After leaving this place, we hit one more sale nearby.  The house was gorgeous and they were selling mostly furniture.  There were some smaller items though, except that everything was priced extravagantly.

Even tiny decorative boxes were marked $50-$75 each.  Usually we see them for $5-$10.  Zach found this little plate he liked but it had two price stickers on the bottom.  One said $25 and another said $2.  I went to ask which price was correct, although I was SURE they would say the $25 one.

Lo and behold, the guy told me that this was only $2!  I realized then that maybe these people running the sale were willing to wheel and deal.  They did have a lot of stuff left in the house, and it was all mega overpriced.

Zach bought this old print for $10 and then I found this weird old plaque.  I wasn’t really sure what it was from, but I loved the look of it.  Give me some old metal and wood and I’m sold.  

I thought this would be great on a wall in our house.  I also thought it might be equestrian-related (I must have been on my horse kick from earlier), but after some googling, it turns out to be from a church mission group in the 1950s.  Here’s the thing though…this was priced TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS.  I know right?!  That is insane.  

I carried the plaque around for awhile and then got the courage to ask one of the workers about the price.  I was totally honest with him and said how much I loved the plaque, but that it was way too high for me.  I then asked him outright if they were trying to get rid of stuff or if the homeowner would rather keep what was left over.  He said that the owner was an interior decorator and would probably just keep everything.

He then told me that he could go $75 on the plaque.  I told him I didn’t want to be disrespectful, but that I could only be in on it for $25.  He gave me a pretty resounding “NO” but I could tell that the wheels were turning in his head.  I held onto the plaque and waited a few seconds until he said, “Ok ok, how’s $30?”  I took the deal.  I think this guy realized that he could get his commission on $30 or on $0 and he chose the former.

Driving home, I noticed that the little medallions on this plaque are stamped “SILVER” really tiny.  I don’t know much about scraping metals, but maybe that is why the thing was priced so high?  And maybe now I should scrap it instead of hanging it on my wall!  If someone is an expert on this, let me know.  My only experience with scrapping was that time I bought a Muffy doll accidentally wearing a real gold chain.

-Erin

You might remember my trip to Canada last year, and if so, you will be pleased to know that Zach, my parents, and I made the trek again last weekend.  Again, let me reiterate that I LOVE Canada.  I love the people, the Coffee Crisp bars, the weird fake play money they have, the accents, and of course, the antiques.  For some reason it seems like I see the same ol’ treasures at antique markets here in the States, but as soon as you hit the ones in Canada, you see all sorts of things you never knew existed.

Before I tell you about our trip, I should mention that Zach almost ruined it for us.  Since I got pregnant, he vowed not to cut his hair or beard until the baby came.  As a result, he looks like a serious crazy person…at least customs thought so.  In Michigan we get enhanced drivers’ licenses that let us visit Canada.  This apparently wasn’t enough to get Zach in.  They asked for extra identification and his birth certificate, which he didn’t bring along.  They then grilled him about ever living in other countries (he hasn’t).  You could tell the customs dude was profiling him pretty hard, maybe assuming the beard meant he was Middle Eastern.  Anyway, Zach got asked a million questions about where he was born and such and such, until finally they let us through.  Thanks a lot Zach.

Here is a reference photo of Zach, just for good measure.  (He found this hat at the Duty Free shop later that day.)

So on we went with our trip, our first stop just outside Grand Bend at Dale’s Antiques.

Pregnant lady crossing.  Move it or lose it:

There were a lot of interesting things here at Dale’s, but I actually didn’t buy anything!

Mellow Man Ace was Zach’s nickname in high school.  Also, are those cigars in that dude’s pocket?  They look like blood test tubes. 

I actually LOVED these pigs, but I knew they would probably freak Zach out.  Plus we are low on wall space in the house.

I also liked this rubber-faced chicken.  I thought I could probably sell him on ebay.  The guy selling him though wouldn’t barter at all, and so I passed on him.  Plus he was a little dirty and someone had cut off the felt crest from his head.

What do you guys think?  Should I have bought him?

Our second stop of the day was at a place called The Pinery.  It is much bigger than Dale’s but is more flea market than antique market.  If you need healing crystals, butter tarts, and wolf t-shirts, this is your place.

Or if you need “little nugget coats” apparently.  Also, WTF is a nugget coat.

I did find two things to buy here.  The first was this soldier for Zach.  He’s just cruising along in his big wheeled military vehicle.  It kind of looks like a monster truck.

This soldier had a price tag of $10 on it and when I went to buy it, the seller was all angry because he said it was mis-marked.  He said it should have been priced $45.  I just kind of stood there dumbfounded with a $10 bill in my hand.  After a quiet standoff, he took my ten dollars and I slowly backed away.

The second item I bought was this knit baby sweater, which is clearly not antique or collectible.  It was however made by a grandma, so that makes it old by proxy.

Here are some things I did not buy:

Seriously, more wasp nests.  Is there a secret cult of people who collect these?  I really don’t get it.  What’s the buzz all about?  Har har har.

I’ve always loved these old horse racing games. This would look so nice on a pedestal and with a glass dome over it.  

No one else really found anything to buy.  I think my mom bought some Zucchini bread.  Zach bought some booze at the Duty Free Shop.  And Timmy, well, he bought us all lunch.  Thanks Timmy.

-Erin

On Friday, Adam and I went to the wedding of a family friend, and it was held at The Henry Ford. If you’re not from Michigan, you might not be familiar with this joint, but it’s a museum filled with lots of industry-related old things. The reception was awesome because it was basically in the middle of the museum and you could go look at whatever you wanted! So that’s what we did. 

This is what I take out on the town when I’m feeling really fancy. 

This is what I take out on the town when I’m not feeling fancy. 

Obviously since Henry Ford was so into cars, there are a lot of cars in this museum. Here are some cool ones. 

Hey now! Another Bugatti! 

This is what I drive when I wear my robot suit. 

Ok, this is really my favorite car there. Besides of course, this one. 

Bring back the Escort, b*tches! The Focus sucks! 

Ok, there were many other things at the museum besides cars. Like trains.

And Holiday Inn signs and fake rooms.

A furnished cabin.

An old camper

The first wireless remote (an awesome invention, I must say.)  

This cute soldier doll (seriously I wanted to drop an elbow on the glass and take this guy.) 

A giant McDonald’s sign, and a little diner. 

A fake gas station where I seriously tried to use the ladies room. Thankfully nobody was around when this occurred. 

Lots of Mold-A-Rama machines (I made a Rosa Parks bus).

A Game of Thrones chair (looks like something Zach and Erin would own.) 

This chair that gave Adam a boner. 

This cool stuff. 

A bunch of steampunk things.

And finally, my favorite, the Wienermobile. I’ve been watching a lot of The Price is Right. What do you think of my modeling skills? 

Because my husband is a 5th grader, he made me pose for this photograph: 

As you can see, I am not very pleased. 

-Sarah

Just in case you were worried, Erin and I are once again officially BFFs and made up after our Jerry Springer style argument in her driveway last week. We started our adventure in Warren at a sale run by the same woman who ran the sale from last week that I speculated was actually held at her house. Erin had some mad love for that lady when leaving the sale last week but the tables turned this time around. Erin has a habit of fluctuating between feelings of love and hate toward the people who run these sales, while I’m usually more ambivalent (except for my favorite guy ever–the guy who tried to hook us up hard at the Best Sale Ever.)

Anyway, this sale was the worst but we did find some funny things. This is the best of the bunch: 

If you’re struggling to determine what those are, they’re two handmade refrigerator magnets. The one on the left is a pig that says (in little alphabet noodles glued on), “Porky are you eating again?” The one on the right is a cow that says, “Holy cow are you eating again?” I had to buy the cow. 

Basically, everything at this sale was either made by Avon or found at the dollar store. I’m not into either of these things, so I was sad. 

Here are some items that I passed on: 

I can’t even remember what I bought at this sale, besides a little pile of letters that I thought were affair letters, judging by the first few lines of one of them. I haven’t read them in their entirety but Erin read some of them aloud to me in the car and it turns out they’re really depressing letters from a sister to her brother about having cancer. That’s what I get for being nosy! Also insane: I had a tiny stack of cards and the lady told me it was $5. I am talking like, three cards. In this stack was an old brochure about Cedar Point that I wanted to buy for a friend’s kids. She told me, “that brochure alone is worth $3!” Really, lady? ON WHAT PLANET? You should be thanking me for getting rid of the crap that nobody wants! I told her to forget the brochure and I’d give her $2 and she told me she had to recalculate the cost because she was giving me a “bundle deal”… WTF?!

Next stop was a sale in Mt. Clemens. This sale contained a ton of antique furniture, but most of it was in really bad condition. I got a box of really old wrapping paper that was in great shape, and a vintage little girl’s pea coat. Erin got a box that had visible bird poop in it. I wanted this thing until I saw the made in China sticker. I ONLY BUY AMERICAN.

Just kidding. I just didn’t realize it was a reproduction at first. I still don’t know what it was supposed to be, but it reminded me of a card catalog (but real card catalogs have labels on the drawers.) 

The next sale we hit up seemed promising but ended up not being that great either. But it was really weird and time-warp-y and there were the most lawn ornaments I’ve seen in a while. It was also worth going to because the house was arranged really weirdly (it seemed like over half of it was a screened-in porch) and there were lots of funny things to see: 

Again, what is UP with these depressing statues? We see them basically at every sale now. 

Classy lady, classy car. 

Spuds MacKenzie. 

Private parts statue. 

…and… a ladyman with very large penis under her skirt. 

I found a few good things at this sale. First, a real deal garden gnome. I have a handful of lawn ornaments and he will be a good addition. I also got a couple of cute things to sell. Here is one of them: 

Yes, that is a kitten wearing a yellow beret and blue glasses. 

It’s past my bedtime, so I’ll let Erin update you on the Grey Gardens Man sale. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: I was disappointed with the seller lady at the first sale because she was being outrageous with her pricing.  Last week she gave me all sorts of deals, even when I didn’t ask for them.  Yet this time, she tried charging me $1 each for a stack of old dirty Christmas magnets.  The magnets were handmade out of felt and had some sequins glued on them.  They were cute obviously, but as a general rule, ANY magnet in the world should be 25 cents.  $1 each?  You’re out of your mind.

The second sale was great.  Sarah thought the furniture was all gross, but she was wrong.  It was like the movie Aladdin, you had to be willing to see the diamond in the rough here.  I bought an old cabinet for my new porcelain pieces.  

After some windex and Lysol, it looks amazing:

As for the “box with visible bird poop” that Sarah mentioned, this was actually an old DRAWER, that I planned to turn into a shelf.  It wasn’t really covered in bird poop, it had drops of old paint on it.  It did however have some mouse poop on it.

All you gotta do is hose that shit off, sand it, and stain it…WHICH I DID.

Look! Room for more porcelain!

At this sale I also got an old Minnie Mouse wind-up watch from the 60s.  It is apparently collectible, and most people start it on ebay at over $100.  I have it up now and it’s doing great.  I paid $10.

The next sale was awful, despite having a million cute sheep lawn ornaments.  

They were selling things like this:

Watch, that doll is probably like CRAZY VALUABLE.  

Ok, this entry is getting so long.  You all need to email us if these jumbo posts are annoying, and we can try condensing…

The last house was in Detroit and was a crazy mansion.  Rooms up on rooms up on rooms.  

Things started out promising, but the further you went in the house, everything got weird and abandoned.

Look at those walls and the ceiling.  They needed me to get up in there and hang some bird poop shelves and fill them with porcelain.

Oh wait, looks like someone already was moved in:

OK, one more Grey Gardens-esque pic…

I bought an old, giant Mae West poster at this sale for $3.  That’s it I think.  I didn’t buy this poster which some perv had drawn all over:

-Erin