Dig This Treasure!

My antique-filled birthday extravaganza continued with a trip to Greenmead a couple weekends ago.  Greenmead hosts an antique market every few months during the summer, and it is truly one of the best.

Zach and I found our first treasure pretty quickly.  It was this great old oil painting from 1922.  The painting is of a Greek ship called the Greek Frigate Hellas.  Here’s a Wikipedia all about this ship, which was part of the Hellenic Navy.

Next, I met up with one of our loyal DTT readers, a cool guy named Rudy.  Rudy had a booth at Greenmead, and had messaged us to ask if we would be in attendance.  I had assumed that Rudy was a woman, as most of our readers are.  When I walked up and asked for Rudy, and he introduced himself, I said, “OH I THOUGHT YOU WERE A LADY.”  I am obviously great with first impressions.  After that little snag, Rudy and I chit chatted about collecting.  His booth was all vintage toys and action figures.  He had some Magic cards, so I asked about the infamous Black Lotus card.  He didn’t have any, which is fine because I didn’t have the 1000 bones to buy it.

What I also want to mention about Rudy, is that he is a great testament to the potential of this blog.  I’m not just here to make fun of Sarah and write about porcelain I want.  I also hope that in time, we become a hub for people who are looking for certain items, or who have things that we want to buy.  So that said, Rudy is always buying and selling vintage toys, action figures, and also vintage knives and weaponry.  If you have some, or want to buy some, message us and we will pass along Rudy’s contact information.

OK, so on to more goods…

I found this old blow-up guy from the 1960s.  His hat says “Tigers” but I don’t think he is Detroit related.  I still bought him for Timmy because I knew he would want him for his Tigers-themed den, which has items exclusively from the 50s and 60s.  

I also bought a McCoy pitcher to sell, and a 1968 Detroit Tigers ticket stub.  Zach found an old Red Wings postcard and a small wood music box in the shape of a piano.  Here are some things we passed on:

Zach was pretty shocked that I didn’t actually buy that butter bowl.  He and Sarah have a running joke that I am the “buttermaster” because frankly, I love butter.  Really, I love all condiments or spreads.  I contend that there are way worse flaws to have in life, like buying every dog themed item you can find at an estate sale.  

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Why in the hell is that butter bowl TEN DOLLARS? And I would have bought that Tarzan patch. 

On our way out of the Valley of the Dolls sale, I caught a glimpse of Erin in the daylight. I’m not sure how we didn’t realize it inside, but that house was absolutely filthy. Look at how much dirt is on Erin’s face!!! 

Need a closer look? 

Hand sanitizer did nothing for us–it just created a disgusting dirt hand salve. 

Also, before I forget, check out these two things I scored at the sale. One is horrifying and the other is hopefully lucrative. 

Can you guess which is which? Just kidding. Anyone out there need a juggalette doll. 

The other really terrific thing that happened when we left was that we noticed a dog inside a parked car. Not a big deal most days. But when it’s 92 degrees outside, it’s a big deal. Even if you have the two front windows cracked one inch. This provided me with a great opportunity to use one of my Urban A$$hole cards, but that wasn’t satisfying enough. Because I didn’t want the dog to die. So not only did I call the Troy Police Department, but I went back inside the sale and ratted the dog’s owners as well. They were, as I suspected, giant a$$holes. 

After all that fun, we headed to one more estate sale that happened to be located about 50 miles away. The pictures looked good, but it turned out to just be another hoarder sale, but not the good kind. This person was a hardcore crafter, and the house was filled with scrapbooking gear and gross holiday decorations that were made in China. I still ended up spending about $40 at this sale, but Erin was a the true winner. I’ll let her tell that story, but that might end up being an entry of its own. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: I was so sad when I found out my face was all covered in dirt.  I had been walking around that sale talking to people, including some teenage boys working at it!  How embarassing.  Talking to teenagers is the worst, let alone with dirt all over your sweaty face.

Sarah is right.  The second sale was totally bad hoarder.  Well, bad for us I guess.  No antiques or collectibles.  

This pretty much sums up the sale:

Although now that I post that, I feel like Sarah would have bought this if it was in her size.

I ended up finding a pair of wool clog slippers still in the box.  If you remember, I already bought a pair of bear slippers at a sale earlier.  I need slippers for all occasions though, and sometimes bear slippers are a little déclassé.  

I was getting super disappointed because I couldn’t find anything else to buy, and the sale was really crowded and hot.  Then I spotted something in a showcase up front.  It was a little mini Detroit Tigers nodder from the 1960s.  I knew from Timmy’s baseball collecting that mini nodders are generally rare, and this particular Tigers one was SUPER RARE.

I have no idea how it ended up at this sale.  It was like a shiny diamond in a pile of glass shards.  I was shocked.

The nodder was in seriously great shape.  No cracks, chips, paint loss.  The price on it was $165.  I NEVER spend that much at a sale.  The only time I think I’ve spent over $100 was at the “best sale ever”, and I walked out with a wagon full of items.

I called my dad and he told me that $165 is what he paid for his same version of this nodder, but that was years and years ago.  He told me he thought maybe it was worth $200-$250 now.  

So here’s the thing.  I actually LEFT this sale without the nodder, even though the sellers offered to come down on the price.  I kept telling Cindy and Sarah that it was “too risky.”  We made it about 1 mile down the road before I told Sarah to turn around so I could go back.

I bought the nodder for $120.  I was stressed and hyper about this.  My dad and I exchanged about 3 phone calls on the drive home to discuss this purchase.  I sent him photos of the condition, and we speculated if I had just got burned or not.

In the end, I got the opposite of burned.  This is so far the BEST single purchase I have ever made.  Literally within 30 seconds of listing this guy on ebay, he had a bid.  Things just went kind of crazy after that…

$429??? Truly the best.  I wish I had finds like this every week, but sometimes it’s all just bear slippers and kitten sweatshirts.

-Erin

I was fully prepared to return to the Mega Porn Sale once I realized all those paperbacks could be worth a hot dollar. I also knew I could convince Erin to come because the person who lived there seemed to have a ton of sports-related paper memorabilia and Timmy has trained Erin in the art of spotting when it is or isn’t valuable.  

We got a late start but finally returned. I advised Erin to start in the back yard where all of the papers were. I went back down to the basement and much to my dismay, a fellow porn-seeker had nabbed all of the paperbacks (except for the ones in super rough shape.) Still, I hung out in the room of porn and entertainment mags and ended up finding an issue of Life with Manson on the cover, and some old People and Time magazines about the Star Wars movies. I also found an issue of Hustler that seemed too weird to pass up. Erin snapped a picture of me sorting through the mess: 

The first day of the sale, there was a person in the room at all times, making sure no kids entered. On the second day, this wasn’t the case. So at one point, I see two little boys walk in and think, “Oh man… what am I supposed to do here?” because I’ve heard horror stories from other people when they’ve tried to “parent” a stranger’s kids. After a solid minute or two of no parents in sight, I asked them if their mom was nearby and said that this room wasn’t for kids. They left, thankfully.

It took Erin forever to get inside the house, which seemed like a good sign, and it was. But I’ll let her inform you about her finds. A few minutes after she got into the porn room, an older guy came in and the two boys were back again! Apparently he was their grandpa and they were showing him some toy they found. He told them they had to leave the room and then shouted out to them, “…And don’t touch anything in this house!” Erin and I both started cracking up, as did the grandpa. 

There were two other sales nearby that didn’t look that great, but why pass them up? At the first of these, I found two cool rag rugs and a holiday sweater that I will wear proudly and without irony. Here is one thing I did not buy…

…but only ‘cause it was empty! 

I found an old Superman mug and a vintage pasta maker at the next sale, both to sell. 

On the way to the last sale, we got a “snack” of Taco Bell cheesy gordita crunches (don’t judge (I got beans, not meat)) and after that tasty treat, Erin asked if I had a treat, which I often do. I gave her a Lindt truffle and as she was unwrapping it, it occurred to me that it was probably all melted from being in my bag all day. Bottom line: the truffle exploded onto Erin’s lap, so I kept making fun of her poo pants for the rest of the day because I’m a fantastic friend.

That was taken after she tried to clean it up with a taco bell napkin and water. Always a Girl Scout. 

The chocolate explosion occurred right before we were going into the last sale of the day, which was the best by far in terms of interesting things to look at. It was packed with stuff, the prices were fair, and lots of the stuff was really neat. I found some cool vintage wrapping paper and a ton of vintage cards that were bundled into different groups, and priced really reasonably. My favorite lot was this lot of cards from a baby shower in the '50s. 

If these are something you’re interested in purchasing, you’re in luck! 

I found a bunch of cool things at this sale, but this entry is getting long, so I’ll show you the best one: 

That is indeed a hanger with a St. Bernard head. And only $3! 

Right before we were leaving (they let us stay after closing time), I noticed this giant Santa that I had somehow not noticed for the 30 minutes I had been in the basement. It was super cool and old and wood, and marked $20, so I knew one of us had to take it home. I showed it to Erin and we admired it, and then she remembered that her dad really wanted some sort of old timey Santa for his house at Christmastime. We weren’t sure it was going to fit in the car because of its giganticness, but again, because we were both Girl Scouts, we made it work. Here is a picture of us with Santa inside Erin’s parents’ house: 

Don’t ask what I’m wearing. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: As Sarah mentioned, I went straight for the newspaper stacks outside at the “porn sale.”  It was 100 degrees out that day, and there were so many boxes stacked up to sort through.  I am SO BAD in the heat.  One time I threw up in the magical bushes at Disney World because I got heatstroke.  (Fun fact–this was actually the first time I threw up in the magical bushes.  Years later, I choked on a pill and threw up in said bushes again.)

So I am sweating like mad and moving all of these boxes around.  At one point I was sure I was going to pass out.  Lucky for me, this person was pretty organized in their newspaper hoarding, so eventually I figured out a good system to get through the boxes quicker.  Each box was a different year, so I just scanned the top papers in each box until I saw 1968.

I sorted through this box and ended up with a giant stack of Detroit Tigers World Series papers and scorebooks.  I was thrilled!  Timmy went through the stack later that day and estimated that I could make about $200 once everything is sorted and sold.  I paid $5 for all the papers.

That is just a small sampling of the papers I found.  Those Michigan football programs in the stack were found inside the house.  Again, this person was pretty organized.  There was a stack of manila envelopes and a few were labeled “Michigan Ohio State.”  I just grabbed all of those because I knew they would be most collectible.  Inside these programs are ticket stubs from the games too!

At the second sale I found an item that I would previously have considered a “holy grail.”  Zach and I are pretty obsessed with the Zodiac Killer, and both just finished reading a book about the case.  The lead suspect in the case wore a Zodiac brand watch.  I have never seen one of these in person, and we see TONS of watches at every sale.  Lo and behold, I found one.  It was pretty beat up, but it was still so cool to have as a collectible.  It was $5.

After doing some research, Zach and I realized that these watches are pretty collectible! I listed it on ebay and it’s getting a lot of interest.  The watch is rolled gold, and an automatic, which make it even more valuable.  I hope to find another one of these in better condition one day, and keep it.

The last sale had the best items by far.  I bought an old metal Coleco hockey game to sell, some Seiko watches to sell, and this adorable little guy:

Now that I know how collectible old rubber face toys are, I look for them everywhere.  In fact, I found this amazing blog all about these guys.  You can check it out here if you’re a fan of these toys too.

-Erin

P.S. My dad got home really late the night that Sarah and I dropped off Santa at his house.  He said that when he came inside he started screaming and running because he thought that Santa was an intruder.  BEST.

Disclaimer: I wrote this post like a CRAZY LONG TIME AGO.  Long before our tragic break-up with RePurpose sales.  I’m posting this because it is interesting, funny, and involves my dad, who is the best person of all time.

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Cash & Cari has come up a few times on this blog already, mostly because we cannot resist the cameras and the cameras cannot resist us. The cameras also cannot resist my dad, Tim.

After my taxidermy fox purchase on the show, I got a call from one of the producers. He asked what I did with the fox (made mad cash), if I was going to come to future sales (yes), and what types of items I look for at sales (Zuni jewelry, total garbage knick-knacks, and re-sellable odds and ends).

At this point I decided to pitch my dad for a future episode of the show. He’s the total package–a super savvy collector who drives a hard bargain but also wears ankle socks with slip-on loafers. He’s funny, he looks like Santa, he takes iphone lessons at the Apple store, and HE WAS IN THE MOVIE WHIP IT. I could go on and on.

Anyway, my dad DID end up on Cash & Cari. And it turned out to be truly awesome.

I had mentioned to the producer on the phone that my dad collects vintage baseball memorabilia, specifically anything Detroit Tigers. They ended up inviting him to a sale that had a set of seats from the now-defunct Tiger Stadium.

The ensuing interactions between Cash & Cari and my dad were hilariously scripted and kind of awkward. They told him when and where to arrive at the sale and how to “scope out” the Tiger Stadium seats. He made several passes by the seats (on camera) and then was told to wait while a meeting with Cari was orchestrated.

The seats were marked six hundred dollars, which is pretty insane.

So Cari comes over and my adorable dad is all like, “Yeah, these are cool, but I would have to offer you a lower price on them.” He then goes on to explain that Tiger Stadium had a capacity of over 50,000 people and that all of the seats were auctioned off when it closed. That’s a lot of seats. These ain’t no royal thrones. You get the idea…

In addition, my dad already has Tiger Stadium seats. He got them for $275 at the original auction. He’s totally into having some more for his little baseball cave at home, but $600 would break the bank. He offers Cari $200.

From this point on, my dad is forever branded as a “lowballer.” The narrator even says this on the resulting episode.

Timmy-I-tried-to-rip-off-Cari-on-national-television. That’s my dad.

Cari says no to the offer and my dad goes to leave. The producers intervene and tell my dad to come back to the sale the following day. The storyline will be that my dad cannot resist him some stadium seats. He must have them. He will arrive back at the sale and try to lowball Cari again. This time, though, he will be victorious.

So my dad comes back the next day and haggles on-camera again. Cari shows him an iPad with an ebay listing that is selling similar seats for $499. My dad tells her that the seats in THAT listing are special VIP seats that were available in smaller quantities, hence the higher price. (This whole exchange ends up edited out of the episode).

Then, Cari sells my dad the seats for $225. In the episode that aired, the seats were listed as having an original selling price of $400, NOT $600. I think the producers realized that the original price was way-off and tried to correct how that might look. This is good because my dad looked like a little bit less of a lowballer…still a lowballer though.  Even the narrator called him a lowballer.  

Here is my dad in his purchased seats, throwing an American flag baseball in the air. I wish he was wearing a hat made out of apple pie.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: If you watch this episode, you can see the $600 price tag at one point.