Dig This Treasure!

Two weeks ago, Sarah and I hit the streets again after a brief hiatus.  There was a sale nearby run by one of our favorite companies. When we walked in, I was very excited. The place was packed and everything looked pretty neat.  

I was interested in those old glass pharmacy bottles in the photo above, but they were $5 each.  That seemed a little steep.  They sell on ebay for around the same price, so I would have needed to buy the whole box for cheap.  I moved on.

There was an abundance of Native American items at this sale.  Many of them were legit (they had a gorgeous Zuni fetish necklace but the string was broken and the beads were loose.)  That said, they also had some super wacko sh*t like this:

To Sarah’s delight, there were a million books.  There was even a light up sign that said, “BOOKS.”

Look at that baby bump!!!  Adorable.

Ok so Sarah totally wanted that big sign.  It was marked $150.  It should’ve been marked like maybe $50.  Sarah had me text Adam to ask if he would be down with her buying it.  This is how it went:

Whomp whomp.  No sign for Sarah.

Sarah did buy a boatload of thing she will update us later on.  I ended up buying just one thing, a piece of Hadley Pottery with an Indian chief on it. 

Our friend Jen was with us at this sale and when she saw me carrying this around, she questioned whether I was buying it to resell.  I shushed her instantly.  Man, what a noob!!  I told her to never let on that you are buying stuff to resell.  If you do, you’re pretty unlikely to get any deals.  This company in the past has been really awesome about discounting for us, so God forbid we jeopardize that.  Next time, Jen stays in the car.

-Erin

Here are some more things we recently found “hard to resist.”  Most of these items are from Taylor Town Trade Center, which you might remember for its cage fighting and Coco Joy massages.

First up is this elegant lady:

Doesn’t that look like the kind of thing you’d buy in elementary school at Santa’s Secret Workshop?  Remember that?  Once a year, your parents would give you like $20 and you’d buy everyone you know Christmas gifts at Santa’s Secret Workshop.  Then you’d come home with garbage like this for your mom and she’d pretend to love it, but inside she is thinking, “No one loves me.”

Here is what you should have bought your cool ass mom.  A Michael Jordan Space Jam doll:

[Editor’s Note: At first I typed “Will Smith Space Jam doll” and had to erase it.  Was Will Smith in Space Jam? I feel like he was.]

This fancy bedazzled skull is $41.99 (necklace is an extra $14.99) and if you look close, you’ll see that that price is FIRM.  No lowball offers here folks. 

This is a totally not racist horse statue:

Seriously though, someone please stop appropriating important cultural symbols onto plastic items made in China.  Like, please.  Really stop.  Go make this instead:

Or this:

Or even this:

OK, or even these bustier purses: 

Very fancy!

-Erin

Last Friday night, I drove out to my parents’ house (about an hour away) to stay overnight and attend the Utica Antiques Market the next morning.  I’ve been visiting this market since I was a teenager, and Timmy has taught me that it’s important to get there right when the place opens.  [For new readers, here is pretty much all you need to know about Timmy, and that time he was on Cash & Cari.]

So Timmy, my sister Lindsay, and I got to the market bright and early, and it really felt like the world was our oyster.  

Here is Lindsay scoping out the goods:

See those tiny fuzzy chicks in the bottom left corner of that case above?  I loved them.  But what are you supposed to do with a giant box of tiny fuzzy chicks?

Oh here’s a thing:

And another thing:

All jokes aside, this market had some GREAT stuff.  And the prices were really reasonable.  I zeroed in first on a booth that had a bunch of cast iron banks and molds. We all know about my love affair (and money-making extravaganza) with old chocolate molds.

The heavy mold with the two babies was really the best, but it was priced around $150. I stared at it for a good long while though.  And see that little cast iron pig bank at the top of the photo?  More on him later.

We moved through the show for a good 45 minutes or so, and I was yet to buy anything.  That’s not to say I didn’t see lots of potential purchases.

Like this creature:

He was priced at $100 and carved out of solid wood.  I WANTED HIM SO BAD.  But alas, where am I going to put a giant wooden monster?  Probably right next to a box of tiny fuzzy chicks.

There’s Timmy and one of his “peers.”  They are probably reminiscing about the good old days.

I like to imagine that these Santas are all drowning in quicksand.  Don’t they look distressed?

I probably should have bought this for llama-obsessed Sarah.  Also, LOOK AT THAT TINY HEAD STRAPPED ON!  I died laughing at this for a good 5 minutes.

Ok ok, so what did I buy?  My first purchase was a Skookum doll.  You might remember that I already own one Skookum doll, purchased last Christmas in Holly, MI.

The little one is my new guy, and the larger one was the one I already had.  I paid a mere $18 for the new one:

I also went back to that booth with the cast iron stuff and bought a cast iron pig bank.  I debated between the pig shown in the photo earlier, and the one I eventually bought.  This was a little steep at $30, but he’s just too cute.  And, he is full of old coins, so maybe there is a good one in there!  I have yet to open him and check.

And my last purchase was another lead figurine for Zach.  This time not a soldier, but a cool-looking Indian.  I paid $10, and it was originally marked $15.  In an ideal world, this would only be $5.

Timmy bought a Little League bobblehead to go with the rest of his collection.  He hemmed and hawed over this purchase for a good hour.  It was $35, which is kind of high for a later bobblehead (1970s?), and especially one that doesn’t have pro team markings.  He negotiated down to $25.  Here it is in the middle of some of his other nodders:

Tim seemed kind of bummed that he might have overpaid for the nodder, when all of a sudden he found this Tigers pin for $5!  What a steal!

And what did Lindsay find?  I know she bought a rhino statue (she is a zookeeper) and a ceramic pumpkin.  Her best finds by far though were these little charms:

That man is giving some sassy face!

-Erin

Update: So Sarah just texted me with the following:

I’m still skeptical that that carved thing is an alligator.  Or a crocodile even.  It seems like a pretty obvious, run-of-the-mill land monster to me.

Because I was off of work last week for winter break, Erin and I were able to go treasure hunting for two days in a row. We ventured out on Thursday, ready to hit up a really packed looking sale in Garden City. Don’t let the name fool you–Garden City is not a gorgeous haven. We arrived at the house and it felt like a repeat from a few weeks ago–you had to enter through the back yard and it was a treacherous, icy swamp land.

When we finally made it inside, we were pretty pleased with the offerings right off the bat:

Scary models, lots and lots of junk, 3-dimensional animal artwork, sexy babies… what more can you ask for?

Right away, we saw some cute stuff but it was a little overpriced. For example, these guys were cute but one was stained and the other was marked $25.

There were some other interesting items, but again, a little too pricey and it was the first day, so there was no negotiating.

I would have bought that Pee Wee if it wasn’t so crazy expensive. Adam and I both have a soft spot for Mr. Herman.

There was also a lot of not so great stuff at this sale:

The real interesting collections were down in the basement. I don’t know what it is lately but we sure have run into a lot of beanie babies. This sale was no exception to that recent trend.

These bins alone seem to be holding lots of beanies but they don’t even begin to capture the number that this person had. She also had a lot of other stuffed toys and dolls.

Sexy dress, sexy specs.

Mountains of Barbies. Note that many of them are multiples of the same item.

Lots of Mikhail Gorbachev dolls.

A lot of the dolls (Barbies, etc.) were totally overpriced, but one thing that was not overpriced was a set of Snuggle bears with their original tags, marked $5 for the whole set. This was a steal! And Erin was kind enough to give me them. Here they are, waiting for buyers on eBay:

You’ll notice I also found some talking Taco Bell dogs in their original bags at this sale as well. I’ll take any respectable offers, so please buy them.

Erin and I both bought this snowman “Beanie Buddy” for $1 because it was so friggin’ adorable! Next Christmas he’s gonna be chillin’ (no pun intended) in my living room.

Finally, the best thing I found by far was this music box, featuring breakdancing bears. They dance to the Flashdance theme song.

-Sarah

Update from Erin: That Jesus wall mount looks like a hunting trophy.  When I saw it, I could not stop laughing.  A little deer head Jesus…so weird.

Let me also say here, that if a crazy person buys that large Snuggle bear from Sarah for $70, then she better treat me to lunch.  I don’t know on what planet people buy Snuggle bears for $70, but should it happen, I am a FOOL for finding those bears and giving them away to her.

Like Sarah mentioned, I bought one of those stuffed Christmas snowmen.  It is seriously the softest stuffed animal I have ever felt.  I love him.  

I also bought this Mexican folk art piece for Zach’s mom.  It was her birthday last week, and I knew this would be a perfect gift.  Sandy is Mexican herself, and collects all things south of the border.

A little carousel!  The figures had really worried expressions on their faces, which made this even more cute.

-Erin

On Saturday night, Zach and I went with my mom and dad to the Plymouth auction.  The photos online looked REALLY bad, so our plan was to go to the auction, make sure there were no good items, and then go out to dinner instead.  When we got to the auction, my mom, Zach, and I all breezed through pretty quickly.  We were ready to abandon ship as soon as we got there.

I did like that little mini doll trunk in the photo above, but I wasn’t willing to wait around 3 hours to buy it.  

Someone PLEASE fill me in on what these old punch board things are (the “Hit and Win” thing above).  Sarah and I have seen these before and are so confused by them.

So anyway, the three of us are ready to leave, and I noticed Timmy over in a corner, kind of lingering, and looking around for the rest of us.  I knew instantly that he found something.  His excitement could not be contained, even though he tried really hard.  He was looking around all paranoid-like, as though Homeland Security was watching him and the items he was looking at.

So what did he find?

This old Art Ross NHL puck in mint condition.  You might remember that I found one of these pucks at an estate sale for $2, and sold it on ebay for over $200.  And mine had a scratch in the orange decal!  

At this point, I went and told Zach and my mom that Timmy found a treasure and now we had to stay.  There were some grumbles, but we all knew that there was no leaving.

I did end up making a purchase.  Zach wanted this lead Indian figure:

And it just so happened that it was bundled with an item I wanted, plus two other lead figures:

Of course, I wanted that donkey.  He opens up and is a secret treasure box:

I paid $29 for the whole lot, which is fine because Zach was willing to pay $25 alone for the Indian.  I almost had the bunch for $15 but then some guy jumped in and kept bidding me up by $1.  We kept going back and forth and I wanted to yell to him (he was across the room) “BRING IT.  LET’S GO.”  I thought that would be funny, but it would most likely not be had I really yelled it.  

So in addition to Timmy’s puck, there were two other items he wanted.  A Gordie Howe collectors’ plate and a plastic baseball cup (I think from the 1960s).  The cup had my dad’s favorite baseball player on it, whose name I now have forgotten.  The auctioneer miraculously put all three items together in a lot.

And then the bidding started.  I was so nervous for my dad that I was shaking.  I know, so lame.  I just really wanted him to win that puck!  At $27 the bidding fizzled out, and Timmy was victorious.  His max was $150, so I am sure he would have won no matter what, but it was AWESOME to see him get this so cheap!  

I was standing in the back of the room (away from my dad) while the bidding was happening.  When the lot ended at $27, this guy next to me said how my dad had just overpaid and obviously “that guy” doesn’t know the Gordie Howe plate is only worth 10 bucks.  Of course, when this guy was saying this to me, he didn’t know that the winner was my dad.  I said back to him, “Hmm, you know, I think they were bidding on that puck more so than the plate.”  In my brain, I was smiling. 

I saw this guy then go up to my dad later and ask him about the puck.  Now–this is important–my dad made a cardinal sin.  HE TOLD THE GUY WHAT THE PUCK WAS WORTH.  Not smart.  You have to keep these secrets to yourself, or next time, that puck won’t be going for a mere $27.

The last thing I will mention is that a woman brought a ferret to the auction.  A LIVE FERRET.

That’s a photo of her kissing it.

-Erin

Last weekend, my family ventured up to Holly, MI for their annual Dickens’ Christmas festival.  The festival has become a tradition each year to kick off the holiday season, and it does a good job.  There are literally chestnuts roasting on an open fire in Holly.  And Scrooge roams the street being all scroogey.  

The whole gang was here, and our plan of attack was to load up on hot chocolate and then hit all of the numerous Holly antique stores.  My sister Lindsay (chugging her cocoa above) is a fellow ebay guru, and has been raking in the cash lately selling old GI Joe and Star Wars toys.  Lindsay’s husband Mike, and our mom Joan, went to a gun store down the road to “browse.”  And you all know Zach and Timmy, they chose antiques over weapons.

The antique stores in Holly are super old-timey/general store looking.  So the atmosphere is just as good, if not better, than the actual treasures.  They are also huge, so at the end of the day, we had antique-shopped for about 5 hours.

Most of the items in Holly are high-end, and also pretty rare.  The first store we went into is known for being haunted, and was featured on Paranormal Witness (never heard of it).  They didn’t have any ghosts for sale here, but they did have a lot of other neat things:

This is me making a phone call to the ghost in the store, asking if he/she has scared anyone lately.

This store is also known for a vampire hunting kit they’ve had since I was like 8 and going to Holly.  They’ve been trying to sell it for $15,000.

Zach contends that this kit is TOTALLY FAKE.  And he is probably right.  You know who loves this kit so much though?  Steampunks.  Holly needs a Steampunk hunting kit because it was being overrun this day.  I don’t really understand Steampunk, so if someone can enlighten me about the connection between them and Charles Dickens and Holly, MI and vampires, that would be so great.

I didn’t buy anything at this first store, but our second stop was very fruitful.  I found a Skookum doll for $35!  I’ve wanted one of these for a long time, but they are usually expensive.  This guy has some slight paint wear on his face, but no big deal at all.

This doll was in a locked case with some others, and the store owner pulled the doll out for me.  I then explained that there is a doll quota in my household and that I would need to hunt down my husband for approval on this purchase.  He said that was fine, so I walked away with the doll.  Now, this place was HUGE and super crowded, so it took me an eternity to find Zach.  By the time I made it back to the register to buy the doll, the store owner was convinced I had stolen it.  He let out a huge sigh of relief and exclaimed, “There you are!”  He then tried to sell me a million other dolls. 

Zach found a cool book at this store, which we also bought:

I should also mention that I accidentally rummaged through a bunch of garbage at this sale.  Literally garbage.  This is the SECOND TIME I have done this while treasure hunting.  I thought this was a basket of little ziplocked knick-knacks, but it was really trash from a nearby snack stand with coffee and cookies.

Also, there is totally a half-eaten banana hanging out in there.

We next visited a store that was mostly selling old fossils and Egyptian artifacts.  Zach was so excited about a case of old Egyptian ceramics, and then he saw a sign that said “Display Only, Not for Sale.”  I thought he was going to cry.

We did find an old lead Santa riding on a sled, which we bought and have paired with our lead skiing Santa and lead skiing buddies.

Man, those little guys bring me such deep joy.  I have probably never seen anything cuter than those recreational Santas.

The last store we visited was more of a creepy antique museum.  It was really dark, and nothing had price tags on it.  I had never been in this store because it is off the main drag, and the outside looks like a building that is permanently closed for business.

That wreath was probably put up like 6 years ago.  And all of the windows had the shades and blinds drawn.  Anyway, they were open for business.  Well, kind of.  When we walked in, an old woman “greeted” us with a frown, looked us up and down and said, “Go ahead and browse.”  Browse?  We must have looked like a bunch of Aladdins walking into the palace.

It was really dark in there, obviously.

Here is Zach touching something, which was probably against the rules.

Interestingly, in the middle of this place, was a weird little opening into a cave.  Not a real cave, but a manmade fake cave.  So bizarre, and also the best.

It had a bunch of dioramas inside….inexplicably.

My sister was the only one who actually found something to buy here.  It was an old paper magazine from the 1920s or so, and was advertising a circus.  She bought it because it featured some guy on the cover who designed all of the exhibits at the Detroit Zoo (she is the penguin keeper there).  It was a whopping $6.  She was thrilled.

-Erin

On Sunday, Zach found some nearby sales that looked interesting, so we rushed out to visit them.  The first sale was in a condo, which is often disappointing because the smaller space typically means less treasures.  However, this condo was pretty full and had lots and lots to look at.  

I was immediately excited to see a Zuni fetish necklace, which I have blogged about wanting before.  They had a price tag of $50 on it, but since it was the last day, the woman said she could do $25.  It was immediately clear that the woman had no idea what this necklace was, because as I looked at it, she said, “Yeah, such a strange little piece, huh?”  I told her that it sure was, and that I was interested in it, but for $20.  

Of course I bought it, and of course I was thrilled.  There was actually a lot of Native American pieces in this sale, but some of it was more common touristy type stuff.  In what I shall call a true miracle, I was reunited with this guy, who I had seen at “best sale ever” and stupidly did not buy:

He cost me $1, which is probably THE BEST $1 I have ever spent.

So Zach and I headed onward to the next sale, which was run by the lady who once made me wait in line holding a 30 pound box while she talked on the phone with her friend.  Despite that whole debacle, I have come to like this lady (Linda), as she is generally pleasant and has fair pricing.  When she doesn’t have fair pricing, she will say frankly, “Fine, then what do you want to pay for it?” and then you tell her and she says ok.

So as soon as we walk in, it is clear that Linda is being bowled over by some mega bargain hunters.  Everything at the sale is already 50% off, but these ladies wanted even more, and possibly, they wanted blood.  The bickering was overwhelming and awkward, and Zach and I shuffled out of the way of the conflict.  

We head in the basement, and there is another fight down there!  Let me break this down…when you go to a sale and the seller says they will give you a discounted price on a whole pile of stuff, that price is therefore only applicable if you agree to go ahead and buy that whole pile of stuff.  

You cannot do the following:  Get a price on a whole BIG pile of stuff (let’s say that price is $15) and then ask the seller, well how much is just this one pan in the pile?  When the seller says, well that pan is marked $10, you cannot then say, “Well fine, I’ll just buy all the rest of this stuff for $5 then.”  

I hope that all made sense.  The bottom line is that there was a man in the basement YELLING over pricing at one of the women running the sale (not Linda, who was busy being slaughtered upstairs).  When this lady walked away from him, he followed her and continued the charade upstairs.  He engages Linda in his rampage and every time she tells him a price that he doesn’t like, he throws the item down on top of a jewelry display they have at checkout.  

At some point, he knocks over a piece of dishware and Zach decides to step in.  Of all the things to say to an angry man, I think Zach chose wisely.  He simply looked at the man and said, “YOU NEED TO RELAX.”  Truer words have never been spoken, except for what Zach said next, which was “AND YOU NEED TO PICK THINGS UP WHEN YOU DROP THEM.”  Yes, right on.  I married a smart man.

The grump ignored Zach and things escalated when we ran into him outside as we were leaving.  Zach called him “a rude person” and a “f#cker”, which I support as a harsh but fair assessment.  The man walked away, but looked back at Zach one more time before we got in our car.  Zach then proceeded to do the most terrifying point and stare maneuver, which I have forced him to recreate here and now for this blog entry:

That man was surely shaking in his boots.  Or flip flops.  For all I know, that jackass was wearing flip flops.

This was probably the worst I’ve seen people at a sale, except for THAT ONE TIME when Sarah and I were in the eye of the storm.  I just don’t get the logic here.  Throwing a fit will definitely NOT make someone lower the price for you.  You gotta be nice!

Alright, anyway, I bought one thing at this sale, which is a fabric applique art piece known as “mola.”  It is made by the Kuna Indians in South America.  It is hanging in our bedroom now and cost me $30, a super discounted price that Linda gave me FOR BEING NICE WHEN ASKING FOR A DEAL.

-Erin

So Sarah and I are up in the Traverse City area this week on vacation, and besides eating deep fried Oreos, we are also busy treasure hunting.  We’ve found many blog-worthy things up here, so stay tuned.  In the meantime, I saw a “holy grail” item in person today that I will be thinking about for a long time…

While in Leland, MI we saw this tiny store called Tampico.  It turned out to be my dream come true, which Sarah was certainly thrilled by.  She finally left me at the store to go venture elsewhere because I had basically set up residence.  

The store was mostly Zuni jewelry which I am obsessed with, as well as Mexican old pawn pieces and newer Michigan fossil jewelry.  I was chatting with the owner about Zuni earrings when he mentioned a super rare Zuni fetishes necklace he had in the back.  

I had seen Zuni fetishes before, and was actually looking at some in this store.  I had never seen a fetishes necklace in person though.  Ok, so before we get into that…

Zuni fetishes are little carved animals (out of fossils, mother of pearl, corals, rocks, etc.) that represent guardian animals and important tribal icons.  They are cool and adorable.  The necklace this man had was owned by an important member of the Zuni community, and it was made from fetishes collected for years by her family.  He bought it out of her estate for an undisclosed amount, although I saw a price tag on it that said $980.

I obviously cannot afford this necklace so it will remain a holy grail for now.  However, while in the back of the store looking at this, the owner mentioned some other Zuni jewelry he purchased out of this estate.  He had yet to sort and price it, but agreed to show me anyway.  I instantly fell in love with some handmade sterling and turquoise earrings.  He offered them to me for $70, which is a steal.  I’ve seen smaller and less impressive Zuni earrings for about $125.  

Here they are:

They’re larger size, about 2 inches long each.  And they look very cool on.  After I bought them, I kept telling Sarah that I was “happy as a clam.”  They really made my day!

-Erin