Dig This Treasure!

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

Pretty much every Sunday Zach and I go out to breakfast at a place called Thomas’, mostly because I am addicted to their pancakes.  Last week, after breakfast, we decided to stop at a random estate sale nearby.  It was advertised as being 50% off everything, so it was definitely worth a look.

The house was completely full of random treasures, without any real rhyme or reason.  These people collected a little bit of everything, which was great!  

I know Sarah will look at the above photo and ask why I didn’t buy her that little German ornament guy in the middle.  She collects these, but I forget their names.  I didn’t buy this one because he was broken.

Most of the items in the house were unfamiliar to me, and I didn’t have the best reception on my phone to look things up.  Because of the discount pricing though, I took a chance on a few items.  The first was this old puppet, made by Hazelle’s.  I found out later he was called Teto the Clown.

I also found this cool punched tin box.  I don’t know how old it is, but regardless, it’s interesting and pretty.  I decided to try selling it, but knew I was happy to keep it if it got no bids.

I think maybe it’s a mailbox or something!  It mounts to the wall.  And for the record, it did get bids on ebay, so so much for keeping it.  Teto the Clown sold too.

Zach had the best find by far.  A piece of Native American pottery by artist Sally Garcia.  Neither of us knew of her when he found this piece, but after doing some research, it turns out she is rather well-known.  She is credited “as the first pioneer of hand etchings on ceramic pottery.”  Her large pieces sell for hundreds and even thousands of dollars.  The piece Zach bought is pretty tiny, and had its original price sticker on it marked $84.  He ended up paying $15 for it.

We both love this piece so much and will probably keep it forever. Definitely a fave find, so kudos to Zach for eyeing it!

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I’ve never met another person so addicted to mediocre pancakes. Why didn’t you buy those HO cars? 

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

Saturday turned out to be extra special because Sarah and I went sale-ing with Adam and Zach, the first time we have all sale-d together!  We headed out to Royal Oak for some pretty promising sales.

I don’t remember much of anything about the first sale because I am not entirely convinced that they had anything for sale at all.  Oh, except this:

Story of my life little ape man, story of my life.

Also, what company makes SAD animal plaques?  So weird.

The second sale we hit will be forever memorable.  I knew we were in for some total insanity when I saw the signage at the door.

Did these people really install security cameras at an estate sale?  Or were we just under the surveillance of the Sharpie marker cameras they drew on these flyers?  

Also insane was the long-ass line out the door to this sale.  It was 2:30 on a Saturday (the last day of the sale) and there was a line.  This is unprecedented.  They must have so many treasures that the sale is endlessly packed with visitors.  Spoiler alert: not true.

The “Gatekeeper” as she will be called, monitored the flow of shoppers with an eagle eye.  We waited at least 10 minutes before Adam and Sarah were allowed to pass the holy gates into the sale.  Zach and I stood there another 5 minutes before we spoke up. We had now been standing there for 15 minutes and had not seen ONE person shopping inside the house.

Yep, that is the Gatekeeper herself blocking a completely empty room.  I told her that I felt SUPER CONFIDENT that I could navigate that room without bumping into anyone or anything.  She didn’t believe me.  We watched that empty room for a few more minutes as the line grew behind us.  Finally we were allowed to enter, and we got to see the precious treasures that the Gatekeeper had been protecting.

Wait, what?  You threatened us with hand-drawn video surveillance systems for this?  

I ended up buying a vintage Basketville basket and a gold-plated Christmas ornament of the White House.  Total investment: $1 and lots of frustration.

The last sale was in Birmingham and we were pretty skeptical because it was run by those teenage vagabonds we mentioned previously.  Things turned out pretty good though.  I found some really excellent treasures and the boys running the sale gave me some deals.  

I picked up this tiny Reuge music box.  It was originally priced at $35 but I got it for $10.  It already has some bids on ebay.

This sale had a lot of legitimate Native American art, and I found this really nice handmade basket.  It was a total steal at $2.

And by far the best purchase of the day was this set of Le Creuset cookware.  I got the whole set for $25 and look how it’s doing on ebay so far:

Hooray!

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I’ll take full responsibility for choosing some real duds (on my end)… There were SO MANY sales last weekend but I picked some pretty bad ones on Saturday. It was fun anyway, but I wish I had found more treasures. Also worth noting was that Saturday was our 5th wedding anniversary. Erin and Zach’s was on Monday. Hooray for all of us. 

First, Erin is wrong–she didn’t even find that ornament at the sale that made her so mad. She found it at the first sale. So I’m not even sure she bought anything at the sale that made her so angry. I’m trying to remember if I even purchased anything worth mentioning at the first sale. I did find a really nice vintage velvet clutch for $1. 

The surveillance sale truly was insane. Also insane was seeing Erin get so aggro with the people manning the door. Usually it’s my job to yell at people. Anyway, she was real mad. Adam and I got in first so I had some fun walking by her and Zach, saying, “We’re taking all the treasures.” They were so engaged in arguing with the woman at the door that they didn’t even hear me, but obviously, there were no treasures. 

HOWEVER. The guy who lived at this home had worked at Jacobson’s which some of you might remember. Evidently, he worked in the greeting card department (ok, probably the Holiday Dept.) because he had TONS of greeting cards all over the house. They were all modern–no vintage cards to speak of–but they were selling them for 4 for $1. I cannot explain the quantity we are talking about. And I don’t know what happens to me but when I see greeting cards, I want them. Because I’ve found some really crazy ones. And there were just so many, I knew I wouldn’t have time to look through them. So I decided to ask if they’d sell them all to me for a set price. Anyway, as a sidebar, let me say that their “surveillance system” consisted of staffing each room with a middle-aged woman who looked like she listened to the Moody Blues and toked the reefer who followed you around like you were trying to steal junk. There were no cameras. Because, uhm, that would be crazy. So anyway, I asked the woman who had been watching me like a hawk if she worked there. Of course she said yes. I then asked if they’d sell the cards as a lot and she told me I’d have to talk to “Angel." 

I went upstairs to find this person and she was on the phone. When she got off the phone, she and another of her employees went downstairs to assess how many cards we were talking about. When she saw the quantity, she started acting like there was no way she could think of a price for all of them. I said, "Well, I’m just assuming you want to get rid of these.” She looked at me like I was crazy and said, “Well, yes we do but they’ve been really popular.” Now, this was the LAST DAY of the sale, at about 3 p.m. You’re gonna tell me that in the next hour, you’re going to get a rush of crazy scrapbookers who want your gross ‘90s cards? C'mon now. Anyway, she said that I could have this one medium sized group of them for $10 and I said, “No–I mean all of the cards.” You would have thought I had asked her to recite pi. Finally I said, “I was going to offer you $40 for all of them.” Needless to say, she was pleased with that figure and they quickly helped me to gather all of the cards together. On my way out, I said, “Thanks for agreeing to let me take all of these!” and she said, “Oh you’re welcome, I’m happy to get rid of them.” Uhm excuse me? Two seconds ago you were acting like I was trying to rob you!!! 

Since purchasing these cards, I’ve realized that they were not a wise investment, but I’m hoping to offload them at our upcoming garage sale, which is just a few weeks away!

At the last sale, I found nothing worth mentioning, but I’m glad that Erin was the ultimate treasure winner. Adam found nothing at any of the sales and was very saddened by this. Boo f'in hoo. I made it up to him by giving him a fancy nerd watch later that evening for our anniversary. 

I was unable to go sale-ing on Friday, so Erin and I decided to go on Thursday instead. There were tons of sales, but I had to work until the early afternoon, so we only made it to a few. I started off the morning in an awesome way–working from Erin’s house & cuddling with her usually shy cat. Proof that Sebastian loves me the most: 

We were able to get rolling as soon as I was finished working, and we started off at a sale located pretty close to Erin’s house. It didn’t look too promising from the pictures, but they had listed that they had a bunch of HO slot cars, so I was interested in stopping by. 

When we arrived, the first thing we saw was a bunch of jewelry, and I scored by finding some pretty cool cat earrings (but not cat lady cat earrings–they’re cute), along with a baggie of various pins. I don’t know what my deal is with pins. I cannot resist them and I need to start resisting, because the quantity I now have is out of control. Anyway, this is one of the cuter ones in the bag–an Idaho potato! Get it? 

It’s hard to tell how big that is from the picture, but it’s pretty tiny. Also, Erin kept talking about this pin so maybe I’ll give it to her one day. She even asked about it when I saw her again on Saturday. Get a room with the potato pin, Erin. 

A little while later, I watched on as Erin riffled through the slot car stuff–they had two boxes of stuff and it was all sort of crappy and they had it marked $300 for the two boxes! WTF?! Anyway, Erin didn’t notice that sign and started tearing through the boxes. After watching her and laughing to myself for a few moments, I let her know that she should probably stop doing that since it was being sold as a lot. 

The person who lived at this house loved cats, and had many cat-themed items. I will admit that I purchased some of these items, but I am too ashamed to show our dear readers what those items were.

The only other real item of note that I found that I’m pretty pleased about was this: 

Original Gizmo!!! He looks a little rough in the picture but he really just needs a good run through the gentle cycle. 

Besides many cat items, the person who owned this home also had a lot of old computer stuff, including the following, which I’m mainly posting for my brother, whose first computer was a C-64 if I’m remembering correctly: 

Snokie? Who dat? 

I also somehow managed to spend about $40 at this sale–probably because everything was overpriced and I cannot resist original items from the ‘80s. 

On the way to the next sale, Erin asked me what took me so long, and then started grilling me about what I had purchased. I mentioned that I found “vintage Harry Potter wrapping paper” and then we both started cracking up. What I meant was that it was old–probably from around when the first book came out… but that was 1997. Which definitely does not make it vintage. 

I’m having a hard time remembering where we went next, but I know it was in Warren. There were multiple sales in Warren, which always excites me because it means we can stop at Tringali’s. 

So I think the next sale was what I’ll call “The Tacky Sale” because everything in the home was tacky. 

I think that’s supposed to give the illusion of a horse in a stable. 

You can’t really tell the scale here, but that is a gigantic cocktail glass that says “I BET YOU CAN’T.”

Here are some authentic, hand-crafted Native American items. 

What any classy lady needs: A Wal-Mart Shopping Fund jar. 

If these items were not enough to convince you that it was the tackiest sale ever, hopefully this will: 

Still not convinced?…

Nothing like some old lady’s panties for $.50 a piece. 

The worst part of this sale was that there was a young woman, probably my age, walking around the sale and excitedly pointing out every item in a loud, southern drawl. You would have thought she was taking a tour of the Queen of England’s home, she was so impressed by all of these items. She was most excited about this book. I’m not joking. 

Anyway, I left this sale with a vintage Stroh’s beer stein and some weird thing for Adam that’s not even worth trying to explain. Erin left with some extremely overpriced tissue paper that I’m sure she’ll say more about in her update. 

The last sale we went to was the most interesting of the day, by far. It was at the home of the former President of the Scarab Club. Turns out she was the president back in the late '70s, and was quite the artist in her day. I purchased some pretty cool stuff a this sale, including a Masonic Bible in its original box, some vintage National Wildlife magazines that seem like they might sell, and some adorable K-Mart wall art from the '60s. 

They were sold as a pair, but I really wanted the one on the right, because it’s just so damn cute. But I am also really interested in/do research on bedroom culture, so I just sort of fell in love with both of them immediately. 

I found one item from my youth (and, as it turns out, Adam’s as well): 

As well as this item–also from Adam’s childhood:  

And finally, a miniature roulette game! To add to my tiny home casino. 

We tried to go to one last sale where I had spotted a Mrs. Beasley doll in the pictures online, but some asshat dropped a bunch of lumber in the middle of the road, so we were delayed and didn’t make it in time. 

But all in all, it was a pretty eventful, interesting trip. We topped it off by stopping at Tringali’s, where Erin and I decided that no matter what it is you’re asking about at an Italian bakery, the answer is always “cannoli cream." 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: The first sale was pretty unremarkable, except for the outrageous prices.  For awhile, I carried around a Pachinko machine from the 1970s still in the box.  It was an American version though, and made of plastic.  On ebay it only sold for about $15 out of the box.  They were asking $25 for this one, so I dumped it pretty quickly.  I ended up buying a Christmas pin featuring a fuzzy bear on ice skates.

The "tacky sale” as Sarah named it, was really painful.  I am generally a big fan of Native American artwork and jewelry, and I have a good amount of it at home.  However, I have never and will never claim to know a ton about Native American culture, or be one of those white people who claim to have a distant Native grandmother.  There are a lot of white people like this, who say that somewhere down the line they have Indian blood and blah blah.  Then they collect a bunch of things made in China that feature dream catchers and noble Indian warriors and other stuff that is probably sacred and shouldn’t be on a plastic picture frame.  

Like this giant resin wolf marked $100.  Worst.  Also worst was that I went to buy some half-used wrapping paper and a little package of tissue paper.  The seller lady was looking around all frantically for someone to help her because there were no prices on either item.  She finally came up with the price of $3, which is crazy, and I asked if she would take $2, which is still crazy.  These were clearly 50 cent items.  She accepted my offer, but then said, “I’ll probably get in trouble for this.”  Uh, no, you definitely won’t.

Whew, ok. This entry is getting long.  Bear with me because the following is pretty sweet.  At the Scarab Club sale I found a TON of Laurel Burch earrings and bought them for $1/pair.  The earrings have DAYS left on ebay but are already cleaning up:

I’ll keep you posted on what these end up selling for!  

Lastly, it is important to note that I found a super amazing treasure that is not for re-selling.  It is a Pendleton knockabouts coat and it was MADE for me.  Here I am after a nap, modeling said coat:

Only $10!  When I tried it on at the sale, all these ladies were like, “OHHH you have to get that! It’s sooo cute.”  Sarah agreed (which is rare) so I bought it.

Update from Sarah: Just wanted to add two things after reading Erin’s update: First, I hope none of you with Native American blood are offended by Erin’s strong stance on the issue. This includes my sister-in-law, who is actually very white, but does have Native American ancestors. However, she does not keep plastic statues of wolves or canoes in her home to represent that heritage. Second, WHO in God’s name is crazy enough to get into a bidding war over those ugly Laurel Burch earrings and why wasn’t I smart enough to find them?