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’ll just tell you now…I get into a fight at the end of this entry.  So stay tuned for that.

To begin though, Sarah and I visited a sale on Friday that looked GREAT.  It was the home of a former skin diver and overall adventure man.  There was a ton of ephemera and photographs so of course our girl Sarah was practically drooling looking at the photos of the sale online.

We had to bring the baby meatball with us to the sale, and he was nestled happily in a Moby wrap, which I highly recommend to all moms.  Little man is pretty much pissed off in all other carrier options.

I know what you are thinking…yes, I have the cutest baby.  Yes, it is as though he fell from a heaven cloud and is now an angel living on Earth amongst all of us lesser creatures.  

Anyway, the sale, like mentioned was pretty paper heavy.

The photos at the sale did not disappoint:

All of the photos were interesting and fun!  I didn’t buy any because I am not exactly sure what to do with other people’s photos, but I know Sarah snatched some up.

The basement of the sale was straight up Bear Grylls’ house.

I ended up buying only one thing–a set of Gurley pilgrim candles.  They were $2 each and totally worth it.

They were in great shape!

Ok, so after we left this sale, we visited another nearby.  We got out of our car and were about to cross the street when a crazy man in an SUV came flying 40mph IN REVERSE towards us.  If Sarah would have taken one more step forward, she would have been toast.  I even reached out to pull her backwards.

I was furious.  I was carrying Everett and all of us could have been hit.  After flying past us and throwing his car in park, the man literally jumped out of his vehicle and started racing towards the front door of the sale.  You would’ve thought this was McDonald’s in 1997 and they were giving away Teeny Beanie Babies.  This guy was a maniac.

I WAS SO FURIOUS.  I felt hot all over.  So I marched up to him and said, “I REALLY HOPE THERE IS SOMETHING IN THERE FOR YOU WORTH ALMOST KILLING US OVER."  He said really snottily, "I saw you.  I didn’t almost hit you.”

YEAH RIGHT BOZO.  I continued yelling at him and called him a “crazy man."  I then told the people running the sale (we know them) not to give the guy any deals. 

Should we have been killed though, we wouldn’t have missed much at the sale.  Except for this:

In case you can’t tell, that is painted on the wall.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Man o man, Erin was sort of a crazy person at that second sale. But honestly, I couldn’t believe what a giant d*ck the guy was. He really was driving like a maniac (reminder–IN REVERSE at about, if we’re being honest, 30 mph in a residential area), and he did almost hit me. 

So Erin is right–I was so pumped about this sale! I even considered going and getting there early/standing in line. But I was too lazy.

If you look at that picture of me sorting through stuff with the diving gear hanging from the ceiling, you’ll notice a person standing on the left side of the picture. This guy was the worst. As soon as I got into the basement, I saw a big box of more photographs and started sifting through them. This guy had already been down there and had his chance to look first. Instead, he proceeded to just stand super close to me and stare while I sorted through the pictures. Note to you readers: If you frequent estate sales or other places where there are small things to sort through, DON’T DO THIS TO OTHER SHOPPERS. It is so annoying. I never hesitate to say things to people so I looked at him and said, "AM I IN YOUR WAY?” He said, “No, I’m just looking while you look.” UGH. 

Anyway, I found very cool things at this sale. I am going to save a lot of the pictures for another post but here’s one of my faves: 

Something sexy is going down there. There are THREE sets of shoes, y'all! 

I also found very cool greeting cards. 

And I also found some cool vintage baby animal prints. 

Oh wait there’s one more picture I want to show you guys. It’s an old shot of Erin on a Thanksgiving of yesteryear. 

I found these cool old children’s picture discs. 

Finally, here’s a great looking log cabin quilt that I purchased. When the lady was ringing me up, she did the worst thing a seller can ever do. She said, “Oh wow. You’re getting a great deal on that. I usually price those at $80.” It was priced $40. I said, “Cool. If it was $80, I wouldn’t be buying it.” SO ANNOYING! 

Erin might have the cutest baby but I clearly have the cutest dog. 

I’ve always stayed away from buying vinyl records because they seem notoriously worthless on the resale market.  Most sell for only $1 each, and even if you have a more valuable one, the record grading scale is super subjective and finicky.  On top of that, they’re also impractical to listen to nowadays, so you’re only selling to true collectors (who, like mentioned, are annoying and finicky).

Recently though, my interest in records has peaked. The first thing that changed my mind about these otherwise frisbees was friend Organtitus selling a Misfits record he bought in the 80s…FOR OVER $600.

AND IT WAS IN BAD CONDITION.  Wow.

Then, Zach went to Dixieland Flea Market to shop for old watches and stumbled on this:

And this:

Both of these albums are super rare.  The first is The 13th Floor Elevators debut album in Mono, which is apparently important to collectors.  This record in mint condition sells for over $1,000.  Zach’s copy had definitely seen better days, but for $20, it was worth buying for sure. 

What’s funny is that Zach looked right over this record because he wasn’t expecting to see it.  When looking at record collections, you expect to see the usual 3 Dog Night, Pat Benatar, and Wings albums.  You don’t expect to see a super rare and valuable album…especially not at Dixieland. 

The second album is the Silver Apples self-titled debut album.  While not particularly valuable, it is MEGA rare.  Again, this isn’t in great shape, but it was $2. 

Zach ended up selling The 13th Floor Elevators album for $100, even though the jacket was taped and the album had scratches.  Amazing.

And get this, the other day I was watching American Pickers and Mike Wolfe bought a copy of the Beatles’ “Yesterday and Today” album with the rare “butcher cover.”  The album was pulled for its controversial cover, but supposedly 100 copies still float around in existence today.

Mike paid $500 for his copy because it was pretty beat up, but this record can be worth as much as $15,000.

So what is the most rare record?  Or perhaps the most valuable?  Well, in 1999, a copy of John Lennon’s and Yoko Ono’s “Double Fantasy” sold for over $400,000 at auction.  The reason?  It was autographed by Lennon just hours before his death.  And who did he sign it for?  None other than this eventual murderer, Mark David Chapman.

Ok, so one last record thing.  Check out this super corny deleted scene from High Fidelity. It features most of the rarest records out there. It also features the corniest content of a movie scene possibly ever.

-Erin

I don’t have much to say about this sale we visited a couple weeks ago, other than it had an insane amount of vinyl records.  Oh, and that we brought Everett with us to the sale, which was an adventure.

I gave him that maraca to distract him.  He clutched onto it with his sweaty little mitts through the whole house.  And then he dropped it along the way and I didn’t notice, so sorry to the people running the sale because it is probably behind a dresser somewhere.

I should mention that there are perks to taking a baby to an estate sale.  You can disobey all rules.  This house was basically built on top of an ice luge and had a crazy long, treacherous driveway that patrons were barred from parking in.  I rolled my ass right up into that driveway though and was like YO PEOPLE WE HAVE A BABY OKAY.

Anyway, I don’t have much to say because I didn’t buy anything.  The house was cool though, and the amount of records was astounding.  So here, indulge in these photos:

ULCER DEPARTMENT.  LOL.

I don’t remember exactly what Sarah bought, but I am pretty sure she got this:

And this:

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Because I’m a bad friend, I actually made Erin drive up the driveway and give me the baby, and then go park her car elsewhere. I was afraid of backing out of this driveway because it was super long and there was a crazy woman standing at the end of it who refused to move. Man, all I’ll say is you get a lot of attention if you’re holding a super cute baby, even if it’s just for 3 minutes.

The first thing Everett and I looked for was a Big Hug Mug. 

There wasn’t one. 

This person was obsessed with two things: Clowns and records.This was hands down the most records I’ve ever seen outside of a record store. 

They also had this cool old player piano. 

There were lots of books at this sale, which excited me. But I only found a couple of hardcover comic collections for Adam. 

I also found a copy of Mommie Dearest on DVD! I looked like this when I found it.

My mom let me watch that movie as a child and it scared the sh*t out of me! Time to revisit it. 

I also found this adorable vintage Holly Hobbie serving platter: 

The people running this sale were awesome and charged me $10 for all my crap. The plate alone was marked $8! 

Everett started getting cranky and Erin and I both had little patience for that vast quantity of records, so we booked it out of there. We were all happier at Daly’s, where we indulged in some good-ass food. Here’s proof: 

On Saturday, I returned to Ann Arbor for “The Super Auction” with Timmy.  He was on the hunt again for some nice sports items and I was just looking to get out of the house.

If you don’t remember, “The Super Auction” is held on some farmland inside a giant barn just outside Ann Arbor.  If you also don’t remember, things often sell super high here.  Maybe that is why it’s called “The Super Auction” because it is SUPER expensive.  Seriously, it’s like people save all year for this thing or something.  And then they show up dressed like hog farmers but carrying mega bank.

There were three separate auctions happening when we showed up:  a sports memorabilia auction, a toy auction, and a vinyl record auction.

That Jolly Roger boat pedal car above sold for $900!  It was really neat and some kid will be riding in style.  Actually, probably not.  Some old man will probably have it on display in his man cave or something.  The other pedal cars actually sold pretty cheaply…all around $100 or so.

I don’t know what you are supposed to do with this giant train, but I wanted it!  It was sold by the time I got to the auction though.  Whomp whomp.

I also loved this ride on horse guy.  My dad forbid me to buy it though because he said it looked very “germy.”  My dad is OBSESSED with germs.  He is like Marc Summers—just totally insane about germs.  And if the stove is turned off.  He is also insane about that.

What I did buy was a giant stack of records for $5.  I shouldn’t even say “stack” because it was a straight up haul.  Zach asked me to buy him records at random and he got his wish.

I also bought a box of random doll related things for $20.  I took a chance on it without even sorting through everything because it was one of the cheapest prices for an item I had seen all day.  There was some good stuff in the box that I will be putting on eBay.

That tin doll IronRite machine above is SO CUTE.  It runs on batteries and still works.  I haven’t found a way to justify keeping it yet, but I am sure I will.

All dolls need their own doll flatware set…just FYI.

As for Timmy, he bought a million things because he is apparently a secret baller.  The best things he bought were some old Lafayette Rittgers baseball figurines.  These ceramic art pieces are from the 1940s and my dad had never seen them before despite all his years of collecting.  The studio where these were made was out of Chicago.

He paid $80 and from looking at eBay, he got a great deal!

And to top things off, Zach found some good records in the lot I bought him.  We spent part of Saturday listening to random folk and funk singers and it was delightful. 

-Erin

Last Wednesday, I somehow convinced Erin to go with me to an auction in Windsor, Ontario. If you’re unfamiliar with the area where we live, Windsor is just across the river from Detroit. This wasn’t the first time one of us had dug for treasures internationally, but it was the first time we had gone to an auction in Canada, so we weren’t sure what to expect. Turns out, Canadians don’t like spending a lot of money at auctions, which was awesome for us. 

I reminded Erin to write down some directions since you quickly lose cell service once you cross the border. She obeyed. 

I’m particularly thankful that she added this extremely important step: “Straight into tunnel.” I think we might have missed it if she hadn’t written it down. 

Turns out, Erin gets the heebie jeebies in tunnels. She kept breathing deeply and asking me if I thought there was too much carbon monoxide in the tunnel from cars idling. 

Does that look scary to you? I didn’t think so. 

Once we convinced the border agent that we weren’t drug smugglers, we were on our way. When we arrived at the auction, it immediately seemed different than other auctions. Then I realized this was because the auctioneer had a Canadian accent and kept saying DOLEars, instead of dollars. 

Here are some pics of the offerings: 

Cool table with a built-in ashtray on top that you can’t see. 

Erin was obsessed with that hideous chair. I have no idea why or how. 

Action shot of me investigating stuff on the stage. 

So I really don’t know what this place was, but there was a stage at the front of the room with this rickety old rail-less set of steps leading up to it. The auction started at one side of the room…

…and all of the stuff was on tables along the outer edges of the room. As it progressed, they finally got to the front where the stage was, and Erin was obsessed with watching the employees have to carry these trays of breakable items down that rickety old staircase. It was actually pretty insane. 

There’s an example. The woman is holding a tray of breakable figurines that she brought down from that stage behind her. Every time someone had to walk around with one of these trays, it was was like watching a person balance a crystal vase on their head. You were basically wincing the whole time, hoping they didn’t drop the tray.

Here are some pictures of some other items that were up for grabs: 

Boom boxes. 

A vibrator. Look how pumped he is to be displaying that thing!

Ok in all seriousness, we both came away with some cool stuff. One of the first things I noticed that I wanted was this vintage wall hanging of a boy eating corn on the cob. I thought it would look adorable in my kitchen. 

Of course, I left with this little dude in my possession. It has a little hook on it where we could hang keys, so it’s also useful! And Adam likes it! Double win. 

This auction lasted forever because there was so much stuff, and the auctioneer milked every last dollar out of people. He started getting annoyed that people wouldn’t bid high, but it’s sort of like, if you immediately let on that you’re willing to sell things low, why would we bid high?! 

Anyway, I also ended up with an old, pretty minty copy of Abbey Road. I thought it might be worth a lot but it’s not a first pressing. If you ever stumble across a copy of Abbey Road that is in good shape and the back cover looks like this, grab it.  

The two things of note on this are the “misaligned apple” and the lack of “Her Majesty” listed on the sleeve. Some also claim that first pressings are missing “Her Majesty” on the record sticker. Mine doesn’t have these things, but it’s a really nice copy of the record and I only paid $10 for it so I’m happy. 

I also purchased a box of records and one of the best covers was this: 

I’m a little ashamed of the quantity of stuff I came home with. A lot of it was stuff that came in lots and I only wanted one thing out of the bunch. Oh well, the rest can go in the garage sale. 

Overall, I had a blast at this auction. It was really good people watching and I got some cool stuff. A few of the items I’m going to save for future posts because I love them so much. 

Hopefully Erin will update you all about the fight she got in with the auctioneer over a pair of dirty moccasins. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: That tunnel is so scary because it is under water…a whole giant lake of water.  One day that tunnel will collapse because you shouldn’t build tunnels underwater.  You shouldn’t even build tunnels through mountains.  In fact, everyone everywhere: STOP BUILDING TUNNELS.

When we walked into the auction I was excited that there was so much stuff.  I instantly fell in love with some old tapestries that were described as “Egyptian.”  I don’t know if this is true, but I ended up with them.  I paid $15 each, which is pricey, but I knew there wasn’t much else in the auction I would end up buying.

Look at that cute little frowny person!

The next tapestry had a fish design.  It’s pink, but I still like it.

I appreciate these because 2 years ago I took a weaving class and it was so hard.  I made a tapestry that was about 5 inches wide and 3 inches tall and it took about a month to finish.  Oy.

I was laughing so hard at the workers carrying huge trays of breakable items because it reminded me of Food Network Challenge.  If you aren’t familiar with the show, then this joke is lost on you.  Basically, on that show, people spend about 8 hours making huge elaborate cakes, and one is chosen as the best.  However, before the cakes can be judged, they have to be carried to the judging table.  The whole thing is unnecessary, but the precariousness of it all creates some mega drama.  Here’s a clip:

Total bummer.

So anyway, a while into the auction, Sarah and I were super thirsty.  The problem was that neither of us had Canadian money to buy drinks (we planned to pay for our purchases on our debit cards).  The snack bar didn’t take debit card, so I decided to go cash out all my purchases, and while doing so, have the cashier tack on the cost of 2 drinks to my total.  She did this, and then handed me the following:

I looked at her confused.  What the hell is 2 pop?  And why is it on this paper?  Of course, this was my token of sorts to go collect my beverages.  Very funny.  Also funny is that “2 Pop” was Sarah’s rap name in high school.  

I got my 2 pop and joined Sarah back at our seats.  Now, this part is important: Because I cashed out, I no longer had a bidder number.  That was ok because I didn’t plan to buy anything else, that is, until some great old moccasins went up on the auction block.  I had obviously overlooked them.  I didn’t take a photo, but the moccasins were similar to these I found online:

The auctioneer started at a price of $30 for these moccasins, but no one bid.  He then went down to $20, and still no one was bidding.  At that point, I chirped out a, “$10???” asking him if he would sell them for $10 since no one was bidding.  Now let me say, that ALL NIGHT LONG people were doing this sort of thing.  The auctioneer would be stuck at $10 with no bids, and someone would yell out, “$5?” and he would accept their offer.  He even went as low as $3 on many items.  

In my case though, he looked at me, ignored me, and then continued to repeat, “$20? $20? $20?”  Still no bids.  I scrambled to get Sarah’s bidder number from her, and then I raised it and said, “I’ll take them for $20.”  I said it like this because he was looking away from me, and I was trying to get his attention.  When he heard me, he set the moccasins back on the table and then snapped at me, “TOO LATE.”

I was so angry.  This was super rude and idiotic.  All night long this auctioneer was milking extra dollars out of people.  One person would be bidding at $5 for something and he would incessantly repeat “$6? $6? $6?”  This drew out the auction process too long, and the crowd was getting annoyed.  The auctioneer was apparently also annoyed, considering how he reacted to me.

I approached the auctioneer after the auction was over.  I first said to him that I was very sorry if I offended him by offering $10 for the moccasins, but that I did so because other people were making offers all night.  He claimed that he didn’t even hear my offer, which is strange because later in our conversation he referenced me making this exact offer.  Whatever.  I asked if I could buy the moccasins and he said no (of course) and I explained that it was sad how spiteful he was acting.  He told me that the moccasins are “worth WAY more than $20” and I reminded him that that was HIS price he tried to auction them for.  

It was clear our conversation was going nowhere, and I knew from the get-go that he was not going to sell me those moccasins now, or ever.  I let him know one more time that it was sad how an item that would be cherished by someone was now going to sit unsold, and that I’ve never seen someone make it so hard for me to give them money.

He said that he will auction these moccasins again in the future if I want them, but I don’t know if I will go back.  Actually, who am I kidding?  I will probably go back.  GIMME THEM MOCS.