Dig This Treasure!

Well, it’s been three weeks since I last updated in general about the eBay World Purge that’s going on over here. 

Not a lot to report, though I am slowly but surely continuing to purge, moving my belongings out, along with a bunch of donations and garbage. There’s still a ton to sell, and I’m being REALLY optimistic because I’ve only got about 4 weeks left away from work. 

Here’s the state of the room this week: 

(bag on chair is garbage)

Lots of floor space now… 

Little Betsy even comes in and keeps me company while I work. Now that the dog bed I’ve had in here for her for a year is unearthed, she knows she’s welcome. 

Today’s project is to list some of the Real Photo Post Cards (RPPC) that I have that I think might we worth something. Who knows anything about these? 

Some seem to go for quite a bit, so we’ll see what happens. 

In the meantime, if anyone’s a big Warhol fan, I’m selling my three Best in Children’s Books that have Warhol-illustrated stories in them. You can find them on eBay now (willing to take any reasonable offer!) and here are some of the illustrations: 

I’ve got a lot more to update about, but that’s it for today! 

-Sarah

After the new year, I met my friend Sarah in nearby Chelsea to check out a local antique store that neither of us had been to before. You may recall that we hit up another place in Chelsea a few months ago, and we ended up going back there, but first let’s talk about what we found at Chelsea Antiques. 

They had a nice variety of items, and most everything seemed to be decently priced (on the high end but not the highest I’ve ever seen). 

The really nice thing was that items were arranged well so that like things were together. They had a LOT of antique postcards which were fun to sift through. 

Sarah found that one and we could not stop giggling about it. What the hell does it mean?! 

I am certain that this is what goes through Adam’s head every day. 

I love seeing books like this. I’m sure the stories are full of hunting, sports, and farting. Right? 

They also had a few “new” items mixed in with the antiques. I liked this Autumn Mouse, preparing for winter: 

I also saw this cool thing that looked like something Erin would like, but $40 was too risky to take a chance. 

Good thing I didn’t buy it for her, because she told me it looked a little too Buddhist for her tastes. 

I did end up buying a few things. First, I found some postcards that I liked. They were all individually priced between 3 and 8 bucks… but I splurged. I can’t show you a few of them because they are gifts. I thought this image was so weird and creepy. I had to get it. 

Same with this one. 

I also found this cute wooden Russian girl for $12. 

She fits right in with my other wooden carvings. 

Before checking out, I noticed a bunch of jewelry by the counter so I started sifting through it. I found these cute vintage dog earrings:

…and then a pair of sterling native american earrings. The sterling ones were a little pricey ($20) but I really liked them. They were pretty tarnished but I was ok with that. When I went to check out, the woman asked if I wanted her to polish them for me. I said no at first but she insisted it would only take a couple of minutes. I reluctantly agreed, and she pulled out this tube of the most toxic smelling stuff ever. I stood there patiently while she polished them, wondering what the horrid smell was doing to my insides. When they were done they looked nice and sparkly, but I’m still not sure it was worth the brain cells lost due to the odor. 

When we left the store, we decided to hit up the antiques mall again because it was just down the street. I’m sure you’re shocked to hear that Baked Big Boy was still representin’. 

I did buy one item here but I’ll save that for another day. 

-Sarah

You may have noticed that we aren’t posting as much as we used to. Some of that is due to this lil’ man existing. 

But some of it is because I’ve been crazy focused on selling rather than buying these days. 

So exactly a month ago, Adam challenged me to a month-long eBay battle for the holiday season (in case you missed it, we’re trying to pay the $2,000 in medical bills that our cat racked up after eating cellophane). This was the challenge: we both sell as much as possible and the person who makes the lesser sum of money pays the person who makes the greater sum of money $100 when it’s all said and done. I’m not sure I’ve ever turned down a bet that I have a decent shot at, so I was game!

I recognized that Adam was really just trying to motivate me to purge, but I was fine with that. I thought I was clearly going to win, because little did Adam know, I had a stockpile of Christmas goods, just waiting to be listed. 

And that’s because… little did I know… Adam had a stockpile of video game systems, rare emo records, magazine back issues, Kickstarter products, Legos, and an iPhone to sell. 

So it sort of goes without saying–Adam is kicking my a$$ right now! If you have a heart and love treasures, please feel free to buy my sh*t. Perhaps your special someone loves The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and needs a new iPad case. Perhaps your BFF loves chihuahuas AND vintage photographs.

Perhaps you love the film adaptation of The Island of the Blue Dolphins. I even pulled out one of my favorite photographs and am willing to sell it for the right price.

Meaning, perhaps what you really want is to pay $150 for an old cabinet card. Hey now–don’t judge–I’m just going based on completed listings like it.

Whatever your taste, I can offer goods that will satisfy.

Our battle ends on Sunday so I’ll be sure to update you on who won on Monday!

-Sarah

Holy moly! This is a late update!

On my birthday (end of August), Adam and I stopped at a book & treasure store in Ann Arbor, located in what’s called “Kerrytown.” He actually wanted to go inside and I did not, because I had a vague memory of having a semi-bad experience at this place in the past. But the store is my kind of place–a huge space filled from floor to ceiling with books, paper, and collectibles, so I agreed to go. 

The guy who runs this place is my kinda guy–besides old books, he has TONS of old postcards, greeting cards, and stereoviews. 

Check out that creeper. 

These are all semi-organized in card catalogs throughout the store. I started really getting excited because I found whole drawers of Christmas postcards…

(Note–this was the day after Erin and I got manicures for my birthday. Check out those nails!)

…but then I started noticing the prices located on the backside. Each of these awesome postcards cost between $15 and $40. What the heck?! 

Amid the adorable postcards, I also found some hilarious and scary ones. 

If that’s what Santa looks like, I’m not sure I want him coming down my chimney. 

Have you ever seen a kid so scared to hear Santa? That dog sure is excited, though. 

In the end, I did buy a few postcards and greeting cards–the ones I selected were between $3 and $5 each. 

I went to check out, and when I was doing so, the store owner started chit chatting with me, asking if I saw all the other postcards. I told him that I did see them, but that they were super overpriced. He started lecturing me on rarity and how you determine the value of something–like I was a total dummy. Then I immediately remembered why I didn’t want to go in the store in the first place. The guy was so condescending and thought everything was worth a billion dollars! Many things in the store had tags like this: 

One of his favorite words was “scarce”. 

I told him that I knew they were valuable, but I’m not sure they were worth THAT much… I think in the process of talking to me, he realized that I was not a total idiot, since I do collect paper. So then he insisted that I look at a special box he had behind the counter of his most prized postcards. I went along with it because Adam was giving me The Look (he wanted a good story), but really, some of the postcards in the drawers were way cooler than the ones in his special box.

Then I happened to mention that I collect photographs so he insisted that I look at these groups of photos he had. Well, it turns out he had a whole envelope filled with people and their pets, so I was actually pretty excited. Here’s what I bought: 

Sorry for the darkness/quality–I took those pictures in my dark living room.

The big prize was this cabinet card: 

It was marked a hefty $16 but I really wanted it. 

I brought up my second round of treasures to the checkout desk and he seemed very impressed with my selections. Then he took one look at that cabinet card and said, “This is a $30 photograph.” I said “NO WAY DUDE.” Those words exactly. He said “Oh no I’m going to honor the price on the back but I want you to know this is a very rare, valuable photograph." 

But then things changed. He started telling me about his dogs. If you know me at all, you know that all you have to do is talk about an old dog around me and I fall apart. He went on to point out the freakin’ professional photo/glamourshots he had of his three pugs hanging on the walls. There is so much crap in this place, I hadn’t noticed them until then. He then told us the story of Taz, his oldest pug (16), who he had to put down this year. He and his wife do community theater, and when they took him to the vet, it was Valentine’s Day. He sang "My Funny Valentine” to his 16 year old pug, as the vet euthanized poor little Taz. Oh my gosh. 

As he told us the story, he got a little teary, and I could not help but end up liking this guy. I think he must just be really attached to all of the things in his store. The high prices seem to be a way to allow him to keep holding on to all of it. He asked me to send him a photograph of the cabinet cards, and I haven’t yet. I should go do this now. 

-Sarah

Erin and I were really looking forward to a sale a few weeks ago, but for the life of us, we could not figure out how the company running the sale was able to score it. I regularly refer to the two guys who run this company as The Ragamuffins. Historically, The Ragamuffins have gotten crazy hoarder houses and the guys look like they’re about 19 years old, but it appears that they’ve stepped up their game. The sale was at the home of an advertising collector, and it looked packed. Adam met us there and was there for over an hour before we got there, and left at the same time as us–just to give you an idea of how packed it was! 

The whole house was pretty much like this–but each room had something different. The first room you got to had a lot of metal signs and other advertising memorabilia. All of it was priced pretty high but it was the second day of a four-day sale, so that wasn’t surprising. 

A slot-type machine where the prize is ciggies. Pretty awesome. 

So the really weird thing was that some rooms had really cool, old memorabilia (one room was filled with paper) and others were totally filled with newer toys, many of which seemed like things that you’d get by sending away for them in the mail, or from a fast food restaurant. 

The basement was filled with two kinds of things: fast food toys and car parts. LOTS of car parts. 

I found a few things at this sale, but the coolest was a small group of old photographs of buildings in Detroit (and other snapshots) and a big box of old postcards. I bought all of this paper for $120 which is a little pricey, but I am fairly certain that the postcards will sell for a decent amount of money and I was willing to risk it. Most of them are of cities–buildings, etc. 

There were also some cool ones of Detroit. 

And then here are the pictures: 

I found some other really cool photographs in the group that I bought but I’ll post those another day. 

Nothing too crazy or scandalous happened at this sale–pretty straightforward, and it was way more organized and reasonable in price than other sales that they’ve run. I can only imagine what it looked like in that place on Sunday–everything was half off then. 

The second sale we went to was in Dearborn, and it looked like it might have some treasures. When we pulled up, we discovered that it was in a condo complex and two condos next to each other had stuff for sale. We never quite figured out why that was, but ok. The first condo we went in was super gross and smelled like 40 dogs and zero people lived there. But the dogs who lived there had great taste in books! I bought a couple. 

I think this must be a picture of a room upstairs that Erin checked out on her own. 

Thank god I didn’t make the trek. Here’s a picture of the carpet on the main floor. It appears that the dogs figured out how to put down deodorizing powder, but failed to finish the job.  

EEEEEEEEEEEE! 

The other condo was in much better shape, and was filled with stuff, but you sort of had to dig for treasures. I found these cute little wooden apples that open up: 

And a very nice quilted tree skirt. 

Scout is going to be so pumped this Christmas. He loves sitting under the tree. I tried to find a picture of Scout sitting under the tree during a past Christmas season, but all I found was this old picture of Zach and Erin when I first met her. We were at a wedding. 

I also found some very cute, tiny handmade dolls. One is a cat and one is a bunny. The cat is cuter. 

I also don’t want to admit this but I bought this little Rose O'Neill style kewpie doll. Erin had taken a picture of it for a Hard to Resist post so when she saw it in my bag when I walked outside, she almost died. 

Finally, I found these two waechtersbach bowls at the last minute. I thought they’d be cute for Scout’s food but it turns out they sell, so I’ll probably sell them. 

I’ll let Erin tell you all about her treasures, and also about a coat she prevented me from buying for myself. In retrospect, now that I’ve seen the picture, I should have gotten it. It’s cute in an ‘80s way! 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: That kewpie doll that Sarah found at the second sale is seriously horrifying.  I DIED when I saw she had bought it.  I’m sure it will be in next year’s garage sale for anyone interested.

Here is the coat that I talked Sarah out of buying.  First of all, it is WAY too big on her.  Also, it looks like those coats cosmetic counter ladies wear.  Seriously, this coat was so gnarly I thought Sarah was messing with me when she wanted to buy it.

Those sleeves are rolled up like six times because the coat is so huge.

Anyway, at the first sale, I found a great treasure.  It is this old Blatz beer statue thing of some beer bottle men playing baseball.  Timmy actually has this statue already, so I knew from him that it is valuable.  Here is just how valuable:

So I will be listing mine on the ol’ electronic bay soon.

So here is the thing about the ragamuffins running this sale…they for some reason are intimidated by or really like Sarah and I.  I’d like to assume it is our feminine wiles, except that I currently have a huge melon belly and Sarah was still wearing a boot on her broken toe.  But seriously, every time I have asked them for a price on something, they act all nervous and then give me some crazy low price.  And yet, despite the low price, they act like they’ve just given me a super high price and are ashamed of it.

So I ask one of them how much this Blatz figure is–mind you, the whole sale is overpriced.  The dude gets all nervous and then says $15, which made me SO HAPPY.  I am hoping to make a decent profit on this.  

I also bought this cool porcelain lady.  I thought she would resell well because “bathing beauty” figurines are really collectible.  I paid $20 but it only sold on ebay for $26.  Whomp whomp.

Two Fridays ago, Sarah and I hit a couple sales that looked packed.  And even more exciting, packed with good-looking treasures!  The first one was obviously the estate of former antique dealers/hoarders.

When we walked in, the person at the front door said we had to give up our purses, and stash them in a big ol’ purse pile behind the cash-out area.  This always bugs me.  It is true that people steal from estate sales (remember “THAT GUY”), but I know I’m not going to, so I instantly feel offended.  It’s like, “We must steal your purse from you, with all of your monies and car keys and lip balm before you are able to steal from us.”  Oy.

And in the end, I wish this sale actually turned out to have more worth stealing.  The photos online had looked so good, but things seemed picked over or too pricey.  

If you aren’t familiar with that new rap song on the radio that says, “I WOKE UP IN A NEW BUGGATI,”  then that’s ok because it sucks.  In other news, this is what a Buggati looks like.  Seems practical.  Also, $6,000 seems cheap.  Is that cheap?

I did find this hilarious magazine that explains 10 ways to make your wife “more useful”:

Seriously, so rude.  Someone give me a magazine article that teaches husbands to find ANYTHING in the house without having to ask where it is first.  AMIRITE LADIES?

I did buy a couple things.  First was this adorable stocking that reminded me of those stalker snowmen I keep seeing at every sale.  It will be the baby’s stocking this Christmas.

I bought this old cap gun to resell.  It was only $8 and other ones sold for good money on ebay.  Mine isn’t in as good of shape, but worth the risk.

At the next sale, there were a lot of knick-knacks and typical household goods.  Here is Sarah and her monster broken-toe boot looking at stuff:

I was striking out pretty bad here, until I went in the basement and saw this:

The top part of this chalkboard turns, and there are tons of cool vintage graphics to choose from.  At $25, this was a total steal.  I snagged it for the baby nursery.  Here it is now, after I stenciled on future baby’s name:

The cowboys and Indians scene at the top was my favorite, and perfect for a little boy’s room.  

Sarah found some slides at this sale, and due to her recent success with slides, she decided to plop down and check them all out.  It was mega hot in this house, but somehow she convinced me to help her.  It was torture.  All of the slides were of plants and buildings, but Sarah was convinced there were good ones in there.  

I stopped helping after probably 30 seconds.  Sarah endured another 10 minutes or so and then decided not to buy any of these.  Whomp whomp.  I’ll let her tell you about all of her other finds this day.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Erin failed to mention so many important details from this first sale. First, the person who told us we had to give our purses away was no more than 13 years old and they had her manning the door. I’m cool with that, I’m just saying–it’s weird to take orders from a little kid. Second, this sale had three different areas with entrances, and when you were in each place, they made it sound like the next was going to be SO much better. As it turned out, the next was always worse. 

I did find some treasures, though–mainly of the paper variety. But before we get to those, check out this awesome pixie Erin snagged for me at the last minute!

She’s not in fabulous shape, but she was only $3, and the more important part of this find was that it led me to discover that there are TONS of these figurines with hair but not all of them are on the phone! Instead, many of them are “pixies” and can be found by searching that way. Totally rad, and I just spent the last hour buying more on the Internet instead of writing this very blog entry. I just made a boatload of cash on eBay, so I can afford more cuties like this. 

I also found some very cute mini dogs. My favorite is this one, who really DOES look like my dog, Betsy. It’s head comes off the top so it wobbles. so stinkin’ cool! 

One question: Have you ever seen a cuter dog? 

Ok on to the paper… there was a ton of it, but they were pricing it all individually, which was sad. I’ve gotten some really good deals buying mass quantities of paper from the people running this sale in the past, so that was a bummer. In the end, I bought a few photographs, some vintage greeting cards, and a couple of postcards.

I had to buy this old illustration. Rock of Ages was (still IS) a record store near where I grew up. True story: I bought a purple Jellyfish t-shirt there when I was 16 and then gave it to Zach when I met him because he was a megafan just like my own husband. Man, where is that thing now?

I had to buy this postcard because IT MAKES NO SENSE.

Ok, so the worst thing about this sale was that no matter where you were at any given time, 4 other people wanted to be in that EXACT PLACE. I was standing near the check out area where they keep more valuable stuff, and there was a box of postcards that I was sorting through. As I am sorting through them, I sh*t you not, this lady comes up behind me and grabs HALF of them, and moves to the side and starts looking through them. I was so stunned that I didn’t say anything but Erin looked like she was going to lose it. Are you kidding me, lady?! 

The only thing worth mentioning about the other areas of the sale is that Erin and I bonded over this: 

I thought it was bad enough that I was told by a therapist when I was in my early 20s, after confessing my extreme fear of house fires, to purchase one of these. But Erin actually had one under her bed as a child for the same reason, and her dad used to help her take it out and practice using it. People, this is why we’re friends. 

It’s true that at the second sale, I left without any slides, but don’t you worry–I’ve already made up for it. Stay tuned!