Dig This Treasure!

I hope there are still some of you out there that are checking in on our blog!  Here I present you, loyal readers, with a total random entry.  Alas, it is a cool one, so appreciate it (who knows when we will have another).  Whomp whomp.

Zach and I went to DC two weeks ago for a wedding.  And like most DC weddings (I assume) it was officiated by a member of Obama’s staff.  So that was pretty amazing.  They also served mussels and oysters during cocktail hour.  I don’t like any seafood, mostly because I am uncultured.  I am mentioning the mollusks because for some ungodly reason I decided to try one.  It was awful.  It was mushy, with more secret pockets of extra mush.  So to anyone who eats these, there is something seriously wrong with you.

Bivalves aside, the wedding was insanely gorgeous and the actual dinner was incredible.  The DJ by far was the best I have EVER seen at a wedding. 
We danced, we smiled, we drank, we smiled more.  It was lovely.

OK, so what does this have to do with treasures? This one day while out sightseeing, we spotted what looked to be an antique store.  It was in fact an antique store, but everything inside was presidential related.  

They had old campaign buttons and ephemera.  They also had actual items belonging to past presidents–pens, cuff links, even a shoe from Harry Truman.  Do you need a golf ball signed by George W. Bush?  No?  OK, well if you change your mind, they have it. 

While looking around, I spotted this tiny gold Christmas tree and inquired about it. 

Turns out that this is a Christmas ornament that Ronald Reagan gave to only his staff.  There are not many in existence, although the guy running the store wasn’t sure of the actual number.  It even had the original envelope and tissue paper it came in.  Here, have another look:

I know, right? So cool.  Another fun fact is that Ronald Reagan started the White House Christmas ornament tradition.  Every year, the White House releases a new ornament for the public to buy.  That means our little ornament was right there in the beginning as this tradition was born. 

The price was $125 which actually seemed reasonable to me.  We bought it of course.  We also bought a program from that year’s Christmas Services at the White House.

I know what you are thinking.  I am thinking it too.  What the EFF is up with Nancy Reagan’s signature?! 

I mean, COME ON.

We saw lots of other things to buy, but they were out of our price range.  Zach did buy his parents some neat old campaign stickers from Eugene McCarthy.  Here, I googled him for you.  

So that’s the latest on our treasure hunting.  Hope to check in with you guys again soon!  Happy hunting!

A few weeks ago, there was an estate sale in my neighborhood.  It wasn’t on estatesales.net but luckily a friend of mine spotted it and told me.  I am glad she did because the home was that of a former antiques dealer.  Everything in the house was high quality, and even better, there was tons of it. 

As you can see, it was a lot of paper stuff.  I had Everett with me so it was pretty much impossible to look through any of this.  I decided to come back the next day with Sarah.  Before I left though, I struck up a conversation with the women running the sale.  They seemed really nice and kept repeating that they were willing to make good deals.  Nearly everything in the house still had price tags on it from the woman’s antique booth.  The ladies running the sale were her daughters and said they would NOT be charging what the stickers said.  Ok great, I LOVE DEALS.

So Sarah and I come back the next day and it seemed like Sarah was in hogs’ heaven.  One back room of this house was completely filled with old postcards. 

The day before, one of the women running the sale said that a giant box of postcards would be about $60, which she then explained was about a penny a piece per card.  I told Sarah that if she bought a bunch of cards, she would certainly get a good deal.

I found two postcards for myself and let Sarah have the rest.  These Santas usually sell pretty well on ebay.

In the garage there was a ton more paper.  All of it was old brochures, programs, ticket stubs–all your basic ephemera.  I started digging.

I found a plastic sleeve full of old railroad stuff and grabbed it on a whim.  I haven’t sold any train stuff on ebay before, but it seems like something a lot of people are geeky about.

It was really hot outside so I peaced out and went to meet back up with Sarah.  I could tell she was losing steam.  The house had no air and the amount of stuff to look through was getting burdensome.

Not to mention that something else was becoming very clear–these women were totally lying about their “deals."  There would be NO DEALS.  Something had happened since the previous day that made these ladies less than thrilled about parting with their mom’s stuff.  Fair enough.  It’s tough to do.  That said, from our perspective, this was very annoying. 

Sarah’s loss of joy over this sale was pretty clear:

That’s her "Let’s GTFO of here face.”

Postcards were now “individually priced” and some were $12 each.  TWELVE DOLLARS.  EACH.  Sarah had a stack of postcards about 3 inches deep and they wanted to charge her $75.  $75, which they explained, was actually a VERY good deal.  No.

After going back and forth for awhile on prices, I was able to get a small pile of stuff for $17.  It included that train stuff and Santa postcards above, as well as the following:

Don’t old Halloween decorations sell?  These guys are in okay shape and pretty cool looking.

And this horrible card:

No seriously, WTF.  This card isn’t even that old!  JFC.

The best score I got (which should make me not complain so much about the prices at this sale) was an old railroad schedule from the 1890s.  It sold for $100 on ebay last week, which was a huge shock.  It was hovering around $20 and then shot up in the last minute.  So awesome.

Poor Sarah only got some overpriced postcards, although she didn’t end up paying $75.  I think she paid like $25.  Hopefully one of them is made of gold!

Oh and P.S. I went back to this sale for a third time with Zach.  I thought maybe on the last day these women would have a change of heart and really price to sell.  (They didn’t.)  I found this Indian doll that I had a sneaking suspicion was an Armand Marseille.  I had seen a really similar doll at another estate sale in mint condition that was AM and was priced $200.  This one was far from mint but I got it for a mere $5.  It sold on ebay for $36!

Cute huh? If it’s hair hadn’t fallen off, I would have kept it!  Anyway, keep an eye out for these because they are Armand Marseille but are not marked! 

Ok and here is totally-over-it Sarah again.  Just because.

-Erin

Wow, hard to believe that over a month after my trip out there, I still have tales to tell about South Carolina. 

After our two previous treasure-seeking trips were pretty big busts, we decided to head out to another nearby town–Summerville–to see if there was anything good to find out there. Our first stop was the Summerville Antique Gallery. 

Right away, I knew it would be at least good for window shopping. It was a huge building with lots of little booths throughout. 

For the most part, prices were more reasonable than they had been at the place the previous day. Some were still pretty high. My dad was really interested in this Coca Cola stadium carrier. It had a strap that you’d wear around your neck–you know, to walk around baseball games and sell pop. 

But I looked it up for him and it was priced a little higher than what they sell for on eBay. Whomp whomp. 

I thought this was a pretty cute ways to display cards and other paper items! I loved those teeny clothespins. 

Here’s some of the cards close up. 

Cuuuuuuute! 

Does anyone know if these civil war bullets are legit? I thought they were but maybe I’m dumb. 

This thing was so cool…but what would you do with it? 

Ok, so I found a few cute things to purchase. First up is this adorable little girl sitting with her dog on a dresser. I don’t really know why I bought this or if I really need it (answer is no) but it was too cute to pass up. 

I also found a collection of these little trinket boxes. I’m almost positive that they’re new, but I still thought this one was too cute to pass up. 

Yep! When you open it up there’s a tiny little dog bone inside! 

I also bought this small, beat up chalkware dog for my mini shelf.

Anyway, we knew it was time to leave when I spotted this piece of sheet music.

I actually immediately hopped on a plane and flew home to Michigan.

-Sarah 

I mentioned last week that when I went to the Chelsea Antiques Market a few weekends ago, there were many things to see that were very hard to resist. Here are a few of my faves. 

Frankly, I don’t understand this terrifying plate, who would want it, or where it came from. I hated it so much–it just made me feel icky inside. Clowns are already scary enough but this one has a SAW in his doctor bag, a hammer in his hand, and golf clubs for no reason. WTF? 

Sarah and I were dying when we saw that someone had, with a red sharpie, made poor Big Boy’s eyes super bloodshot. Either that or he smoked some powerful ganja. 

I enjoyed that this seller didn’t know for sure whether a) the doll was very old or b) it was even a doll at all! 

I hope the Ultimate Punk finds this vase, because it was especially made for him/her. 

I call this masterpiece Terrifying Zombified Ceramic Hunter Boy, with Dog.

Some special anniversary cigs. 

NUDE LOVERS.

Ok, I saved my favorite for last. Every time I look at this picture, I LOL. 

This is what Erin looked like when the nurses told her it was time to push. 

-Sarah

Last weekend, I went treasure hunting with a friend and picked up these adorable dolls at an antique mall in Chelsea, MI. 

I am pretty much obsessed with them. I saw them in one of the last booths in the mall and asked to take a look. They were marked $10 each, which did seem a teeny bit high, but they seemed so unique (and were so darn cute), I couldn’t pass them up. I’m not sure if these were made by someone or if they’re Japanese but there are no stickers or marks that indicate their origin. Here are some close-ups. 

“Hello! I’m so cute!”

“Look at our adorable matching booties!" 

I seriously can’t explain how much I love these ladies. 

They do look similar to Mop-Pets, but I don’t think that’s what these are. Their faces are painted–none of it is stickers, which is what other Mop-pets I’ve found have for eyes and mouths. If anyone knows more about what time period these are from (I’m thinking ‘40s and '50s based on the outfits) or who made them, please let me know! 

-Sarah

Two weekends ago, I went out to Portland for a short visit while Adam was at a conference there. It was my first time in Portland and it was very overwhelming. So many cool things to do/see/eat/buy! Unsurprisingly, I found lots of very cool vintage and antique shops, but one with some of the coolest items that I saw was Hoodoo Antiques. 

Most of the stuff in this tiny store was of the large/furniture/industrial variety, but there were some cool smaller items as well. 

I really liked these Winslow Health vintage educational posters made by Denoyer-Geppert. They were out of my price range–between $200 and $275, but I felt like that was reasonable for the condition they were in. It turns out that’s actually a little high… Oh well! They were still super cool. 

I talked to the guy who runs the shop and he told me that this “red” sign is the only thing that remains from an old grocery store (I think!) … I can’t remember exactly what he told me but damn that sign is cool. It was huge! 

I loved these old elementary school handwriting signs. 

In this picture with the scary alligator, you can sort of get a glimpse of the only thing I bought here–an old Anri mechanical cork. It’s in the lower right of the picture and looks sort of like this:

I have another mechanical Anri cork that my mom unearthed at my grandma’s before she passed away last spring. The guy only charged me $20, which seemed fair. The only other thing I was interested in was this squirrel nutcracker. 

I didn’t even ask about the price because it was so heavy (oh yeah, what was up with nothing being priced in this store?!), there was no way I was carrying that back home on an airplane. And it turns out they’re pretty easy to find on eBay. 

Stay tuned for more cool finds from Portland! 

-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

As mentioned, Sarah and I hit the road last week for a mini vacay up in Traverse City, MI.  We were sure that many antique stores, yard sales, flea markets, and more awaited us.  It turns out though that most of the antique stores in Northern Michigan have gone out of business.  And for whatever reason, there wasn’t a single estate or yard sale!  What a true bummer!  

We did manage to find some treasures though, as well as wacky things that I’m sure Sarah will blog about at some point.  

One antique store we did find was in downtown Traverse City, and was 4 floors of high-end collectibles (including antique gynecology tables.) Unfortunately for us, we arrived there 10 minutes before they were closing.  Before being kicked out, I spotted some old chocolate and ice cream molds:

Of course, I particularly liked this rabbit one, but it was too pricey.

Having a glimpse at this store made us plan a special return visit.  A couple days later we made the ½ hour drive back to Traverse City (we were staying in nearby Cedar) to find us some treasures.  When we got there, the store had closed early BECAUSE OF A PARADE.  Usually I love parades, but not when they ruin our fun.  We were so disappointed.  

I convinced Sarah that we should hike our way through the parade and its crowd to another antique store nearby.  Luckily, it was open.  They had some neat items, particularly this giant bear skin rug:

I was also pretty obsessed with this bird basket, but it was expensive.  I also don’t have any birds to put in it.

I ended up buying a sterling silver rabbit ring.  I think Sarah bought some earrings.

No one bought these little mermaid cat statues though.  Whomp whomp.

-Erin

Update from Sarah:  I was very bad about taking pictures everywhere we went, but Erin summarized our disappointment fairly well. What the “antiquing” experience did affirm for me is that I love estate sale-ing and don’t really care for antique shopping. It’s so hard to get into it when you see the prices on stuff that we normally see at sales for about a 10th of the price. 

I did purchase a cute pair of sterling silver heart earrings and a copper piggy bank. The earrings were totally overpriced but I hadn’t really purchased a lot for myself on the trip, which is abnormal for me. So I splurged. 

In a day or two, I’ll give y'all an update about one “antique store” that found in Northport that contained countless gems. In the meantime, check out this treasure that Erin decided to pass on: 

Me, Erin, and my mom had an extensive argument about whether this was a beaver, squirrel or chipmunk mask. Feel free to weigh in.