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!

So a few years ago I saw this Christmas display that used old glass insulators set on top of a string of lights.  It was mega cute.  I tried googling an image for you, and the best I could find is this, which is also mega cute:

So I set out collecting insulators.  I have a whole bunch now, but have never actually set up said light display.  While in the basement today, I dug the insulators out and figured I would look them up on ebay to see if I should sell them.

I should interject here and say that I am still not totally sure what an insulator is/was.  I mean, the name is self-explanatory, but what these actually insulated is unclear to me.  Something about telephone poles.

I should also add that people EFFING love insulators.  The websites and blogspots devoted to these glass phalli ( I thought it was phalluses but I stand corrected) are numerous.

So anyway, in my stash, I had 3 purple insulators.  It turns out that these are insanely rare.  And valuable.  We’re talking way more money than you could even imagine someone would spend on a piece of purple glass that you stick Christmas lights under for decoration.  Timmy and Joan bought these for me at an auction for $4.

So of course I immediately listed mine for sale and in the matter of a couple hours they already had 18 watchers and several bids. 

And then this happened:

Some glass insulator know-it-all is trying to rain on my purple glass parade.  WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS?!  I panicked of course and started frantically looking up what the hell “radiated” insulators are.  Turns out, the term is actually “irradiated,” so basically I should not trust this guy at all.

Irradiated glass, as it turns out, has literally been placed in the presence of a machine that emits radiation, like an x-ray machine.  It turns the glass amazing colors like purple or cobalt blue.  The glass will naturally turns these colors if left out in the sun for decades, say, on a telephone pole, but some scammers don’t want to wait for that to happen.  They buy cheap insulators and then irradiate them.  UGH.

This is a SUPER HOT TOPIC in the glass insulator community and is debated fiercely.  I highly recommend poking around here. Here is a taste though:

^^^ UM, ok THIEF.  Get down off those telephone poles!

So WTH.  Are my insulators fake? I really don’t know.  I don’t think so though.  Who would go through the trouble of irradiating these and then selling them in an auction for $4? 

From what I have read, it is super hard to tell which insulators have been irradiated and which are authentic.  The fact that this guy thinks he could tell just by looking at a photo of mine on ebay is sketchy. 

I am holding out hope for my little insulators! I will let you know how they end up doing!

-Erin

Like I mentioned, my family was in Canada for vacation two weeks ago.  We were in the same area of Ontario as our day trip last year, only this time we were staying for 6 days.  Fun fact is that Grand Bend (our precise location) is featured in a MTV Canada show called Grand Benders.  We didn’t know this until our third or fourth day of vacation.  The show is basically Vanderpump Rules (a Bravo show).  It was fun to try and spot cast members while we were out to eat or at the beach.

Of course, we hit up our favorite antique haunts and tried a few new places. 

That’s Everett driving a car at a flea market.  He smoked that little girl in the background.

Those giant luggage trunks above were on the Titanic.  Just kidding, they weren’t on the Titanic.  Still cool though.

This Griswold rabbit mold is my all-time biggest holy grail antique item.  I have wanted it for YEARS.  They have one at an antique store near our house but it is $400.  This one was $300.  I literally dream about finding this for cheap at a garage sale or something.

These wind up metal guys were pretty neat but were $70 each.  No thank you.

I did buy a few things.  Most to resell.  I got these Armand Marseille doll heads for mega cheap.  I am hoping someone who restores old dolls might be interested.

I also got this Wyandotte tin train because I saw that brand on American Pickers once.  It was $10.

I think I will keep this pewter rose ice cream mold.  I have a thing for molds if you can’t tell.

My favorite purchase by far was this set of ceramic pig heads.  I thought for sure Zach was going to put the kibosh on this purchase, but he actually liked these.  (Or he was being charitable…not sure.)

Their heads actually hold dishtowels.  Very practical.  I will be hanging them in the kitchen.

That’s all!  See you next year Canada!

-Erin

Sarah and I have been super lazy bloggers, but luckily our disciple Zach has been much more proactive.  Husband Zach collects and resells vintage watches, so lately he has been scoping out estate and garage sales in hopes of finding some. 

On Sunday I got a Facetime call from him, which looked like this:

He explained that he bought this doll because it was only $1 and he thought it might be valuable.  I told him I thought so too!  At least more than $1 valuable!  Zach also bought this crazy Knickerbocker doll because he knew we had blogged about that brand before:

This doll is amazingly weird.  It is a baby and a Santa.  A Santa Baby…like the song, except I don’t think the song literally meant a baby that is also Santa.  Anyway, we are going to stick it on ebay and see what happens.

So while on this call, Zach explains that this sale he was at had tons of old train stuff but he didn’t know what to buy.  He described this “service station” thing and I convinced him to go back and buy it.  It sounded like something we should take a chance on.

It turned out to be way cooler than I imagined while talking to Zach on the phone:

I could tell this was crazy old because it was wood and not tin.  It was in great shape.  After doing some research, we figured out it was made in 1949 and sold at Sears.  It is up on ebay now and already has a $50 bid.  It has 18 watchers too, so hopefully it will go a little higher.

So then flash forward to today and Zach gets home later than usual after work.  Turns out he had stopped at an estate sale.  I was just about to nap with Everett when Zach informed me that I REALLY needed to get up and go to the sale he was just at.  “It was like a hoarder and there was all this stuff and I know we could resell some of it and blah blah…”

Well, his assessment was right on.  This place was packed.  And the stuff was good.  The prices seemed fair.  I had apparently taught Grasshopper well.

They even had a doll of Sarah’s future child there:

Check out those teefers.

I ended up buying the following:

An Ohio Art tin buggy which seems like it should be an easy resell:

A cool old ice bucket by Hazel Atlas Glass company:

And this hilarious watch which was only $1.  People like Duran Duran don’t they?!

(Zach seemed very skeptical of this purchase.)

I will probably go back tomorrow with Sarah because there were other things I was interested in but wanted to wait and barter over.  Prices today were pretty firm.

When Zach was at the sale, he got this cool toy wagon for $15.  It was really dirty and he cleaned it all up.  It is all wood and super cute.

So good job Zach!  You have officially earned the ranking of DTT Scout.  We are so proud :)

-Erin

Wow, hard to believe I still have stuff to write about from my trip to South Carolina. But I do… one last entry. After we left the Summerville Antique Gallery, we headed over to this crazy hot dog place called Perfectly Franks that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. This was enough to make me completely sold! The hot dogs at this place were crazy. Just look for yourself. 

I don’t know why none of us ordered something super crazy. I just got a Chicago style dog. In retrospect, I should have tried something more adventurous. Still, it was a… 

After our hot dogs, we headed over to an antique store next door. There were some cool things to look at. 

There were four of these hippie hangers but I liked this guy the best. 

I thought this cool print by Hatch Show Print might be valuable but it was priced correctly. 

I also loved these little Frances invites, but when am I ever going to use something like that? 

Action shot of my mom and Ann discussing something important. 

Ok, so I’ll bet you’re wondering what the hell the awesome find was here, right? Well, I noticed these adorable bisque cake toppers on a shelf, but they were all priced separately even though it was clearly a set. 

When I brought them up, I questioned the price but the guy didn’t seem willing to bargain, and the price of each was $15. I wasn’t willing to pay $45 for all of them, so I left because I figured I could find them online.

We started driving to our next destination and I started looking these guys up on eBay, and they actually seemed to sell for more than that on there, so I felt bummed that I had missed out on something I really liked at a good price. So I did what any brave person would do–I made my dad drive back there, and I sent my mom in with some cash to haggle for me. I told her I was willing to pay $30 for all three and she came out with them in her hands! Yeah mom! 

In celebration, here is a picture of me and my mom sitting on a moon in the Moon Pie shop in downtown Charleston.

Moon Pies are disgusting, by the way. But that backdrop is dope! 

-Sarah

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 

Time to update y'all about is the rest of my trip to South Carolina! I told you about how the flea market was a bust, so when we left, my mom looked up where we could find an actual antique shop nearby. She found one and we drove to it, but it ended up taking us to a grocery store parking lot when we followed the directions. This grocery store happened to be by a Goodwill, so of course I made my mom and Ann stop in to see if I could find a Big Hug Mug. I know. We’re obsessed. I didn’t find a mug, but I did find a brand new copy of NOS4A2, which is a badass book if you haven’t read it yet. 

Finally, we discovered that the antique store had changed locations, and were on our way. As soon as we pulled up, we were pumped. There was stuff all over outside, and the place looked pretty big! 

However, upon looking at the first few items, we knew this place was going to be mad overpriced. 

I know Dr. Pepper is mad good, but that’s a little too much for a pop crate. 

Oh well–we had to make lemonade. Even if stuff was overpriced, there was a lot to look at. It was a booth style antique store, so there were some cool rooms/areas, including this Pyrex room. 

By the way, if you’re into Pyrex (and other cool treasure seekers), be sure to check out the Pyrex Thrifter Sisters’ blog! 

Ok, back to the store. There was a lot to look at and sift through…

I wonder if that boy knows he’s now world famous. 

I really liked this old cabinet. 

I enjoyed that this Christmas postcard had a very Halloween-y font–the icicles really make it… Christmassy and not at all creepy. 

There was one thing I almost bought: 

My oldest niece had an imaginary friend when she was little, and his name was Tiko. A year later when her younger sister was of imaginary-friend-having age, she started talking about HER imaginary friend. And his name was My Tiko. I sent this to my brother and it gave him a good laugh.

You’ll be shocked to hear that my mom didn’t buy a single thing. I did buy one super teeny tiny beagle mini that I found, but that was it. 

The highlight of the day/night occurred when we went to my aunt’s new enormous house and met her two dogs. Here’s me with the super cute friendly one. OMG, he’s the cutest muppet. 

Now, here is a video of his brother. Before I got down there, my mom kept referring to him as “Cujo” and now I understand why. 

Stay tuned for a few more SC updates! 

-Sarah

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

Hi folks! Here’s my attempt at crowdsourcing! I’m going to the Charleston, SC area for five days starting this Saturday and would love to hear any recommendations for places to hit up. My parents are renting a house down there for February and March, and I’m going to spend a few days with them in the warmer weather. Since we love treasure hunting we need your help! I’m already planning on going here because my parents checked it out and said it was cray:

But I need more good recommendations! 

Also good would be recommendations for the best SC TREATS. And anything else fun to do! Thanks! 

-Sarah