Dig This Treasure!

On Monday, I hit up the secret auction with Adam and we met my parents there. As I’ve said in the past, this auction often has a mix of garbage and gems. But that night, basically everything up for auction was hilarious. 

Saw these homies right away. They were each about 2 feet tall. 

I have a deep love for Beavis and Butthead so this was really hard to resist. 

Nothing better than a Tweety Bird needlepoint. 

That, my friends, is a HUGE plastic Halloween mask–the eye holes are up in the hat area. 

In the end, I came away with a cool set of playing cards with naked ladies on them, and a pile of paper, including this awesome antique invite to a “social hop”!

There were two things that Adam wanted, both of which sold for way too much money. First, there was an Eddie Cantor game amongst these huge piles of old games. Someone ended up buying each stack for between $70 and $40, and the pile with Eddie Cantor went for the most. 

But the main thing Adam wanted was this box of NES games in their original packaging. He was most excited about this lot because it contained a Flinstones game, and one of the two NES Flinstones games is worth a boatload. 

This box contained the less valuable game, but still probably would have had a high resell value. However, it ended up going for $90. C'mon y'all. 

-Sarah

Adam and I met up with my parents at our old fave Tecumseh auction on Sunday, and I’m still kicking myself for this one. Toward the end of the auction, they put this big box up and said it was a “stimulator”… it just looked like a big meter/reader in a box–that you’d measure electrical current with or something. The bids started low and my mom turned around and said, “I think that’s a shock therapy machine!" 

I thought she was full of it but it turns out, she was right. A guy and his wife who were sitting next to us won the thing for $300 and told me it was the one thing they came to the auction to buy. When they were given the box, I asked what it was and the told me it was a machine to give someone a lobotomy. I think you’ve got that a lil’ confused, brosef.

Anyway, I knew what he meant, and I had also heard one of the auction helpers say he saw one like it sell on eBay for $999.99. I also ignored this because the people who work at that place often have no idea what they’re talking about. That’s what makes it so fun. 

But it turns out that he was RIGHT! One identical to it sold for a grand a few days ago!

Here are some more pics so you can check it out… 

So, the moral of the story is… keep your eyes peeled for old medical devices! 

-Sarah

Wow, we have really gotten caught up in the magic of summer and are behind in telling you about our various adventures over the past few weeks.

About three weeks ago, I tagged along with Cindy and zzpopps to the secret far away auction. When I first stepped into the place, I saw this pinball machine that had obviously been sold at a previous auction.

Adam is super into pinball machines and has two vintage machines that are in various states of disarray in our basement. I momentarily convinced him that I watched this one sell for $40. I am so mean. Anyway, that was a bold faced lie. I have no idea what it sold for, but I’m sure it was not $40 since homies will pay that much for a janky Transformer at this auction. Adam also wants everyone to know that that is NOT an official Beatles pinball machine—such a thing does not exist. But it is the only unofficial one that does exist. #immarriedtoanerd

The auction was packed with treasures that night, mainly on the “man stuff" side of things.

I saw that Vernors crate right away and knew I had to have it. I love me some burny ginger ale. I ended up with it but not without a fight. More on that in a minute.

These bats might have been worth something, but Erin is the resident sports memorabilia expert—not me.

While there were many cool things, there was also, of course, a plethora of things to laugh at.

Bedtime Bubba is a sassy, redneck bear for children to snuggle with at night. Here’s a picture of the back of that packaging that I snagged from eBay.

Look close. There is a lava lamp and a weird pudgy purple guy. WTF?

Check out those fancy magician hands.

First, let me show you two things that my mom bought. It’s been so long, I can’t remember anything else that she got!

I thought she was insane for purchasing this (I actually bid on it FOR her because when it came up, I didn’t think she was paying attention! Little did I know, she almost bid me up on it), but actually it seems like Cindy had some good Spidey sense that night. Here’s a similar one that sold:

My mom also got this adorable Horsman Mickey Mouse Club doll:

So cute! I don’t think she’s tried to sell either of these things yet.

So back to my Vernors crate. There was a woman at this auction who I’ve seen almost every time I’ve been there. Well, homegirl has the same taste as me apparently, because every single thing I wanted ended up being the same thing SHE wanted. My parents were laughing at me for getting so annoyed but it was CONSTANT. Anyway, when those crates went up for sale, I just let her go hog wild and take as many as she wanted. I just kept hoping she had no interest in Vernors and I was right. I ended up with that Vernors one and this Pepsi one:

They both came in handy because by the end of the night, I had a lot of stuff!

Every time I’ve gone to this auction, the very last thing the “man stuff" auctioneer sells are big box lots of various things. Until this visit, I hadn’t paid much attention to this area, but this small box of old advertising ephemera caught my eye. I liked these ice cream labels the most:

The way they do the box lots is they separate it into areas, letting people choice out boxes that they want—the highest bidder takes as many boxes as he/she wants for the price they win at. Anyway, right before the box lot auction started, my mom and I noticed that there was a big box of old half-filled apothecary/pharmacy bottles. Well, I was the high bidder at $25 and it was one of those “going, going, gone" moments and at the last minute, the Auction Thief swooped in and stole it from me. I was so annoyed that I just let her have it, hoping that those bottles weren’t what she wanted. But OF COURSE they were! Oh well.

In the end, I won the advertising lot:

And some boxes of books, and then one other box of really random stuff that happened to have an old Pelouze scale inside. I didn’t even notice the scale at first but I sold it for $22 the other day. I also discovered a little box of old soda and beer labels. I looked online and it seems like these don’t really sell, and I can’t figure out why in the world not, because they’re so cute!

Also, who can tell me what these are?

They’re big—like coasters. Is that what they are? There are smaller ones that I think are milk caps, but what the heck are these?

Ok, one final cute thing I found in one of the boxes that I won:

You may think it’s crazy to buy a big box of crap when you only know that there’s one good thing inside but hey, that’s what Goodwill is for! I figure I’ll find some neat stuff along the way and then just send the rest on to the next treasure hunter. I also got a couple of boxes of children’s books that I’ve sorted through—there were a few really good finds and the rest I just donated.

By the time we finished up that night, the place was totally empty!

I thought my dad was going to have a nervous breakdown when he saw how many boxes I purchased. ZZ gets a little agitated when it comes to packing cars. Thankfully, it all fit just fine!

On my way out, I was once again tortured by the sight of this amazing piece of furniture that’s always there when I go there. It seems like it’s sold because it has a sticker on it but I don’t know why it’s still always there. It looks like it was used in an art classroom.

If it was for sale and I had 1) a moving van and 2) some big, hunky men to move it for me, I’d snatch that thing up in a heartbeat!

-Sarah

I know, it’s a mouthful. 

Last Monday, while I was at the secret auction with my parents, I spotted this gem and literally LOLed. I considered buying it because it would be an excellent white elephant gift around christmastime. 

Who cares that she’s missing a finger? She’s a sexy beast. Speaking of sexy beasts, check out her gross buddies: 

Here’s a closer look at the she-devil. Dolly Parton up in there! 

‘nuf said. 

-Sarah

On Monday night, I called Cindy and zz popps to see if they were going to their secret auction. They were, so I hopped on board! Normally on Monday nights, I get my fitness on (Turbo Kick, WHAT UP?!) but I decided that treasure hunting was going to take priority. 

In case you didn’t read the other entry about this auction, it’s a little different than most. At any given time there are THREE different people auctioning off items, so it’s a little stressful, but in a good way. You might remember that last time, I scored a GIANT lot of Muffy bears and made a small fortune off of those. Well, here’s what I saw when I walked in on Monday: 

I’ll be frank—I was almost trembling with excitement when I saw all those Muffies sitting there, waiting for their new (temporary) home with Mama Sarah. Right away, I ran over to my mom and exclaimed something like, “Awwww sh*t, look what I found!!!!” and showed her that picture on my phone. I mean what’s the likelihood of that happening twice—the only times I’ve ever gone to this auction?! 

There were other cool things up for sale in the other areas—mainly in what my parents called the “guy area.” In the “guy area” there’s an auctioneer who mainly sells old toys, tools, and other collectibles. While I was looking at things in this area, I stopped to check out this thing of marbles: 

Because I’m a dummy, I did not realize that this jar did not have a lid, so I proceeded to knock it over when I grabbed it to take a look. Fortunately, only a few were lost in the abyss. I also saw some other interesting items for sale:

Lots of early ’70s heads up in the mix. 

That buddy knows what’s up. Also, for a while my mom wanted one of these lightening rods for her garden (?! I know!) but thankfully she changed her mind.

After dumping the marbles, I high-tailed it outta there, and headed back over to Muffy-ville. It felt like I had to wait FOREVER for them to put them up for auction and in the meantime, my mom stopped over and won this terrifying thing: 

The funny thing is that my mom sent me this picture and the name of the file is Jiggy, but his name is actually Zippy and apparently he was from Howdy Doody. You’re welcome, mom. Anyway, I think she paid $3 or $5 and it looks like she will definitely make a profit! Also, people would NOT stop commenting on this purchase. 

After getting Zippy, my mom went to another auction area and I was left to stress on my own about the bears. They started with the ones in boxes like this one: 

There were six of those, and I got them for $3 each. I got a little worried because I thought, “Are they going to sell ALL of those Muffies one by one?” I wanted to maximize profit, of course, so I wanted them to be sold in a lot! Well, spoiler alert: In the end, I got that GIANT group of bears for $10. YES YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY!!!!!!!! Here’s the big pile of bears: 

I was seriously so pumped. 

A few minutes later, a guy came up to me and said, “You’re the girl who won all those teddybears. Whachoo gonna do with all those bears?!” I should have been a smartass but I told him they were semi-valuable. He then proceeded to talk my ear off about how one of his friends has a huge collection of Shirley Temple dolls that she’s willing to part with. Cool story, bro. I didn’t bite and then he said, in a very annoyed tone, “I’m trying to give you a hint here.” I said I didn’t get what he was saying (even though I did, I just didn’t want any more dolls after scoring 30+ teddy bears!) and he proceeded to call the woman on the phone and hand me it! WTF?! It was so weird! Thank god the reception in that joint is terrible because the call dropped and I was able to get out of that one. I told him that I really wasn’t interested and he gave me the most “you are a fool” look I’ve ever seen, but then insisted on giving me her number! In retrospect, maybe I should have called her, though:

There are lots of other Shirley Temple dolls that aren’t worth nearly that much, so I’ll just hope THOSE are the kind she owns. 

Right after this wacko encounter, the area with all of the cool older antiques started getting put up for auction and I won this egg scale that I had my eye on. 

My mom won a bunch of other cool things: 

Chalkware! 

Cool old tin toy made in Italy. 

And a tin sign. I am not sure whether or not this is actually old or if it’s a repro. 

My mom also bought some not so great stuff: 

The biscuit tin had potential but I think it’s missing it’s glass window. Still, maybe she’ll resell it. One like it resold for a decent amount but it was complete. 

I think the big winner of the night was zz popps. He bought a Federal Sign & Signal Beacon Ray for $80. Apparently it’s the same emergency light they used on Hawaii 5-0.

There are different models of these beacon emergency lights, but one identical to my dad’s sold a few months ago for $500! We’ll see what happens. 

All in all, a very fun night! The only regret I have is eating Nachos and chocolate cake for dinner. At one point, a lady next to my mom was raving about the homemade frosting on the chocolate cake, so I tried it.

Betty Crocker all the way!!! Still delicious. I shouldn’t be surprised, though. At the end of the evening, they put out all of the hot dogs that did not sell in a paper basket and people can come up and grab one for free with their grubby little fingers. 

Utterly disgusting. And that’s coming from a true hot dog lover. 

-Sarah

You may remember that a month or so ago, Erin and I found a secret auction where they were selling lots and lots of dolls. My main purchase that I thought might make me some cash were these creepy doll heads for $10. 

I finally sold them last week and let me tell ya, it was awesome. People started bidding them up really early on, and right away I was amused by some of the buyers’ eBay names. My favorite, by far, was “ArtsyFartsyFairy,” and she ended up winning the auction. Part of my theory about why these sold for so much was that a week before that, I had gotten a new iPhone because zzPopps accidentally broke my old one during our garage sale. Check out my baller eBay pics! 

My other theory was that crazy doll ladies wanted these for parts–especially the sleep eyes inside. I’ve sold some really old sleep eyes for quite a bit of money in the past. Here’s what the ones looked like inside these doll heads: 

All of them had these eyes and they were all in great shape. Anyway, at the end of the auction, here’s what I made: 

Awwwww yeah! 

I emailed ArtsyFartsyFairy and asked her what made these heads so desirable, and here’s what she said: 

To learn more about Shirley’s Junque Jarz, check out her blog. But here’s a picture of one of them: 

Anyhow, here’s proof that people will buy your stuff on eBay and do all sorts of wonderful things with it! 

-Sarah

Two Saturdays ago, I noticed a listing on Auction Zip for a “Farm Fest” in Ann Arbor.  Here’s the flyer:

Community garage sale, you say?  Flea Market?  And an auction?  Sign me up!  The cherry on top was the petting farm.  If I didn’t find any treasures to buy, at least I could pet a sheep or something!

I arrived to Ann Arbor pretty early because the auction was happening first.  When I walked into the auction barn, things were already in action.

People were buying these giant Barbies for $60 each.  

In fact, Barbies were the hot commodity.  There were hundreds of them, all being sold in giant box lots.  A box of about 7-10 sealed Barbies would sell for $100.  I was clearly in the company of some Barbie-loving high rollers.

Some of the other goods included Care Bears, Cabbage Patch dolls, Madame Alexanders, and Littlest Pet Shop Critters.

Did this all come out of one house?  Please tell me this didn’t all come out of one house.  

Anyway, so I’m looking through the aisles of goods, and…what’s this?  A WHOLE BOX OF SASHA DOLLS?!  Someone pinch me. 

Sarah and I had a frantic text exchange about these dolls.  You would have thought we were setting up a drug deal.

I was so nervous waiting for these dolls to go up for auction.  Sarah and I want these so badly!  You’ve all had to read about our Sasha doll obsession a few times now.  And yet, these dolls keep eluding us!  We especially wanted two of the dolls at this particular auction because they looked like us:

Here is mine:

And here is Sarah’s:

Oh whoops, sorry.  That’s another doll that looked like Sarah.  Ok, here is the Sasha doll that looked like Sarah:

So how did things turn out?  Well, terrible actually.  Heartbreakingly terrible.  When the auctioneer got to the box of Sasha dolls, he decided to sell them as a lot!  He really should have separated them out.  I bet they would have gotten at least $100 per doll.  

The whole box sold to a phone bidder for over $500.  I couldn’t justify spending that much on a giant box of dolls, even if I could have sold them all on ebay.  Imagine my husband’s face had I purchased these.  Sarah, however, thought I was a fool for not splurging on them.

After that devastating loss, I headed over to the “community garage sale” and “flea market.”

It was disappointing to say the least.  

I was definitely striking out.  At least there were some animals awaiting me.  I set out to find the petting farm area.  On the way, I watched some guys pull tractors across a field of dirt.

Here’s my tractor:

Just kidding.  I don’t have a tractor.

So as it turns out, the “petting farm” was just false advertising.  The cow buddy above was the only animal at the place.  Whomp whomp.

Despite the letdowns, I actually did have fun at the Farm Fest.  It was a beautiful day outside.  And I did end up with one treasure…some vinegar fries and root beer!

-Erin

On Saturday, Sarah and I had big plans to attend the Michigan Modernism Expo, but on the way there we saw a sign that said “AUCTION TODAY.” Sarah turned her car around so fast that I assumed we were driving on two wheels momentarily.

It turns out that the auction was already in progress, and had been for about an hour. This was slightly devastating because everything left at the auction looked really good, so I assume the items we missed were also really good.

The auction was nearly all dolls, which was fine with us. Last time we went to a doll auction, Sarah cleaned up. And twice I have had crazy luck with dolls. First with a lot of dolls that included a German “dream baby” and the second time with an Arranbee doll with Armand Marseille head that I sold for $250.

Both of us blew our lids with excitement when we saw this Sasha doll still in the box. Since we learned about these dolls, we have both wanted one. Remember my fantasy about buying a mini ipad and moccasin boots for the Sasha doll version of me?

This was a “Sasha baby” and not really a “Sasha doll,” but you’ve got to start somewhere right? Because I am such a good friend, it was decided that Sarah would get to bid on this. Unfortunately it sold for like $90, and she didn’t get it :(

We also zeroed in on some Storybook Nancy Ann dolls. Somehow Sarah caught on to these being potentially valuable, and I started researching on my phone to confirm that.

So it turns out that some Nancy Ann dolls ARE mega valuable.

And others, not so much.

I figured out that the bisque dolls in general were the more collectible. The later plastic versions seemed pretty worthless. And it was important that all of the limbs be jointed. Other than that, it seemed like a crapshoot.

Only one of the Nancy Ann dolls at this auction was bisque and jointed, so I took a chance on her. And it seems like my dumb doll luck may have struck again.

Apparently silver shoes on a Nancy Ann doll are very rare. In addition, she has what are called “molded socks.” See those bumps above her ankles? Most of the dolls were smooth, but some had these socks, which were often painted white. In some dolls, like mine, the sock marks are there, but the white socks never got painted on.

Of course, I didn’t know any of this, but when I listed her on ebay, a kind Nancy Ann fan messaged me to tell me all about her. So cool!

I should mention one non-doll item at this auction that sold for some mega bucks. It was this weird mirror sculpture thing. I took a photo of it when we first got to the auction thinking it would make a good “hard to resist” item.

Well, the joke was on me, because this thing was made by Curtis Jere, the moniker of two famous mid century artists. It ended up selling for $700!!

You know what didn’t sell for $700? This box of doll heads:

[Editor’s Note: Sarah ended up buying these!]

-Erin

At the Plymouth auction this week, things felt very garage sale-esque.  That’s not to say I didn’t see anything worth buying, there just weren’t any $200 Art Ross pucks or $400 cast iron banks for sale dirt cheap.

This cigar box had some human hair braids in it, which is NOT CREEPY AT ALL.  I’m shocked that these weren’t mixed in with some women’s underwear and random drivers’ licenses…you know, because that is how serial killers normally store their HUMAN HAIR BRAIDS.

Speaking of creepy, this container had a tiny alien fetus inside:

It was marked “Area 51” on top and was obviously a souvenir from there.  Lemme tell ya, people were going nuts over this alien.  I sat in my seat and just watched as each person would pick this up, look at it for a good 10 seconds, and then look frantically around the room for their loved ones.  They would then mouth to them, “Did you see this thing?!”  It was such a hit.  I got a really good kick out of how much everyone was amazed by this.  It sold for like $20.

I also cracked up over this gigantic walking stick/staff.  It was hardcore Gandalf style.  Zach for weeks now has been talking about buying a walking stick because “it’s cool,” even though he doesn’t really walk anywhere.  He talked about this nonstop, and I would get really worked up over how embarrassed I would be if he started walking with a walking stick.  I was literally begging him not to buy one online.  A few days ago, he finally revealed that it was all an elaborate charade just to get my goat.  And got my goat he did.

I just realized that there actually was one high priced item at the auction.  This turkey platter sold for $300!  I was going to bid on it, but when it passed $30, I was like nevermind.

The platter was flow blue and made by Ridgways of England.  From what I have read online, it was probably from the 1920s or so.  I’m really curious if this was worth the $300 price it sold for, or actually more.  I can’t find anything comparable on ebay.  Anyway, it is always a shock when things sell for lots of money at the Plymouth auction, so everyone clapped when the platter sold.

I was waiting on an old cast iron mailbox to go up on the block.  In the meantime, I bought the following:

A nice giant rug that George and Milo were so kind to model for me.  I’m not sure if this rug is Native American or Mexican, but I sure do love it.  I got it for $5!  It reminds me of the rugs/table runners I bought at auction in Canada.

I also got these Santa sticker things.  I say “stickers” because that seems to be the only reasonable purpose for these.  Maybe I should say “stamps” because it appears that you lick the back of these and stick them on things.  I am planning to frame the whole sheet as is and hang it up at Christmas.

The last thing to note is that Timmy and Joan came to the auction, and they bought a Herman Miller office chair for like $30.  Sold new, the chair is over $500.  FTW!  They were so pumped over this purchase that it kind of made them auction tyrants.  They thought they owned the place.  When I was being outbid on a cast iron mailbox, they started yelling at me, “KEEP GOING!  KEEP BIDDING!  WE’LL GIVE YOU THE MONEY!  DON’T LOSE.”  It was hilarious.  I listened to them for a minute and then bowed out of the bidding because it was up to $75…for a mailbox!  Insanity.  There are tons on ebay for $30-$40.

-Erin