Dig This Treasure!

On Saturday night, Zach and I went with my mom and dad to the Plymouth auction.  The photos online looked REALLY bad, so our plan was to go to the auction, make sure there were no good items, and then go out to dinner instead.  When we got to the auction, my mom, Zach, and I all breezed through pretty quickly.  We were ready to abandon ship as soon as we got there.

I did like that little mini doll trunk in the photo above, but I wasn’t willing to wait around 3 hours to buy it.  

Someone PLEASE fill me in on what these old punch board things are (the “Hit and Win” thing above).  Sarah and I have seen these before and are so confused by them.

So anyway, the three of us are ready to leave, and I noticed Timmy over in a corner, kind of lingering, and looking around for the rest of us.  I knew instantly that he found something.  His excitement could not be contained, even though he tried really hard.  He was looking around all paranoid-like, as though Homeland Security was watching him and the items he was looking at.

So what did he find?

This old Art Ross NHL puck in mint condition.  You might remember that I found one of these pucks at an estate sale for $2, and sold it on ebay for over $200.  And mine had a scratch in the orange decal!  

At this point, I went and told Zach and my mom that Timmy found a treasure and now we had to stay.  There were some grumbles, but we all knew that there was no leaving.

I did end up making a purchase.  Zach wanted this lead Indian figure:

And it just so happened that it was bundled with an item I wanted, plus two other lead figures:

Of course, I wanted that donkey.  He opens up and is a secret treasure box:

I paid $29 for the whole lot, which is fine because Zach was willing to pay $25 alone for the Indian.  I almost had the bunch for $15 but then some guy jumped in and kept bidding me up by $1.  We kept going back and forth and I wanted to yell to him (he was across the room) “BRING IT.  LET’S GO.”  I thought that would be funny, but it would most likely not be had I really yelled it.  

So in addition to Timmy’s puck, there were two other items he wanted.  A Gordie Howe collectors’ plate and a plastic baseball cup (I think from the 1960s).  The cup had my dad’s favorite baseball player on it, whose name I now have forgotten.  The auctioneer miraculously put all three items together in a lot.

And then the bidding started.  I was so nervous for my dad that I was shaking.  I know, so lame.  I just really wanted him to win that puck!  At $27 the bidding fizzled out, and Timmy was victorious.  His max was $150, so I am sure he would have won no matter what, but it was AWESOME to see him get this so cheap!  

I was standing in the back of the room (away from my dad) while the bidding was happening.  When the lot ended at $27, this guy next to me said how my dad had just overpaid and obviously “that guy” doesn’t know the Gordie Howe plate is only worth 10 bucks.  Of course, when this guy was saying this to me, he didn’t know that the winner was my dad.  I said back to him, “Hmm, you know, I think they were bidding on that puck more so than the plate.”  In my brain, I was smiling. 

I saw this guy then go up to my dad later and ask him about the puck.  Now–this is important–my dad made a cardinal sin.  HE TOLD THE GUY WHAT THE PUCK WAS WORTH.  Not smart.  You have to keep these secrets to yourself, or next time, that puck won’t be going for a mere $27.

The last thing I will mention is that a woman brought a ferret to the auction.  A LIVE FERRET.

That’s a photo of her kissing it.

-Erin

As mentioned, on Monday night I went to an auction with my parents and scored a boatload of Muffy VanderBear and Hoppy VanderHare dolls. Before I tell you the tale of this auction, I need to share one more thing related to the Muffies. This is, by far, the most adorable thing in the lot of stuff I purchased. It’s a Muffy BATH TUB!!!! 

Once again, proof that Erin and I were destined to be BFFs. I mean, if I’m being completely honest, I would have DIED if I had this stuff as a kid. It’s just so stinkin’ cute.  And look at the inside of the bathtub!!! 

Anyway, my parents go to this auction every week, and it’s pretty far from where I live, so I’m not normally able to go. But this week is our winter break at work, so I’m free like a bird. This auction house has auctions all of the time, and the Monday night auction is actually three different auctions going on simultaneously. My parents like going because you can get some great treasures for very little money. It is a very odd auction because it really is a mix of valuable/quality stuff and just plain old junk. 

As soon as we got there, I was overwhelmed. 

It was impossible to really capture the number of people who were up in this joint, as well as the quantity of crap there for sale. That picture above does not do it justice but it’s the crowd of men around the “man sale” area–I guess one of the auctioneers is always selling man stuff. 

What they do is they start at the front of the room and work their way back. It was a little stressful to try to pay attention to what might be coming up in each of the three places. I was also worried at first that I would never find my mom and dad again but then I realized that my mom was wearing the same color vest as a crossing guard in elementary school. 

There she is, inspecting a high-quality wooden basket. 

I spent most of my time between the Muffy sale and the middle sale, which was a mish-mash of stuff. The mish-mashy sale was lots of typical estate sale stuff–glassware, figurines, some paper, etc. But then they also had things like this:

Fun fact: I owned both of these Barbies when I was a kid, and they came with a Barbie and the Rockers record. 

I ended up missing a lot of that auction, because I spent so much effing time waiting for those Muffies to go up on the auction block! That auction was being run by the son (I think) of the main auctioneer on that side of the room. Besides the Muffies, there were more Beanie Babies than I’ve seen in my life. When the son went to put the Muffies on the auction block, the dad stepped in and was like, “No way, I’m not selling those as a group.” I wanted to cry. It was about 110 degrees in the joint, and I had worn my down coat inside. (Excellent decision on my part.) As I stood there and sweat bullets, the auction guys started separating all of the Muffies and beanies into piles that they were going to choice out. First I won the bin with some of the Muffy furniture and stuff still inside, and then they started choice-ing out the plush lots. I was the ONLY PERSON who bid $5 and nobody bid me up. I bought all of the Muffies that they had just separated out, but then after I did that, people bought some of the groups of beanies for way more. I have no idea how or why it went down like that, but I’m not complaining! 

While I was fighting off grandmas for my scores, I missed out on some adorable wooden dog head bookends that went up in the other area. Probably for the best. I also missed out on a box of cards that someone probably spent too much money on. 

Early on, I had spotted an old E.T. lunchbox in the “man sale” area.

I really love E.T., which I think I’ve mentioned in the past. I ended up winning it, but then afterward realized that I don’t really need an E.T. lunchbox, so I’m reselling it. It’s in really awesome shape for its age. If you’re a fan, please buy it! 

One thing that I did not buy, which I’m now regretting, was a Show ‘n Tell phono viewer for Adam. It looked like this: 

It somehow plays records and projects images. I have no idea how. He had never heard of one, and seemed pretty bummed when I told him I stopped bidding at $35. Oh well, you win some you lose some! What I bought him instead was an old parking meter. No joke! I thought he might want to tinker with it. 

Finally, at the end of the sale, I won two really nice vintage quilts. 

My mom ended up with an '80s Spuds MacKenzie Bud beer sign. I have to admit that I laughed at her when I found out she bought it, but it’s actually got bids on it already! My dad bought three little children’s books that ended up not being valuable. Oh well! But he did do an awesome job of carrying all of my items to the car for me! 

One final weird thing about this place. This is the sign you see in the women’s bathroom: 

-Sarah

Update from Erin:  One day I will go to my parents house and photo the obscene amount of Muffy Vanderbear stuff I have packed away in their basement.  My Aunt Cathy used to gift me Muffy things for every birthday/holiday/etc.  It was such a delight.  

Anyway, I wanted to comment on this entry because I noticed a photo in our DTT dropbox that I am assuming Sarah took at this auction.  I think she forgot to include it in this entry.  The photo is so magical that I had to add it in:

Brilliant.  

A few weekends back, I went with Timmy to “The Super Auction” being held in Ann Arbor. The auction was in a giant pole barn on some farmland, and was actually several different auctions all happening at the same time.  Timmy of course went to the sports auction, while I minced around at the others.

I should note that my dad isn’t crazy about us calling him “Timmy” on this blog.  I learned of this recently, but told him that the readers would have a hard time following along if I suddenly started calling him “Tim.”  Anyway, here he is picking up some of his winnings:

There were lots of great items at this auction, and prices seemed to be pretty high as a result.

That box of arrowheads in the photo above sold for over $500!  

I didn’t stick around to see what that casket sold for, but no bones about it–it probably sold for lots. 

One of the auctions taking place was all pottery.  Pottery is actually something I could see myself collecting.  I just don’t know enough about it yet.  

Most of the pottery was Roseville, which Sarah and I have seen at estate sales before.  I can’t say I’m a Roseville fan.  It seems kind of boring. 

I did see two non-Roseville pieces right away that I loved.  I couldn’t make out the signature on the bottom, so I asked someone to look at the auction catalog.  Turns out, these are made by Common Ground Pottery, and more specifically, a man named Eric Olson.

Gorgeous, right?  I liked how these looked kind of Art Nouveau.  Unfortunately, I didn’t buy either of these.  Each vase sold for $275.  This price is actually pretty good, because looking elsewhere, Common Ground stuff usually sells for over $500.

I started an ebay alert for Common Ground pottery on the off chance that someone is selling some cheap.  Otherwise, it will remain a holy grail.  One day, when I am rich, after buying Sasha dolls, I will buy Common Ground pottery.

Here are some other amazing examples I found online:

Ok, and to finish up, here are my dad’s auction treasures in the back seat of his car:

He seriously spent about 5 minutes flipping these around to find the safest travel position for each one.  

-Erin

On Saturday night, Sarah and I decided to hit up my favorite local hotspot–the Plymouth auction.  Our friend Lisa was also in attendance, and we were all excited because the items this night looked really good.  Spoiler alert: we all got some GOOD stuff.

I bid on and won the first item up for auction.  It is this framed Harper’s Bazaar print featuring an old baseball team.  (Sorry for the glare on the glass in this photo.)

I got this for Timmy, the #1 baseball fanatic himself.  It was $10.

There was a lot of really nice furniture this night, but none of us needed any furniture.  It all of course went obscenely cheap.  I was particularly obsessed with this seemingly simple table, which opened up to reveal a baller writing desk.  It sold for something like $50.

Lisa and I loved this chair below, and Sarah thought we were crazy.  It just needed some new upholstery.  

And then there was this crazy thing, which I saw and instantly thought, “Who the HELL is going to buy that?!”  Sure enough, this knitting machine (?) sold for $800!  Everyone clapped and cheered when it sold because that is some serious bank to drop on that thing.

I can only assume this thing is used to make these pony sweaters:

Lisa ended up getting two of the best items at the auction.  First was this horn; “horn” here being used in two ways: an animal horn and a musical horn.  

I’m not entirely sure what she is going to do with this, but it was definitely the most badass purchase made that night.  Also, look at that frowny lady in the background!

Lisa also bought this AMAZING carved wooden screen.  It has all sorts of animals on it.  If I had a place for this in our house, I would have fought her over it.  Probably the best buy of the night.

Lisa and I also split a lot of Pewabic pottery, which I have just now realized I still need to pay her for.  My piece in the lot was this little bear tile:

My best score of the evening was a gorgeous stained glass lamp.  We have needed a new living room lamp for awhile now, but I had yet to find one I really loved.  Our old lamp was broken and made a weird sizzling noise which I am sure meant our death in a fire was imminent.  Luckily, I bid on and won this:

I love the pattern so much.  It’s floral but not super femme-y.

I’ll let Sarah fill you in on her purchases, but I will say that at one point she bought this old plastic puzzle.  It came with another item she wanted, so she had no choice but to buy it.  When she got it, we realized it was all chewed on and gross.  I can’t believe this was even an auction item.  She ended up leaving it behind because as far as we knew, it was a biohazard.  

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I was expecting a lot more awesome treasures at this auction, but I did come away with some cool stuff. As Erin mentioned, Lisa came away with some of the coolest items–especially that horn!

In the end, I did come away with some cool stuff. One of the first things I noticed at this auction was an old metal Peanuts tray. I knew as soon as I saw it that I would pay a decent amount of money for it, because both Adam and I love the Peanuts. I won it for a whopping $13, and it came with that ugly ass puzzle that Erin posted above, and some expired astronaut food.

Anyone know any hungry astronauts?

Very adorable.

I also purchased this semi-creepy but also cute old woodblock print. Lisa was the first to notice it and bid on it. I hadn’t seen it but once I got a closer looked, I wanted it.

One thing that I did not end up winning was a HUGE lot of Grateful Dead beanie babies. I didn’t even know that such a thing existed until I took a closer look at the pile of beanies on one of the tables. Apparently there are people in the world who want to own Grateful Dead beanie babies, so the reselling potential was there.

One hilarious thing about these bears was that the person putting them up on the auction block called them WALKING Dead dolls, instead of GRATEFUL Dead dolls.

I didn’t think anyone on earth would be interested in them, but apparently people did their research. I think they ended up selling for something like $60, which was too much for me to pay, but then again, maybe there were some really obscure bears up in there. 

Also, in case you were wondering you can buy a plush Jerry Garcia.

You’re welcome.

So like Sarah mentioned, we headed back to Windsor on Wednesday so I could try to buy those antique moccasins that totally burned me last time.  Kudos to Sarah for actually getting to my house on time.  We made it to the auction only 15 minutes late, and luckily the moccasins had not been up on the block yet.  In fact, the only thing we seemed to have missed was this giant box of VHS tapes:

Here’s how I probably looked waiting for the moccasins to be auctioned:

I won’t keep you all in suspense…I didn’t win the moccasins.  I KNOW RIGHT?!  Unbelievable.  Here is how it went down:

The moccasins went up for sale and the same auctioneer from last time (my mortal enemy) started them at $100.  He went down to 50, then 40, and when he got to 30 dollars I bid.  I didn’t want a repeat of last time where I think he is going to go lower and instead he ends the item.  So here I am, the ONLY bidder on these for $30.  

At this point, no one else is bidding and he starts doing his final countdown before he says “SOLD.”  All of a sudden, one of the EMPLOYEES starts bidding.  (Very fishy I know.)  I’ve seen workers bid at an auction before, but this was strange considering how badly the auctioneer did not want to sell these to me last time.  And why did she wait so long to bid against me?  

So we go back and forth and get up to $85.  At this point, I am convinced they are trying to bid me up on purpose, so I bow out.  The auctioneer seemed genuinely surprised that I did.  

To be fair, I did see this female employee leave with the moccasins, so she probably did buy them.  I felt at peace.  I got a fair chance to buy these (FINALLY), and $85 was more than I wanted to spend.  At least it was my choice, and not someone else telling me I couldn’t bid.  

So with that all settled, it was on to more treasures.  I bid on and won this amazing old box from the Canadian Salt Company.

There was still a little bit of salt in the bottom of this, which I was sure the border agents would think was cocaine when we tried to reenter the States.  I didn’t tell Sarah about this because she already acts like a crazy person at customs.  Not really a crazy person actually, but more of a deaf mute frozen in terror.

I then bid on this old bottle from Bright’s Winery, which is the second oldest winery in Canada.  I just liked the look of it, but might end up putting it on eBay.  

The bottle came with a ton of other glassware that I will end up putting in our garage sale this summer.  I also gave some stuff away to the lady next to me, which was great because it lightened the load a lot.

Next, I bought this old glass rolling pin, which Sarah thought looked very suggestive.  In reality, I bought this to use while baking, as it was just last week I made pizza dough and realized I had no rolling pin.  

The lady next to me said I need to get a cork for the end, and that way I can put ice water in the rolling pin while using it.  Apparently the cold will help your dough roll out more easily.

I also bought this cool book for Zach, which has lots of useful information in it.

I’ve been thinking of upping the number of servants in our household, and this book confirmed that I probably should.

Here are some things we didn’t win:

Sarah and I both wanted those green canisters, but they ended up going for like $40 or something.  If we got them cheaper, they would have been an easy eBay resell.  Oh well.

This hockey game would have also been an easy item to resell, but it too sold for a high price, around $50.  

And look at this great, retro table!  It wouldn’t fit in my car, otherwise I’m sure Sarah would have bought it.

She also would have bought this Beagle, but she wasn’t for sale.

We waited around until the end of the auction because there was some stuff that Sarah wanted.  I got us “2 Pop” again, and then went to wait in line to check out.  For some reason, this place has a woman who can’t do math who checks everyone out.  It literally takes 10 minutes for each person in line.  I waited in line while Sarah bought her last items, and then paid for both of us when I checked out.  This let us hightail it out of there pretty quickly so we were home at a reasonable time.

This guy in the background also had some pop, but he obviously brought it with him:

Also of note here is Sarah’s equally hilarious and confusing expression.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I don’t know why we thought that man with the two-liter was so funny but we did. Also, can you believe that beagle?! Oh my gosh, I was obsessed. Her name was Maggie and she was 7 months old. She also had on red nail polish. Her owner, a hipster-looking guy, told me that she was a “princess” which was sort of an odd thing to hear from a guy like that.

In the end, I got a few cool things. First, this cool map of the Detroit river from 1952:

I also got these cool old rulers:

And I also got this JC to match my Mary from last time.

He’s also busting out the immaculate heart…

Finally, I got two things at the end of the night that I had to wait around for. First up was this cool vintage book of valentines.

Quite adorable!
Also adorable are these vintage doll heads from Japan.

The only annoying thing about these were that the auctioneer made me pay $7.50 for them. Absolutely nobody else was interested in them, but he would not go down to $5 once he knew that I wanted them. Still, I have a feeling they’ll sell on eBay!

While we write up our most recent trip to Windsor, we thought we would leave you for the weekend with these hilarious Hard to Resist items that were put up on the auction block while we were there on Wednesday night. Here are some lovely oversized nutcrackers from Costco.

The items themselves, while not decorations that I would own personally, were not what was most hilarious. What was hilarious was that the auctioneer kept calling them “nutcrack soldiers” instead of nutcrackers! He seriously said it about 7 times. Erin and I were really LOLin’ in our seats over that one.

-Sarah

Erin has mentioned getting some freebies at auctions in the past. Usually these are things that people end up getting in lots but don’t really want. I’ve been known to leave behind some stuff that I didn’t want at auctions too. Hey man, one person’s trash is another’s treasure!

I forgot to mention this in the entry about our adventures at the Tecumseh auction a few weeks ago. The people who run that joint are always willing to let you tell them what to put up next. I had eyed this adorable planter amid some gross rubble. It was dirty as heck but it didn’t have any chips or cracks or anything like that. 

I went to the front of the auction and grabbed it, and took it over to one of the homies working there. He asked where I found it and I gestured over to the table and he said, “Oh all that stuff has already been bought!” I felt like a giant ass, and then he said, “Those people are the ones who bought it all.” I looked at the couple and they kept making a “take it” gesture. I mouthed, “Are you sure?!” and the woman looked at me like I was crazy–like who in the heck would want that dirty sheep? Anyway, awesome for me because not only did I get my treasure but I got it for free! 

It cleaned up so beautifully and I have it up on eBay now. Seriously, I wish I had documented how filthy this thing was before I cleaned it up. Here it is now: 

Are you dying from the cuteness? I sure am. 

It seems like sometimes these things can go for crazy amounts of money, but so far none of the Relpo planters I’ve sold have gone for a whole lot. Then again, I’ve only sold one other. It was also adorable but it only sold for $10. I mean look at this one.

 It’s cute but is it worth $262?!

Apparently so! 

Anyway, if anyone has any idea about what makes some of these guys more valuable than others, let us know!

-Sarah

Last Saturday, I noticed an advertisement for an antique/flea market in Monroe, MI.  I had no plans so I decided to take the 45 minute drive there and check it out.  I invited Sarah along, but she was busy.  Good thing she didn’t come because the trip was a major bust.

When I arrived at the “market” my first realization was that it was way smaller than I had envisioned it was going to be.  I was thinking more “Taylor Town Trade Center” and less “VFW Hall.”  Oh well, you can still fit lots of treasures in small spaces, right?

I LOVE that it says “FLEE” Market.  I think this was a secret signal telling people that they should turn around and run.  

Also of note here is the “No Animals Allowed” sign, which obviously means this is a reoccurring problem.

My next observation was that someone was playing fast and loose with the term “antiques.”  If this was an “antique market” then I am George Washington.

Ok so on to some “hard to resist” items:

See those patches in the case?  Can someone please explain to me what D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F. means?  I’m all for long abbreviations (TTFYHO, anyone?) but I am not familiar with that one.  Dilligaf sounds like the name of a Pokemon.

That neon-colored thing is a bedazzled possum skull, surrounded by various other animal parts.  

I ended up buying some of these maple nut candy things and then hightailed it out of there.  I was so bummed that I had driven so far for nothing that I decided to search for antique stores in the area.  I found this:

Turns out they were open, as indicated by this window paint that says, “WE OPEN.”

When I went inside, I noticed again that in Monroe, MI there is some confusion over the word “antique.”

“Completely Up To Date!”

This entire set of hot sauces was $12, which is actually a great deal.  I don’t eat hot sauce though because even ground pepper is too spicy for me.  

I left here empty handed and made the sad 45 minute drive back to Livonia.  I stopped at the thrift store in a last ditch attempt at finding a treasure.  I bought this IZOD shirt:

I wore it for about two days before I realized it was not very cute.  And when I asked Zach if he agreed, he politely informed me that it wasn’t my best fashion choice.

Man! I just couldn’t win.  Even at that night’s Plymouth auction, here is what greeted me:

OK, that is TOTALLY a snake case.  I have never seen a more snake case-looking snake case in my life.

-Erin

P.S. I left the Plymouth auction after about 10 minutes, empty-handed.  Whomp whomp.

I mentioned yesterday that I’d be saving a few of my favorites from the Canadian auction to be featured on a rainy day. It’s not rainy but it’s frigid, so that works. 

At one point during the auction, they did a “choice out” of a bunch of different Jesus-y items. This might be obvious but when they say they’re going to choice out a bunch of stuff, it means they’re taking things that are similar and letting people bid on their choice among those things. They do this on jewelry a lot of the time. People often end up taking a bunch of the items, or all of them. For example, those tapestries Erin won were things she was the high bidder on a “choice out” auction. She paid $15 for each of the ones she chose. I’m explaining this because I didn’t quite understand it the first time I was at an auction. Then again, as Erin often points out to you all, I’m pretty slow. 

Anyway, as far as religious themed stuff goes, I’m not normally super into it, but I spotted an amazing vintage Virgin Mary plaque among the others. It looked like something that you would find in Lafayette’s apartment on True Blood. Here’s Lafayette:

Here’s Lafayette’s apartment: 

 Here is my plaque: 

She would fit right in in that Virgin Mary shrine on the back wall. 

The style that this statue/plaque was made in was really familiar to me but for the life of me, I could not put a name to it. After some brief searching around, Erin and I got to the bottom of it. 

It seems like Erin’s consultation of this new search service, goodle, is what worked so well for us in solving the mystery.

Ok, all kidding aside, this is an “Immaculate Heart of Mary” statue. We tried googling things like “Mexican Virgin Mary” and “Our Lady of Guadalupe” and finally I said something like, “but what’s the virgin mary called with the HEART?!” I consulted Google and Erin consulted Goodle and we hit the jackpot. 

Anyway, needless to say, Adam does not like this statue. I think this is because our house is not decorated like Lafayette’s apartment (YET!) This wasn’t a surprise for me. After I won it (for a mere $5!), I sat back down in my seat and Erin and I kept commenting on how awesome it was. Then we both looked at each other and said, “it can be a thing that freaks your husband out." 

-Sarah

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.