Dig This Treasure!

The week before Christmas, Sarah and I ventured to a couple nearby sales.  The listings for this day were pretty slim, so our hopes for good treasures were low.  One listing said it was a warehouse sale that “welcomed dealers."  I figured this meant that things would be priced super cheap.  We normally hate warehouse sales (remember this?), but we decided it couldn’t hurt to go look.

The warehouse was owned by an estate sale company that obviously liquidates homes after a sale is over.  At first it seemed as though they were only selling literal garbage:

Expired Twinkies.  Yikes.

Actually, now that I think about it, I shouldn’t make fun of selling Twinkies.  When the whole Hostess bankruptcy thing happened, I TOTALLY BOUGHT SOME TWINKIES ON EBAY.  I had never had a Twinkie in my life, and was scared I never would.  I even had the audacity to complain to the ebay seller (and threaten negative feedback) because it took them over a week to mail my Twinkies.

Anyway, things at this sale started looking better when I spotted an old Pabst Blue Ribbon beer sign.  I knew that beer signs in general are collectible, and was pretty sure that PBR collectors are hardcore.

The sign is a giant 3D bartender guy made out of plastic.  He is so cool.  Probably from the 60s or 70s.

I asked the lady how much she wanted for him and she instantly launched into talking about how he is probably SO valuable and how she should probably put him on ebay and blah blah.  This is always a red flag.  If she wants to put him on ebay then he shouldn’t be in her heap of stuff for sale.  I stood there silently and then she said $25.  We settled on $20.  I figured an even twenty dollars was a good risk to take on this thing.  If it didn’t sell, I could survive a $20 loss.

But it did sell!  And for a lot!  When I put this guy up on ebay, he had bids within the first half hour.  And then he had 40 watchers!  I knew he had to be special.  He ended up selling for just over $90!

I was thrilled!  And what is even more exciting is that the lady had more of these…so maybe I will go buy the rest!

For more "Money Makers” click here!

-Erin

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

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

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

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

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

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

There were also some cool ones of Detroit. 

And then here are the pictures: 

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

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

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

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

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

EEEEEEEEEEEE! 

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

And a very nice quilted tree skirt. 

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

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

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

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

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

-Sarah

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Last week we gave you a little tasty taste of our trip to Charlevoix, MI.  When we left off, I was dead of heat stroke while Sarah and her family were perusing an antique shop in Petoskey.  At some point though, I drank a slushie from an ice cream hut and then came fully back to life.  Just in time to meet this dude:

We hit a few antique shops in Pellston, MI.  They were all pretty neat and the prices seemed fair.  

I’ll let Sarah share with you her finds, which I think included a really amazing Vernor’s cooler.  I didn’t buy anything.  This cooler could have come in handy the next day when we went back to Petoskey.  We bought some beer to bring home for our husbands but then realized that it would have to sit in a hot car for hours while we shopped around.  Sarah had already unloaded the cooler into the house, so we drove instead to a Walmart and bought one.  Anyway, the beer was from Beards Brewery, which has a really nice logo, and these cool hats:

Also in Petosky, I bought a Zuni fetish.  I’ve wanted one of these for a long time, and was happy to have this rabbit now in my possession.

Sarah found a fetish too, but it was this onion ring in the shape of a dinosaur:

The last day there, we went to Traverse City. While we were there, we hit up that huge antique mall from last year’s trip.  This is where I found some of Zach’s lead soldiers I wrote about recently.  This place is the best.  Some of the prices are high, but it varies booth by booth.  

I wanted this paper mache Easter rabbit, but Sarah vetoed it.  I usually try to ignore her, but I texted Zach a photo and he was also disapproving. 

I think they thought it was “scary.”

This Skookum doll was THE BEST.  But he was $195.  Whomp whomp.

$195 was out of my price range, but $40 sure wasn’t for this gnome head.  And yet, I still didn’t buy it!  I’m kicking myself for this.  It would be great for Halloween.

Again, Sarah will fill you in on all her treasures.  Until next time, Northern Michigan!

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I need some Crest White Strips.

While Erin was recovering from heat stroke, I was looking at this huge hand-painted Joan Walsh Anglund Christmas scene. Of course it was too giant to buy, but pretty cool anyway! 

At this store, I bought a small crib quilt for a chair at home. I spent too much on it but that’s ok–it’s very nice and in excellent shape. And I love this color of yellow. 

There were lots of cool things to look at at the bigger antique shop in Pellston. One of the first things I went through was this huge group of old portraits. I was of course looking for dead people but would have been cool with anything interesting. I came up empty handed. 

I did find this funny picture of a baby, though. 

There were also lots of books in the basement of this place.

I got excited, but they turned out to be pretty bad. 

In the end, I only ended up with an ornament and a very cool Vernors cooler. As I’ve mentioned, I love Vernors. 

It’s in excellent shape and was only $49, which I feel is very reasonable. I am not quite sure what I’m going to do with it, but I’ll figure it out one day (no eye rolls, Adam.) 

The next day in Traverse City, I saw a lot of cool things, but didn’t buy much. Here are some of the funnier things I saw. 

These little buddies love frenching. 

Ok this isn’t funny–it’s cool. I absolutely loved this clock, but it was $75. So awesome, though. 

In the end, most of the stuff was out of my price range, or something I felt I could find online for a bit cheaper. I just bought a small cast iron bear and two photographs. Still, lots of fun things to see! I would go back in a heartbeat. 

After visiting the Southfield Antique Expo last weekend, I went home and took a brief nap, then met up with my parents to go to my favorite Plymouth auction.  My parents had never been to this auction, but they were used to my endless chatter about it being quite the honeyhole.  Sarah was planning to join us this evening, but when I arrived and saw the items for sale, I texted her and told her not to come.  Everything was REALLY lame.

I was bummed out because I knew how excited my parents were to score some treasures, and it really didn’t look like that was going to happen.

But then Timmy started unrolling some old posters, and realized they were some pretty rare hockey and baseball ones.  One poster in particular, of Gordie Howe, was something my dad had only seen one other time.  That one, had been all ripped up, and still sold for about $50.  The one here at the auction was in mint condition.  I knew that we were all in for a long night, and that Timmy was NOT leaving without those posters.

In the meantime, I bid on and won some old glass pharmacy bottles.  I paid $5 for all of them, and ended up selling them on ebay a few days later for $20.

Usually at this auction, an item goes up for bidding, and no one wants it.  The auctioneers then throw in another item, and so on and so forth, until someone finally bids.  At one point, someone ended up buying about 6 huge boxes of glassware for $5. They picked what they wanted out of it, and then announced that anyone who wanted to could come take stuff for free.

I grabbed a nice marble cheese plate, two Pyrex casserole dishes with lids, and this old cookie jar that looks like an orange.

I sold this thing for $14 on ebay already, which isn’t bad for something I got free.

I should also mention that Zach’s parents were at the auction, and his aunt and uncle.  Aunt Sue scored some nice dishes out of the free stuff pile, and Zach’s mom bought some nice antique silverplate pieces.  Zach’s dad was the winner by far, buying a cool old sword for a mere $40.

But then Timmy’s items came up for bidding, and it was clear he was going to be the night’s champion.  He bought a huge lot of the baseball posters for $13 first.  Then, the auctioneer tried selling 3 boxes of old hockey video games, VHS tapes, and ephemera.  Nobody bid on it, so the auctioneer threw in the Gordie Howe poster.  My dad started bidding against another guy, and I thought that the price was going to skyrocket.  The other guy bowed out at $16 and it was true happiness for Tim.  Here is a sample of the goods, including the desirable poster (far right):

He also got a huge folder with old war papers and documents.  Super cool.  And in the VHS tapes, he found a film about old Olympia Stadium and its official closing in 1979.  He is having it transferred to DVD and keeping it for his collection.

Here’s Tim later that evening, celebrating:

Fun fact is that my dad ONLY drinks Molson Ice beer, which no restaurant has because ANY ice beer is disgusting and embarrassing to order in public.  So in this photo, my dad is sampling a craft beer, which he ended up hating, and not ordering.  Another fact is that my dad once said, “Who drinks craft beer?” while we were AT a craft brewery, where he then proceeded to try and order a Molson Ice.

-Erin

Sarah was on vacation again last week so I hit some sales with my parents.  I convinced them that the sales out in Dearborn looked good, but Timmy was protesting the 20 minute drive.  He finally caved, and good thing, because we all found treasures.

The first sale seemed pretty crummy at first.  A lot of average housewares just piled up.

After walking through the house and finding nothing, I noticed that I had not seen my parents in awhile.  Turns out that they were in the garage, uncovering a motherload of old pharmacy items.

Joan is a pharmacist, and she decorates her office with old pharmacy collectibles.  So needless to say, we were all excited for her.  She had a huge pile of old medicine bottles, pharmacy posters and calendars, mugs, bookends, and more.  The best find was probably this giant gallon bottle of Paregoric, which is tincture of Opium.

It’s not nearly as old as the other medicine bottles we found, but you have to admit that a gallon size OPIUM bottle is pretty awesome.

Timmy found some old Tigers items, and I bought a couple rabbit knick-knacks.  I also left this sale with purple stuff all over my hands and face that would NOT wash off.  It was some sort of lavender dye that must have been in with the pharmacy bottles.  I had to walk around all day with my Grimace stains.  This photo is post hand scrub:

At the next sale, I was the one who hit the motherload.  I bought a huge stack of old photos for $5, a few of which were bulge photos! I’m hoping that when I sell them on ebay, they will get lots of interest.

Since we were in Dearborn, my parents insisted we eat at this bar Miller’s.

Apparently it is famous for burgers.  It should be famous for crazy small beers.

My mom’s beer on the left is in a juice glass, and mine was slightly larger.  Anyway, the burgers and onion rings were AWESOME.

All in all a successful day!  Timmy even left lunch and ran down to an antique store where he found a super old Red Wings pennant from the 1930s!  The oldest he’s ever seen!  

-Erin

So, the first house we went to on Friday was in Dearborn, and even though we didn’t find extreme treasures, we found something amazing: A crazy 1960s beauty salon in the basement that was stuck in time! Here’s Erin gettin’ her hair did: 

On the right, you’ll notice the reception desk, and then the hair washing station. 

Here is Carmen’s 1955 Diploma from the Virginia Farrell Beauty School… (diplomas are one of the saddest things we see at sales… diaries being the worst.) 

Here are a few more shots of the entire salon: 

I was the first one into the basement, and I could hear Erin at the top of the stairs gabbing away with a stranger, so I was like, “Erin! Get down here!” She told me she immediately thought that I found an extreme treasure that she was missing out on. When she realized what it was, she decided that an old beauty salon was an even better treasure. 

We both found a couple of things and started checking out. Erin bought an antique baby scale (?!), a meat grinder, a Christmas coffee mug, and a box of Bakelite sockets. The woman running the sale was skeptical of Erin’s purchases, and said something like, “you have an interesting selection of items here.” When she found the Bakelite sockets, I think she started catching on to Erin trying to make some mad cash. So Erin said, “No… we just like to find weird things at sales. We have a blog!" 

Anyway, this conversation went on and on, and Erin started holding up a line of people, which made her start sweating. The woman wrote down the name of our blog (WHAT WAS ERIN THINKING?!) and Erin told her that we could sponsor her sales with a banner. WHAT. THE. HELL. When we got outside, I told her that she should always be thinking of a good reason to want something valuable to tell sellers when they ask. A reason besides reselling it. Like making an art project out of it. 

I bought an ugly table cloth and a creepy old doll. In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t bought either of these things. The one thing I will say is that Erin chatting these people up made them give us deals and start opening up to us, so I’ll give her that.

The house after this was the Grey Gardens house, and then we had to make a decision. There were two sales left on our list–one was closer, but ended sooner, and we were starving. The other was all the way in Utica, but it was open until 5. We decided on the Utica sale so that we could eat before. 

The Utica sale was another Cash & Cari sale. It looked sort of interesting, but nowadays their sales are always incredibly overpriced, so I was skeptical. We arrived and there were a crapload of people in the house, which immediately made me want to die. Also, the stuff in the house was abundant, but all gross and tacky. This person had a weird assortment of collections. It was like he/she decided to collect EVERY thing that they had a single item of. Shot glass collection? Check. Barbie Collection? 

Check. 

Beer tap collection? 

Check. 

Lava lamp collection? 

Check. You can’t get much worse than a lava lamp collection.

Also, the prices on all of this garbage were insane. I don’t understand what’s happened–less than a year ago, her sales had stuff that was totally reasonably priced. I can’t believe anyone was buying anything. For example, there was a "Canadian Barbie” that I picked up because I have a friend who is Canadian, and I was like, “That might be cute…” But no… It was marked $75!!! That thing sells on eBay for between 25 and 50 bucks. WTF?! Cari is gettin’ a little too big for her britches. Also, one of her employees was in the Barbie room showing another employee a video of the largest blackhead ever being popped. I realize this is something I would do, but still–real professional, ladies.

At this point, I wanted nothing more than to warp home. Instead, we had to drive for an hour in rush hour traffic. 

By far, the best treasure of the day was finding that Better Made (Adam pointed out that their website is bmchips.com… bad choice, guys) and National Coney Island have collaborated to make these: 

If you know me, you know that chili fries are my favorite food. Erin was back on the east side of town on Saturday, so I made her pick up five more bags of them. Adam and I keep eating them, exclaiming, “they taste JUST LIKE chili fries!" 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: Ok, I did buy an old baby scale.  But how is this not adorable?  I am going to try and sell it, and if that doesn’t work, it is a cute thing to have in a nursery.  

Sarah kept pointing out that this scale is all dirty, which is true.  Obviously, though, she has never heard of a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

Let me also say that I do indeed have a hard time being put on the spot by people, be it at estate sale or the gas station.  Sarah knows that I always get roped into long conversations with strangers, which is probably why the Jehovah’s Witnesses know my name and visit every other day.  Bottom line: I am too polite.  So yeah, I did say we would be willing to sponsor an estate sale with some sort of banner.  But why not?  I have never had a giant banner for anything before.

And I need to point out that this cavorting did lead to some good discounts for us.  I got these old welding glasses for free at the sale.  And they already have 2 bids on ebay.  (Steampunks will buy anything labeled "steampunk”.)

I also got this adorable thing for Zach because he actually wears tie pins and cuff links.

I don’t know why you would want to mix ashes will all of your valuables, but maybe it is an old-timey thing.

The last thing I will say about this sale is that I was OBSESSED with this old metal tray table.  It was part of the beauty salon stuff.  The industrial look of it was just really neat.  In the end, I had no place to put it in our house, so it got left behind.