Dig This Treasure!

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

You might remember my trip to Canada last year, and if so, you will be pleased to know that Zach, my parents, and I made the trek again last weekend.  Again, let me reiterate that I LOVE Canada.  I love the people, the Coffee Crisp bars, the weird fake play money they have, the accents, and of course, the antiques.  For some reason it seems like I see the same ol’ treasures at antique markets here in the States, but as soon as you hit the ones in Canada, you see all sorts of things you never knew existed.

Before I tell you about our trip, I should mention that Zach almost ruined it for us.  Since I got pregnant, he vowed not to cut his hair or beard until the baby came.  As a result, he looks like a serious crazy person…at least customs thought so.  In Michigan we get enhanced drivers’ licenses that let us visit Canada.  This apparently wasn’t enough to get Zach in.  They asked for extra identification and his birth certificate, which he didn’t bring along.  They then grilled him about ever living in other countries (he hasn’t).  You could tell the customs dude was profiling him pretty hard, maybe assuming the beard meant he was Middle Eastern.  Anyway, Zach got asked a million questions about where he was born and such and such, until finally they let us through.  Thanks a lot Zach.

Here is a reference photo of Zach, just for good measure.  (He found this hat at the Duty Free shop later that day.)

So on we went with our trip, our first stop just outside Grand Bend at Dale’s Antiques.

Pregnant lady crossing.  Move it or lose it:

There were a lot of interesting things here at Dale’s, but I actually didn’t buy anything!

Mellow Man Ace was Zach’s nickname in high school.  Also, are those cigars in that dude’s pocket?  They look like blood test tubes. 

I actually LOVED these pigs, but I knew they would probably freak Zach out.  Plus we are low on wall space in the house.

I also liked this rubber-faced chicken.  I thought I could probably sell him on ebay.  The guy selling him though wouldn’t barter at all, and so I passed on him.  Plus he was a little dirty and someone had cut off the felt crest from his head.

What do you guys think?  Should I have bought him?

Our second stop of the day was at a place called The Pinery.  It is much bigger than Dale’s but is more flea market than antique market.  If you need healing crystals, butter tarts, and wolf t-shirts, this is your place.

Or if you need “little nugget coats” apparently.  Also, WTF is a nugget coat.

I did find two things to buy here.  The first was this soldier for Zach.  He’s just cruising along in his big wheeled military vehicle.  It kind of looks like a monster truck.

This soldier had a price tag of $10 on it and when I went to buy it, the seller was all angry because he said it was mis-marked.  He said it should have been priced $45.  I just kind of stood there dumbfounded with a $10 bill in my hand.  After a quiet standoff, he took my ten dollars and I slowly backed away.

The second item I bought was this knit baby sweater, which is clearly not antique or collectible.  It was however made by a grandma, so that makes it old by proxy.

Here are some things I did not buy:

Seriously, more wasp nests.  Is there a secret cult of people who collect these?  I really don’t get it.  What’s the buzz all about?  Har har har.

I’ve always loved these old horse racing games. This would look so nice on a pedestal and with a glass dome over it.  

No one else really found anything to buy.  I think my mom bought some Zucchini bread.  Zach bought some booze at the Duty Free Shop.  And Timmy, well, he bought us all lunch.  Thanks Timmy.

-Erin

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!

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.

Over Labor Day weekend, I went to Canada with my family.  We’ve been making this annual trek since I was in elementary school, and our visit centers on two huge antique markets in Sarnia.  

Before I reveal my finds from the trip, I have to say that I LOVE Canada.  I love its fries slathered in vinegar, I love how nervous Timmy gets at the customs booth, I love Coffee Crisp candy bars, and I love Duty Free shops.  Canada is the best, and so are its antique markets.

Our first stop was Dale’s Antiques, a cluster of little booths and barns open every Sunday.

I spotted this scale in one of the barns and of course loved it.  It was huge and expensive though.

I did, however, buy a smaller kitchen scale for my collection.  This one was pretty rusted up, but it’s much older than my other scales and really unique.  I paid $20 for it, which is more than I usually spend on scales.  I kept telling myself that this was Canadian money though, and thus not really real.

I also found an old cookie jar that was in excellent shape.  I knew that I could resell it easily since it was classically “retro” and because it was a cat.  I paid $15 and ended up selling it on ebay for $38.  The jar is made by American Bisque which is pretty collectible among cookie jar people.

A helpful hint here is that American Bisque jars are often airbrushed, and the bottoms have raised wedge-like pieces:

After Dale’s, we visited a couple of small, independent antique shops, and then headed to a flea market called The Pinery.  The Pinery is great because you can buy beef jerky, dog bones, and antiques all in the same place–while drinking an ice cold beer.  I did all of these things.  

My best find was probably this old cast iron still bank.  I thought this was a soldier, but it turns out he is actually a boy scout.  He was made prior to 1934 by AC Williams Co.  I paid $25 for him, but auction listings online value him anywhere from $150-$295!  My little guy has a piece missing out of one leg, but I don’t plan to sell him anyway.  Right now he has a home on one of our collectible shelves.

Cute huh?  He has a little backpack that you can drop coins in.  

I’ll end with some treasures I didn’t buy.  I am seriously kicking myself over passing on these.  I have no explanation of what these felt banners mean or what they were used for, but they sure are hilarious.

“Hold It Baby It’s Too Divine”

“No-No Lady Don’t Do That!”

“Cool Me Off, I’m Steaming”

Lines from 50 Shades of Grey? Who knows.

-Erin