Dig This Treasure!

First off, Happy Fourth of July! Eat all of the hot dogs and love your country like you’ve never loved before.  USA! USA!

Ok, so last weekend, Zach woke up early on Saturday and announced to me that he was headed out to some sales.  Zach has dabbled in sales before, but has just recently gotten serious about buying and reselling.  As his sensei, I am thrilled about this.

So Zach returns home awhile later and says he thinks he did “well."  I knew instantly that he had.  The first thing I saw in his arms was a LL Rittgers 1941 set of chalkware baseball players.  Timmy actually bought these in a previous entry, at the Ann Arbor Super Auction.  I assumed that Zach was a blog super fan and knew that these figures are SUPER valuable, but instead Zach said he bought them because "they were old and baseball."  FAIR ENOUGH.  (But also, read the damn blog.)

In Zach’s set, he actually had the really rare catcher figurine, which I have never seen before and also cannot find on ebay. 

So get this.  Zach paid $5 TOTAL for the set.  Insane.  Seriously bananas.  We are rich.  I am probably going to quit my job.  Just kidding, I have a baby and can’t do that.

Zach also bought some old Pan Am ephemera and old Las Vegas ephemera which is on ebay now, so we will see how that goes.  That stuff has always been hit or miss, but when it is a hit, it’s a hit.

I decided that I should probably rush out to the sale he had just visited because it sounded like a goldmine.  The first thing I grabbed was another LL Rittgers figurine.  This one was a solider and I got him for $3.  He has some damage, but still worth the risk.

The sale was interesting.  The house was a mess, but everything seemed pretty collectible.  It just all needed a good dusting.

I didn’t buy anything from this giant garbage pile.  And I also didn’t buy that outrageous puppy sweater below.

I did, however, try to look up vintage blow up dolls on ebay.  My internet wouldn’t work in this house, but that is probably for the best. 

"Cold Feet, The Squirt Game."  NO THANK YOU.

I did end up buying a few things.  This rubber face Pinocchio for $1:

And this Hubley cap gun and holster for $20:

Stay tuned for more adventures with Zach, and a sale where Sarah almost got charged $75 for 40 postcards.

Now go eat those hot dogs!

-Erin

A couple of Fridays ago, we were out and about again.  The sales looked just alright, but actually turned out to be pretty good.  I was determined to find some stuff to sell on ebay because I have had quite the dry spell.  I can’t remember where the first sale was, but I’m thinking it was Dearborn or something.  It had lots of cutesy vintage stuff.

There were a ton of these placemats made from pieced-together magazine clippings.  Super cute.  

Anyone know what these weird old glasses are?  The clear glass parts separate out from the colored metal bottoms.  But the glass parts cannot stand alone, so I am not sure why they separate out.  They look to be from the 1950s or 60s.

Guns guns guns.  These were cool but really pricey…I think like $40 each.  

Here’s something interesting I learned about selling cap guns on ebay.  Remember last week when I bought one to resell?  I listed it on ebay in the vintage toy section and clearly labeled it as a cap gun.  However, ebay instantly pulled down the listing because it looked too much like a real gun.  To sell a cap gun on ebay, you have to attach an orange tip to the barrel, so that it is obviously a toy.  I don’t know where to buy such a tip, so I am thinking of photoshopping my photos so it looks like my gun has the orange tip on it.  Blargh.

Anyway, Sarah found this cute apron thing to wear when she cooks, except that she doesn’t cook…so maybe she will wear it while sorting through vintage photos and slides (more on this later).

My first find were these tiny gold spoons, perfect for feeding a baby.  I texted Zach and asked if we needed gold plated baby spoons and he responded with a “YESSSS.”  At $15, these were a little steep, although they are real gold plate.  Only the best for future baby I guess.

I also found this Captain Hook marionette to resell.  I thought he was just so cute.  However, when looking him up on ebay, I couldn’t find anything similar.  Turns out, I was searching for “Captain Cook” instead of “Captain Hook.”  Some lady walked by me and said, “Oh cute!  Captain Hook from Peter Pan!”  and that made me realize my mistake.  I saw that these could sell for decent money on ebay, so I snatched him up for $10.

When I got home,  I realized he was missing his hook!!  Oy!  I am hoping he still sells.

Also to resell are these Ohio State glasses from the 1960s.  They were $3 each so definitely worth the risk.

So I check out and am ready to book it out of this place because it is getting increasingly hot and crowded.  I see Sarah and it looks like she only has a couple of things to pay for, so I figure our time here is almost done.  Sarah then informs me that she has just decided to purchase a serious megaload of old photo slides, and that said slides are IN THE BASEMENT.  For pete’s sake.  

Sarah’s still wearing a boot from her broken toe and I am a giant melon belly, so carrying slides up stairs (and doing so in multiple trips) sounds like a real sad time to me.  I immediately started sulking.

Luckily, the people running the sale helped us, so we each only had to take two trips up and down the stairs.  Maybe Sarah made more…I just know I made two and then gave up on helping.  YOLO.

That’s the backseat of Sarah’s car packed to the brim with slides.  At some point, she said to me, “I don’t know how I’m going to get these in the house without Adam seeing.”  I wished her luck on that, as she would surely need help from a magician or magic elf or strong sedatives to use on Adam.

We hit one other sale that was in a cute farmhouse, but I don’t think I bought anything.  It was pretty picked over.  

That blue stool caught my eye, but I realized I don’t have a place for it.  When I got home though, I remembered that I specifically want a stool to use in “Ebay World” where I photograph and list all my ebay stuff.  Ebay World has a high counter I usually stand at, but since I hate standing now, I could really use a nice stool.  Darn! 

After this sale, we went to a Middle Eastern bakery that is pretty famous in Dearborn.  Sarah can fill you in on the name because I don’t remember.  All I do remember is that we stood in line for 45 minutes because it was so crowded.  Worth it though, because the treats were pretty fly.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: For the record, I never even asked Erin to help me with the slides. I just told her she was going to kill me because there were so many and it was going to take a while to get them out of the house. You saw the backseat–there were a lot. No lying there. The reason I warned her is that when it gets over 70 degrees and she has to wait somewhere, Erin acts as if she’s in the Sahara wearing a snow suit, without water. Also, she was wearing LONG SLEEVES AND JEANS that day. I know we had quite the cool spell in MI but come on! Anyway, here’s what she looks like when she’s too hot: 

I found some cool stuff at this sale and actually went back the next day. The guy was a retired math professor and had all sorts of math-y sh*t in his house, so I knew Adam would be totally down with it. I did buy him a few things–the coolest of which were these Ford Motor educational posters. 

I also purchased a few things for myself but I’m cleaning out eBay world and can’t find some of them. Good sign, I know. But here’s a very cute cross stitch from the ‘30s that I bought that Adam was super thrilled about. 

I want to make a cross stitch wall somewhere in my house. Workin’ on it. 

So Erin left out the best part of the day, which was stopping at the Dearborn Farmer’s Market. While we were there we spotted a beignet truck that had a sign out front that they had CRONUTS. Now all you sassy hipsters are probably not impressed by this but we don’t have stuff like this in SE Michigan, and Erin’s been wanting a cronut forev. Here she is, losing her cronut virginity. 

My car was covered in powdered sugar by the end of this because we both kept laughing while eating them, which would blow it all over. 

At the second sale, I found an old Chorus Line tshirt from the '70s. 

As Erin mentioned, we ended the day at Shatila Bakery in Dearborn, which is pretty famous. One of our student assistants at work is from Jordan and he told me to go there. I wasn’t disappointed! Here I am later at night, displaying my treats. 

Each of these things only cost $1.50. The only downside is you have to wait for 45 minutes to get them. Also, never had better baklava in my LIFE, yo!