Dig This Treasure!

Last Thursday, Sarah and I were diligently setting up for our annual garage sale.  We decided to take a break though because we saw a sale listing that looked particularly intriguing.  The sale was clearly of a hoarder, but it looked like a neat and tidy hoarder, similar to Best Sale Ever.  Even though the sale was all the way out in Troy (about 40 mins. away) we still made the trek.

The upstairs of this sale was really promising.  These old flags were BOSS, but each one was priced between $25-$55.  They must have known this was pricey because look at that little sign they stuck on the wall near the flags: “VISA M/C DISC.”  Yeah, we get it…people can charge their expensive nautical gear.  

There was also an entire wall of old salt and pepper shakers, and they were all cute! I don’t collect these, but I imagine that someone who does would be in hog’s heaven.

I immediately found these cute vintage sunglasses.  They had no price and the guy running the sale told me $5.  This turned out to be awesome because later I found more vintage sunglasses and they were all priced over $20 each.  Here’s me wearing the specs in a totally non-embarassing selfie:

As we got further back into the bedrooms of the house, things started to get a little more freaky.  The quantity of items was overwhelming.

Look at that blue man above screaming for help.  LOL.

Literally every single person at this sale was trying to make sense of all the stuff.  We all kept saying, “She must have owned a store.  Yes, that’s it.  She had a store, and it closed, and here are all of the things left over.”

But you guys, the lady who owned this house DIDN’T OWN A STORE.  Heartbreaking, I know.

The basement was worse.  Kudos to the people who ran the sale though, because everything was organized impeccably. (This is where we found the art capes.)

It was literally as though every single item in this house was secretly a tiny family of rabbits that just kept multiplying and multiplying.  The woman probably only bought one of each item and then through some obvious witchcraft there was suddenly 24 of everything.  

Obviously, the comparison to Best Sale Ever was shot.  Everything here was newer and seemed very dollar store-esque.  I breezed through the sale pretty quickly and then found Sarah in a mountain of greeting cards.  I knew then that we would be here awhile.

Sarah did find some treasures buried in the rubble here, so I’ll let her tell you all about them.  I ended up with a giant metal rolling clothes rack for $15 (we used it for the garage sale), the sunglasses I mentioned already, and a giant box of bubble wrap.  

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Erin is right–in general, there was a lot of organized garbage at this sale. I did find some treasures, and some funny stuff. First the funny stuff. 

In the book area of the basement, I found a whole sexy section of shelving (tongue twister for you): 

And the award winning book, Hugs for My Wife: 

Not only was the house super organized, but it was organized by holiday, which was very helpful. 

Some of it was dollar store quality, but other stuff was Hallmark store quality, which is one step up. Some of the stuff I found was vintage Joan Walsh Anglund stuff. Some to sell and some to keep. I want to keep these little plates–they’re cute!

They’re really tiny–don’t worry–I’m not going to start collecting commemorative plates. 

I also found lots of vintage greeting cards, but most were ‘70s and '80s. Unsurprisingly, many of them were sealed packs. Hopefully I can sell some of these. 

Erin found these Easter knee huggers–they’re so cute!

It was very nice of her to give them to me. 

I also found some cute vintage ceramic Christmas items. 

These were little plates made by Josef Originals–very cute. 

This cute little house is hollow inside so you can put a little light or candle in there. Made by Lefton. 

I also found some very cute wrapping paper and these old Gummi Bears Easter egg wrappers: 

All in all, a very successful trip! 

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