Dig This Treasure!

Well I really have the sale-ing fever lately, I’ll tell you what. 

Erin and I hit up a crap-ton of garage sales on Thursday (as you may have already seen on our Instagram (follow us!)), and that just made me hungry for more. 

I found a sale in Brighton, which is about 40 minutes away from me. It looked to be jam-packed with holiday decor and other treats, and the person appeared to have good taste. I tried to get Erin to come with me, but she had to do some family activities instead. So I ventured out there alone. 

When I arrived, I had a good feeling about things. 

Punnnnkiiiiinnnnns!!!!! 

But then I saw the price tags. 

Some things weren’t THAT bad but… most of them were. It was a real bummer because there was some really cute stuff! They also had swaggy teens stationed in the rooms to prevent you from shoplifting their overpriced wares, which is a real vibe killer at a sale. It always makes me feel like if I spend too long looking around or sorting through things, they’re gonna get suspicious.

Anyway, here are some more pics of the cute things there:   

But again, look at these prices:  

Am I missing something? Should a ziplock bag of tiny vintage trees really be priced that high? As far as I could tell, the trees were not made of solid gold. 

Despite the pricing disappointment, there was some cool stuff to look through. The homeowner was super into Scottie dogs. 

I really loved that table. Anyone have a spare $600? 

That is an ENORMOUS roll of wrapping paper. I really wanted it but it legit weighed like 50 lbs. I could not carry it out along with the other things I wanted, I didn’t have Erin with me to bully into helping (not that she’d be much help because let’s face it–she’s pretty weak), and I was starting to sweat because it was hot and humid inside the house. So it got left behind. 

As usual, there were some “things that make you go hmmm” (Erin wasn’t even a fetus when that song came out, I’ll bet) inside the house, so here ya go: 

(I thought that thing in his hand was a gun but now I think it’s… a horn? WTF is it?) 

(That is Matchbox car sized and yes, it says twelve dollars.) 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I did find a few goodies, though: 

Let me give you the rundown: Vera Bradley laptop case, star wars lunchbox ornament, camper ornament (my son is obsessed with all types of vehicles–he’s gonna love this next xmas), a new hand-made vintage tree skirt, embroidered santa ornament, cool book that has a bunch of envelopes inside with things like puzzles and other books, etc., Spaghettios bowl, and a Halloween beanie baby bat. I also got this cool cast iron sheep. 

It wasn’t priced so the swaggy teen at the register charged me a dollar. It was probably originally priced like $20. Score! 

-Sarah 

I am one of those people who is totally cool with listening to Christmas music the day after Halloween.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving, but I see no reason that it cannot be celebrated concurrently with Christmas.  Christmas is basically a season–there’s Spring, Summer, Fall, and Christmas.  Oh, you’re saying that it is technically still Fall and that Thanksgiving happens in the Fall?  OK, let me revise.  There are only three seasons–Spring, Summer, and Christmas.  Halloween marks the end of Summer.

Thankfully, there are many people who agree with my cult of Christmas ideology.  One of them, Rachel Lutz, from the Peacock Room in Detroit, recently held a vintage Christmas ornament sale.  By “recently” I mean the sale was on November 7, smack dab in the Christmas season.

The sale was held in the lobby of the Park Shelton apartments in downtown Detroit.  In case anyone is worried about whether Detroit is actually on its way back, please review that last sentence.  There was a VINTAGE CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT SALE IN DETROIT.  We back baby, we back.

I got there about an hour after the sale started and it was pretty much cleared out.  People were super upset about this.  What do you expect though?  This was the first year for the event and everything was priced reasonably.  Each ornament was 50 cents-1 dollar.  Some were $5.  People snatched up handfuls and handfuls.  There was no way that the organizers could have anticipated the demand.  Anyway, the people whining are not true Christmas lovers, as they were not acting at all in the Christmas spirit.

Some rarer items were priced high, but still reasonable. 

And then there was this monstrosity:

I mean, it is kind of cool.  Just a lot going on.

I ended up buying lots of things, mostly plain ornaments.  Mostly Shiny Brite brand.

This old German garland was my best find.  It is mega old.  At the latest, it is from the 1920s, but perhaps from the turn of the century.  This photo does not do it justice.

I am hoping to get a tiny vintage tinsel tree to display all of these pieces, so hopefully at a sale soon I can find one.  If not, I will buy a repro one from Target or something.  Now that I think of it, that might be the better idea.  Some of those old trees are flammable. 

Some are even “non-inflammable.”  Whatever the hell that means.  Here is one I saw on Craigslist.

Non-inflammable?  So…flammable? 

-Erin

Sometimes estate sales are a blast not because you find a bunch of great treasures to buy, but just because they are fun to browse through.  I recently went to a sale like this, and even though I only bought a couple things, it was a really nice experience.  The whole house was like a time capsule.

Better yet, it was a time capsule of only adorable things!  That Holt Howard rooster set used to be very collectible, although prices on it have dropped recently.  If the prices were a little lower at this sale, I would have still tried to flip it on ebay.  I hope this found a good home though because it is so cute.

It is hard to tell in the photo but this faux fireplace was pretty big.  It was made of styrofoam and was obviously really cute, but we don’t really have a place to put it.  I hope someone bought it!

Continuing on with the trend of large holiday decorations I do not need, let me present you this Easter tree:

I was kind of obsessed with this.  It was a perfect mix of hideous, intriguing, and adorable.  I should have bought it and left it on Sarah’s porch.  Or saved it for a white elephant gift exchange.  I am not sure what those brown ball things are near the bottom but I assume they are representative of Easter bunny turds.

There were several wind up toys from the 80s and 90s that I thought about buying, but each one was priced around $10-$15.  Had they been $5 I probably would have bought all of them.  Everett would have loved them dearly, although I would be spending the rest of my days constantly winding them up for him.

The Musical Munching Bunny was a steal at $2 but I still didn’t buy him.  I’m being very disciplined with my purchases lately.

I did buy one wind up toy, which was this seal for the bathtub.  Everett is crazy about him and yells, “SEAL! SEAL!” as he swims around.

I also bought this amazing cat poster from the 70s, which I promptly sold on ebay.  It was $1. 

My last purchase turned out to be a lame one, but it was only a $1 investment.  This stuffed bear is supposedly collectible, according to ebay, but so far it hasn’t sold!  I don’t know what the deal is.  He is a Clifford Berryman bear.

I mean, he is definitely cuter than this thing that I left behind at the sale:

-Erin

I hope there are still some of you out there that are checking in on our blog!  Here I present you, loyal readers, with a total random entry.  Alas, it is a cool one, so appreciate it (who knows when we will have another).  Whomp whomp.

Zach and I went to DC two weeks ago for a wedding.  And like most DC weddings (I assume) it was officiated by a member of Obama’s staff.  So that was pretty amazing.  They also served mussels and oysters during cocktail hour.  I don’t like any seafood, mostly because I am uncultured.  I am mentioning the mollusks because for some ungodly reason I decided to try one.  It was awful.  It was mushy, with more secret pockets of extra mush.  So to anyone who eats these, there is something seriously wrong with you.

Bivalves aside, the wedding was insanely gorgeous and the actual dinner was incredible.  The DJ by far was the best I have EVER seen at a wedding. 
We danced, we smiled, we drank, we smiled more.  It was lovely.

OK, so what does this have to do with treasures? This one day while out sightseeing, we spotted what looked to be an antique store.  It was in fact an antique store, but everything inside was presidential related.  

They had old campaign buttons and ephemera.  They also had actual items belonging to past presidents–pens, cuff links, even a shoe from Harry Truman.  Do you need a golf ball signed by George W. Bush?  No?  OK, well if you change your mind, they have it. 

While looking around, I spotted this tiny gold Christmas tree and inquired about it. 

Turns out that this is a Christmas ornament that Ronald Reagan gave to only his staff.  There are not many in existence, although the guy running the store wasn’t sure of the actual number.  It even had the original envelope and tissue paper it came in.  Here, have another look:

I know, right? So cool.  Another fun fact is that Ronald Reagan started the White House Christmas ornament tradition.  Every year, the White House releases a new ornament for the public to buy.  That means our little ornament was right there in the beginning as this tradition was born. 

The price was $125 which actually seemed reasonable to me.  We bought it of course.  We also bought a program from that year’s Christmas Services at the White House.

I know what you are thinking.  I am thinking it too.  What the EFF is up with Nancy Reagan’s signature?! 

I mean, COME ON.

We saw lots of other things to buy, but they were out of our price range.  Zach did buy his parents some neat old campaign stickers from Eugene McCarthy.  Here, I googled him for you.  

So that’s the latest on our treasure hunting.  Hope to check in with you guys again soon!  Happy hunting!

I’m about to shock you all and say that last week Sarah bought NOTHING when we went sale-ing.  This is unprecedented.  So for that reason, I’ll be handling this entry. 

The sale we visited looked great online.  It was in Ypsilanti and promised all sorts of fabulous vintage treasures, including old Beistle Halloween decorations that I wanted badly.  Someone else wanted them badly too, because they were gone when we got there.  There were some interesting pieces left but the prices all seemed really high.

Sarah’s hand looks kind of crazy in the pic.  She will probably yell at me for not cropping it out.

Sarah wanted to buy this wood tree shelf thing above, but in some sort of crazy miracle, I was able to talk her out of it (Adam, you’re welcome).  It reminds me of this country cottage store that my mom used to shop at in the 80s.  You’d buy like miniature honey pots with fake honey coming out of them there.  It was pretty much the worst.

I immediately grabbed this bag of old plastic baseball men for Timmy.  I texted him and he said he really wanted them, despite the steep $15 price.  I got the guy to sell me these for $10, which seems more fair.

Timmy is going to use these to make molds and subsequently more tiny baseball men for his baseball artwork.  Someday when I retire, maybe I too can spend my time making baseball artwork.

At some point in the sale, I found this wacky Coors hat and told Sarah to take my photo in it.  She obliged:

Sarah then asked if I thought the hat was COLLECTIBLE.  She looked at the inside tag and repeated herself, saying, “Is this a collectible brand?”

This was my reaction:

Excuse my no makeup.  Anyway, what can I say.  Sarah was obviously desperate.  But no, that Coors hat is NOT collectible.

So here are the other things I bought:

These old stockings are from the 40s or 50s.  I paid $1 each and hope they will sell on ebay come next Christmas.  One of the stocking belongs to BIZ:

I can only assume his (or her) website is BIZ.biz.

I also bought some stamps, which never turn out to be valuable, but these were cool and cheap:

I also bought this WWII Army container with camouflage paint inside.  It was $1, but I am hoping it sells for more on ebay.  I can’t find any previous listings for an item like this, but it is so cool!  I have a hard time believing that no one would want it.

I probably should have put some of that on before I took the photos above.  That white color seems to match my paleness well.

-Erin

You may have noticed that we aren’t posting as much as we used to. Some of that is due to this lil’ man existing. 

But some of it is because I’ve been crazy focused on selling rather than buying these days. 

So exactly a month ago, Adam challenged me to a month-long eBay battle for the holiday season (in case you missed it, we’re trying to pay the $2,000 in medical bills that our cat racked up after eating cellophane). This was the challenge: we both sell as much as possible and the person who makes the lesser sum of money pays the person who makes the greater sum of money $100 when it’s all said and done. I’m not sure I’ve ever turned down a bet that I have a decent shot at, so I was game!

I recognized that Adam was really just trying to motivate me to purge, but I was fine with that. I thought I was clearly going to win, because little did Adam know, I had a stockpile of Christmas goods, just waiting to be listed. 

And that’s because… little did I know… Adam had a stockpile of video game systems, rare emo records, magazine back issues, Kickstarter products, Legos, and an iPhone to sell. 

So it sort of goes without saying–Adam is kicking my a$$ right now! If you have a heart and love treasures, please feel free to buy my sh*t. Perhaps your special someone loves The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and needs a new iPad case. Perhaps your BFF loves chihuahuas AND vintage photographs.

Perhaps you love the film adaptation of The Island of the Blue Dolphins. I even pulled out one of my favorite photographs and am willing to sell it for the right price.

Meaning, perhaps what you really want is to pay $150 for an old cabinet card. Hey now–don’t judge–I’m just going based on completed listings like it.

Whatever your taste, I can offer goods that will satisfy.

Our battle ends on Sunday so I’ll be sure to update you on who won on Monday!

-Sarah

Zach found a random box in one of our closets that said “ebay stuff” on it.  It was a bunch of paper items I got at a sale over a year ago and never put on ebay.  Included in all of the stuff was a huge stack of letters.

I haven’t taken the time yet to read through all of these, but one letter did stand out.  It was addressed to good ol’ Santa Claus.

I was so excited to open the letter and read what one child of yesteryear was wishing for that Christmas so long ago.  I unfolded the letter and found this:

Seriously, it looks like the Zodiac killer himself wrote this.  And unless there is some sort of secret Santa language that I don’t know about, this child got NOTHING for Christmas.

Poor Harriet Robbe, you failed at Christmas.

-Erin

Two Fridays ago, Sarah and I hit a couple sales that looked packed.  And even more exciting, packed with good-looking treasures!  The first one was obviously the estate of former antique dealers/hoarders.

When we walked in, the person at the front door said we had to give up our purses, and stash them in a big ol’ purse pile behind the cash-out area.  This always bugs me.  It is true that people steal from estate sales (remember “THAT GUY”), but I know I’m not going to, so I instantly feel offended.  It’s like, “We must steal your purse from you, with all of your monies and car keys and lip balm before you are able to steal from us.”  Oy.

And in the end, I wish this sale actually turned out to have more worth stealing.  The photos online had looked so good, but things seemed picked over or too pricey.  

If you aren’t familiar with that new rap song on the radio that says, “I WOKE UP IN A NEW BUGGATI,”  then that’s ok because it sucks.  In other news, this is what a Buggati looks like.  Seems practical.  Also, $6,000 seems cheap.  Is that cheap?

I did find this hilarious magazine that explains 10 ways to make your wife “more useful”:

Seriously, so rude.  Someone give me a magazine article that teaches husbands to find ANYTHING in the house without having to ask where it is first.  AMIRITE LADIES?

I did buy a couple things.  First was this adorable stocking that reminded me of those stalker snowmen I keep seeing at every sale.  It will be the baby’s stocking this Christmas.

I bought this old cap gun to resell.  It was only $8 and other ones sold for good money on ebay.  Mine isn’t in as good of shape, but worth the risk.

At the next sale, there were a lot of knick-knacks and typical household goods.  Here is Sarah and her monster broken-toe boot looking at stuff:

I was striking out pretty bad here, until I went in the basement and saw this:

The top part of this chalkboard turns, and there are tons of cool vintage graphics to choose from.  At $25, this was a total steal.  I snagged it for the baby nursery.  Here it is now, after I stenciled on future baby’s name:

The cowboys and Indians scene at the top was my favorite, and perfect for a little boy’s room.  

Sarah found some slides at this sale, and due to her recent success with slides, she decided to plop down and check them all out.  It was mega hot in this house, but somehow she convinced me to help her.  It was torture.  All of the slides were of plants and buildings, but Sarah was convinced there were good ones in there.  

I stopped helping after probably 30 seconds.  Sarah endured another 10 minutes or so and then decided not to buy any of these.  Whomp whomp.  I’ll let her tell you about all of her other finds this day.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Erin failed to mention so many important details from this first sale. First, the person who told us we had to give our purses away was no more than 13 years old and they had her manning the door. I’m cool with that, I’m just saying–it’s weird to take orders from a little kid. Second, this sale had three different areas with entrances, and when you were in each place, they made it sound like the next was going to be SO much better. As it turned out, the next was always worse. 

I did find some treasures, though–mainly of the paper variety. But before we get to those, check out this awesome pixie Erin snagged for me at the last minute!

She’s not in fabulous shape, but she was only $3, and the more important part of this find was that it led me to discover that there are TONS of these figurines with hair but not all of them are on the phone! Instead, many of them are “pixies” and can be found by searching that way. Totally rad, and I just spent the last hour buying more on the Internet instead of writing this very blog entry. I just made a boatload of cash on eBay, so I can afford more cuties like this. 

I also found some very cute mini dogs. My favorite is this one, who really DOES look like my dog, Betsy. It’s head comes off the top so it wobbles. so stinkin’ cool! 

One question: Have you ever seen a cuter dog? 

Ok on to the paper… there was a ton of it, but they were pricing it all individually, which was sad. I’ve gotten some really good deals buying mass quantities of paper from the people running this sale in the past, so that was a bummer. In the end, I bought a few photographs, some vintage greeting cards, and a couple of postcards.

I had to buy this old illustration. Rock of Ages was (still IS) a record store near where I grew up. True story: I bought a purple Jellyfish t-shirt there when I was 16 and then gave it to Zach when I met him because he was a megafan just like my own husband. Man, where is that thing now?

I had to buy this postcard because IT MAKES NO SENSE.

Ok, so the worst thing about this sale was that no matter where you were at any given time, 4 other people wanted to be in that EXACT PLACE. I was standing near the check out area where they keep more valuable stuff, and there was a box of postcards that I was sorting through. As I am sorting through them, I sh*t you not, this lady comes up behind me and grabs HALF of them, and moves to the side and starts looking through them. I was so stunned that I didn’t say anything but Erin looked like she was going to lose it. Are you kidding me, lady?! 

The only thing worth mentioning about the other areas of the sale is that Erin and I bonded over this: 

I thought it was bad enough that I was told by a therapist when I was in my early 20s, after confessing my extreme fear of house fires, to purchase one of these. But Erin actually had one under her bed as a child for the same reason, and her dad used to help her take it out and practice using it. People, this is why we’re friends. 

It’s true that at the second sale, I left without any slides, but don’t you worry–I’ve already made up for it. Stay tuned!  

The same day that Zach and I scored those Briggs treasures, we swung by another sale and bought two items that are now  “fave finds” of mine.

When we arrived at the sale, I instantly noticed all of these wood carvings.  They were ADORABLE.  The woman running the sale informed me that the deceased owner of the estate had been quite the woodworker.  He made all of these figures and sold them throughout his life.  

I was immediately happy that I was going to be able to buy some of these, but also MEGA SAD that the family of this man didn’t want to keep these.  I started to stress out that all of these figures would be thrown in the trash when the sale ended.  

Unfortunately I couldn’t buy all of these guys because they were kind of pricey!  Originally they were $15-20 each!  Since it was Sunday, and the last day of the sale, they were all around $5-10.  

The first guy I found was this skiing rabbit:

If there are two things I love, they are skiing and rabbits.

Next I found this country singer lady:

Look at that little cowboy hat she is holding!  This is truly the greatest thing of all time.

Here is another view:

These carvings make me so happy.  They are funny and cute…important characteristics of any fave find.

What’s funny is I was writing this post and dropping it in our queue about the same time that our friend over at Monkeybox Blog was writing this great post about her own folk art collection.  I’m glad to see some fellow admiration for the effort that goes into woodcarving.  Very cool.

Ok, so last thing.  This is too hilarious not to mention.  When Zach and I left this sale, we noticed this yard:

And then this crazy guy ACROSS THE STREET AND IN A DITCH:

Penguin on the run!

Ok and for good measure, here is an old photo of me with a real penguin:

-Erin

Erin convinced me to hit up an auction in Tecumseh with her on Wednesday night. This auction wasn’t at the same place we auctioned at in Tecumseh before. However, I had been to this place with my parents earlier in December, I was just a slacker and never wrote about it. Anyway, the auction did not look good in the pictures, but I figured I would humor Erin.

Erin was late, so on the way there we had to hit up Micky D’s because we were starved. When we got there, I was still finishing my filet-o-fish and I thought Erin was going to blow a gasket while waiting for me. She was so eager to get in there.

Can you blame her?

Ok, in all seriousness, this auction was probably the worst thing I’ve ever been to. They were auctioning off stuff that I doubt would sell even at a thrift store or get taken out of a garage sale’s free box. It was crazy. For example, many of the items on this table were marked as being from the dollar store.  

Despite these truths, there were two things that I was coveting at this sale. First, these guys, which were not there when I was at this joint with my parents:

I wanted them so bad. But I think they’re now a permanent part of the ambiance there.

Second, I REALLY wanted this battery operated cat.

I thought she would be an excellent white elephant gift. This past year at the holiday potluck Adam and I host, Erin’s husband Zach brought the best white elephant gift: Christmas Cat. He found this gentleman at a flea market and there was a serious war over him during the white elephant exchange.

I am confident that my cat will surpass Christmas Cat as Most Desirable White Elephant Gift. I won her for $2, a serious steal, and when we got her back to my house and Adam put some new batteries in her, let me just say–she blew our minds.

Despite the lack of treasures at this auction, people were pumped to spend between $1 and $5 for loads and loads of garbage. That includes, unfortunately, both Erin and myself. For some reason, I thought it was a good idea to buy two hula hoops. 

I also thought it was a good idea to buy a box of Halloween plates without looking at them closely first. They were chipped, made in China, and not even safe for microwaves or dishwashers! We ended up giving them to a man who was buying things to furnish his sister’s home. He told us that she had nothing, so he was trying to help her out. On the ride home, Erin was doing her sob story thing, feeling bad for the woman. But I just finished reading The Glass Castle, so I put it in perspective for her. After all, having someone’s old coffee mugs and chipped Halloween plates is better than nothing. Right? I don’t know. Maybe not.

Anyway, the guy who runs this joint is my favorite guy. At one point, he put a toaster cover on his head because he thought it was a hat. Anyway, the combination of his mic not working half the time and the items all being garbage caused me to have to ask Erin, “What is it?” over and over again.

Erin ended up scoring the only real treasures of the night (besides my cat), and I’ll let her tell you about them.

-Sarah

Update from Erin: Apparently it takes 30 minutes to eat one Filet-O-Fish.  I wouldn’t know because I would never eat one.  Sarah forgot to mention that she left remnants of this fish burg in my car near the foot heater, and once it got reheated hours after we left the auction, my car smelled like a swamp.

So yes, this auction was pretty junky, but I still had fun.  Everything was entertaining.  As she mentioned, every time a new item came up for auction, Sarah would instantly say, “What is it?”  EVERY TIME.  And then I would have to be like, “Oh it’s a stack of wooden bowls but 4 are cracked,” or “It’s a pile of 3 teddy bears that say ‘Mommy’ on them.”  Near the end, I just started saying, “It’s garbage,” every time.

Except these plates.  I didn’t buy them (for fear they would be a TTFYHO), but they sure are cute.  

I was also entertained because the the auctioneer kept inventing words.  At one point he auctioned off some ceramic Christmas Village knick-knacks and described them as being from many different “scenaries.”  He also kept calling VHS tapes V-S-H, which is an honest mistake, but still funny.  And, he kept lying!  Sarah got suckered into buying some “cast iron spurs” for $10.  The auctioneer even clanged them together while suggesting they were heavy and solid.  When Sarah won the spurs, they weighed about the same as a paper clip (not cast iron).  Luckily, they let her return them.

I won a few cool things, perhaps the only cool things at the auction.  First up were these old antique skeleton keys.  

I’ll probably put them on ebay, although they would look really nice hanging on the wall, or in a cabinet, especially if I found one of those big old key rings for them.

I also bought this polar bear sculpture because it looks like Murano glass.  Even if it isn’t Murano, art glass in general is popular.  The fact that this sculpture is animal related definitely doesn’t hurt either.  This guy is also really heavy, which I think is a plus to collectors.

I hear that in real life polar bears are mega ferocious.  In fact, I think my sister told me about some guy at a zoo who got eaten by one after he climbed in the exhibit to snuggle it. 

P.S. Sarah thought those Blues Brothers would fit in my little 4 door sedan.  Thankfully they weren’t auctioned off this night.  Look at how huge those things are compared to the doors below!  I can’t imagine trying to move them, let alone “just sit them in my back seat” like Sarah suggested.