Dig This Treasure!

Wow, hard to believe that over a month after my trip out there, I still have tales to tell about South Carolina. 

After our two previous treasure-seeking trips were pretty big busts, we decided to head out to another nearby town–Summerville–to see if there was anything good to find out there. Our first stop was the Summerville Antique Gallery. 

Right away, I knew it would be at least good for window shopping. It was a huge building with lots of little booths throughout. 

For the most part, prices were more reasonable than they had been at the place the previous day. Some were still pretty high. My dad was really interested in this Coca Cola stadium carrier. It had a strap that you’d wear around your neck–you know, to walk around baseball games and sell pop. 

But I looked it up for him and it was priced a little higher than what they sell for on eBay. Whomp whomp. 

I thought this was a pretty cute ways to display cards and other paper items! I loved those teeny clothespins. 

Here’s some of the cards close up. 

Cuuuuuuute! 

Does anyone know if these civil war bullets are legit? I thought they were but maybe I’m dumb. 

This thing was so cool…but what would you do with it? 

Ok, so I found a few cute things to purchase. First up is this adorable little girl sitting with her dog on a dresser. I don’t really know why I bought this or if I really need it (answer is no) but it was too cute to pass up. 

I also found a collection of these little trinket boxes. I’m almost positive that they’re new, but I still thought this one was too cute to pass up. 

Yep! When you open it up there’s a tiny little dog bone inside! 

I also bought this small, beat up chalkware dog for my mini shelf.

Anyway, we knew it was time to leave when I spotted this piece of sheet music.

I actually immediately hopped on a plane and flew home to Michigan.

-Sarah 

Holy moly! This is a late update!

On my birthday (end of August), Adam and I stopped at a book & treasure store in Ann Arbor, located in what’s called “Kerrytown.” He actually wanted to go inside and I did not, because I had a vague memory of having a semi-bad experience at this place in the past. But the store is my kind of place–a huge space filled from floor to ceiling with books, paper, and collectibles, so I agreed to go. 

The guy who runs this place is my kinda guy–besides old books, he has TONS of old postcards, greeting cards, and stereoviews. 

Check out that creeper. 

These are all semi-organized in card catalogs throughout the store. I started really getting excited because I found whole drawers of Christmas postcards…

(Note–this was the day after Erin and I got manicures for my birthday. Check out those nails!)

…but then I started noticing the prices located on the backside. Each of these awesome postcards cost between $15 and $40. What the heck?! 

Amid the adorable postcards, I also found some hilarious and scary ones. 

If that’s what Santa looks like, I’m not sure I want him coming down my chimney. 

Have you ever seen a kid so scared to hear Santa? That dog sure is excited, though. 

In the end, I did buy a few postcards and greeting cards–the ones I selected were between $3 and $5 each. 

I went to check out, and when I was doing so, the store owner started chit chatting with me, asking if I saw all the other postcards. I told him that I did see them, but that they were super overpriced. He started lecturing me on rarity and how you determine the value of something–like I was a total dummy. Then I immediately remembered why I didn’t want to go in the store in the first place. The guy was so condescending and thought everything was worth a billion dollars! Many things in the store had tags like this: 

One of his favorite words was “scarce”. 

I told him that I knew they were valuable, but I’m not sure they were worth THAT much… I think in the process of talking to me, he realized that I was not a total idiot, since I do collect paper. So then he insisted that I look at a special box he had behind the counter of his most prized postcards. I went along with it because Adam was giving me The Look (he wanted a good story), but really, some of the postcards in the drawers were way cooler than the ones in his special box.

Then I happened to mention that I collect photographs so he insisted that I look at these groups of photos he had. Well, it turns out he had a whole envelope filled with people and their pets, so I was actually pretty excited. Here’s what I bought: 

Sorry for the darkness/quality–I took those pictures in my dark living room.

The big prize was this cabinet card: 

It was marked a hefty $16 but I really wanted it. 

I brought up my second round of treasures to the checkout desk and he seemed very impressed with my selections. Then he took one look at that cabinet card and said, “This is a $30 photograph.” I said “NO WAY DUDE.” Those words exactly. He said “Oh no I’m going to honor the price on the back but I want you to know this is a very rare, valuable photograph." 

But then things changed. He started telling me about his dogs. If you know me at all, you know that all you have to do is talk about an old dog around me and I fall apart. He went on to point out the freakin’ professional photo/glamourshots he had of his three pugs hanging on the walls. There is so much crap in this place, I hadn’t noticed them until then. He then told us the story of Taz, his oldest pug (16), who he had to put down this year. He and his wife do community theater, and when they took him to the vet, it was Valentine’s Day. He sang "My Funny Valentine” to his 16 year old pug, as the vet euthanized poor little Taz. Oh my gosh. 

As he told us the story, he got a little teary, and I could not help but end up liking this guy. I think he must just be really attached to all of the things in his store. The high prices seem to be a way to allow him to keep holding on to all of it. He asked me to send him a photograph of the cabinet cards, and I haven’t yet. I should go do this now. 

-Sarah

Last week, Erin wrote about that awesome folk art sale we went to twice, and I wrote about one find that ended up making me some serious money. But I forgot to tell you all about the cool things that I bought to keep!

The first day we went there, I was really overwhelmed because things were priced on the high side and there were so many things I wanted. I came away with two dog carvings. Erin spotted both of them for me. I love this one so much:

Looks like a Brittany Spaniel, and that’s close enough to a beagle for me!

The other dog statue I think Erin also found, and it’s mechanical:

When you turn the crank, the dogs mouth opens and closes, and his tail spins. Adam loves anything mechanical in nature, so I thought he might like it but I was unsure of the face. He ended up loving it, so score for me!

I also bought this two-drawer box. I’m not sure how old it is but I really like it and will probably put it in my living room and keep junk in it.

I’m sure Adam is thrilled to hear that.

On the day we went back, I mainly bought stuff to resell, and once I saw that the woman there was making deals, I stepped up my game. I came away with a poster I saw on the first day that I thought was funny.

I also bought this doll that was priced $95, but sold to me for $30.

I also bought these adorable wool dolls to resell. Here’s a picture that I took of them cuddling.

Besides the Tigers slides that I sold, the case of slides I purchased also had a ton of other slides in it, and I sold the case and slides for $150. I separated the slides into groups by theme—adults, kids, cars, etc. So that was my most fruitful purchase. If you ever see a bunch of those slides for cheap, snatch ‘em up! People collect them. Here are a few of my favorite pics from the group.

Love me some kids being weirdos.

Finally, Adam dropped some major bones at this sale. But we’ll save his find for another day, because it was really unique and interesting!

-Sarah

Last Friday (which we will wrap up shortly), Erin and I hit up a few sales. One of these was pretty far away–in Harrison Township, but I really wanted to go because it looked like there were tons of photographs there.

I wasn’t prepared for how cool some of these pictures were, though. It seems like one of the people who lived there must have been a photography hobbyist, because there were lots of 8x10s that were clearly made in a personal darkroom. I’ll talk more about the boolsheit I went through to obtain these photos, but for now, I just want you to enjoy them as much I have! 

The first is a Rat Terrier and the second is a Dachsund. There were a few actual portraits like these, and then many action shots: 

Do you like how the one is totally jumping off the other one’s head?

Here are some pics with their people: 

And other beasts…

My favorites, though, are these:

And finally, my #1 favorite: 

I’m not sure I’ve ever found an “old” thing that I love more than these pictures. I haven’t decided which I’m going to sell. I don’t need to keep them all, and they could, as I’ve found in the past, make me some money. 

I’ll keep you all posted!

-Sarah