Dig This Treasure!

So again, the Plymouth auction treated us very kindly.  Remember all the way back in September when Zach bought a cast iron bank for $17?  It looked like this:

Well this guy had been living on our bookshelf since then, that is, until Zach did some research on it.  It turns out that this bank was made by the J & E Stevens company around 1872.  J & E Stevens are best known for making some of the earliest mechanical banks, which fetch incredible prices on ebay:

These mechanical banks are also some of the most faked out there, so be careful!  

J & E also made still banks though, and many looked like tiny safes.  Early versions opened with a skeleton key, and later the safes had combination locks.  

Zach bought our particular safe bank at the auction simply because he liked it.  This is an example of one of my 2013 antique buying strategies.  I’m going to buy things that I like, even if I plan to sell it.  If it doesn’t sell, I have something to keep that I like.  At the same time, chances are that if YOU like it, someone else out there might like it, and it will probably sell.  It’s a win-win.  

In this case, Zach bought something that not only he likes, but A LOT of people like.  And a lot of people collect.

Here’s what the bank sold for:

Can you believe it?  This was really exciting.  I’m not sure what he is going to do with the money, but I hope it involves buying like 20.88 more J & E Stevens banks at $17 each.  (Yes I did the math.)

And while you’re here, I’ll give you the duck decoy selling price I promised last week.  

I want to double my money on everything I sell, all day err day.

-Erin

So after our excursion last Friday, we decided to check out a Doug Dalton auction in Romulus.  You might remember this same auction from that time Sarah bought a million dolls and I got my heart broken by some paper mache Halloween decorations.  

As usual, the items at the auction looked high-end, and we were particularly excited about a mass of duck decoys they had to offer.  I wanted to get to the auction early specifically to research and examine all of the ducks, considering I won the lottery last time I bought a duck decoy.  

Sarah, however, had another goal in mind–washing her car.

That’s right, there are riches to be made, and Sarah wants to wash her car.  Mind you, her car is filled with estate sale treasures she bought weeks ago, so cleaning her car is not a priority, JUST WASHING.  So we did that.  She tried to convince me to drive her car through the wash for her (she was scared) but I refused.  I’ve watched enough People’s Court to know what happens when you drive your friend’s car into a car wash and accidentally destroy it. 

Anyway, this hilarious sign greeted us as we exited the car wash.  And also, look in that foggy mirror, there is TOTALLY a ghost child standing on the left side just below the white part.  Spooky.

So on to the auction we went, and luckily we did have some time to inspect the goods.  From my last duck victory, I learned that it is important for the duck to be hand carved, hand painted, and signed by the artist.  The older the better also seems true.  And the duck should be in good shape, unless it is super beat up and thus “primitive” looking, which some people also collect.

I ended up buying the two ducks below, as a pair, for $100.  

They are signed with the name Hoffman, and a tag on them indicated that they are from the “Walter Snow School.”  I have no idea what this means, but Walter Snow decoys seem to fetch high prices.  I figured any connection to him would help.

At first when I won, I panicked a bit.  I was caught in the moment and really should not have bid so high.  My last decoy was only a $10 investment, and therefore much less risky of a buy.  I started to worry that I seriously overpaid.  

[Spoiler alert: I didn’t overpay!  These ducks are doing swimmingly on ebay, and I will post an update with their final selling price.]

The rest of the auction looked just ok.  It was mostly guns and man-stuff.  Sarah visited a separate toy auction in the back of the room, so she will update you on that.  

Here is a sea monster we didn’t buy.

The gun on the left looks like a dueling pistol!  Zach has two replica dueling pistols, so I thought that getting him a real one would be cool.  But then everything started selling for really high prices and I knew it was hopeless.

I also got excited because there were old instruments, which I also sold recently and did well with.  That red Gibson guitar is apparently very collectible and Zach told me to try buying it.  It was in bad shape but still ended up selling for $475.  Obviously, I was not the buyer.

And if you think that is a high priced item, listen to this…we totally got to watch a saxophone at this auction sell for $4,000!  It was incredible.  People started cheering and clapping for the winner.  The saxophone, a Selmer Mark VI, must be like the holy grail of saxophones.  Look at what some recently sold for on ebay:

So crazy!  

The other crazy part was that this saxophone probably would have gone higher than $4,000 but the auctioneer did not see a woman in the back of the room trying to bid.  He closed the auction at $4,000 and the winner was some guy up front.  The woman came running up and started arguing with the auctioneer.  I felt bad for her though, she clearly had her hand up and was trying to bid.  At that point though, there is nothing you can do, and all auctioneers have signs up saying they are not responsible for mistakes.  Whomp whomp.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: My car was so dirty that I could barely see through the windows. I also have an unreasonable fear of drive-thru car washes because I had a bad experience in one once: I stepped on the brake and you would have thought I set off a nuclear bomb considering how the guys at the place were yelling at me. So I really wanted to get my car washed while Erin was with me, so she could talk me through any traumatic events or scolding that might occur. My car was so clean after this wash that at the end of the auction, we walked up to my car and I thought it wasn’t my car. I actually asked Erin, “Is this my car?” True story. 

This auction was so crazy packed with people. Obviously there isn’t a lot of entertainment in Romulus on Friday night. 

Ok so first, I don’t know what Erin is talking about with that gun. I’m pretty sure you cannot buy a gun unless you have a permit. While I am writing this, Erin is texting me, trying to tell me that that isn’t true for guns more than “100 years old.” I told her it sounded like she was making sh*t up. 

During the duck decoy auction, I bid on and won a “primitive” looking duck. I spent $50 on him which is a lot, but I figured that if he didn’t sell, he was cool enough to keep. Here he is. 

He’s sort of leaning back in that picture so you can see the thing underneath–it’s made of some metal and old nails. He already has a few bids, so I think at the very least, I’ll make my money back. 

The normal auction was boring me, so I went in the back room where they were auctioning off old tin toys and trains. I’m not sure why Erin didn’t come in there. I bought a few things, the most promising of which seems to be this old Western Pacific tin train, made in Japan. 

It’s not getting much attention on eBay so far, but I’m still hopeful. One just like it sold for $132, so I’m not sure what all the homies are waiting for. 

After the toy auction ended, we stuck around to see some of those instruments sell for a ton of money. One correction–that sax sold for $4400. I only know this because there was another guy bidding on it who actually plays them, and he was in line to pay right in front of me. He had stopped bidding at $4000 and was super pissed about not winning it, because the guy who did win it was going to resell it. I guess that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. 

I think I have officially made my best estate sale score ever.  You might remember my mini Tigers nodder that sold for $429.  That was awesome, but I had to make a pretty hefty upfront investment on that little guy.  Recently though, I bought an old handcarved duck decoy for a mere $10.  

I knew that old decoys were valuable, but I had NO CLUE how valuable.  Here’s how it all went down:

$400 for a wood duck?  Incredible.

Turns out that I had a good eye on this one, but also a bit of dumb luck.  The maker of this duck is a renowned Michigan carver, and jacked the price up considerably.  After the auction ended, I contacted the  buyer to ask him a bit more about the duck.  Here is his response:

Hi Erin, That decoy was by a recognized carver who made his decoys in the “Detroit” style of carving. That school (style) of carving was done by quite a few people in and around the Detroit, MI area. It is recognized by alot of wing and feather carving. Neil Smith was not a real well known decoy maker from the area, however the bird was in very nice original condition, with no bad dings, chips, original paint with no repairs, etc. In other words, the decoy was in excellent condition and in a style that is desirable to alot of Michigan decoy collectors. I was surprised that it took off to that amount myself, however, the price was fair for a bird of that condition. I am looking forward to getting it, and already have a spot on my shelf picked out where it will sit.

Very cool.  I particularly love that he had a spot picked out for the duck.  When I buy stuff, I always imagine first where I can display it.

So keep your eyes out for old duck decoys everyone!

-Erin