Dig This Treasure!

Last night I drove to Howell for an auction.  Now, I wouldn’t normally recommend spending your Wednesday night driving to Howell, MI but I went for two reasons.  First, I was cooped up working all day yesterday and started going a bit stir crazy.  Second, Zach has either the Plague or Black Lung, so I wanted to decrease my chances of catching it.

Oh wait, and three, I wanted to buy these awesome old paper mache Halloween decorations:

That cat one alone sells on ebay for $60-$80.  The pumpkin varies anywhere from $30-$70 or so.  My plan was to buy them for keeps…we’ll get to that later though.

The online listing for this auction said “Boston Peddler Auction” but when I showed up, the sign outside said “HAMMER TIME AUCTIONS.”  I laughed really hard at that.  

The place was kind of a ghost town.  And it seemed like most people were there for the snacks.  In the back of the room they were selling various Little Debbies and that sort of fare.  $1 per box!  What a steal!  People were walking out with boxes and boxes full of this stuff.

Besides selling probably-expired-moonpies, this place was weird for many reasons.  Here is a sample of the decor:

Let me be honest and say that I don’t get the joke here at all.  Is this a sexual innuendo or an ode to cannibalism?  

Also weird were some of the items for sale.  I wish this picture was more clear, but that there is a burlap sack for use in bagging terrorists.  It has a silkscreened image of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, and the phrase “Terrorist Body Bag.”  

I almost bid on this.  Look at how nicely it is framed.  Let me point out though, that you could NEVER fit two bodies in that little bag.  I don’t speak from experience, but I do speak from common sense.

Ok so on to the auction.  I’ll spoil it now and say that I didn’t win either of those paper mache Halloween things.  It’s like people at this auction were made of money.  Either that, or they were just super competitive and insisted on winning any item they bid on.  Both of these items sold for over $50.  My logic is that I could buy some on ebay for around that price, and in better condition.  Still though, I was bummed.

I did buy some old pressed tin cap guns for $3, and this spooky old Halloween costume.

What’s weird about this costume is that it looks very similar to someone I know.  I don’t want to name names, but I will say that it rhymes with “Barah.”

Perhaps my best buy was this Mickey Mouse pull toy from 1939.  It is in rough shape, but I only paid $10 for it.  Ones in good condition sell for $150 on ebay, so hopefully I can at least make my money back.

I don’t anticipate heading back to Hammer Time Auctions anytime soon, but I will for sure remember it fondly.  Well, kind of fondly.

-Erin

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

I’m almost scared to write again about the Plymouth auction that Zach and I frequent on Saturdays.  I don’t want all of you marching up in there and bidding on my goods.  So far, this place has been like my own personal ATM machine, only it is linked to someone else’s bank account.  Buying and reselling from this auction has seriously been a goldmine.  Last Saturday was no different.

When we arrived at the auction, it was so packed.  The seats were all taken and you could barely stand anywhere without having to bear hug someone next to you.  We decided to stay though because the items looked pretty good.

My first bid was on this illustration from 1968, which I bought for Timmy because it was Tigers and World Series related.  This is original art, not a copy, although probably not worth a TON of money.  It was just too cool to pass up.

Zach won an amazing cast iron bank for $17, when others go for upwards of $150 on ebay.  It is really neat and living on our bookshelf.

I then won the quilt squares that were mentioned here on the blog a few days ago.  I panicked that I had made a bad buy on these ($20) but they already have bids over that on ebay, so I am relieved.  

At this point, I noticed an old charm bracelet in one of the display cases at the front.  It was LOADED with charms, and when I looked closely, most of them were marked as sterling silver.  The rest were also silver but not as pure (marked 800).  My sister started me a vintage charm bracelet a few years ago, and I learned from her that sterling silver charms alone can sell for $20-50 each!  Sometimes more.  A whole bracelet full of them had to be super valuable.

I told Zach that I wanted to stick around for this bracelet, and so we waited and waited and waited.  During that time, people bid crazy amounts on crazy items.  $30 for a Superhero poster that you could get at Toys R Us, $50 on an old stereo receiver that no one knew if it even worked.  It is seriously unpredictable what people will pay for things.

I told Zach that my limit for the charm bracelet was $100.  I was hoping I would only have to spend about $50.  Finally, it came up on the auction block.  The charm bracelet was placed in a lot with a bunch of other bracelets, so I assumed that would kick the price up pretty high.  But then the auction started at $5 and it was only me and one other woman bidding!  When the price got to $18, the lady backed out.  EIGHTEEN DOLLARS.  

I went up to collect my bracelet lot and was shocked to see that not only had I just won the charm bracelet, but THREE other vintage sterling silver bracelets.

I will probably scrap these 3, which should pay for my $18 investment.  As for the charm bracelet, you can follow its progress now on ebay.  

Zach and I sat at the auction for a few more minutes because I was all sweaty and flush. I had gotten so worked up about the score I just made, and when I get excited, I turn into a beet.  A sweaty beet.

-Erin

Just in case you were worried, Erin and I are once again officially BFFs and made up after our Jerry Springer style argument in her driveway last week. We started our adventure in Warren at a sale run by the same woman who ran the sale from last week that I speculated was actually held at her house. Erin had some mad love for that lady when leaving the sale last week but the tables turned this time around. Erin has a habit of fluctuating between feelings of love and hate toward the people who run these sales, while I’m usually more ambivalent (except for my favorite guy ever–the guy who tried to hook us up hard at the Best Sale Ever.)

Anyway, this sale was the worst but we did find some funny things. This is the best of the bunch: 

If you’re struggling to determine what those are, they’re two handmade refrigerator magnets. The one on the left is a pig that says (in little alphabet noodles glued on), “Porky are you eating again?” The one on the right is a cow that says, “Holy cow are you eating again?” I had to buy the cow. 

Basically, everything at this sale was either made by Avon or found at the dollar store. I’m not into either of these things, so I was sad. 

Here are some items that I passed on: 

I can’t even remember what I bought at this sale, besides a little pile of letters that I thought were affair letters, judging by the first few lines of one of them. I haven’t read them in their entirety but Erin read some of them aloud to me in the car and it turns out they’re really depressing letters from a sister to her brother about having cancer. That’s what I get for being nosy! Also insane: I had a tiny stack of cards and the lady told me it was $5. I am talking like, three cards. In this stack was an old brochure about Cedar Point that I wanted to buy for a friend’s kids. She told me, “that brochure alone is worth $3!” Really, lady? ON WHAT PLANET? You should be thanking me for getting rid of the crap that nobody wants! I told her to forget the brochure and I’d give her $2 and she told me she had to recalculate the cost because she was giving me a “bundle deal”… WTF?!

Next stop was a sale in Mt. Clemens. This sale contained a ton of antique furniture, but most of it was in really bad condition. I got a box of really old wrapping paper that was in great shape, and a vintage little girl’s pea coat. Erin got a box that had visible bird poop in it. I wanted this thing until I saw the made in China sticker. I ONLY BUY AMERICAN.

Just kidding. I just didn’t realize it was a reproduction at first. I still don’t know what it was supposed to be, but it reminded me of a card catalog (but real card catalogs have labels on the drawers.) 

The next sale we hit up seemed promising but ended up not being that great either. But it was really weird and time-warp-y and there were the most lawn ornaments I’ve seen in a while. It was also worth going to because the house was arranged really weirdly (it seemed like over half of it was a screened-in porch) and there were lots of funny things to see: 

Again, what is UP with these depressing statues? We see them basically at every sale now. 

Classy lady, classy car. 

Spuds MacKenzie. 

Private parts statue. 

…and… a ladyman with very large penis under her skirt. 

I found a few good things at this sale. First, a real deal garden gnome. I have a handful of lawn ornaments and he will be a good addition. I also got a couple of cute things to sell. Here is one of them: 

Yes, that is a kitten wearing a yellow beret and blue glasses. 

It’s past my bedtime, so I’ll let Erin update you on the Grey Gardens Man sale. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: I was disappointed with the seller lady at the first sale because she was being outrageous with her pricing.  Last week she gave me all sorts of deals, even when I didn’t ask for them.  Yet this time, she tried charging me $1 each for a stack of old dirty Christmas magnets.  The magnets were handmade out of felt and had some sequins glued on them.  They were cute obviously, but as a general rule, ANY magnet in the world should be 25 cents.  $1 each?  You’re out of your mind.

The second sale was great.  Sarah thought the furniture was all gross, but she was wrong.  It was like the movie Aladdin, you had to be willing to see the diamond in the rough here.  I bought an old cabinet for my new porcelain pieces.  

After some windex and Lysol, it looks amazing:

As for the “box with visible bird poop” that Sarah mentioned, this was actually an old DRAWER, that I planned to turn into a shelf.  It wasn’t really covered in bird poop, it had drops of old paint on it.  It did however have some mouse poop on it.

All you gotta do is hose that shit off, sand it, and stain it…WHICH I DID.

Look! Room for more porcelain!

At this sale I also got an old Minnie Mouse wind-up watch from the 60s.  It is apparently collectible, and most people start it on ebay at over $100.  I have it up now and it’s doing great.  I paid $10.

The next sale was awful, despite having a million cute sheep lawn ornaments.  

They were selling things like this:

Watch, that doll is probably like CRAZY VALUABLE.  

Ok, this entry is getting so long.  You all need to email us if these jumbo posts are annoying, and we can try condensing…

The last house was in Detroit and was a crazy mansion.  Rooms up on rooms up on rooms.  

Things started out promising, but the further you went in the house, everything got weird and abandoned.

Look at those walls and the ceiling.  They needed me to get up in there and hang some bird poop shelves and fill them with porcelain.

Oh wait, looks like someone already was moved in:

OK, one more Grey Gardens-esque pic…

I bought an old, giant Mae West poster at this sale for $3.  That’s it I think.  I didn’t buy this poster which some perv had drawn all over:

-Erin

After the success of purchasing my first piece of Herend porcelain, I decided that it would be nice to start collecting this stuff regularly.   I imagine a little shelf in our house with all Herend pieces.  It will take awhile to get there, but why not start this endeavor with a bang…

I found this Herend seal box on ebay and decided to splurge on it.

LOOK AT HIS SAD LITTLE SEAL FACE!  I love him.

I don’t want to say exactly what I spent on this guy, but I will say that it was more than $128 and less than $130.  Don’t tell Timmy. 

-Erin

My antique-filled birthday extravaganza continued with a trip to Greenmead a couple weekends ago.  Greenmead hosts an antique market every few months during the summer, and it is truly one of the best.

Zach and I found our first treasure pretty quickly.  It was this great old oil painting from 1922.  The painting is of a Greek ship called the Greek Frigate Hellas.  Here’s a Wikipedia all about this ship, which was part of the Hellenic Navy.

Next, I met up with one of our loyal DTT readers, a cool guy named Rudy.  Rudy had a booth at Greenmead, and had messaged us to ask if we would be in attendance.  I had assumed that Rudy was a woman, as most of our readers are.  When I walked up and asked for Rudy, and he introduced himself, I said, “OH I THOUGHT YOU WERE A LADY.”  I am obviously great with first impressions.  After that little snag, Rudy and I chit chatted about collecting.  His booth was all vintage toys and action figures.  He had some Magic cards, so I asked about the infamous Black Lotus card.  He didn’t have any, which is fine because I didn’t have the 1000 bones to buy it.

What I also want to mention about Rudy, is that he is a great testament to the potential of this blog.  I’m not just here to make fun of Sarah and write about porcelain I want.  I also hope that in time, we become a hub for people who are looking for certain items, or who have things that we want to buy.  So that said, Rudy is always buying and selling vintage toys, action figures, and also vintage knives and weaponry.  If you have some, or want to buy some, message us and we will pass along Rudy’s contact information.

OK, so on to more goods…

I found this old blow-up guy from the 1960s.  His hat says “Tigers” but I don’t think he is Detroit related.  I still bought him for Timmy because I knew he would want him for his Tigers-themed den, which has items exclusively from the 50s and 60s.  

I also bought a McCoy pitcher to sell, and a 1968 Detroit Tigers ticket stub.  Zach found an old Red Wings postcard and a small wood music box in the shape of a piano.  Here are some things we passed on:

Zach was pretty shocked that I didn’t actually buy that butter bowl.  He and Sarah have a running joke that I am the “buttermaster” because frankly, I love butter.  Really, I love all condiments or spreads.  I contend that there are way worse flaws to have in life, like buying every dog themed item you can find at an estate sale.  

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Why in the hell is that butter bowl TEN DOLLARS? And I would have bought that Tarzan patch. 

Sarah was on vacation this past weekend so I hit some sales with Zach instead.  There weren’t too many to choose from since it was Labor Day weekend, but we decided to visit one in Detroit and another in West Bloomfield.

The Detroit sale was interesting, but also a letdown.  We had lots to look at, but nothing worth buying.  The woman had a bunch of crazy hats so of course I tried them on.

There’s a good chance I would have actually bought some of these hats, but they were charging around $150 each for them!!  Now, I love me a good joke hat, but not a $150 joke hat.

Zach and I both left empty-handed.  On the way to the next sale, Zach and I spotted a secret sale.  We both properly started chanting, “SECRET SALE! SECRET SALE!”  

I wish this sale had remained a secret.  It was lame, and overpriced.  Again, we bought nothing.  At this point, we were bummin.

The next sale in West Bloomfield was the highlight of our day.  There wasn’t an abundance of items, but we found some quality stuff right away.  My first find was this monkey for $2.

I bought this monkey because he was so cheap, and because he is clearly old.  His stuffing is straw, which I know makes him collectible.  His head moves when you turn his tail, so for the rest of the day I made this monkey answer all of Zach’s questions.

After doing some research, I found out that this is a “Yes/No” monkey, and was probably made by a company named Schuco.  He is already up to $22 on ebay and that’s with 3 days left in the auction!

We also found two vintage Pendleton “blanket” coats that were in just about perfect condition.  I thought for sure these were going to be expensive, but when I went to check out, the lady said $5 each!  What a deal!

I would certainly wear either of these coats, except that they are XL.  Instead, they are blowing up on ebay:

Look at all those watchers!  I can’t wait to see how high these go!  And I’m really glad that fellow Pendleton lovers will own these.  I might actually use the money from these auctions to buy a Pendleton handbag that I have been coveting for some time.  So stay tuned for that.

-Erin

On our way out of the Valley of the Dolls sale, I caught a glimpse of Erin in the daylight. I’m not sure how we didn’t realize it inside, but that house was absolutely filthy. Look at how much dirt is on Erin’s face!!! 

Need a closer look? 

Hand sanitizer did nothing for us–it just created a disgusting dirt hand salve. 

Also, before I forget, check out these two things I scored at the sale. One is horrifying and the other is hopefully lucrative. 

Can you guess which is which? Just kidding. Anyone out there need a juggalette doll. 

The other really terrific thing that happened when we left was that we noticed a dog inside a parked car. Not a big deal most days. But when it’s 92 degrees outside, it’s a big deal. Even if you have the two front windows cracked one inch. This provided me with a great opportunity to use one of my Urban A$$hole cards, but that wasn’t satisfying enough. Because I didn’t want the dog to die. So not only did I call the Troy Police Department, but I went back inside the sale and ratted the dog’s owners as well. They were, as I suspected, giant a$$holes. 

After all that fun, we headed to one more estate sale that happened to be located about 50 miles away. The pictures looked good, but it turned out to just be another hoarder sale, but not the good kind. This person was a hardcore crafter, and the house was filled with scrapbooking gear and gross holiday decorations that were made in China. I still ended up spending about $40 at this sale, but Erin was a the true winner. I’ll let her tell that story, but that might end up being an entry of its own. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: I was so sad when I found out my face was all covered in dirt.  I had been walking around that sale talking to people, including some teenage boys working at it!  How embarassing.  Talking to teenagers is the worst, let alone with dirt all over your sweaty face.

Sarah is right.  The second sale was totally bad hoarder.  Well, bad for us I guess.  No antiques or collectibles.  

This pretty much sums up the sale:

Although now that I post that, I feel like Sarah would have bought this if it was in her size.

I ended up finding a pair of wool clog slippers still in the box.  If you remember, I already bought a pair of bear slippers at a sale earlier.  I need slippers for all occasions though, and sometimes bear slippers are a little déclassé.  

I was getting super disappointed because I couldn’t find anything else to buy, and the sale was really crowded and hot.  Then I spotted something in a showcase up front.  It was a little mini Detroit Tigers nodder from the 1960s.  I knew from Timmy’s baseball collecting that mini nodders are generally rare, and this particular Tigers one was SUPER RARE.

I have no idea how it ended up at this sale.  It was like a shiny diamond in a pile of glass shards.  I was shocked.

The nodder was in seriously great shape.  No cracks, chips, paint loss.  The price on it was $165.  I NEVER spend that much at a sale.  The only time I think I’ve spent over $100 was at the “best sale ever”, and I walked out with a wagon full of items.

I called my dad and he told me that $165 is what he paid for his same version of this nodder, but that was years and years ago.  He told me he thought maybe it was worth $200-$250 now.  

So here’s the thing.  I actually LEFT this sale without the nodder, even though the sellers offered to come down on the price.  I kept telling Cindy and Sarah that it was “too risky.”  We made it about 1 mile down the road before I told Sarah to turn around so I could go back.

I bought the nodder for $120.  I was stressed and hyper about this.  My dad and I exchanged about 3 phone calls on the drive home to discuss this purchase.  I sent him photos of the condition, and we speculated if I had just got burned or not.

In the end, I got the opposite of burned.  This is so far the BEST single purchase I have ever made.  Literally within 30 seconds of listing this guy on ebay, he had a bid.  Things just went kind of crazy after that…

$429??? Truly the best.  I wish I had finds like this every week, but sometimes it’s all just bear slippers and kitten sweatshirts.

-Erin

I was fully prepared to return to the Mega Porn Sale once I realized all those paperbacks could be worth a hot dollar. I also knew I could convince Erin to come because the person who lived there seemed to have a ton of sports-related paper memorabilia and Timmy has trained Erin in the art of spotting when it is or isn’t valuable.  

We got a late start but finally returned. I advised Erin to start in the back yard where all of the papers were. I went back down to the basement and much to my dismay, a fellow porn-seeker had nabbed all of the paperbacks (except for the ones in super rough shape.) Still, I hung out in the room of porn and entertainment mags and ended up finding an issue of Life with Manson on the cover, and some old People and Time magazines about the Star Wars movies. I also found an issue of Hustler that seemed too weird to pass up. Erin snapped a picture of me sorting through the mess: 

The first day of the sale, there was a person in the room at all times, making sure no kids entered. On the second day, this wasn’t the case. So at one point, I see two little boys walk in and think, “Oh man… what am I supposed to do here?” because I’ve heard horror stories from other people when they’ve tried to “parent” a stranger’s kids. After a solid minute or two of no parents in sight, I asked them if their mom was nearby and said that this room wasn’t for kids. They left, thankfully.

It took Erin forever to get inside the house, which seemed like a good sign, and it was. But I’ll let her inform you about her finds. A few minutes after she got into the porn room, an older guy came in and the two boys were back again! Apparently he was their grandpa and they were showing him some toy they found. He told them they had to leave the room and then shouted out to them, “…And don’t touch anything in this house!” Erin and I both started cracking up, as did the grandpa. 

There were two other sales nearby that didn’t look that great, but why pass them up? At the first of these, I found two cool rag rugs and a holiday sweater that I will wear proudly and without irony. Here is one thing I did not buy…

…but only ‘cause it was empty! 

I found an old Superman mug and a vintage pasta maker at the next sale, both to sell. 

On the way to the last sale, we got a “snack” of Taco Bell cheesy gordita crunches (don’t judge (I got beans, not meat)) and after that tasty treat, Erin asked if I had a treat, which I often do. I gave her a Lindt truffle and as she was unwrapping it, it occurred to me that it was probably all melted from being in my bag all day. Bottom line: the truffle exploded onto Erin’s lap, so I kept making fun of her poo pants for the rest of the day because I’m a fantastic friend.

That was taken after she tried to clean it up with a taco bell napkin and water. Always a Girl Scout. 

The chocolate explosion occurred right before we were going into the last sale of the day, which was the best by far in terms of interesting things to look at. It was packed with stuff, the prices were fair, and lots of the stuff was really neat. I found some cool vintage wrapping paper and a ton of vintage cards that were bundled into different groups, and priced really reasonably. My favorite lot was this lot of cards from a baby shower in the '50s. 

If these are something you’re interested in purchasing, you’re in luck! 

I found a bunch of cool things at this sale, but this entry is getting long, so I’ll show you the best one: 

That is indeed a hanger with a St. Bernard head. And only $3! 

Right before we were leaving (they let us stay after closing time), I noticed this giant Santa that I had somehow not noticed for the 30 minutes I had been in the basement. It was super cool and old and wood, and marked $20, so I knew one of us had to take it home. I showed it to Erin and we admired it, and then she remembered that her dad really wanted some sort of old timey Santa for his house at Christmastime. We weren’t sure it was going to fit in the car because of its giganticness, but again, because we were both Girl Scouts, we made it work. Here is a picture of us with Santa inside Erin’s parents’ house: 

Don’t ask what I’m wearing. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: As Sarah mentioned, I went straight for the newspaper stacks outside at the “porn sale.”  It was 100 degrees out that day, and there were so many boxes stacked up to sort through.  I am SO BAD in the heat.  One time I threw up in the magical bushes at Disney World because I got heatstroke.  (Fun fact–this was actually the first time I threw up in the magical bushes.  Years later, I choked on a pill and threw up in said bushes again.)

So I am sweating like mad and moving all of these boxes around.  At one point I was sure I was going to pass out.  Lucky for me, this person was pretty organized in their newspaper hoarding, so eventually I figured out a good system to get through the boxes quicker.  Each box was a different year, so I just scanned the top papers in each box until I saw 1968.

I sorted through this box and ended up with a giant stack of Detroit Tigers World Series papers and scorebooks.  I was thrilled!  Timmy went through the stack later that day and estimated that I could make about $200 once everything is sorted and sold.  I paid $5 for all the papers.

That is just a small sampling of the papers I found.  Those Michigan football programs in the stack were found inside the house.  Again, this person was pretty organized.  There was a stack of manila envelopes and a few were labeled “Michigan Ohio State.”  I just grabbed all of those because I knew they would be most collectible.  Inside these programs are ticket stubs from the games too!

At the second sale I found an item that I would previously have considered a “holy grail.”  Zach and I are pretty obsessed with the Zodiac Killer, and both just finished reading a book about the case.  The lead suspect in the case wore a Zodiac brand watch.  I have never seen one of these in person, and we see TONS of watches at every sale.  Lo and behold, I found one.  It was pretty beat up, but it was still so cool to have as a collectible.  It was $5.

After doing some research, Zach and I realized that these watches are pretty collectible! I listed it on ebay and it’s getting a lot of interest.  The watch is rolled gold, and an automatic, which make it even more valuable.  I hope to find another one of these in better condition one day, and keep it.

The last sale had the best items by far.  I bought an old metal Coleco hockey game to sell, some Seiko watches to sell, and this adorable little guy:

Now that I know how collectible old rubber face toys are, I look for them everywhere.  In fact, I found this amazing blog all about these guys.  You can check it out here if you’re a fan of these toys too.

-Erin

P.S. My dad got home really late the night that Sarah and I dropped off Santa at his house.  He said that when he came inside he started screaming and running because he thought that Santa was an intruder.  BEST.