Dig This Treasure!

Sarah and I must be getting sick of each other, because last Thursday we invited Timmy along on our adventure, and the following day, we brought along Sarah’s mom, Cindy.  The day started out similar to the dud the day before.  Sarah tried on some ugly shirt and I left empty handed at the first sale.  

Cindy bought a little German wood box with Christmas figures inside, which we all proceeded to bicker about on the way to the next sale.  None of us can read German, but we tried anyway.

At the following sale, I got a really neat ironstone pitcher from the late 1800s.  The tag said it was from 1915, but from researching it, I found out that the maker’s mark was discontinued in 1890.  It is in great shape for being so old!  The price on it was $20, but the nice sellers took $10 for it.

You can’t really tell, but this pitcher is huge and heavy!  It stands about 13" tall.  I almost didn’t buy it, which would have been a mistake.  It already has 15 watchers and 2 bids on ebay.

I got another antique at the next sale.  At first, I had no clue what it was.  I just knew that it was cast iron, and that it looked kind of dangerous.

It turns out that this is an old farm field balance.  The hooks would hold tobacco, grain, etc.  The large weight slides along the iron rod and determines the weight of the hanging items.  Or at least that’s what I think based on my online reading.  The good news is that I have no grain to weigh, so I don’t really have to know how to use it.  If you have some grain, you can buy my scale here.

The last sale of the day was by far the best.  It was packed full of high-end collectibles and rarities.  We knew it had to be good when we showed up and there was a line.

We don’t have to wait in lines very often because we usually start sale-ing around 11am.  For that reason, I kind of enjoy the times when we do get stuck in a line.  We might as well have been standing outside of King Tut’s tomb the way everyone was acting.  It is just a constant stream of speculation about what could be inside.  I love it.

Here’s what was inside:

Lots and lots of cool old things.  It was all priced pretty fairly.  Not cheap, but still reasonable.  I got an old ceramic Napco Santa, a vintage Gund rubber-faced beagle, and three giant garbage bags full of bubble wrap (my favorite find).

The basement of this sale was probably the most exciting.  It was just packed full of old brochures, knick-knacks, cards, and more.  

By the time I got down there though, I was tired and hungry.  I dug around a little bit but then gave up.  I think Sarah found a ton of things here though.  And so did Cindy!  I’ll let Sarah fill you in…

-Erin 

Update from Sarah: Erin jokes about having a brain tumor because she says words incorrectly about 43% of the time, but I’m starting to think she’s on to something. She got the order of sales completely wrong, and has no idea where she found any of her treasures. We started out by finding a secret sale. I had a feeling that it was going to be one of those “estate sales” that’s actually just a glorified garage sale. Turns out I was right. Still, my mom and I found some treasures. Actually, that’s a lie. I bought one Lefton bookend that I didn’t realized was chipped until I got home. But I also found a book. The sale was really weird because it was inside these people’s house, but it was hard to tell what was for sale and what wasn’t. 

The next sale looked promising in pictures but wasn’t that great either. That’s the sale where I tried on that hideous shirt, and Erin bought that terrifying farm balance. I did find a pretty cool quilt for $20 which was a good deal.

When we left that sale, my mom couldn’t stop talking about a vintage baby toy she saw for $7. While I was driving away, Erin started trying to help her figure out if it was valuable or not, and I wish I would have recorded the ensuing conversation. Bottom line: What it was was a vintage “crib toy” and it sort of looked like this. 

Ultimately, I turned around so my mom could go back in and buy it. When she came back empty-handed, I thought I’d never hear the end of how someone else got the super rare valuable crib toy. Turns out the toy was missing an arm and Cindy is not down with broken toys.

The final sale was the best sale, as Erin mentioned, and I did find a few cool things at it. Here is my favorite of them: 

Her arms are a little loose. I have no idea how you fix them, though.

Turns out my mom is the queen of German Christmas items. She found a huge German Christmas decoration that I’m forgetting the name of, that she was really pumped about. She’s going to wait to sell it until it gets closer to the holiday. She also found some other treasures that I’m forgetting about.

I think it’s safe to say that my mom had a good time with us. She has since purchased a smart phone so that she can look up the value of items at these sales herself. By the end of the day, Erin and I were ready to pool our money and buy her one ourselves…just kidding! (Sort of.) Let’s all wish my mom luck on her future adventures in treasure-hunting! 

Pretty much every Sunday Zach and I go out to breakfast at a place called Thomas’, mostly because I am addicted to their pancakes.  Last week, after breakfast, we decided to stop at a random estate sale nearby.  It was advertised as being 50% off everything, so it was definitely worth a look.

The house was completely full of random treasures, without any real rhyme or reason.  These people collected a little bit of everything, which was great!  

I know Sarah will look at the above photo and ask why I didn’t buy her that little German ornament guy in the middle.  She collects these, but I forget their names.  I didn’t buy this one because he was broken.

Most of the items in the house were unfamiliar to me, and I didn’t have the best reception on my phone to look things up.  Because of the discount pricing though, I took a chance on a few items.  The first was this old puppet, made by Hazelle’s.  I found out later he was called Teto the Clown.

I also found this cool punched tin box.  I don’t know how old it is, but regardless, it’s interesting and pretty.  I decided to try selling it, but knew I was happy to keep it if it got no bids.

I think maybe it’s a mailbox or something!  It mounts to the wall.  And for the record, it did get bids on ebay, so so much for keeping it.  Teto the Clown sold too.

Zach had the best find by far.  A piece of Native American pottery by artist Sally Garcia.  Neither of us knew of her when he found this piece, but after doing some research, it turns out she is rather well-known.  She is credited “as the first pioneer of hand etchings on ceramic pottery.”  Her large pieces sell for hundreds and even thousands of dollars.  The piece Zach bought is pretty tiny, and had its original price sticker on it marked $84.  He ended up paying $15 for it.

We both love this piece so much and will probably keep it forever. Definitely a fave find, so kudos to Zach for eyeing it!

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I’ve never met another person so addicted to mediocre pancakes. Why didn’t you buy those HO cars? 

Erin and I went out sale-ing today (Thursday) with her dad, Timmy, who has been featured on our blog in the past. Her dad loves treasure hunting too–he’s a pro. Anyway, I was charged with making our list of sales as usual, and unfortunately I served us up with some real duds. 

We decided to start in Detroit (almost to GrossePointe) at a house that was advertised as having a lot of nautical themed items, because it was on the water. Unfortunately, it didn’t really have a whole lot going on. I came out of there with this big bag of overpriced vintage cards, but I didn’t mind too much because I enjoy going through them. However, when I asked the younger kid working the sale if he’d go lower on the price, he said no and that that was a “great price” for what it was. Uhm, no it’s not. 

After paying too much money for those cards, we stopped by a weird sale being held at what I think was a vintage resale shop closing down, called Little Vera. Sounds like the same girl who runs Good Girls Go to Paris Crepes was a partner in this store–their original location was next door to the shop. 

I found a few cool looking comic books for Adam to look at and then me to resell, along with a first edition Nightmare Before Christmas book… not sure if either of these things are worth anything, but I figured they’d be fun to look at regardless. 

Then we went to a house where I came out with nothing except two free cookies (I know–weird but good.) Here is something that I did not buy, but that Erin and I laughed and laughed about: 

After leaving this dud, we went to lunch and had some delicious food. The last sale on our list was in West Bloomfield, and it looked like a “man sale”–meaning, there were a lot of electronics in the pictures. However, I convinced Erin and her dad that this would be a good sale to go to because of the sheer quantity of items. Turns out I was wrong about that, but I did find some crazy stuff. First, an x-rated puzzle: 

I also found a bunch of records for Adam. I told him that I just looked for the weirdest looking ones and bought those. 

I also bought this record, and it turns out not only does Adam already own it, but so does Zach. Anyone else dying to take this off my hands?

Here are some items at this last sale that I did not purchase: 

Even though there weren’t a lot of treasures to be found, it was still a fun day! 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: “Dig this Dud” was a joke from my dad, who kept saying that we should change the name of the blog.  He only found 2 treasures yesterday and calling them “treasures” is quite a stretch.  He got a box of old paintbrushes (that he can use “for glue”) and an old San Francisco bank because he is going there in September.

I was equally empty handed.  My only good find was a pair of vintage Clubmaster Ray Ban sunglasses that I got for $5.  Unfortunately, they have prescription lenses, so I have to get those replaced before I can sell them.  They sell for quite a bit, but I might also keep them because they are adorable and fancy.

I am kind of glad we went to the first sale even though it was a letdown.  The house, as Sarah mentioned, was on the water.  This was the coolest.  Waterfront property in Detroit?  So cool.  The house itself was for sale, at a mere $92,000.  Here is the backyard with water access and a boathouse:

And as for the last sale, I’m not sure if Sarah captured its essence well enough.  Every room was literally boxes and boxes of broken electronics pieces, other junk, and records. They only had a portion of the house open for this weekend’s sale and it was so packed that I can’t imagine what’s waiting in the other rooms. Also, the homemade video tapes that Sarah showed were in full effect.  We’re talking hundreds of tapes.  This is just a sample:

All of the boxes on the left were tapes, just FYI.  Anyway, I didn’t buy any of these because I don’t actually know what a VHS tape is.  I only watch my programs on giant laser discs.  

There were also thousands of cassette tapes for sale.  Again, I don’t know what a cassette tape is, but they were selling them for $2 EACH, which seems slightly unreasonable.

Update from Sarah: Turns out that the x-rated puzzle was missing pieces so it wound up in the trash. Adam still managed to put together part of the woman side, though. Can you guess which part? Also, when he was sorting the pieces, he exclaimed, “Found a testicle!" 

Sarah and I stopped at a random estate sale in Midland, MI on our way home from Traverse City a couple weeks ago.  It was nothing to write home, or blog, about.  For example, here is an empty Spode box they were trying to sell for $1.  

It kind of looks like there is something inside, but that is the plastic packaging.  Trust me, I checked.

What I also found for $1, and decided to buy, was a rubber face plush Rudolph.  I’m not entirely sure why I grabbed it, but I think because it was old, and because so far I had found no other treasures.

He is kind of cute, but kind of looks like he might kill you while you sleep.  For $1 though, he was worth a shot.

So it turns out that Rudolph man sold for FIFTY DOLLARS on ebay.  I couldn’t believe it when he got 1 bid, let alone enough bids to get him to fifty bucks (ha, bucks…no pun intended).

I did some research on old rubber face toys from the 1950s and 60s, and it turns out that they are quite collectible!  Some of the most well-known of these toys were by Rushton Toy Co.  Here are some examples from a fellow treasure hunter’s blog:

What I also found out in my research is that Sarah actually owns a Rushton Toy Co. Santa Claus, and she doesn’t even know it!  She got him at a sale recently (maybe even the same one I got my Rudolph at).  

I think she will be happy to know that he is most likely a money maker too!

-Erin

Update from Sarah: WHOA. Erin is the best. That is totally my bro! Actually two that are identical to him sold for the higher end of that range up there, so I’m gonna keep my fingers crossed! Double win because it could actually also be featured on Things That Freak Your Husband Out. So Adam will be thrilled if it is no longer hanging out on our kitchen table.

Strange coincidence: I also discovered The Rushton Toy Co. today–I was browsing eBay to try to figure out why Erin’s reindeer sold for so much. Check out THIS one. 

Last Friday, Sarah and I got off to a really rough start of our estate sale day.  George the otterhound got neutered earlier in the week, and since then had had reoccurring problems and like 26 trips to the vet.  This morning he had messed with his stitches again and things “down there” were looking pretty awful.  Like a good friend, Sarah agreed to postpone our treasure hunting and go with me to the vet.

After peeing in the vet’s lobby, trying to bite the vet (to be fair, he touched George’s incision), and about 2.5 hours of elapsed time, we took George back home and our estate sale day finally commenced.

The first sale was in Dearborn Heights and I didn’t buy anything.  I remember thinking, “look at all this stuff.”  It was just that–stuff.  In fact, all the sales this day would turn out to be mostly “stuff.”  This photo was from the second sale, which I believe was in Livonia.    

At this second sale, my mom and sister met up with us.  They had just come from a sale in Farmington that was selling a bunch of penguin stuff.  My sister is the penguin keeper at the Detroit Zoo, so she was pretty excited.  My mom was excited because she bought some Chico’s shirts at the sale.

Anyway, at this sale I only bought a huge stack of padded mailing envelopes.  Again, a letdown.  Here’s Sarah rummaging through more of the “stuff”:

I did find a stack of photos that I was quickly obsessed with.  How cute is this dog?!  You can tell he was so loved!!  The pics made me think of Georgie back home, and how I should forgive him for almost biting the vet.

The last sale was in Northville and was advertised as having “bling watches.”  When we got there, the two guys running the sale were young hipsters.  I asked them about the bling watches and they said that each watch originally retailed for $1,100.  It is true that “1100.00” was written in pencil on the inside of the box, but I told the hipsters that this had to be in pesos.  

They had two of these watches for sale, each around $100, which they admitted was absurd.  The watches were stainless steel, made in China, and in some hilariously janky “JustBling” boxes.  They were also crazy huge.  Oh, and for the record, WTF is up with those bands in the box?!?!  Yes, let me put a pink fake leather band on my bling watch.

I mean, who knows really, maybe those are real diamonds.  Maybe we missed out on the best purchase of the year.  

At this sale, I did make two good finds.  The first is a Wagner Ware ice cream or candy scoop, which seem to be pretty rare.  It was priced $2.

I also found this old cast iron dog hidden in the basement.  Those hipsters charged me $1 for him, which is a steal.  I didn’t know much about this guy at the time, but it turns out that Boston Terrier cast iron doorstops and banks are very collectible.  I put him up on ebay and he instantly had over 10 watchers and 4 bids.  

There are apparently TONS of fakes and new reproductions of this type of cast iron terrier.  I’m hoping that the interest my little guy has generated so far means that he is in fact real.  I put up a million pictures of him in the listing, and described him in detail, so I’m sure someone will let me know if he is fake.  Right now he is at $15.

The last thing I will mention about this sale is that I loudly referred to a terrarium as a TERRANIUM, which everyone in the immediate area found quite hilarious.  Idk what a terranium is, but my guess is some kind of dinosaur.

-Erin

P.S. Shout-out to mom Joan for taking all of us out to eat after the sales.  We went to some Irish pub place and I ordered fish and chips.  This was the first time I have ordered fish and chips since I was like 5, so it is therefore notable.  Also notable is that it gave me a crazy stomachache and I forbid Sarah from saying the words “fish” and “tartar sauce” for the rest of the day.

Update from Sarah: Erin’s got herself all screwed up here. The dog photos she posted were from the first sale. Now, let me just say–this sale looked like it was probably good the first day. I really wanted to go to it because there were a lot of black and white photographs in the pictures of the sale. But George had to go and screw up my plans to get there early. Regardless, I still came out with a box full of interesting treasures for $10. Here’s a picture of one of the treasures: 

I didn’t even know this treasure was in the box of stuff, which is pictured here: 

I had found a really large box of papers and old travel brochures, and basically just threw anything that seemed remotely interesting into a smaller shoebox. I ended up finding a bunch of greeting cards in the envelopes they were sent in, so that was pretty cool–I can add them to the big lot of used cards I’m going to list on eBay. I also found lots and lots of travel ephemera and TONS of letters. It was really interesting to go through, but also very sad. 

The second sale was full of a bunch of stuff, but nothing too incredible. I got a Knickerbocker bear whose music box doesn’t work, some old children’s books, and a bunch of vintage napkins and plates. Look how cute: 

The last sale was sad, but I did find a Soul Hits of 1967 CD, and I can’t stop listening to this song in my car. One of the best ever. The CD also contains many other great Motown hits. The other thing I got was this weird milk glass mug for fifty cents: 

I can’t think of anything else that happened that we’re leaving out. Sales have been pretty dud-y lately! Hope that changes this coming weekend! 

About a month ago, we dedicated two posts to the Best Sale Ever, where I found a buttload of Joan Walsh Anglund items–specifically books. Remember? I posted this picture: 

I am still not finished selling everything I bought at this sale, because the quantity of things is just so overwhelming. However, I have, I believe, sold all of the Anglund items I plan on selling. And because of this, I would like to brag about the total amount of money I made.

Now, let me say this. I had planned on keeping one copy of each book–especially those that were duplicates. But then, the more I thought about this, the more I realized that was stupid. I don’t really need to own all of her books. And there were a lot that were really religious that I knew I didn’t want. I mainly like her illustrations, and I already have a set of her prints and copies of her older, more classic books. 

I also honestly had no idea what I had before I was able to start sorting it and listing it all. Some of the books had “Autographed Copy” stickers on them and others were signed but I didn’t realize it right away because they did not have the stickers. I also ended up with a TON of first editions. Needless to say, I quickly discovered that I am not by any means the only person who enjoys these adorable illustrations, and everything I listed quickly had watchers and/or bidders. So I ended up selling most everything that I wasn’t in love with. 

The biggest surprise ended up being these teeny tiny miniature books–The Christmas Cookie Book and The Christmas Candy Book, which are apparently extremely rare. I had two copies of each! To see how small they are–in the picture above they are the green and red books in the top row. 

One woman purchased 10 of these books. She sent me a very nice message and told me she has an entire bedroom in her home decorated with Anglund stuff for her granddaughter. So cute. It’s nice to hear from friendly people–it helps balance out the not-so-friendly ones. 

Anyway, let’s cut to the chase: 

Those are just a few screenshots that capture the vast quantities of cash I made off of these seemingly valueless books. Keep in mind that most of these are small books–about 4" x 6" or so…or smaller! 

Grand total sales just on these items: $595.00

(And in case anyone is wondering how much I’ve made on all the rest of the junk from that sale… I just totaled it up: $450.) 

CHA CHING. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: Sarah, I need to borrow exactly $1,045 which happens to be the total price so far on all this stuff you sold.  If you say you don’t have it for me to borrow, then you are 1. a bad friend and 2. a liar.

The other day, Sarah and I were talking about all of the insane ebay messages we get, and it made us realize that some of these messages are amazing blog fodder.  You might remember Sarah’s whole “yellow suit” ordeal.  Lemme tell ya, that’s just the beginning.

I’ll first say though, that most interactions I’ve had on ebay are great.  A lot of people will message me with information helpful to my listing.  Like this nice lady:

I had said in my listing that I couldn’t read the little logo on the mold.  When this lady messaged me with that info, I took the opportunity to ask her more about the mold.  She kindly replied:

NICEST PERSON EVER.

Sometimes things don’t go this well though on the ol’ electronic bay.  Sometimes you get insane messages from nuts people.  Like this one I received after an auction of mine ended.  

So let me break down the whole situation here.  This dude bid on my lot of Apple Newtons at 1pm.  The auction did not end until 6pm.  At 1pm when he bid, he was the high bidder, so he got an email saying so.  But then right before the auction ended, someone else swooped in and bought the item.  Which is how an auction works.  

So now that that’s clear, here’s how things proceeded.  Here’s my response:

And then he wrote back:

Better get things straight with ebay?  Um, ok.  Hello ebay, I had an auction.  Someone bid and got outbid.  That person is obviously furious now (and crazy).  

Anyway, here is my final response:

My only regret here is my typo in the final message.  "Budding" instead of “bidding”?!?! I’m a fool.

-Erin

My last “Holy Grail” post was about items I could probably never afford, but today’s entry is a bit different.  I REALLY want a vintage egg scale (hence, “holy grail”), and technically I could afford one.  The thing is though, I prefer to find one of these at a sale.  I’ve NEVER seen one in person and I think the thrill of discovery would be half the fun as owning one.

Egg scales were used on farms to “grade” eggs (since eggs are sold by weight).  You just plop an egg on the little scale and it immediately tells you if the egg is Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large…you get the idea.  All that really matters here is that these scales are no longer in use, and that they are totally adorable:

They are also surprisingly expensive.  Here are some completed listings on ebay:

Those are some pricey little egg scales!  Also, check out the 1% battery life on my iPhone.  I dropped it in the toilet so now it perpetually says 1%, which is sad and disappointing.

Anyway, I really think the day will come that I find one of these in a sale.  If someone out there has a lead on one though, I’d be happy to strike up a deal.  One of these scales would fit in perfectly with my collection:

-Erin

Sarah and I headed out on Friday a little disorganized.  Neither of us had really looked at the sales for the day, so we haphazardly chose a route based on which sales were closest. I’ll probably screw up the order in which we actually went to the following sales, but you’ll get the idea.

We started out at a sale in Livonia that could only be described as a bunch of “stuff”.  I can’t think of a single item I even considered buying.  Everything seemed kind of sad and unloved, stored improperly and dirty.  The basement had a pantry with expired food for sale.  

I didn’t buy anything at this sale, and Sarah probably bought some things that she now regrets.  And yes, I know what you’re thinking, what about all those magazines?!  You guys love old magazines!  Those magazines were sticky and gross, although I think Sarah did buy a couple of them.

After this sale, we stopped at some garage sales.  One was advertised as “HUGE SALE” so of course we were interested.  When we arrived, there wasn’t much in our style, and also, nothing was priced.  I did however find some small dessert plates I liked.  When I asked the price, the lady informed me that the sale was a fundraiser for a mission trip to Africa, and that all reasonable donations were accepted.  I offered her $2 for the plates, and she looked at me with horror.  She then said, “Oh no, I’d have to get at least $5 for those.”

So here’s the deal, that’s TOTALLY fine.  This is your sale.  The plates could be $100 if you wanted.  But here’s what happened next:  I told her “oh ok, no thank you then”  and she looked at me with absolute disgust, a look of wrath that made us hightail it out of there.  Let me just say, that if the fundraiser was for the Otterhounds of America charity, or A Hugga Bunch for Every Child charity, then I would have gladly paid $5.  I’m just not sold on the idea of mission trips to Africa.  Too bad, because I liked those plates!

I have no clue where the next sale was at, but it had some pretty nice things.  A little overpriced, but not terrible.  I got this adorable old mail scale to add to my scale collection:

I also found this cool, old sterling silver necklace.  I bought it to keep or to give as a gift at some point, but after doing some research, I put it on ebay.  The necklace turned out to be from Shipton & Co. in England, and was made around 1935.  

At first I refused to believe that jewelry from the 1930s had lobster claw clasps, but turns out that it did!  I suppose since we had cars and planes back then, surely someone could have invented the lobster claw clasp too.

Alright, I’m going to stop here, but GET READY because after this sale, we went to another one, and what happened there turned out to be the best.  As a teaser, I will say that gold sells for about $20 per gram, which pretty much means nothing when neither Sarah or I can figure out what a gram is.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I don’t have much to add here. Erin documented all of this fairly well. One thing that I found at one of the garage sales that she missed was this set of Josef Originals. Normally she sells these, but I found them first, and they aren’t something I’d consider HERS, unlike things like Wagner Cast Iron, sports memorabilia, etc. Anyway, it’s a koala family: 

Pretty cute!

At this same sale, I found a pair of suede bowling shoes in my size for $3. Another great score! 

Anyway, she’s right that the first sale was incredibly dirty and dismal as far as offerings go. But you’re in luck because I did purchase some of those magazines. Just three of them. But allow me to show you a picture of one that I did not purchase: 

I also did not purchase this issue of Life, which I sort of wanted: 

I also did not buy this shirt by a super cool brand: 

I did purchase a few things at the sale where Erin found that scale, but the best of these items will be saved for a Fave Find entry. 

By now you are all well acquainted with the “best sale ever”, and even though I got a million treasures there, the most lucrative by far were the antique metal molds.  

Like I mentioned, I’ve known for awhile that antique chocolate molds are collectible, but that’s about all I knew.  So here’s what I discovered after buying a bunch of them…

First off, not all old molds are for chocolate.  A few of the molds I bought were pewter, and actually meant for ice cream.  Fancy rich people in the Victorian era used to have their ice cream molded into festive shapes for parties.  Each guest would be served an adorable mini ice cream, all dolled up to look like Santa or a President or even other foods (vegetables mainly).  Here is one of the ice cream molds I bought:

The outside of the mold said “E & Co.” which I soon found out meant Eppelsheimer Company, one of the earliest mold manufacturers.  This was a good thing, because signed molds are generally more valuable.  This Santa dated to 1890!  

The chocolate molds I bought were thinner and not made of pewter.  Most of them were 2-piece molds.  One of the most interesting I found was this tiny Pope mold:

I almost didn’t buy this mold because of the rust on it, but one of the men running the sale mentioned that he had never seen a Pope mold before.  I bought it for $5, which turned out to be TOTALLY worth it.  This little guy is made by Joh. Fohn, which is apparently pretty rare because I can hardly find anything about that company online.  I do know that it is German and pretty darn old.  

I had a lot of people asking me questions about the Joh. Fohn mold and whether its sides matched up well.  Turns out that this is super important in mold collecting.  Molds should close up snugly and all edges should align, otherwise the value decreases drastically.  

Another tip in mold collecting is that the larger and heavier a mold is, the more valuable.  I found this out with my most favorite mold from this sale.  It is a super large Santa that weighs 3 pounds!

The heavy hinge, along with clamps that kept the mold shut tight, made this piece the most collectible.  It didn’t even have a maker’s mark, but its size and girth were enough.  It also helped that the mold had such impressive detail inside.  Reading about molds online made me realize that the more detail, the more desirable.  

I bought this mold for $30, which made me nervous at the time.  It ended up selling for $177!  I could not be more thrilled, obviously.  Here’s how all of the mold auctions went:

OK, so before one of you tries breaking into my house and stealing all of the cash I made on these, just know that the proceeds were used to buy George the otterhound.  

I also used some of it to get my very first tattoo, a rabbit on my right forearm, which I may or may not be disowned by my parents for.

That’s it in progress.  Also, I was totally THAT PERSON who wore a rabbit shirt while getting a rabbit tattoo.  UGH.

-Erin