Dig This Treasure!

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!

A few weeks ago, there was an estate sale in my neighborhood.  It wasn’t on estatesales.net but luckily a friend of mine spotted it and told me.  I am glad she did because the home was that of a former antiques dealer.  Everything in the house was high quality, and even better, there was tons of it. 

As you can see, it was a lot of paper stuff.  I had Everett with me so it was pretty much impossible to look through any of this.  I decided to come back the next day with Sarah.  Before I left though, I struck up a conversation with the women running the sale.  They seemed really nice and kept repeating that they were willing to make good deals.  Nearly everything in the house still had price tags on it from the woman’s antique booth.  The ladies running the sale were her daughters and said they would NOT be charging what the stickers said.  Ok great, I LOVE DEALS.

So Sarah and I come back the next day and it seemed like Sarah was in hogs’ heaven.  One back room of this house was completely filled with old postcards. 

The day before, one of the women running the sale said that a giant box of postcards would be about $60, which she then explained was about a penny a piece per card.  I told Sarah that if she bought a bunch of cards, she would certainly get a good deal.

I found two postcards for myself and let Sarah have the rest.  These Santas usually sell pretty well on ebay.

In the garage there was a ton more paper.  All of it was old brochures, programs, ticket stubs–all your basic ephemera.  I started digging.

I found a plastic sleeve full of old railroad stuff and grabbed it on a whim.  I haven’t sold any train stuff on ebay before, but it seems like something a lot of people are geeky about.

It was really hot outside so I peaced out and went to meet back up with Sarah.  I could tell she was losing steam.  The house had no air and the amount of stuff to look through was getting burdensome.

Not to mention that something else was becoming very clear–these women were totally lying about their “deals."  There would be NO DEALS.  Something had happened since the previous day that made these ladies less than thrilled about parting with their mom’s stuff.  Fair enough.  It’s tough to do.  That said, from our perspective, this was very annoying. 

Sarah’s loss of joy over this sale was pretty clear:

That’s her "Let’s GTFO of here face.”

Postcards were now “individually priced” and some were $12 each.  TWELVE DOLLARS.  EACH.  Sarah had a stack of postcards about 3 inches deep and they wanted to charge her $75.  $75, which they explained, was actually a VERY good deal.  No.

After going back and forth for awhile on prices, I was able to get a small pile of stuff for $17.  It included that train stuff and Santa postcards above, as well as the following:

Don’t old Halloween decorations sell?  These guys are in okay shape and pretty cool looking.

And this horrible card:

No seriously, WTF.  This card isn’t even that old!  JFC.

The best score I got (which should make me not complain so much about the prices at this sale) was an old railroad schedule from the 1890s.  It sold for $100 on ebay last week, which was a huge shock.  It was hovering around $20 and then shot up in the last minute.  So awesome.

Poor Sarah only got some overpriced postcards, although she didn’t end up paying $75.  I think she paid like $25.  Hopefully one of them is made of gold!

Oh and P.S. I went back to this sale for a third time with Zach.  I thought maybe on the last day these women would have a change of heart and really price to sell.  (They didn’t.)  I found this Indian doll that I had a sneaking suspicion was an Armand Marseille.  I had seen a really similar doll at another estate sale in mint condition that was AM and was priced $200.  This one was far from mint but I got it for a mere $5.  It sold on ebay for $36!

Cute huh? If it’s hair hadn’t fallen off, I would have kept it!  Anyway, keep an eye out for these because they are Armand Marseille but are not marked! 

Ok and here is totally-over-it Sarah again.  Just because.

-Erin

I’ll just tell you now…I get into a fight at the end of this entry.  So stay tuned for that.

To begin though, Sarah and I visited a sale on Friday that looked GREAT.  It was the home of a former skin diver and overall adventure man.  There was a ton of ephemera and photographs so of course our girl Sarah was practically drooling looking at the photos of the sale online.

We had to bring the baby meatball with us to the sale, and he was nestled happily in a Moby wrap, which I highly recommend to all moms.  Little man is pretty much pissed off in all other carrier options.

I know what you are thinking…yes, I have the cutest baby.  Yes, it is as though he fell from a heaven cloud and is now an angel living on Earth amongst all of us lesser creatures.  

Anyway, the sale, like mentioned was pretty paper heavy.

The photos at the sale did not disappoint:

All of the photos were interesting and fun!  I didn’t buy any because I am not exactly sure what to do with other people’s photos, but I know Sarah snatched some up.

The basement of the sale was straight up Bear Grylls’ house.

I ended up buying only one thing–a set of Gurley pilgrim candles.  They were $2 each and totally worth it.

They were in great shape!

Ok, so after we left this sale, we visited another nearby.  We got out of our car and were about to cross the street when a crazy man in an SUV came flying 40mph IN REVERSE towards us.  If Sarah would have taken one more step forward, she would have been toast.  I even reached out to pull her backwards.

I was furious.  I was carrying Everett and all of us could have been hit.  After flying past us and throwing his car in park, the man literally jumped out of his vehicle and started racing towards the front door of the sale.  You would’ve thought this was McDonald’s in 1997 and they were giving away Teeny Beanie Babies.  This guy was a maniac.

I WAS SO FURIOUS.  I felt hot all over.  So I marched up to him and said, “I REALLY HOPE THERE IS SOMETHING IN THERE FOR YOU WORTH ALMOST KILLING US OVER."  He said really snottily, "I saw you.  I didn’t almost hit you.”

YEAH RIGHT BOZO.  I continued yelling at him and called him a “crazy man."  I then told the people running the sale (we know them) not to give the guy any deals. 

Should we have been killed though, we wouldn’t have missed much at the sale.  Except for this:

In case you can’t tell, that is painted on the wall.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Man o man, Erin was sort of a crazy person at that second sale. But honestly, I couldn’t believe what a giant d*ck the guy was. He really was driving like a maniac (reminder–IN REVERSE at about, if we’re being honest, 30 mph in a residential area), and he did almost hit me. 

So Erin is right–I was so pumped about this sale! I even considered going and getting there early/standing in line. But I was too lazy.

If you look at that picture of me sorting through stuff with the diving gear hanging from the ceiling, you’ll notice a person standing on the left side of the picture. This guy was the worst. As soon as I got into the basement, I saw a big box of more photographs and started sifting through them. This guy had already been down there and had his chance to look first. Instead, he proceeded to just stand super close to me and stare while I sorted through the pictures. Note to you readers: If you frequent estate sales or other places where there are small things to sort through, DON’T DO THIS TO OTHER SHOPPERS. It is so annoying. I never hesitate to say things to people so I looked at him and said, "AM I IN YOUR WAY?” He said, “No, I’m just looking while you look.” UGH. 

Anyway, I found very cool things at this sale. I am going to save a lot of the pictures for another post but here’s one of my faves: 

Something sexy is going down there. There are THREE sets of shoes, y'all! 

I also found very cool greeting cards. 

And I also found some cool vintage baby animal prints. 

Oh wait there’s one more picture I want to show you guys. It’s an old shot of Erin on a Thanksgiving of yesteryear. 

I found these cool old children’s picture discs. 

Finally, here’s a great looking log cabin quilt that I purchased. When the lady was ringing me up, she did the worst thing a seller can ever do. She said, “Oh wow. You’re getting a great deal on that. I usually price those at $80.” It was priced $40. I said, “Cool. If it was $80, I wouldn’t be buying it.” SO ANNOYING! 

Erin might have the cutest baby but I clearly have the cutest dog. 

Hope you enjoy this week’s note from our favorite principal’s collection… 

I can’t imagine thinking that leaving a note would be a speedy way to get results for something like this. 

-Sarah

My last living grandparent, my mom’s dad, died last Wednesday. He was 91 and lived a great life, and died very peacefully and quickly. He was a really neat person. I spent almost every Sunday night of my life with him–first going to my grandparents’ house for pizza, and then later when he was in assisted living, going out to dinner with him and my parents and Adam. 

He was incredibly proud of serving in the Navy during WWII. Over the weekend, my mom discovered a real treasure. She showed me this little card that she said he always carried in his wallet, but she couldn’t read it because the type was so small. I ended up using a magnifying glass and after a little searching, discovered that it was his card from his line-crossing ceremony. We scanned and blew it up so you can sort of read it. I’m obsessed with it! 

Basically, a line-crossing ceremony is an organized hazing to initiate new servicemen–it’s performed the first time they cross the Equator. Uninitiated are called “Pollywogs” and initiated are called “Shellbacks." This short article has a lot of really cool pictures and summarizes the ceremony pretty well!  They still take place to this day and if you search for Crossing the line and navy, you’ll see some newer pictures. Here are some pics from WWII. 

This was probably a really fun night for him–a great memory amongst others that were not so great. No wonder he hung on to it for so long. 

R.I.P., Grandpa. We will really miss you. 

-Sarah