Dig This Treasure!

I’ve mentioned my love for vintage wrapping paper a few times in the past. My collection is pretty impressive, and I’ve had lots of sellers ask me what I do with it when I buy it. Isn’t that a dumb question? I use it, of course!

I don’t just like cute wrapping paper–I like weird wrapping paper too. 

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know I have a habit and history of freaking my husband out with some of my estate sale finds. Normally this is not intentional, but it was my husband’s birthday this past Saturday, so I had the opportunity (responsibility, really) to pull out some of my best stock and get a good reaction. This is what I chose. 

I was SO excited to give Adam some presents wrapped in this stuff. Naked baby dolls. Baby dolls buried under toy trucks. Fake mice. Stuffed monkeys. Toy soldiers. Can’t get much weirder. And it’s an actual photograph printed on the paper. Totally amazing. 

Maybe I have high expectations but I was SO disappointed when I gave Adam his gifts and he didn’t even give the paper a second glance! He just ripped them open! I guess I have to find something even creepier for next year. 

OR, it’s possible that we’re just swapping roles. This is what was inside one of the packages (he asked for it, and please note that he is 33 years old): 

Who’s freaky now?

-Sarah

Back a few weeks ago, we wrote about a sale where there were lots and lots of magazines and books. In one of the boxes of books, I found an old oversize envelope filled with papers and photographs, so I just grabbed it and put it in my box of stuff. I forgot about it until recently, and when I finally looked through it, I got really sad. Here’s what was inside the envelope: 

Yes, there are lots of photographs, but if you look closely, every single one of them has been torn up and then re-taped. There’s a high school diploma that’s in the same condition. Here are some close-ups: 

It just makes you wonder what happened…

I realize it’s a little weird that I like other people’s old photographs (I especially like pictures of kids with pets), but I wasn’t expecting to find something so sad when I emptied that envelope of stuff. I guess that’s the price you pay for nosing into other people’s lives. 

On the bright side, it’s good that someone took the time to tape all of this back together.

Then again, I don’t know if that makes it better, or even more sad. 

-Sarah

Alright ya’ll! We’re back in action. Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few weeks. The holidays definitely caught up with us and there was very little treasure-seeking happening.

This past Friday, Erin and I ventured out to a couple of sales that looked pretty good. One in particular, my mom had told me about the night before. It looked pretty packed in the pictures so we hit it first. When we arrived, I could tell it was going to be mass chaos. There were so many cars on the street. There weren’t a whole lot of sales happening on Friday–I think things slow down at this time of year for everyone. Anyway, we obviously weren’t the only ones who thought this sale looked like the best option:

I can’t even describe how crowded it was in this house. The pictures don’t even capture it. The house was small to begin with, but it was mainly filled with people trying to check out and buy stuff! I don’t know if it was already picked over or what, but there wasn’t much there that was worthwhile. You couldn’t even get into certain parts of the house because of the sheer quantity of people inside, and let me tell you, they were NOT happy about having to let other people walk by. Thankfully, nothing caught on fire. We all would have died.

That blonde lady is on to us!

Here are some of the offerings at this sale that we did not buy. This first one is something that was actually really awesome looking and decently priced, in my opinion ($125)…

Those are some very organized bulbs and towels.

I called my mom to let her know that it wasn’t worth her drive, and that I was about to have a panic attack from the quantity of people in the house. Our next conundrum was to figure out how the hell to get out of the house without having to wait in line. The line literally weaved throughout the front room, through to the back sunroom, and then looped back on itself into the front room again.  Since we each only had like two items, Erin asked a guy working the door if we could just throw some cash money at him and leave. Thank goodness he said yes or we both would have had a meltdown.

I had found a bunch of greeting cards–all used and none of which were very great. Here they are:

He asked his wife how much the cards cost and she told him $.50 each. WTF?! I know those first couple look good but they’re deceiving–the rest were not nearly as awesome and they were all used! Anyway, I told him I didn’t want any of them, but then he ended up giving me a (sort of) deal. I got everything for $25. Here are the other things I purchased:

I’m not sure if that’s a tablecloth or a lightweight blanket but it sure looks awesome, doesn’t it? Erin found the exact same one at the house where I found that corpse picture. I’m not sure why she never posted a picture of it.

I also found this Joan Walsh Anglund figurine. Even though it’s a little “Precious Moments,” I’ll probably still keep it.

Next up was a sale all the way across town. It was also a pretty big dud. Every room looked like this (not good):

I ended up finding more greeting cards–this time, unused. Erin found a trash can covered in pictures of pennants:

I have a confession to make: I also found a sort of cool looking decanter but while I was carrying it around, the top of it fell off and broke. I felt guilty about this but was too scared to admit my wrongs.  Also, the top was really loose, so this accident was unavoidable.

This sale was depressing because everything was cheap and old and polyester or plastic. Here’s a bunch of stuff we did not buy, but laughed about:

I’m pretty sure if you’re dressing like that dude above, it’s probably why you’re still single.

Erin also decided against buying this little Tigers guy for Timmy after he told her that it was clearly homemade (how she didn’t know this until he pointed it out, I have no idea!)

We did hit up one final place after this sale, but there’s a lot to say about it, so we’ll save that for another entry.

Thanks again for putting up with our holiday hiatus! It’s good to be back!

-Sarah

Update from Erin: WHAT THE HELL?!  Of course I knew that tiger was handmade!  I don’t know where Sarah comes up with these allegations.  What I didn’t know was whether my dad would WANT this thing because it is homemade and one of a kind.  Anyway, here is what I have to say to Sarah:

Sarah is right about one thing, and that is the fact that the photos above do not do justice to the mass of people at that first sale.  I was outraged at the irresponsibility of the people running this sale.  Pretty much everything in this house was glass, and here we are, a mass of people bumping into every surface area possible.  Why there wasn’t some crowd control at the door is beyond me.  

I knew from the photos of this sale that there was some high end stuff I was interested in but instead of looking for it, I spent my time repeating the phrases, “Excuse Me” and “Sorry, sorry, oops sorry” over and over again as I groped my way through people.  At one point I bumped a lady in the kitchen and the look in her eyes was ferocious.  Honestly, I would have taken all the money out of my pocket and given it to ANYONE in that house that didn’t bump one person. It would have been a feat.

I ended up buying this cool metal box for Zach.  It’s an old souvenir from Washington DC.

I had been carrying around some Christmas plates, but put them down after I almost dropped them 4 times in the crowd. 

The only other thing I bought this day is the tin wastebasket that Sarah mentioned earlier.  I am going to sell it on ebay because old NCAA stuff is usually collectible.  Plus I think it is made by Ohio Art, which made old tin toys.  Which, now as I am looking at photos of Ohio Art stuff, I am getting slowly obsessed.  I might need to buy some of these cute things.

-Erin

Happy (almost) New Year everyone!  It has been a really fun and hilarious first year of this little ol’ blog.  Thank YOU for reading, and for the emails/facebooking/comments/etc. that tell us you enjoy our sass.  We hope that 2013 brings even bigger and better estate sales and many more treasures.

To cap off the year, here are the top ten BEST moments of our estate sale insanity:

10. That time Erin bought a bear wearing a REAL GOLD necklace:  Sometimes you find perfectly fine treasures that you are happy buying as they are–say, a Muffy Vanderbear doll.  And sometimes, as an added bonus, that perfectly fine bear happens to be wearing a 14kt gold necklace.  In our “Cash for Gold, Part Two” entry,  Erin found out just how valuable gold is at the moment, when she cashed in a chain for $44.  Who puts real gold chains around teddy bears?  And who then sells that teddy bear for $12 at an estate sale?  Whoever that person is, we hope they do it more often–wrap all our purchases in gold please!

9. That time DTT had a huge ass garage sale:  The DTT garage sale put quite a twist on our normal routine.  This time we were the sellers, trying to convince people to buy our garage sale wares.  This was also a chance for us to unload all of the estate sale finds we had trouble selling on ebay, or that we fell out of love with.  Let’s just say, we had a lot of stuff to sell:

Check out the entry “Cold Ones Left” to see how the garage sale went, and to hear about Sarah taking a serious spill on the sidewalk.

8. All those times we found ourselves in “interesting” houses:  Hoarders? Check.  Survivalists? Check. Straight-up Grey Gardens style situations?  Check. We’ve seen it all, and somehow lived to tell about it. Take a peek at the entries: “Grey Gardens”, “Survival of the Fittest”, and “Hoarders. No Like Real Ones” for all the nitty gritty.

7. That time Erin interviewed Ryan Matthew Cohen of the Science Channel’s Oddities:  Somehow Erin scored an interview with fan-fave Ryan Matthew, and the resulting post here on DTT (Ryan Matthew Kind of Hates Christmas, and Other Revelations) turned out to be one of our most reblogged/linked out/googled entries. In a later turn of events, Erin met Ryan in New York, where he nervously informed her that he confuses our blog with the phrase “Take that Bottle.”  (That’s a phrase?)

6. All the times we made mad cash on eBay: And we are proud to say there were many! Check out our “Money Maker” entries to see just how well we did reselling our treasure finds.  Our biggest jackpots can be found in the entries: “Original Goonies Movie Posters”, “Old Duck Decoy”, “Valley of the Dolls II”, and “Crazy Horse”.

5. That time a guy asked Erin for her home address: You meet all kinds of people while out treasure hunting.  Erin happened to meet a guy who wanted to know where she lived…EXACTLY where she lived. Read all about it in the entry “Where I Live”.

4. That time we got in a CRAZY HUGE FIGHT with Cari Cucksey from HGTV’s Cash & Cari:  We get asked about this all the time, so of course we had to include it in the countdown: our infamous quarrel with Cari, from Cash & Cari.  If you remember, we started out in quite the love affair with the show, and with RePurpose estate sales.  But then we mentioned ONE sale they had that was overpriced and crowded, and next thing you know, we’re public enemy number one.  Find out just how loud ladies can yell in our entry “The End of an Era”.  

3. That time we fell in love with auctions:  Perhaps one of the biggest developments this year was our love affair with auctions.  Maybe in 2013 we will change the name of this blog to YO! We Love Auctions or something like that.  It all started with Erin’s fave honeyhole in Plymouth, featured in the entries: “Stand Down”, “Standing Room Only”, and “Trumpeting”.  Sarah caught the auction bug in the entry “Open for Bidding”, only to have it explode into auction frenzy in the entries “Auction Crashers” and “Blacktop Surprise”.     

2. That time we hunted down the person whose stuff we were buying at an estate sale and became cross-country friends with him:  Despite our humor, estate sales are a really emotional thing, and we recognize that.  Most sales happen because of a death in the family or because of other sad events (financial trouble, divorce, hoarding, and so on).  At the time when we wrote our entries “House of Horrors Part One” and “Part Two” we had no idea that a charming California man had just lost his mother in Michigan, and it was her home we were shopping at.  Our blog entry focused on the amazingly bizarre and intriguing items we found in the home, items unlike anything we had ever seen.  And before long, Erin tracked down the aforementioned Cali man (entry “REAL LIFE”) and Sarah wrote a heartfelt entry all about him and his mother (entry “Be My Little Bumblebee”).  You couldn’t have scripted it any better.  In fact, we are all now friends, and for Sarah, even in real life! 

OK, drum roll please!!!  The BEST moment of the year, as you’ve probably guessed, is…

1. That time we went to the BEST SALE EVER:  “Best Sale Ever”, as it is known, was, well, the best sale ever!  We both still dream about this sale (literally…at night, in our dreams).  Featured in the entries: “Best Sale Ever: Round One” and “Round Two”, this estate sale will forever live on as the perfect storm of all things wonderful about treasure hunting.  The owner of this estate loved shopping, and the packed house showed it.  Everything though was high quality, clean, and most importantly, CUTE!  There was a great mix of antiques and newer items, and somehow we got the most incredible bargain bin prices on everything.  Erin bought a brand new Pendleton blanket with the tags on it for basically pennies, and Sarah took home half a Hallmark store worth of books, ornaments, and Christmas decor.  We visited this sale twice over two days and hauled our items out in a wagon each time.  

So cheers to estate sales, and “junk”, and antiques, and to all of the people and places we encountered this year.  To 2013, bring it on, we are ready for your treasures!

Happy New Year!

xoxoxox

-Erin & Sarah 

You guys! I LITERALLY slept through Christmas.  In the days leading up to it, I was feeling more and more ill, and sure enough, I was so sick on Christmas morning that I slept the whole day and day after.  UGH.  This was the ultimate in sadness.  Not only did I miss the magic of Christmas day, I missed a blog post all about my cool Christmas finds from the year!  So here it is now, deal with it.

One of the largest and most-Christmasy items we found this year was a giant wood Santa Claus.  Timmy had been on the lookout for one and when Sarah and I found this for a mere $20, we had to buy it.  

Here it is back then:

And here it is now…  (Don’t worry everyone, my dad bolted it to the house so that no one would steal it.)  

And here are some more favorite Christmas finds:

That ceramic wreath stayed lit for like a day before the bulbs inside burned out.  But it is still cool!

Christmas Garfield and a wooden Santa that kicks its arms and legs when you pull that string.

That cardinal cookie jar and plate were only $5, and I remember thinking at the time that that was a HUGE steal.  When I got home though, I realized there was a big crack in the back of the cookie jar.  I sealed it up nice with some glue, and you can’t even tell!  That dog stocking for George was actually found on ebay, and it cracks me up every time I look at it.  The holly on the bottom looks like gravestone art or something and the text is super weird.  

This roly poly tin is perhaps my favorite Christmas treasure.  Zach found it at the Midland flea market.  He had been talking for weeks beforehand about wanting one of these tins, but they were kind of pricey on ebay.  And then sure enough, he found one clean as a whistle and for only $8.  These old tins were made by the American Tobacco Company and come in all sorts of characters.

And here is our dining room on Christmas Eve, before I got the Plague.  I finally got to use all of the Waechtersbach Christmas tree plates I got at “Best Sale Ever.”  My mother-in-law, who got me started on collecting these plates, could not believe how many pieces of the set I now had.  Finding all of the set at one estate sale was an incredible score.  

You can’t see them in this photo, but I had all of the serving platters and bowls in this set too, as well as a whole tea set!  Very exciting!

Merry belated Christmas!

-Erin

We are a little behind on our updates. What can we say–the holiday season is upon us!

Two Fridays ago, Erin and I started off our afternoon by hitting up the sale where we found Beefy. As mentioned, this was the home of a party store owner. It only took about three steps into the house for you to realize that this was the case:

There was a major liquor theme going on.

We didn’t spend much time there.

Next up was a sale that had some cool stuff, but it was pretty overpriced. I don’t remember a lot about it–maybe Erin does. I bought a vintage travel Scrabble kit for $4 that I sold for $45 the next day. Whoop!

After this, we went to a sale in Warren that was advertised as having lots of antiques. I was a little leery of going to this sale because the pictures didn’t look that great, but Erin was obsessed. Turns out this sale was in a condo, and also turns out that this sale was just a glorified indoor garage sale. As soon as I stepped foot in the house, I felt creeped out. The guy wasn’t very old–maybe 40–and he seemed to be clearing out the contents of an antique booth, from what I gathered (everything had booth stickers on it). I bought another stereoscope and a printing drawer. It was impossible to take pictures because it was a cramped area and the guy was right there.

At one point, Erin was crouching down looking at some stuff on the floor and a little white cat came out of nowhere. This cat looked like a true crypt keeper–I would have guessed it to be about 16 years old. Erin asked the guy how old the cat was and he said she was two. I gave Erin some whammy signals and we booked it.

Erin has a habit of feeling bad for people really easily, often for odd reasons. For example, we will see an older man eating lunch by himself, and she will almost start crying because she has decided that he must be very lonely and sad. Maybe he just wants to eat alone! Anyway, she felt bad for the weirdo running an “estate sale” out of his home with a crypt keeper cat, and decided to be a Good Samaritan to him. The sign indicating where to go to find the sale was blown over and wouldn’t stand up, so on our way out, Erin fixed it.

TA DA!!!!

Next on our agenda was another house that Erin was pumped to go to, because it supposedly had Limoges boxes. When we got there, the guy told her that the family had decided to take all of the Limoges stuff out of the sale. Likely story, buddy! All I found at this sale was an old zodiac needlepoint. I tried to resell it pretty high, but after Christmas I’ll try again for less:

Pretty cute if you’re into ‘60s/'70s kitsch.

Finally, we ended the tour with a sale that looked a little more high-end based on the pictures. It was, sort of, but the people running the sale also were a little big for their britches. This is what I mean by that:

What do you think this is? A museum?

They also obviously thought that Erin and I were hoodlums. I’m used to people thinking I’m young, but when people start associating that with me being a trouble-maker, I get super annoyed! I’m 34, people! And I want to give you my money! Anyway, the women running this sale kept following us around asking if we needed help. No, I don’t need help. I need you to back off! Still, I found some cool stuff at this sale–mainly to keep. My favorite find was this beautiful handmade quilt. My mom and dad helped me identify it as a “star of Bethlehem” design. It’s lovely, and I think it was a steal for $35! 

I also got a bunch of cool (newer) hardcover children’s books that were in great shape, and some other stuff that I’m forgetting. All in all, a worthwhile stop, despite the employee annoyance factor!

-Sarah

Update from Erin: At the first sale, I bought some vintage blow up Santas that I had planned to put up immediately on ebay and sell in time for Christmas.  I never got around to it, so these guys are now sitting in a bin waiting for next summer’s garage sale.  I hope at that time I’ll make my $2 back.  

I should note here too that these guys were partially blown up at the sale, and I proceeded then and there to blow them up the rest of the way.  Sarah commented how I was going to get a crazy disease, and as it turns out, I suspiciously ended up with a cold soon thereafter.  I should know better not to put my mouth on strange things after the time I put a child’s Mr. Potato Head mouth in my mouth (to pretend it was my smile) and ended up with near deadly norovirus.

I have no recollection of the second sale, except for this photo I snapped:

I felt bad for the guy at the condo sale because he mentioned that no one seemed to be coming to the sale.  The google map directions were really confusing, and when I saw that his sign was ALSO knocked over, I felt extra bad.  I fixed that sign so good though. It wasn’t going anywhere.

At the next sale I was horrified by that Aquarius cross stitch that Sarah bought and pictured above.  I think she spent $10 on it, and I bet the people running the sale had their own $10 wager going on whether anyone was going to buy that crazy thing at all.

I still hadn’t bought anything since my blow up Santas, and that trend continued through the last sale.  Sarah was right about the women working there.  When I went to look at this Mickey Mouse Seiko watch, as soon as I touched it, one of the women said, “OH! THAT’S $140 DOLLARS!”  Um, cool.  I have $140 to my name, maybe I will buy it.  Maybe not.  Now stop following me around.

Sarah forgot the best part of the day, which was our ride home.  Traffic was INSANE because it was rush hour and we were somewhere around West Bloomfield (extra traffic-y in general).  I saw this storefront though that I assumed was a cool holiday boutique, sure to be filled with great Christmas gifts for our loved ones.  I begged Sarah to navigate through the lanes of traffic so we could stop.  She agreed because there was a nearby Starbucks, and she said she would buy us some coffee with a gift card she had.

But then the “holiday bazaar” turned out to be a weird rich person grocery store.  After this realization, we chuckled, but then realized that we were blocked into our parking space by a long line of cars trying to navigate the nearby road traffic and the tiny parking lot.  Sarah got increasingly irritated by our entrapment and decided that in fact she would NOT buy our Starbucks with her gift card.  Instead, I had to pay for it.  It was a cruel punishment.

The last great moment of the day was me asking this teenage boy where he got his shirt because I was obsessed with it.  I didn’t realize Sarah snapped a pic of this moment.

Before responding, the boy looked at me like I was the mommy-est mom mom ever.  Sarah and I laughed about this the whole ride home, and used different hilarious voices to reenact the moment over and over.  "OHHH…HALLO I LUVVV YOUR SHIRT, WHERE IN THE WORLD DID YOU EVER FIND ITTT?“

UPDATE FROM SARAH: SLANDER! I did NOT buy that needlepoint for $10!!! I bought it for $1!!!!

Sarah’s last “Hard to Resist” entry was pure gold (pun intended) and it made me realize how many great items I had recently passed up buying at sales.  

I saw this Santa on my recent trip to Holly.  He obviously didn’t wear his sunscreen, which is a shame because we all know that the UV rays are mega strong up at the North Pole, plus all that white snow reflects the rays back at you for double burn (sounds right to me).  Anyway, this Santa is cooked.

So far so good?

Bedtime Buddy?  This looks exactly like the type of buddy you don’t want in your bed.  Mustache is red flag number one.  Lack of pants is red flag number two.  

-Erin

It’s been a while since one of us has found a Thing That Freaks Your Husband Out (TTFYHO). Luckily, I broke that dry spell last Friday. The first house we hit up was the home of a retired party store owner, so there was a lot of “party paraphernalia” there. One of these pieces was Beefy:

Beefy is in inflatable dog, flexing his muscles and licking his lips. He cost $1. I know nothing else about him. When I found him, I was delighted. I immediately called Erin into the room and she snapped this picture. Even though I look pale and sickly, I’m willing to share this picture as proof of my delight:

Now, not only did we find this one Beefy, but we found two others that were identical and not inflated.

Of course, I bought all three–Christmas is coming! Duh!

Just like there were three Beefys, there were three best parts of this find:

1. Actually finding Beefy, which we’ve covered.
2. Going to Target the next day with Adam, forgetting Beefy was in the hatch, and watching his reaction when he went to put our bags in the back of the car.
3. Finding this picture of Beefy a few days later:

I had also (obviously) found some old family photos at this sale. I shoved them all in a box and had the chance to start looking through them the other night. Adam was working late, and when he got home, I was so excited to show him this picture. Not only is Beefy taking a ride on that trailer, but a real dog is too!

-Sarah

Update from Erin: Sarah’s nickname in high school was “Beefy.”

Also, that real dog riding on the trailer is so Romney-esque, I lol’d.  Did this dog ride like that for 12 hours too?

Last Friday, we got started a little later than expected because I had some things to wrap up at work. There were only a couple of sales that looked really good. Erin and I were lamenting the fact that we haven’t come across a really awesome digger in a long time. I’m not saying we got our “awesome digger” fix… but we definitely got our “regular digger” fix. 

The first sale we went to was in Taylor and it ended up being at a condo. On our way there, I started feeling really woozy which normally means a combination of two things: I’ve had too much coffee and not enough food. So I did what any person seeking nutrients would, and stopped at McDonald’s. Erin admitted that she had never had a chicken mcnugget, so I had to change that. Here is a picture of Erin losing her chicken mcnugget virginity: 

Check out that horrific ring. 

When we went inside the first sale, it did not look promising: 

Lots of cheap figurines and such. But then, I turned the corner and looked down the basement stairs: 

I was of course delighted by this view. There is nothing I love rummaging through more than paper and books. What can I say? I’m a librarian! It only got more exciting the further I got into the basement: 

Erin found me down here and said, “Didn’t we already go to this sale?” because way back at the start of this blog, you may remember seeing some pictures that looked pretty similar. The basement was just filled with old magazines, books, and other paper “stuff.” There were so many pulp and romance novels. Here’s one of the best ones that Erin snagged: 

It was really difficult to sort through all of the stuff down there because it was really dusty and disorganized. I still managed to sniff out some old greeting cards and cool books. Here are two pictures that Erin snapped of me in my element: 

That second picture was taken upstairs, obviously. When I got out of the basement, as I was going up, Erin was on her way down. She looked at me and said sadly, “There are so many more books.” She knew I would not be quick. But because I am a good friend, I hurried it up and gathered some stuff that looked cool. But I’ll admit that I spent part of the weekend kicking myself for not going back on Saturday and spending more time sorting through some of that stuff. 

The coolest thing I found was a partial set of the vintage series “Best in Children’s Books.” Some of the early volumes of this set contain illustrations by Andy Warhol, Maurice Sendak, and Ezra Jack Keats that were never published elsewhere. The main reason I was kicking myself was that I didn’t grab ALL of the volumes from this set. Anyway, whether they sell or not varies, but I haven’t decided if I’m keeping them or selling them anyway. 

The next house we stopped at was the home of a Psychologist and an OB/GYN. There was some really awesome sh*t in this house, including…

…more books! 

Besides books, there was an old ‘50s Freud couch (technical term): 

Old '50s models of the stages of embryonic growth: 

and old intelligence tests! 

They had this old medical stuff priced pretty high, but Erin and I both still took risks on it. I bought two different intelligence test kits–both for children. They had them priced at $75 and said they’d take $50 each. I took the risk. I haven’t listed mine yet but Erin listed hers. She can update you all on how it’s going. 

We went to one final sale, and since Erin bought more than I did there, I’ll let her tell you all about it. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: Chicken Nuggies taste like nothing.  I don’t know why people eat them.  Maybe I needed some of that Sweet & Sour sauce.  Anyway, the reason I had never eaten a nugget is because my sister used to get them and they looked all gray and lumpy inside.  Sarah said that the new nugs aren’t like this.  I think her exact words were, “Yeah, they don’t have those lumpers anymore,” which is funny because Sarah’s nickname in high school was “lumpers.”

Her other nickname in high school was “The Homicidal Virgin,” which was coincidentally the name of the book Sarah mentioned above.  I bought this book and several others.  I thought they would sell easily on ebay because they are all hilariously named, but also very sexy.  So far no bids.

I pretty much hated this first sale because I know nothing about books, so I will just skip to the next one.  The psychologist sale was great.  Lots and lots of neat medical stuff to look at.  The wife was an obstetrician, so there was a lot of birth related things. I bought an old “Birth Atlas” to sell.  I paid 5 dollars for it, and it is listed elsewhere online for $140.  

Sarah mentioned the Intelligence tests we bought.  Mine is up now on ebay, and is currently bid up to $54.  Completed listings show the same one selling for around $100, so hopefully mine will go up a bit.  

What’s funny is that someone messaged me on ebay and asked how many puzzles there were in the set, and what the puzzles were of.  I could only figure out 3 of the 4 puzzles!! There is an elephant, a man, and a head, but the last puzzle makes no sense.  I don’t know if this is on purpose, or if I have now proven just how dumb I am.

Here’s something I passed on at this sale:

666?  The devil be ridin’ dirty in that Holgate Toys truck.  Watch out children.

The last sale we visited was a vintage Girl Scout goldmine.  I was happy about this because I was a hardcore Girl Scout growing up (all the way through High School!)  I loved Girl Scouts because my troop never earned badges.  We just went camping and made crafts.  

I bought a bunch of old GS books and some GS jewelry.

I should mention that I was a REALLY good friend to Sarah at this sale.  Being a good friend is an important Girl Scout rule.  Listen, a circle’s round, it has no end, that’s how long I want to be your friend.  I LIVE BY THAT.  Anyway, so there was this great sterling silver enamel GS ring that I found but Sarah convinced me she wanted to buy it “to wear.”  She was also a Girl Scout and thought that wearing this nice ring would be a fun reminder.  

I’ll have you all know that Sarah now has this ring LISTED ON EBAY FOR SALE.  So let that mull around in your brain for awhile.  Don’t think I won’t be invoicing her for a finder’s fee.

-Erin 

Last Friday, I saw a listing for a sale that sounded amazing and awesome.  It was described as being on 12 acres and packed with antique delights.  I thought the sale looked so good in fact, that Sarah and I should make a special effort to leave extra early that day to get to it.  Sarah seemed to disagree:

The “look at my horse” part was related to the cast iron horse I blogged about the other day.  At this time, it was blowing up on ebay.

Anyway, we did end up going to this sale.  And Sarah did end up being partially right.  The sale was not 12 acres of treasures after all, but it was still a really great sale (Sarah will disagree on this part).  There was a lot of glassware/dishware, including Wedgwood and Johnson Brothers.  One of the “Game Birds” plates I featured on Thanksgiving was found at this sale. 

There was also cool taxidermy to look at, although it was priced really high.

And check out this pool!

That’s a big ass pool.  You could look down on it from nearly every room in the house.  

Anyway, the first item I found to buy was this old baseball game for my dad.  I don’t know why I didn’t just buy it and give it to him for Christmas.  Instead, I stupidly sent him a picture of it and said, “Do you want this?”  He was all excited and said that he did.

I also found these amazing bisque chickens from Germany.  Their legs are springs so they bob up and down.  They are in the kitchen near my egg scales. I am crazy about them.

I would love to have a whole army of these little chickens.  And maybe other farm animals with spring legs.  The man running this sale only charged me $2 for these, which was astounding because he was SUPER GRUMPY.  People kept asking him prices and he would exhale really loudly each time before answering.  He would then tell them some crazy price.  

After leaving this sale, we made our way to Huntington Woods.  I was leery of this sale right off the bat.  This bumper sticker greeted us:

WTF?  I don’t even understand what that means.

The inside of this sale actually felt like taking a beating.  It was really filthy and I instantly had asthma.  

Look at that poster hanging on the wall.  It was one of those old cat ones that says, “Hang in there!”  I felt like it was cheering me on, even though I was suffocating and my skin felt all itchy.

Oh hey, a car:

At one point during this sale, I saw some containers I thought were filled with old buttons.  I had found a similar container elsewhere that WAS filled with buttons.  When I opened these containers though, I found some super old rotten corn flakes.  Needless to say, I didn’t buy anything at this sale.  One cool thing I did see though were these old ticket stubs.  The person who went to these shows wrote on the back of each ticket who played:

Sarah got in a fight at this sale, so I’ll let her break that insanity down for you.  I also think she bought stuff here, which is even crazier than the fact that she got in a fight.

-Erin 

Update from Sarah: The first sale was seriously the worst. The guy who runs the company hosting the sale is such a turd. He prices things SO insanely high and is, as Erin described, ultra grumpy when you approach him or ask him anything. Hey bro! Answering my questions is your job! Erin doesn’t remember, but she left another sale he was running empty-handed and annoyed after he told her some crappy repro she was interested in was $100 or something insane like that.

I didn’t mind going I was just so confused about why Erin was so obsessed. The pictures looked bad to begin with, and the sale was no better in person. I bought three old books–two of them were Nancy Drews. I haven’t figured out if they’re first editions or not (they look like it!) but I’m going to be super careful before listing them because one time when I accidentally listed a Hardy Boys book as a first edition and it wasn’t, the Hardy Boys Police (eBay Unit) came after me hardcore.

Anyway, as I was saying, the sale was the worst. Here is proof:

These masking tape signs were all over the house and most of them said, as this one does, “Watch U Step.” Excuse me?

Actually, this one that was taped to a chandelier made me laugh.

I really like the added touch of the smiley.

Erin forgot a sale we went to in between the two she wrote about. I have two things to say about this sale. The first is that we each paid $15 for an item of clothing, which I believe is unprecedented. Erin bought a pair of pink Minnetonkas and when the woman told her they were $15, Erin looked at me and asked if she should buy them. The women said to her, “They sell these for $59 in Petosky. They’re worth it.” Oh really? You go to Petosky for your Minnetonkas? Because I just go to Marshall’s. I bought a Ralph Lauren sweater, but again, $15 is extremely and insanely expensive for an estate sale.

The second thing I’ll mention about this sale is that I spotted this silver rabbit platter that looks strikingly like kokopelli!

Of course I couldn’t remember that word, so I stared at the plate and excitedly said to Erin, “Look! It’s the Native American pipe man!!!!!” She had to sort of calm me down because the sale was high end and I was REALLY excited about spotting the pipe man, so I think she was a little embarrassed.

Erin is actually right about the last sale. It was dirty and gross, but I got a bunch of old photographs for $15. I haven’t really looked through them yet so I don’t know if they were a good buy. I also got this old set of J.D. Salinger paperbacks that’s in great shape, so that was a good find.

She did forget to mention the wonderful art throughout the house.

I’m not sure who would want to document a woman’s body in that position, but there you have it.

Check out the creeper.

Ok, so the “fight” that Erin mentioned was not really a fight… more of an “altercation.” Erin’s pictures accurately represent the condition of the basement of this house. I was unprepared for what awaited me down there, so when I got to the bottom of the stairs, I just made a sharp right and went into this room of junk. There were art supplies and boxes and just CRAP all over. I was really overwhelmed and saw this wicker hamper filled with old books in front of me. There was a woman nearby bending over a box on the floor.

I picked up one of the books in the hamper and she WHIPPED around and said, “HEY HEY HEY that’s all mine! OK, WHERE IS IT?!”–meaning, “Where is the book that you clearly just stole from me?” I was sort of stunned because as soon as she whipped around, she startled me and I had put the book back down immediately and raised my hands. I then looked at her and demonstrated how I had picked up the book and set it right back down, saying, “That is exactly what I just did. I’m sorry. I had no idea that this stuff was yours.” She said to me, “Oh, yeah because it’s not obvious!!!” Uh…. whut?

I said, “It’s really obvious that an overflowing basket of books belongs to someone when you’re in a hoarder’s basement?” She said, “That’s what I’m saying! Don’t you think it looks a little out of place?!?!” Clearly she thought that her items looked particularly special and not junky. I just stared at her in disbelief and then left the room.

Hopefully this weekend our adventures will be filled with less confrontation and kokopelli and more treasures and misspelled signs.