Dig This Treasure!

Time again for one of my truly favorite entries–items that we found REALLY hard not to buy.  Sort of.

First up, this adorable bear with a not so adorable hygiene problem.  Not sure how much bear diapers cost, but if they are anything like baby diapers, then I don’t want to know.

Next up…this sign:

A little presumptuous, no?  Shouldn’t it say something like, “Santa, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP HERE!”  If I was Santa and I saw this sign, I’d be like, “Yeah right suckers.  This year I DON’T STOP HERE.  Y'all got punked.”  

And then I would get that diaper bear to pee on the sign.

Ok, one more…

Wut?

-Erin

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.

Sarah and I hit a pretty crummy sale the week before our Traverse City trip, and it was such a letdown that we didn’t even blog about it. Sarah did find this t-shirt, but it was too dirty to buy:

There was one pretty great “Hard to Resist” item at this sale. A giant animated Uncle Fester candy bowl. You could tell it was broken. His eyes were rolled back in his head and stuck that way.

I think this is Uncle Fester. Maybe it is just some creepy man candy bowl. Regardless, I took this photo, chuckled to myself, and walked away. Later, Uncle Fester reappeared in the arms of a shopper! I was so glad someone was actually buying him.

There he is peeking out of that lady’s shopping basket!

Too bad this story has an unhappy ending though. When this lady went to check out, the sales people informed her that Uncle Fester cost TEN DOLLARS. I have a hard time believing that he EVER cost $10. The shopper was equally shocked by this price and sadly decided to pass on the purchase.

I’m hoping that Fester was too hard for someone else to resist, but I’m not holding my breath.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Good god why didn’t you crop my head out of that first photograph? Also, these pictures don’t accurately capture how dirty that shirt was. I was reluctant to even touch it and I’m not typically grossed out by dirt. 

Last Saturday, Zach and I went out to breakfast and happened to pass by an estate sale.  We only had $2 in cash on us, but I convinced him we should stop anyway.  

In the basement of the sale, I saw these huge boxes of vintage Christmas decorations, so I started to rummage.  One of the workers hurried over pretty quickly and informed me that I couldn’t look in the boxes because they were selling them as “grab bags” for $1 each.

This was intriguing to me.  I had already seen some of the contents before I got busted, so I decided to take the $1 risk.  I chose the largest, and heaviest box to buy.

On the top of the box it said something about being “all I need” to decorate multiple rooms.  It also had a hilarious never-ending list of the years this box was used as storage.  I figured I had made a good choice. If this box really had everything needed to decorate, then it must have the best and most cherished items in it.

When I opened the box, there was nothing spectacular at first.  A lot of garland and plastic holly type stuff.

But then I started finding some cool things buried in the box!  First were these angel figures, marked JAPAN on the bottom.

These have got to be worth my $1 investment!  I’m guessing that Sarah might even want them because they look like her style and they are playing musical instruments.  If she shows some interest, then I’ll wrap them up for her and count the days until December. Or she can pay me $1 now and have them…

I then found these candlesticks.  I could tell from the tarnish that they were silverplated, which was confirmed when I googled the maker’s name on the bottom.  These things are HEAVY!  Almost 3 pounds EACH!

I don’t think silverplate is super valuable or anything, but again, definitely worth my $1!

-Erin

Sarah was on vacation again last week so I hit some sales with my parents.  I convinced them that the sales out in Dearborn looked good, but Timmy was protesting the 20 minute drive.  He finally caved, and good thing, because we all found treasures.

The first sale seemed pretty crummy at first.  A lot of average housewares just piled up.

After walking through the house and finding nothing, I noticed that I had not seen my parents in awhile.  Turns out that they were in the garage, uncovering a motherload of old pharmacy items.

Joan is a pharmacist, and she decorates her office with old pharmacy collectibles.  So needless to say, we were all excited for her.  She had a huge pile of old medicine bottles, pharmacy posters and calendars, mugs, bookends, and more.  The best find was probably this giant gallon bottle of Paregoric, which is tincture of Opium.

It’s not nearly as old as the other medicine bottles we found, but you have to admit that a gallon size OPIUM bottle is pretty awesome.

Timmy found some old Tigers items, and I bought a couple rabbit knick-knacks.  I also left this sale with purple stuff all over my hands and face that would NOT wash off.  It was some sort of lavender dye that must have been in with the pharmacy bottles.  I had to walk around all day with my Grimace stains.  This photo is post hand scrub:

At the next sale, I was the one who hit the motherload.  I bought a huge stack of old photos for $5, a few of which were bulge photos! I’m hoping that when I sell them on ebay, they will get lots of interest.

Since we were in Dearborn, my parents insisted we eat at this bar Miller’s.

Apparently it is famous for burgers.  It should be famous for crazy small beers.

My mom’s beer on the left is in a juice glass, and mine was slightly larger.  Anyway, the burgers and onion rings were AWESOME.

All in all a successful day!  Timmy even left lunch and ran down to an antique store where he found a super old Red Wings pennant from the 1930s!  The oldest he’s ever seen!  

-Erin

Alright, so, as mentioned, Sarah and I hit one more sale last Friday.  I believe this one was in Trenton.  When we arrived at the sale, it was immediately clear that this person was rich, and that they had a lot of time to buy rich people things.

The first room was filled with these elaborate dollhouses.  They were all pretty remarkable.

What’s interesting about these type of dollhouses is that you never actually see little miniature dolls inside of them.  What’s up with that?  

Upstairs at this sale was a room completely full of designer purses, all of which still had the tags on them.  At first I was sure they must be fake or something, because who buys $400 purses and doesn’t use them?  All of the tags though had Macy’s stickers on them, so certainly they were real.

I think Sarah and I both would have loved to buy some of these.  There were at least 100 to choose from. All of the bags were priced pretty close to retail, so we had to pass.

Back in the dollhouse room, I found a Muffy Vanderbear.  When I was a child, my Aunt Cathy (who comments on this blog often and also publicly called my blonde hair “FRIGHTENING”) gave me Muffy bears and accessories every Christmas.  They were by far my favorite childhood toys, even beating out Beanie Babies.  I still have all of my Muffys and hope that one day I will have a daughter to play with them.

Anyway, this particular Muffy was one I already had in my collection, but it was in PERFECT condition, so I decided to buy it.  I was carrying it around, and kept thinking, “Hm, I don’t remember my original Muffy having this gold necklace on it.”  

Looking closer at the necklace, it was pretty clear that it was REAL gold.  Someone had put a REAL GOLD chain on Muffy.  

Knowing that gold is like crazy valuable right now, Sarah and I started speculating what it could be worth.  I looked online and it said 14K gold was worth around $18 per gram.  I then speculated that a gram was like one paper clip.  However, neither of us could figure out how many imaginary paper clips might make up the necklace I had.

On our way to lunch we spotted one of those “Cash for Gold” places.  When I say “spotted” I actually mean that we drove down the street specifically looking for any place that might buy gold.  We were just way too excited.

So we got buzzed into the store, had the necklace weighed, and ended up selling it for $44!  That price actually covered all of the purchases I had made that day, including lunch!  Pretty exciting!  

The lesson here people is not to store your gold jewelry on teddy bears, and then sell those bears.  The other lesson here is that if someone does store their gold jewelry on a teddy bear, then totally buy that teddy bear.

-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. 

Here’s our latest installment of items we found pretty hard to resist!

The craftsmanship on this cottonball bunny is pretty remarkable.  I couldn’t find a maker’s mark on it, but I’m sure the artist was professionally trained.

I mean, look at that whisker placement!  Spot on!

P.S. I thought about asking Sarah how much she would pay me to eat one of those jelly beans, but then I realized that if I did that, I would feel obligated to buy this cottonball bunny.  You can’t eat pieces off an item you haven’t purchased.  I then realized that if I bought this cottonball bunny, I would want to throw it in the trash, which would make me feel guilty and sad.

Moving on, here are some body doubles from the movie “Children of the Corn”:

These guys were$10 each, which is half of the price I would need to be paid to take them home.

-Erin