Dig This Treasure!

I was unable to go sale-ing on Friday, so Erin and I decided to go on Thursday instead. There were tons of sales, but I had to work until the early afternoon, so we only made it to a few. I started off the morning in an awesome way–working from Erin’s house & cuddling with her usually shy cat. Proof that Sebastian loves me the most: 

We were able to get rolling as soon as I was finished working, and we started off at a sale located pretty close to Erin’s house. It didn’t look too promising from the pictures, but they had listed that they had a bunch of HO slot cars, so I was interested in stopping by. 

When we arrived, the first thing we saw was a bunch of jewelry, and I scored by finding some pretty cool cat earrings (but not cat lady cat earrings–they’re cute), along with a baggie of various pins. I don’t know what my deal is with pins. I cannot resist them and I need to start resisting, because the quantity I now have is out of control. Anyway, this is one of the cuter ones in the bag–an Idaho potato! Get it? 

It’s hard to tell how big that is from the picture, but it’s pretty tiny. Also, Erin kept talking about this pin so maybe I’ll give it to her one day. She even asked about it when I saw her again on Saturday. Get a room with the potato pin, Erin. 

A little while later, I watched on as Erin riffled through the slot car stuff–they had two boxes of stuff and it was all sort of crappy and they had it marked $300 for the two boxes! WTF?! Anyway, Erin didn’t notice that sign and started tearing through the boxes. After watching her and laughing to myself for a few moments, I let her know that she should probably stop doing that since it was being sold as a lot. 

The person who lived at this house loved cats, and had many cat-themed items. I will admit that I purchased some of these items, but I am too ashamed to show our dear readers what those items were.

The only other real item of note that I found that I’m pretty pleased about was this: 

Original Gizmo!!! He looks a little rough in the picture but he really just needs a good run through the gentle cycle. 

Besides many cat items, the person who owned this home also had a lot of old computer stuff, including the following, which I’m mainly posting for my brother, whose first computer was a C-64 if I’m remembering correctly: 

Snokie? Who dat? 

I also somehow managed to spend about $40 at this sale–probably because everything was overpriced and I cannot resist original items from the ‘80s. 

On the way to the next sale, Erin asked me what took me so long, and then started grilling me about what I had purchased. I mentioned that I found “vintage Harry Potter wrapping paper” and then we both started cracking up. What I meant was that it was old–probably from around when the first book came out… but that was 1997. Which definitely does not make it vintage. 

I’m having a hard time remembering where we went next, but I know it was in Warren. There were multiple sales in Warren, which always excites me because it means we can stop at Tringali’s. 

So I think the next sale was what I’ll call “The Tacky Sale” because everything in the home was tacky. 

I think that’s supposed to give the illusion of a horse in a stable. 

You can’t really tell the scale here, but that is a gigantic cocktail glass that says “I BET YOU CAN’T.”

Here are some authentic, hand-crafted Native American items. 

What any classy lady needs: A Wal-Mart Shopping Fund jar. 

If these items were not enough to convince you that it was the tackiest sale ever, hopefully this will: 

Still not convinced?…

Nothing like some old lady’s panties for $.50 a piece. 

The worst part of this sale was that there was a young woman, probably my age, walking around the sale and excitedly pointing out every item in a loud, southern drawl. You would have thought she was taking a tour of the Queen of England’s home, she was so impressed by all of these items. She was most excited about this book. I’m not joking. 

Anyway, I left this sale with a vintage Stroh’s beer stein and some weird thing for Adam that’s not even worth trying to explain. Erin left with some extremely overpriced tissue paper that I’m sure she’ll say more about in her update. 

The last sale we went to was the most interesting of the day, by far. It was at the home of the former President of the Scarab Club. Turns out she was the president back in the late '70s, and was quite the artist in her day. I purchased some pretty cool stuff a this sale, including a Masonic Bible in its original box, some vintage National Wildlife magazines that seem like they might sell, and some adorable K-Mart wall art from the '60s. 

They were sold as a pair, but I really wanted the one on the right, because it’s just so damn cute. But I am also really interested in/do research on bedroom culture, so I just sort of fell in love with both of them immediately. 

I found one item from my youth (and, as it turns out, Adam’s as well): 

As well as this item–also from Adam’s childhood:  

And finally, a miniature roulette game! To add to my tiny home casino. 

We tried to go to one last sale where I had spotted a Mrs. Beasley doll in the pictures online, but some asshat dropped a bunch of lumber in the middle of the road, so we were delayed and didn’t make it in time. 

But all in all, it was a pretty eventful, interesting trip. We topped it off by stopping at Tringali’s, where Erin and I decided that no matter what it is you’re asking about at an Italian bakery, the answer is always “cannoli cream." 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: The first sale was pretty unremarkable, except for the outrageous prices.  For awhile, I carried around a Pachinko machine from the 1970s still in the box.  It was an American version though, and made of plastic.  On ebay it only sold for about $15 out of the box.  They were asking $25 for this one, so I dumped it pretty quickly.  I ended up buying a Christmas pin featuring a fuzzy bear on ice skates.

The "tacky sale” as Sarah named it, was really painful.  I am generally a big fan of Native American artwork and jewelry, and I have a good amount of it at home.  However, I have never and will never claim to know a ton about Native American culture, or be one of those white people who claim to have a distant Native grandmother.  There are a lot of white people like this, who say that somewhere down the line they have Indian blood and blah blah.  Then they collect a bunch of things made in China that feature dream catchers and noble Indian warriors and other stuff that is probably sacred and shouldn’t be on a plastic picture frame.  

Like this giant resin wolf marked $100.  Worst.  Also worst was that I went to buy some half-used wrapping paper and a little package of tissue paper.  The seller lady was looking around all frantically for someone to help her because there were no prices on either item.  She finally came up with the price of $3, which is crazy, and I asked if she would take $2, which is still crazy.  These were clearly 50 cent items.  She accepted my offer, but then said, “I’ll probably get in trouble for this.”  Uh, no, you definitely won’t.

Whew, ok. This entry is getting long.  Bear with me because the following is pretty sweet.  At the Scarab Club sale I found a TON of Laurel Burch earrings and bought them for $1/pair.  The earrings have DAYS left on ebay but are already cleaning up:

I’ll keep you posted on what these end up selling for!  

Lastly, it is important to note that I found a super amazing treasure that is not for re-selling.  It is a Pendleton knockabouts coat and it was MADE for me.  Here I am after a nap, modeling said coat:

Only $10!  When I tried it on at the sale, all these ladies were like, “OHHH you have to get that! It’s sooo cute.”  Sarah agreed (which is rare) so I bought it.

Update from Sarah: Just wanted to add two things after reading Erin’s update: First, I hope none of you with Native American blood are offended by Erin’s strong stance on the issue. This includes my sister-in-law, who is actually very white, but does have Native American ancestors. However, she does not keep plastic statues of wolves or canoes in her home to represent that heritage. Second, WHO in God’s name is crazy enough to get into a bidding war over those ugly Laurel Burch earrings and why wasn’t I smart enough to find them? 

Disclaimer: I wrote this post like a CRAZY LONG TIME AGO.  Long before our tragic break-up with RePurpose sales.  I’m posting this because it is interesting, funny, and involves my dad, who is the best person of all time.

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Cash & Cari has come up a few times on this blog already, mostly because we cannot resist the cameras and the cameras cannot resist us. The cameras also cannot resist my dad, Tim.

After my taxidermy fox purchase on the show, I got a call from one of the producers. He asked what I did with the fox (made mad cash), if I was going to come to future sales (yes), and what types of items I look for at sales (Zuni jewelry, total garbage knick-knacks, and re-sellable odds and ends).

At this point I decided to pitch my dad for a future episode of the show. He’s the total package–a super savvy collector who drives a hard bargain but also wears ankle socks with slip-on loafers. He’s funny, he looks like Santa, he takes iphone lessons at the Apple store, and HE WAS IN THE MOVIE WHIP IT. I could go on and on.

Anyway, my dad DID end up on Cash & Cari. And it turned out to be truly awesome.

I had mentioned to the producer on the phone that my dad collects vintage baseball memorabilia, specifically anything Detroit Tigers. They ended up inviting him to a sale that had a set of seats from the now-defunct Tiger Stadium.

The ensuing interactions between Cash & Cari and my dad were hilariously scripted and kind of awkward. They told him when and where to arrive at the sale and how to “scope out” the Tiger Stadium seats. He made several passes by the seats (on camera) and then was told to wait while a meeting with Cari was orchestrated.

The seats were marked six hundred dollars, which is pretty insane.

So Cari comes over and my adorable dad is all like, “Yeah, these are cool, but I would have to offer you a lower price on them.” He then goes on to explain that Tiger Stadium had a capacity of over 50,000 people and that all of the seats were auctioned off when it closed. That’s a lot of seats. These ain’t no royal thrones. You get the idea…

In addition, my dad already has Tiger Stadium seats. He got them for $275 at the original auction. He’s totally into having some more for his little baseball cave at home, but $600 would break the bank. He offers Cari $200.

From this point on, my dad is forever branded as a “lowballer.” The narrator even says this on the resulting episode.

Timmy-I-tried-to-rip-off-Cari-on-national-television. That’s my dad.

Cari says no to the offer and my dad goes to leave. The producers intervene and tell my dad to come back to the sale the following day. The storyline will be that my dad cannot resist him some stadium seats. He must have them. He will arrive back at the sale and try to lowball Cari again. This time, though, he will be victorious.

So my dad comes back the next day and haggles on-camera again. Cari shows him an iPad with an ebay listing that is selling similar seats for $499. My dad tells her that the seats in THAT listing are special VIP seats that were available in smaller quantities, hence the higher price. (This whole exchange ends up edited out of the episode).

Then, Cari sells my dad the seats for $225. In the episode that aired, the seats were listed as having an original selling price of $400, NOT $600. I think the producers realized that the original price was way-off and tried to correct how that might look. This is good because my dad looked like a little bit less of a lowballer…still a lowballer though.  Even the narrator called him a lowballer.  

Here is my dad in his purchased seats, throwing an American flag baseball in the air. I wish he was wearing a hat made out of apple pie.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: If you watch this episode, you can see the $600 price tag at one point. 

Some more sale items that we found terribly hard to resist:

Here are some California Raisins for sale…well, 3 Cali Raisins and a giant brown California Turd.  

Here’s a binder with info all about birds.  Adorable for sure, but I’ll stick with a more traditional birdwatching guidebook.  I don’t want my Cowbird looking too much like your run-of-the-mill Robin.

Speaking of guidebooks, is your internet television just too damn confusing?  Look no further…

Lastly, you’ve heard us profess our love for Hugglets before, but we’ve never actually seen the larger Hugga Bunch version at a sale…until now…

Terrifying.  Also, why is her diaper ravaged?  The elastic was all stretched out.  Gross.

-Erin

It’s time again for a “Hard to Resist” post, featuring all sorts of great items we just had to leave behind while out at sales.  First up is this box of arguably racist Halloween masks:

You can be an Asian person, a gypsy lady, or a…um, not sure what that is…Native American wrestler?  Anyway, we passed on these because I already found a Charles Manson/Rob Zombie mask at a previous sale.

Need a place to keep all of your valuable jewels?  What about a bag that is clearly labeled “jewels”???

Oh wait, you think it might be totally irresponsible and risky to keep your jewels in a bag labeled “jewels”??  Yeah, maybe you are right.  What I do know for sure though, is you can’t stop the cake machine…

Don’t even try to stop the cake machine.

-Erin

For once we were able to get started early on a Friday. I arrived at Erin’s at 10:45 and we departed shortly after. The first sale on our list was located really close to Erin’s house. As soon as we walked in, we recognized the woman running the sale as the same one we met at the beauty salon sale. We thought this was a good sign, but as it turns out, it wasn’t. I’ll get to that in a minute. 

So, this house seemed to have some treasures in it if you dug enough. Erin certainly found some that I’m sure she’ll write about in her update. I found a couple of cool things, but nothing crazy. There was a HUGE collection of Playboys, but they had them all grouped together and were trying to sell them as a lot for $175!!! WTF? They were all newer, too. No vintage as far as I could tell at all. 

When we got to the basement, there were lots of other magazines, and when I started sorting through some of them, I discovered that there was actually another whole stack of Playboys hidden amongst some Golf Magazines. The stack of Playboys I found went up through August of last year, so dude was still gettin’ his porn on until late in life. I couldn’t exactly figure out this man’s steeze but he seemed to like golf, naked ladies, and western wear. Here’s one of the best things I found:

That is a label inside one of his cowboy hats. 

While we were in the basement, I also spied some sealed alcohol. Most of it was champagne, but they also had some old beer. At this point, Erin already had a load of stuff in her arms, and was desperately searching for a box. I emptied one for her; it was sort of large but not deep. She said that was fine, and started loading it up with stuff, including four bottles of the alcohol. A disaster waiting to happen, I know. 

Anyway, I had two breakable items in my hands and then found the stack of Playboys, so I wasn’t much better off. Erin definitely had it worse, though, because in addition to the box of heavy stuff, she had a fold-up chair hanging from her arm, and then two golf clubs in her hands.

So here is where it gets really great. We are waiting in line with all our crap, and there’s one guy in front of us. While that guy is waiting to finish checking out with a credit card, the woman whom Erin “loved” from the beauty salon sale (who is the only person at the table) gets a call on her cell phone and proceeds to talk to this person casually for literally 5 minutes. Important to note: there are probably five people behind Erin and I. The guy shuffles from foot to foot, trying to figure out if he’s done or needs to stay. About two minutes into the conversation, she makes a gesture so he knows he can leave. But that leaves the rest of us standing there, waiting. A woman a few people behind me tells her husband to go find the other woman working the sale, who basically ends up being useless. 

Erin looks at me desperately, because there’s nowhere for her to put her giant box of stuff, and it’s getting too heavy for her. I can’t help much because my arms are also full. The woman just keeps going on and on with her friend on the phone, making plans to meet up “any day but Thursday,” and blah blah blah. It was seriously insane. Finally, she gets off the phone, looks at Erin and says, “WHAT’S UP.” I’ll let Erin debrief you on the exchange, but needless to say, it was also insane. 

Here is a picture of the best treasure I found at this sale. A porcelain beagle made in Japan. Y'all know I can’t resist my beagle statues. 

We finally made our way out of the house and on to the next sale which was only a few miles from that one. They had a bunch of old children’s toys and puzzles, but they weren’t in great shape and they were sort of marked up. I did, however, find something that was NOT marked up, which hopefully will be fruitful. An original Margaret Wise Brown. Damn, Dawg! 

I’ve got it up on eBay now, thanks to a friend who helped me identify it as a first edition. If you know of a collector, send them my way!

I also found Papa Bear.

He’s in good shape and will fit right in on my shelf of stuffed children’s book characters at work. 

On our way to the next sale, we saw an estate sale sign that was not on our list, nor was it online. SECRET SALE! It was weird but ended up being fruitful, as I found these absolutely adorable vintage buddies:

They were in a big ziplock baggie that had a sticker on it that said “VINTAGE KURT ADLER SCROOGE SET”… I couldn’t tell a lot about what Kurt Adler ornaments were at first glance, but after doing some research when I got home, it seems like it’s a company that’s been around for a while, and also like it’s a brand that people collect. Anyway, the set already has some watchers, so I’m hoping for a good outcome. They’re so cute! I honestly don’t really want to sell them but they’re pretty big and we already have too many ornaments (you’re welcome, Adam). 

At this point we were really hungry, and the final sale of the day was really close to Pastries by Ellen again, so I cheered as Erin agreed that we could eat there. We fueled up on delicious food and treats and headed out to the final sale. Now, this sale was run by the kids who seem like they’re squatting in the houses where they have sales. But Erin wanted to go because it was supposedly the home of a collector who had multiple antique booths. Anyway, the house was about as horrific inside as the previous sale they ran that we wrote about, and the items were equally overpriced. Here’s an example, but Erin has more: 

This is a bad picture, but basically, that is a windowsill full of garbagey christmas ornaments priced from anywhere between $3 and $10 each. 

I ended up finding a couple of cool things. First, this old wooden Vernor’s carrier: 

If you don’t like Vernor’s, you’re crazy. If you don’t know what Vernor’s is, you’re not from Michigan. 

I also found these two weird prints of EMU from… the ‘50s or '60s if I had to guess. 

They are both by a person named Ralph Avery, and were both marked $5. I sort of felt obligated to buy them, but also liked the '50s looking people walking around campus. 

Finally, Erin found some vintage LEGOs on a table. So of course, I had to call Adam. One set was marked $75 because it was sealed, but it actually seemed pretty cool–the red double-decker London bus.

I gathered all of my stuff and went outside to check out. Adam told me to ask the guy if he’d take $40 for it and it seemed unlikely to me, but I figured I’d ask. The guy said he’d take $50, so I just said, “Ok, what would you want for all of this stuff?” The Vernor’s box was marked $25, the two prints were marked $5 each, and the bus was marked $75. He said I could have it all for $70 and so I went ahead and got it all because that’s a $40 discount. SWEET!

To top things off, when we were about to leave, one of his employees went out to their scary looking “company” van and grabbed a Coors Light. The guy running the sale looked at me, rolled his eyes and said, “Apparently it’s party time. Fuckin’ A.”

Okay, then.

-Sarah 

Update from Erin: So yeah, I almost passed out at that first sale.  Here is what I had in my hands while the seller lady chatted away on the phone for 5 minutes: 2 CRAZY HEAVY cast iron skillets, 2 FULL bottles of champagne, 2 FULL collectible bottles of beer, an old metal wind chime, a wooden fold-out PGA chair, and 2 golf clubs.

I was sweating so bad trying to hold this stuff in line, and there was literally no where to set it down.  My arms started shaking and I kept looking at Sarah in desperation, mouthing “It’s so heavy! It’s so heavy.”  Like Sarah mentioned, the lady finally got off the phone and then asked me, “WHAT UP?”

I looked at her in disbelief and said, “Uh, I’d like to buy all of these things.”  Of course, nothing was priced, and the seller started slowly glancing over my items.  Things quickly devolved into total chaos as she quoted me $60 for just the skillets and alcohol.  Um, no.  She then said that the golf clubs were $20 EACH.  Um, no.

We negotiated back and forth and it became clear that she was getting confused by what prices she had already quoted me.  We settled on $20 for the skillets, German wind chime, and the PGA chair.  Fair enough, especially since one of the skillets was Griswold.  I left the alcohol and golf clubs behind.  Here is the wind chime that I plan to put on my back deck:

Here is the staircase to the attic from the second sale:

Not dangerous at all.

Also not dangerous at all was the attic itself.  The floorboards were super flimsy and I was sure we were going to plummet through the floor at any moment.  At one point, I found an odd looking bundle wrapped in newspaper and tied shut with string.  I started to open it and was chanting, “bag of money! bag of money!”  I was so sure I was about to make it rain up in there.

The bundle ended up being a bunch of old baby gowns and clothes from the 1950s.  All in great shape and super fancy.  I am going to list them soon on ebay, but if they don’t sell, I will tuck them away for a future mini-Erin baby.

The last sale was a nightmare.  The house had no heat and this day was a super windy 40 degrees, so we were walking around the sale shivering.  I could tell that we were both getting cranky from the cold and the insane prices at this sale, because we didn’t try to whisper our commentary.  At one point, I openly noted that Sarah would have to dip into her 401K early to buy some of the things for sale.  For example, here are some drinking and wine glasses:

They are marked $15.  They weren’t signed and they clearly aren’t solid gold, so I was pretty stumped on this one.

We moved through the sale pretty quickly, which was made easier by the giant holes in the walls that we stepped right through.

I ended up buying a heavy wool jacket from the United States Military Academy at West Point.  I found it in a box of clothing that had a sign directly above saying, “All Clothing $2.”  There was a lot of other jackets, sweaters, etc. but the only indication for pricing was that sign.  I handed one guy the $2, but then another dude started insinuating that I should give them more money.  Oh boy.  The issue was dropped once the guys decided to go outside and drink beer instead.  Anyway, here I am in the coat.  I planned to sell it, but think it might make cute and super warm winter wear.  We’ll see!

P.S. By the looks of this photo, I definitely wasn’t out until 2am the previous night at a martini bar.  Wait, yes I was.

Yesterday I decided to venture out on my own to some nearby sales.  The first sale I went to was in Dearborn, and was pretty uneventful, except for the Hitler parade photo I uncovered.  Looks like I can sell the picture on ebay after all, but with some stipulations.  I can say “WWII” and “Germany” and “Hilter” but I definitely cannot say “Nazi.”  I may also have to blur out the swastika in the photo.  In addition to ebay restrictions, I am having my own moral dilemma with this one…similar (but arguably worse) than our contemplation of selling “bulge photos” online.  Not sure if I want to be that person making money off of Hitler pics…

Anyway, the second sale I visited was in Inkster.  I knew right away that this sale was going to be weird and gross.

Yeah, that is a real dried out wasp nest that they were selling for $30.  The man running the sale tried convincing me that I could easily resell this wasp nest for $100 on ebay.  I told him that I wouldn’t have any idea how to ship it, and his reply was, “Well, in a box I suppose.”  Yeah no kidding, but, 1. this will break and 2. what do I say when the post office man asks if I am shipping anything potentially hazardous?

P.S. Imagine the look on my husband’s face should I walk in the door with a GIANT WASP NEST.

The house was clearly a hoarder, but one with some sense of organization.  Here is the living room:

Lots of animal statues, but also lots of oversized silverware decorations:

Too big?  How about this size:

The last thing I will mention about this sale is the garage.  It was packed with a lot of dirty and broken things, but in the back was this table full of old McDonald’s toys.  We mentioned before that McDonald’s toys are pretty much valueless, even if they are unopened.  The toys at this sale though were all opened and all real dirty.  I almost died when I saw that they wanted 75 cents EACH for these!!!  Unreal.  These were suitable for one of two things: a “free box” or a garbage can.

I did buy one cool thing at this sale, but it will be featured soon in its own entry.  And for the record, it is a sexy item, so I can no longer blame Sarah for all of our racy entries.

-Erin

Since Friday was sort of a bust, Sarah and I decided to wake up bright and early to hit more sales on Saturday.  Actually, that is only half-true.  I wokeup bright and early thinking that Sarah did too, and that she was picking me up at 10am as promised.  We got rolling around 11:30.  ANYWAY…

The sales were awful.  We rolled up to the first house and instantly panicked.  It was the SAME HOUSE as the one where our Cash & Cari blowout went down.  We were so confused at first, thinking that maybe we were just delusional.  Sure enough though, this was the same house.  Another estate sale company had been brought in to try and sell more of the items that were left after the first sale.  

I felt like I had PTSD the whole time I was at this sale.  I got nervous stomach as soon as we walked it.  It was hilarious and absurd.  In the end, I didn’t find any treasures.  In fact, I only found sad things…like the following:

I also found a bunch of old wedding photos, dirtied and shoved under a bunch of boxes, as well as a crumpled marriage license.  Such a bummer finding those types of things.  

Since I mentioned it, I’ll say that Sarah and I did find disguises should we ever have to attend another RePurpose sale.  We picked these up at a garage sale Saturday for 50 cents.  The man who sold them to us was super drunk and kept calling us “ladies,” as well as constantly apologizing to us for every move he made around the garage.

We saw a rummage sale sign after visiting this garage sale, and despite Sarah’s objections, we stopped.

The sale was in the clubhouse of some neighborhood development, and all clothes and shoes were $5 per bag.  I was excited about this, but I could tell that Sarah was less than enthused.  She busied herself with the book table while I dug through the clothes.

I ended up with some surprisingly nice scores…Ralph Lauren corduroys, a Pendleton blazer (that Sarah found and kindly gave to me), some unworn Mossimo shoes in my size, and two Banana Republic sweaters.  I also found this old pair of Nikes that may turn out to be quite lucrative.  They are from the 80s and similar pairs sell for anywhere between 80-100 dollars.  I already have one bid on them and have had 3 people message me asking for more details.  Very exciting!

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Ask Erin how late she is to my house any time she has to be at it.

ANYWAY…When we were walking down the street from our car to the first sale, I said, “Something about this walk reminds me of the last Cash & Cari sale.” We hadn’t even gotten to the house yet! Damn, I’ve got a good memory. Anyway, it wasn’t another company that came in to sell the rest of the stuff there–it was family. I only know this because I overheard the main woman running the sale telling a buyer that these large pictures in the house were her ancestors. I think the owner of the house was the woman’s aunt. ANYWAY… somehow I ended up spending almost $40 at this sale but I’m too lazy to take pictures of what I spent it on. I do know that I purchased a Beavis and Butthead book. 

Erin left out a horrible sale between the first and the neighborhood rummage sale. It was horrible, and was sort of the “third strike” for me with this particular company. Who shall remain nameless because they’re not on TV. Anyway, the guy who runs these sales is crazy and overprices literal junk. There wasn’t a single thing in this home worth purchasing. Also, he had a “Cash for Gold” sign outside the house. Where he was supposed to be SELLING things. Not buying them. But the worst part was that the house had a hot tub in the basement which is about the grossest thing ever. I’d rather find guano in a barn than a hot tub in a basement. At least I learned officially that from now on even if pictures look ok, this dude’s sales aren’t worth going to. 

At the rummage sale, I found a huge stack of ‘80s ARTnews magazines for $2. I actually don’t think they’ll sell but they’ll be cool to go through. One of them featured Cindy Sherman so why not? Also, while I was walking around with them in my arms, one of the women running the sale came up to me and said, “What books did you find?” I showed her and she said, “Oh I think I know what house these came from. The woman was a wonderful artist. She’s in heaven now.” I’d like to know how she confirmed this information. 

Erin left out the best part of the day, which was going to Pastries by Ellen, which, if you’re ever in Sylvan Lake before 4 p.m., you should hit up. They had macarons and I asked for a lemon one even though they were $2 each, which is simply outrageous. But to my delight, when I opened the box I discovered that the guy at the pastry counter had given me THREE: a lemon, a strawberry and a chocolate. Dude ruled.

Sorry for the lack of pictures of the delicious treats. Eating them was top priority. 

Sarah and I decided to head out for an adventure on Friday, our sights set on two sales in Grand Blanc, which is just past Lansing.  We were excited because both sales looked pretty good.  Spoiler alert: they weren’t.

On the way to Grand Blanc though, we stopped in Whitmore Lake, and good thing because we found lots of treasures.  I picked up this cool ceramic pitcher for Zach.  It was some sort of promotional item for Cutty Sark scotch.  I liked it because it looks really New England-y, and knew he would dig it.  

I also got Zach this little box of old flags, but turns out that he wasn’t that interested.  I might try to sell them on ebay, but I am not even sure what they are or how to list them.

Cute right?  I might just leave them on the bookshelf like this as decoration.  Anyway, the best part of this sale is that everything was priced SUPER reasonably.  And despite it being the first day, the sellers were really fair on reducing prices for us since we ended up buying a lot.  I love sales like this, obviously.

To resell, I bought some old 1950s/1960s sewing patterns which already have a bid on ebay.  As well as a Laurel Burch cat pin that started blowing up with bids the second I listed it!

I am actually a little bummed that the Laurel Burch pin has so many bids.  I told myself that I would happily keep it should it not sell.  I imagined it on my spring coat.  Oh well.  I guess with all the crazy cash it brings in I could buy a pin for my jacket.

As I mentioned, we headed to Lansing after this sale and were in for a whole afternoon of disappointment.  Things seemed promising at first:

I walked down into this basement and was excited by the volume of items before me.  It was a real nice moment.  I was all alone in the basement and Selena was blasting on the radio.  I was sure that good things were about to happen.  Then, Sarah came downstairs, announced that she didn’t know who Selena was, and things got worse from there.

I opened a box and started rummaging, immediately realizing that something was way wrong.  I started screaming in misery as I realized my hand was covered in some sort of ultra sticky goo.  

Yeah, that cup is filled with an ocean of melted candy, clearly decades old.  I assume this candy was one of those chewy old-time candies that rip out the fillings in your teeth.  Bit O’ Honey or something like that.  Whatever it was, it was sticky as hell and ruined the use of my right hand until I could wash it.

I found one thing at this sale, an old Napco salt shaker that I put on ebay.  We’ll see how that goes.

Stay tuned for our update tomorrow, all about some sales we hit on Saturday.  Don’t get too excited, but we did hit up a random rummage sale and I scored some ultra-cool vintage Nikes!  

-Erin

Update from Sarah: First off, sorry this is so late going up. I had a lot of work to do today, and am also getting sick. Anyway, Erin is right. The sales on Friday weren’t that great–especially not for how far we had to travel to get to them. The exception, as she mentioned, was the sale in Whitmore Lake. I just took pictures of all the stuff I bought and I’m horrified with myself in some instances. For example, what was I thinking here? 

There is only one pin here that was necessary to buy, and I think we all know which one that is. 

Besides those great finds, I found some other actually cool things. For example, these two cute dolls: 

The one on the right, I believe is a polish doll that matches two others I found at a sale a while back. I love the one on the left best, though. 

I also found some awesome vintage Peanuts Christmas cards. Here is a picture of me, hoarding the cards so that Erin cannot get at them:

Here is a picture of Erin with yet another Mouse King!

That one didn’t have smaller mice crawling out of its neck. 

When we got to the basement, I found a huge stack of vintage wrapping paper, which is always my favorite thing to find. Here are some of my favorites from the big stack I found: 

Two final items that I had to purchase: 

I wonder if the girl on the bench is as happy as she appears. 

I would like to say that both the wrapping paper and that small, vintage bear-shaped milk bottle pictured above were in a pantry in the basement that Erin had already gone through and told me there was nothing inside. When I got back upstairs and she saw that I had both of these things AFTER she already had first chance at them, she was sad. OH well! Finders Keepers! Plus, she already has a bear-shaped bottle. 

On our way to the first sale in Grand Blanc, we saw the first of a new chain of hotels–Dads Inn (not to be confused with the lesser known Days Inn). 

The next sale on our list was down a very treacherous road. Here is a picture of what it looked like: 

This sale contained a lot of garbage that was not worth the 80 minute drive to dig through. I found a stack of vintage cards, some vintage Tuco puzzles that may or may not be valuable (whatever, they were $.50 each, and then these adorable buddies: 

Finally, at the last sale, I found one cute thing, and then a couple of things to try to resell. This is my one cute thing: 

Probably an ash tray, and clearly needs to be cleaned, but it’s cute! 

I also got a few other things that may or may not be worth anything. First, a bunch of vintage Christmas carol pamphlets (I think they were things that places would hand out when you went caroling?) 

Next up, a vintage money counter. AKA, the Handy Adder: 

Finally, I found this weird pamphlet about Russian education: 

Tomorrow we will update about day two of sale-ing, which wasn’t much better.

P.S. I know who Selena is–I just don’t know her songs when I hear them.

P.P.S. That Laurel Burch pin is fugly.  

This is a surprise post for Sarah.  After our sales last week, I stayed at Sarah’s house and watched her dogs while she went to Canada for a Sloan concert.  Here are her beagles eating some bones:

The cute one’s name is Betsy and I don’t remember what the second one’s name is.  Anyway, while I was there, I decided to pretend I was at an estate sale.  (Sarah’s house is decorated pretty much completely with estate sale finds.)  Here are some photos of treasures that I would buy should this have been a real estate sale and not my friend’s empty house:

First up is this little hedgehog.  He is made of some sort of real animal fur.  He is also the cutest thing ever.  I thought about stealing him, but I am generally a super good person and decided against it.

This is some sort of amazing old printing press thing.  You arrange the letters on it, ink, and then print away.  It is so cool looking.  I am obviously really jealous of this piece.

This old box is just my style.  Rustic and primitive, I can just picture this guy hanging out on my fireplace instead of Sarah’s.

Last up are these things I will call “roundies.”  I’m not sure what they are or what they do, but they are round and they are cute.  They appear to be Japanese.  Whatever they are, I want them.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I just found this in our post queue and it made me LOL. I would like to straighten out some factual inaccuracies, though.

First, Erin made us pay her $10/hr. to watch our dogs, which is still a good rate, but she made it sound like she was being charitable. Second, she loves pretending like she hates my 13-year-old beagle, Max just because he ate her Panera off our coffee table four years ago. Who is dumb enough to leave Panera out in front of a hungry beagle? Third, our home is NOT decorated of mostly estate sale finds, because Adam would never allow it. And also, some things would be sort of gross to have used. For example, someone’s old couch would be gross. You never know who bumped uglies on there.

Erin found some great things to “purchase” from my home–some of my favorites, actually, and Adam’s too (except for the hedgehog). The hedgehog was actually purchased at a Cash and Cari sale last summer (you were with me, Erin.) The printing press tray & blocks are something Adam found at my favorite sale. I think we found that wooden box there as well. The “roundies” are these wood carvings that Adam brought me back from Japan. So not old at all or from an estate sale, but still adorable.

In summary, good selections–I approve!  

On Friday, we decided to go to some sales that were out on the west side of town, rather than out where Erin lives. There were a ton of sales out by her, but they all looked bad, and there were two out in the boonies that looked good. Erin also discovered an ad for a barn sale in the town where I live, so we figured we’d hit that up too. The ad for the barn sale made it sound cute and interesting. I should have known that it was going to be a letdown, considering the fact that the person who listed the sale used quotation marks instead of apostrophes when necessary:

“Picker"s delight Barn Sale!…Cleaning out our barns built in 1877.  Antiques, collectibles, shabby chic and oddities.  WWI cavalry items; saddle pad, Sam Browne Belt, canteen cover.  Old skis and  sled.  A brass and iron bed.  Other items: Victorian walnut platform rocker,  spool bed, caned chairs, Childs/doll items; rattan stroller, pine doll bed, wicker doll high chair, child"s rocking chair.  Vintage Limoges, Aynsley, china. Vintage linens, clothes, aprons, hot pads, table cloths, dish towels and doilies.  Old buttons, sewing items, crochet hooks, knitting needles.  Lots of old advertising ephemera; cookbooks, recipes, cards, booklets, instruction manuals, flyers and maps.  Several kid"s marble games.  Large assortment of jewelry, vintage and newer.  Antique Persian copperware. Garden accessories, shabby chic chairs, plant stands.  Old bottles, and books.  New messenger bags, computer laptop bags, golf shoe bags, insulated lunch bags.  Old photos, and postcards early 1900"s.  Hanging leaded glass lamp.  Set of 4 Mission Oak tavern chairs.  Old chalkware Kewpie doll bank.  Set of china for 12.  Oil lamps. Architectural Antiques; 4” Round spoked window, newel posts, railings, doors, doorknobs, hinges, hooks, faucet handles, mirrors, light fixtures, lots of barn wood, barn stuff, Fisher Price wood toys. 1889 framed Odd Fellow Lodge document. 2 brass chandliers, one large and one smaller.  Men"s hats.  1930"s vanity w tall mirror. Porcelain topped table.  Vintage wood kitchen cupboard, oak dresser w mirror, Art Deco cupboard, oak washstand.    Homemade cookies, brownies, and banana bread, gourmet coffee and  lots more treasures.  Old expanding drying racks, throw rugs. Old picture frames.  Steel wagon wheels, kid"s school desk, roll top desk top, gun rack, carpenter"s tool chests,  misc. housewares.  Plants. and more..

I was sold when she told me there would be cookies and brownies there. Since it was really close to my house and the other sales were an hour away, we hit the barn sale up first. This is what the outside of the barn looked like–a bunch of antiques and non-antiques all over the lawn:

Right away, Erin said, “I already love this sale.” I did for a second, too, when I saw this adorable racoon:

But a few minutes later we were both in agreement that it sucked. Bottom line is that the ad did not lie. However, it was like they had ONE of each of those items. Which does NOT fit the description of a “picker’s delight”… I was trying to rush Erin out of there, but she kept gazing at the rafters in the barn, saying, “I just really love that wood. Don’t you wish you had a barn?” Uh… ok. Anyway, guess I know what I’ll be getting Erin for her birthday–some rotten wood.

I bought an antique bottle carrier and some other odds and ends and Erin bought some old handout about tornados that she forgot in my car. I also bought some baked goods. The woman who made them told me the cookies were really good and she lied. The brownies were good but they were basically bite sized, for $.50. Come on now. 

Disappointed, we left for the second sale of the day in Mason, MI, which is basically in the middle of nowhere. The ad for the sale sounded great, and the pictures looked good too. It was a house and barn sale. Anyway, when we pulled up, we saw a bunch of insane things, including this: 

If it’s hard to make that out, it’s a little craft tent, full of large white piggy banks with people’s names painted on them. What the hell? Erin immediately started going ballistic, yelling, “I thought this was an estate sale! Is this a craft sale?!” I’ll admit I was worried too. Anyway, there were some scary peeps outside the barn that was next to the craft tent, so we went inside the house first. There were a few tables of vintage ephemera, which is my jam, but not an overwhelming amount. There were a few piles of vintage cards that they’d had priced at $1 each. Whatever, I bought some. I’m not proud. 

When I was looking through the stuff on the table, I heard some people say things like, “oh just wait until you go upstairs!” so I was really excited to find out what treasures awaited us up there. Turns out this person was just OBSESSED with scrapbooking and there was a sh*tload of scrapbooking supplies up there. The one thing I noticed right away was that everything was in big batches and had signs that said “CHOICE” above the price. As in, “Your choice of gross scrapbooking paper for $.50." 

We got out of the house and went around the corner into the basement, that you had to enter from outside. It was terrifying. Here is a picture of Erin, climbing down into the depths of hell:

There was nothing but junk in the basement–totally not worth the scary descent. Finally, it was time to check out the barn. When we were walking in, Erin said, "This must be where all the treasures are.” She was definitely right: 

I can’t decide what I wanted more–a mini washboard or a Lowe’s paint stick. 

We were ultra disappointed, but then a man with black stubs for teeth told me that we could get into the top level of the barn by going around to the back. We did just that, and found this: 

Yes, that’s right. A whole bunch more junk. While we were walking around up there, Erin spotted some boxes full of USPS Priority Mail boxes and went crazy like she hit the jackpot. I seriously got excited until I realized that she was that enthused about boxes. Anyway, this person must have done a lot of shipping because there were TONS of boxes. Granted, it was a good find–these were the boxes that they never have at the actual post office. They’re smaller sized ones. Anyway, the boxes were in great shape, so we started carrying around these huge armloads of shipping boxes. 

They got pretty heavy and difficult to carry so I set mine down for a minute. When I went to pick them back up, I noticed that the outside box had a bunch of animal droppings on it. I got really grossed out and went back to the pile of boxes to try to find some that did not have turds on them. I thought we were safe and then Erin noticed that her boxes also had turds on them. Finally, we had a bunch of boxes that seemed poo-free, and started walking out of the barn. Now, I had thought that these droppings were from mice. But when we were leaving, two guys working the sale asked us if we found everything ok. I said yes, except I could have done without the mouse poo. One of these hillbillies said, “Those are bat droppins!” I looked at Erin and said, “I think bat droppings are poisonous!” We freaked out a little and then asked the checkout lady about it and she said they were safe. Whaaaa? 

We got back to the car and put all our poopy boxes inside and decided to get some kettle corn with our poo hands. Yeah, I forgot to mention that they also had a kettle corn stand there. Here’s a picture of me looking less excited than I actually was to get kettle corn: 

Once we obtained the corn, we had a dilemma on our hands (NO PUN INTENDED)… How were we going to eat this delicious treat when we had potentially poisonous poo particles on our hands? We tried to squeeze out the remnants of our two small bottles of purell and decided that was good enough. Then, Erin started reading stuff on the Internet about guano, and we got REALLY freaked out. It wasn’t until a little later that Erin read that the excrement has to actually be in large quantities and “moist” in order for it to have the poisonous fungus or whatever on it. But we spent a good two hours worrying. At one point, Erin’s eye kept itching and she kept saying she had “guano eye”. 

Since it was still pretty early in the day, we decided to drive to Okemos for a sale that looked sort of interesting. The guy who lived there obviously served in World War II, so there was a bunch of cool ephemera and clothing from WWII. It was a good way to end the day, because we both found some decent treasures. As mentioned on Friday, I found what will hopefully be the first of many bulge photos, and Erin scored some treasures that I’m sure she’ll write about below. 

I found an old Tuco puzzle that looks like it could sell for a little bit of money. Adam helped me out by putting it together last night and today so I could be sure all the pieces were there. I tried to do some of it this afternoon and failed miserably–the pieces do not interlock, so it’s so hard to put it together!

I also took a risk and purchased a decent sized group of personal photos from the war for $25. I have to do a little research before I list them, so I’m not sure yet if they’re valuable or not. I also got two menus from 1944, and some vintage pamphlets about Iceland that Erin found but for some reason did not want. Turns out they may be worth some cash. Here are the menus: 

I also found this really cool, mid-air picture of a kid at a swimming pool. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: Let me first say, that I was “gazing at the rafters in the barn” of the first sale for a very IMPORTANT reason.  I wasn’t really obsessed with the wood, I was just pretending.  Here’s the deal:  It is super awkward to take pictures at these sales we go to.  People seem very suspicious when we are snapping pics all over the place.  My whole “I-just-love-barns-so-much” act was a well thought-out charade to explain why I was taking photos.  I must be a really great actress because I clearly fooled Sarah.

The second sale was such a bummer, except for the kettle corn.  The ad for the sale went on and on about antiques.  Let me explain something: mass produced mini washboards that look all old-timey do NOT qualify as antiques.  Sure, they are made to “look” antique, but they are cheap and have Made in China stickers on them.  Anyway, I was happy with our shipping boxes.  Here they are in the trunk:

I also got a TON of Sharpie markers, which I use all the time.  And, for the record, my “guano eye” turned out to be my allergies, and it’s all back to normal now.  Oh and also, I kept saying “guana” instead of “guano” which Sarah found hilarious.  I then said something about Guana being a country, and that I was confusing it with bat poop.  All of that I think is a lie, as I am probably just thinking of the country Ghana.

The last sale was good.  I got some Cole Hann men’s boots and some vintage French Shriner dress shoes, each for $3.  I am hoping to resell them.  I also got a vintage Gucci watch that was in a ziploc with other watches all being sold for $10.  I am hoping that it ends up being a Money Maker.

I also picked up this old print, which I thought was some sort of secret society-type art. Zach thinks it is religious art.  The jury is still out on this one, but I think it is so cool, no matter the meaning.

I also got this adorable oven mitt that Sarah was horrified by.  I think it is probably the cutest oven mitt ever made.