Dig This Treasure!

Sarah had Friday off of work this week, so we were pretty excited about getting out early and hitting some sales.  We realized pretty quickly though that not only did Good Friday mean Sarah had the day off, but it also meant that our choice of sales was pretty limited.

We thought about just going to Loehmann’s to shop (Sarah had a coupon) but because our ebay listings were getting slim, we decided to sale.  On the way to the first estate, we stopped at a garage sale.  They had some $3 DVDs, clothing heaps, and half-used candles.  We didn’t buy anything.  I did test-drive this Charles Manson-esque Halloween mask though…

After that detour, we made it to the first sale.  This sale was so bad that Sarah didn’t even buy anything, which I believe is unprecedented.  Remember that insane hoarder house we went to?  Even then, Sarah bought some Christmas gift tags.  

I did buy a couple things at this sale.  Some brown craft paper that I use for packaging things, and some brand new OPI nail polish.  That stuff is like $8 new!  I got it for 50 cents.  I also got these crazy magnifying/reading glasses that have flip up lenses.  I plan  to try selling them, and if not, Sarah said she wants them for reading.  Part of me just wants to give them to her because the thought of her wearing them is hilarious.  For now though, here is a photo of me wearing them:

Very chic.

The next sale was just as awful, which was a bummer because we drove pretty far to get to it (about 30 miles).  Upon entry, it was pretty clear what kind of wares we were going to be encountering…

I’ve never been a big reptile fan, and considering the amount of furry animal-related things that Sarah buys, I’m guessing she isn’t either.

We also prefer our beer cans to be full of beer, so the empty can collection was of no interest…

I think that some beer cans are probably collectible, but the effort of trying to figure out which ones might be seemed too tiresome.  We hadn’t eaten yet and were really excited to go to Grand Traverse Pie Company and get some food/treats.

I ended up buying two silver-plated Gerber baby spoons from the 1950s.  I paid $1 total, but it seems like they might not be worth much.  Whomp whomp.

On the way out, I noticed this treasure that we had missed.  $30 is pretty steep, but I hear that LAN parties are pretty awesome.  Actually, I have no clue what a LAN party is, but I know it is something super nerdy. By the looks of the box, it might be tons of fun.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: What a bummer of a sale-ing weekend. Easter had to go and ruin all our fun. 

Ok, so I need to just clarify a few things. First, I might have a hard time leaving a sale without buying something (and FYI this is not true at all at garage sales), but Erin is the worst when we’re at sales where it is obviously just a bunch of garbage. She loves to just linger and make sure she’s dug through every bit of grossness there. Perfect example: I could tell within 20 seconds of being at that Manson mask garage sale that there was nothing good there. But of course, Erin has to slowly and thoroughly browse through the piles of used slippers, dollar store candles, and cheap picture frames, just to make sure she hasn’t missed anything good. You really think there’s gonna be a hunk of gold on that table? 

Second thing: I did not say I wanted to use those glasses to READ. I said I wanted to use them as magnifying glasses, which is what they are! The other day I told Adam that I needed a magnifying glass because I have a hard time reading the really small copyright dates on plastic and metal toys. What Erin also didn’t mention is that she wanted to sell those glasses to a STEAMPUNK on eBay because there was another pair listed that way. I then reminded her that hers are made of giant cream-colored plastic, rather than METAL, which is a necessity for steampunks, and she said, “oh… yeah.” Anyway, obviously she’s going to just keep them since she looks so adorable in them. 

That last sale was the worst, except I found a sealed crystal radio kit that already has two watchers on eBay. The rest of the stuff in that house was pure garbage. This picture perfectly summarizes the experience: 

Yesterday’s sale-ing got off to kind-of slow start.  Sarah showed up at my house around noon or so, but before we could hit the sales, we had to buy our Mega Millions tickets.  The traffic around the 7-11 was INSANE, and I pulled into the wrong driveway, getting us trapped in the parking lot of Daly’s restaurant.  I figured we could just walk over to the 7-11 but it was pouring rain, and they had a chain link fence between the parking lots.  

By the time we actually made it to the 7-11, got our tickets, and then stopped quickly at the post office to ship out ebay stuff, it was after 1pm.  Whoops.

Our first sale was in Troy and was advertised as a “digger.”  It was in a real fancy condo, and before we walked in, I speculated that the sale might be a rich person hoarder.  It was.

The stuff upstairs was pretty high quality and definitely came in bulk.  I was looking at some leather loafers in a back room when I got this text from Sarah.

“Motherload in basement” could not be a more perfect way to describe what I was about to see when I headed downstairs.

The basement was completely packed.  There were little pathways carved out between the tables and all the stuff on the floor.  Most of the things were in boxes which were stacked, so you had to keep opening, rummaging, and then moving stuff out of the way to get to more boxes.  I love this kind of sale because you really don’t know what you will find.  After like 20 minutes though, I kind of hated this sale because I got something really sticky all over my hands and I started having an asthma attack from the dust.  We were finding cool things though, so we pressed on.

I found two large cast iron skillets, one of which literally STILL HAD AN OMELETTE BAKED IN THE BOTTOM OF IT…like a really super old omelette.  I bought the skillet anyway because I knew I could just brillo the hell out of it.  Here is what it looks like now:

Cute huh?  Not really, but I got it for $3 and have it listed on ebay.  I’m hoping that I will have good luck with it, like I did with some other cast iron things in the past.

My favorite things BY FAR from this sale are these two little Koala buddies.  They are from the 1960s and are made out of REAL wallaby fur.  (Everyone keeps asking me what a wallaby is, and from what I can tell, it is a small kangaroo.)  There seems to be a good market for these things, as noted by this informative internet blog about koala toys.

You can’t really tell, but these guys are pretty large…about 12" tall.  It’s no secret that I would actually love to keep them, but Zach was horrified when he saw them.  The cats love them though, and actually sat and groomed the koalas for a good long while.

After leaving this sale, Sarah had a meltdown because she was so hungry, so we stopped quickly at Bruegger’s and got some sandwiches.  Then we raced to one more sale nearby.  It was a really tidy sale and didn’t have too much to offer.  I got some Christmas ornaments and this Josef Original that I put on ebay:

Sarah decided that this puppy was a Beagle and, since she is obsessed with all things Beagle, said that I should give it to her.  The woman running the sale heard us bickering, declared the puppy NOT a beagle, and I ended up buying it.

There were plenty of good things left for Sarah to buy though, so I didn’t feel bad.  Here is a perfectly good makeshift Jesus in a manger:

For some reason, she passed on it.

Here are some other things we didn’t buy at this sale:

Frumpkins?  Yeah, that sounds about right.

This Barbie is clearly a bride doll being disguised as Vanna.  I know Vanna when I see her.

Speaking of brides…

Too bad that both Sarah and I are both already married, this would have been a nice cake topper.  The face appears to be a shrunken apple, which is a craft trend that will never go out of style.

After this sale, we rushed home because I had to help set-up for my neighborhood’s Easter egg hunt.  I was pretty late because we hit so much traffic, but the good news is that all of the eggs were eventually hunted.  And the Easter bunny came!

He’s wearing boots.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Erin has covered these sales very well, so all I really have to add is my finds. That basement at the first sale was incredible. There were so many things to dig through, and I did find many treasures. Let’s start with the best: 

This is a copy of Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros by “Uncle Shelby” aka Shel Silverstein. Since I’m a librarian, sometimes I can spot books that are valuable. This one was a total fluke–I thought maybe it might be worth $20 or something because it was published in the ‘60s, but turns out, the last copy on eBay sold for $225. WTF?! Pretty awesome. I have two watchers on it now. If you’re a mega book collector, maybe you should buy my copy. They are very rare. 

In addition, I found a boatload of vintage (ish–1974) magazines. This person was reallllly into two main things: Japan and roadrunners (not the Warner Bros. kind), so I found a stack of Orientations magazines and then a stack of Arizona Highways. I knew nothing about these, but I noticed that the former sells pretty easily on eBay. I’ve got them both listed now, so we’ll see. Hidden in this pile of magazines was one lone issue of Hustler from 1976. I hid that amongst my other magazines and hope to sell it, since I’m so into selling porn these days. 

I also found a bunch of other cute stuff–lots of vintage greeting cards to add to the collection, some cute vintage stamps from Japan (I think): 

I have no idea what they say or are supposed to be, but maybe someone will want them. 

I’d have to say the next best thing I found besides the Silverstein book is this package of vintage napkins from 1960, made by the Monogram of California company: 

The epitome of a lady who’d have men beating down her door! 

The really great thing about this sale was that the people running it were super nice and friendly. When I was checking out, the guy asked me what I wanted to pay for my box of stuff. I said $20, he said $22, I said deal, and I thought that was great even before I realized I had a $200 book sitting in that box! 

So Erin is right–I got really hungry while we were at this sale, and started feeling like I might pass out. We were out in Troy on Long Lake Road, where there are seriously zero places to grab food for miles and miles. I started feeling like I was in a real life nightmare. When we found Bruegger’s, I was so excited. Erin accidentally left out the best part of Bruegger’s, besides delicious sandwiches: Right when we pulled up, we saw a very wealthy looking woman who had just gotten a pedicure at the nail salon next door. It was raining pretty hard and one of her cheap flip flops that they give you at those places (not that I know from experience) broke, so she was frantically trying to get into Bruegger’s to seek shelter but walked right by the door. She kept walking around with that dumb flip flop hanging off her foot. So the entire time we were in Bruegger’s eating, we kept hearing this zombie shuffle noise, which was that woman trying to get around because she refused to ruin her “pedi” by putting on her regular shoes. 

At the second sale, I didn’t find much. I bought some knit Christmas ornaments and a side table that is still in my car. This is starting to be a theme with me–buying furniture that sits in my car for a week. 

Also, I didn’t want that little beagle anymore once I realized he was all gross and dirty. Erin said she was going to “gently” magic eraser him. Looks like it did the trick.

The one detail of this trip that Erin forgot to include was our extensive bonding on the drive home about how we both loved stuffed animals as children, but hated ones wearing clothing. I used to strip any stuffed animals I received as gifts that were wearing outfits. Erin just flat out refused to play with them if they wore clothes (she must have gotten over this by the time beanie babies rolled out because as I mentioned previously, she made clothes for hers.) 

Tomorrow, I will post an update about some sales I went to with Adam on Saturday, where I found some cool valuable treasures. 

Wow, it’s already Wednesday and we still haven’t updated you about the rest of our experience on Saturday, post-Re-Purpose-Blowout. 

We hinted at the fact that there was some cool stuff at that sale. I guess you have to go through battle to get to the good stuff. Like this: 

Pretty gross to find this at a grandma’s estate sale but grandma gotta get hers too, I guess. 

Ok, in all seriousness, I found this adorable vintage cat “gum parker” (don’t think about it too much… it will gross you out because it’s used)…

And a full box of these cool bookplates: 

and then this weird but cute thing: 

It’s a little jar filled with little babushka ladies. When Adam saw it, he asked, “Are those all of the souls you’ve stolen?” I guess that could have been featured as a TTFYHO post, just like Erin’s doll from the day before. I also got some other stuff, but those are the highlights. 

After we left this sale, we went to a few others in the Bloomfield Hills/Beverly Hills area. We stopped at one that wasn’t on our list, but I’m glad we stopped because I found this cool, sterling silver necklace: 

I also found a Sesame Street cookie jar from 1980, featuring Cookie Monster. When I got out into the bagging area (this company makes you wrap up and bag your own stuff), I found a handful of dead ants in it. AWESOME. 

The lady who owned the condo that this sale was at was a total baller! She had so many shoes, and they were all real fancy brands: 

Unfortunately, her shoe size was between a 5 and a 5.5, which isn’t even remotely close to mine. I bought a few of her shirts, though. 

The next sale was a letdown, but I did see this great item that I decided against buying: 

Great price for a weird insulting/loving statue. No, seriously. Can someone tell me WHO would purchase a sculpture of a fat, bald guy on a scale with his eyes literally bugging out of his head? 

The last sale we went to was a “digger” sale at this old house and barn. The pictures made it look crazy but it ended up being pretty disappointing. First, it was really dirty and grubby in there. Second, there wasn’t really anything good there. Third, these people were hoarders of some weird stuff. Like giant, open buckets of sand. Here are some pictures that Erin snapped inside and out: 

I bought a coffee table at the sale. It’s still in my car. Erin also found me another HUGGLET!!! I’m going to give it to her so Erin’s car can also be protected from evildoers. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: I have to disagree with Sarah about the weird old farmhouse.  I found an awesome old cast iron waffle maker from 1910.  I got it for $5 and on ebay right now it is at $21 and has 15 watchers!

Apparently Wagner Ware is some sort of collectible cast iron maker.  Three other waffle makers like mine sold for $100 each!  So my fingers are definitely crossed on this one!

I also got a GIANT bag full of bubble wrap for $1.  This is great because bubble wrap is so expensive!  If I have any surefire sale tips, it is to buy all tissue paper, bubble wrap, boxes, and wrapping paper at estate sales.

And then there were these Jello molds.  How are these not the most adorable of all jello molds?  THEY SAY JELLO.  Can’t get much cuter.

The last thing I will mention is this cool liquor set I got at the sale with the fancy shoes. The bottles are all really heavy glass, including the stoppers.  The holder is chrome with a locking mechanism so no one steals your booze.  They originally had this priced at $45 but since it was the last day of the sale, everything was marked way down.  Thank goodness because when I got home, I realized one of the bottles has a cracked corner and leaks!  I’m hoping I can find some sort of glue filler to seal it up.  I made up the term “glue filler” so my chances of finding it probably aren’t great.

Oh wait, one more thing.  I was seriously heartbroken when Sarah found that cat “gum parker” instead of me.  The face on it is THE BEST.  And the whole premise of having a fancy place to park my gum is alluring.  So I am now on the hunt for my own gum parker, and hopefully it is just as cute as Sarah’s.  

Update from Sarah: You can have the gum parker. It sort of grosses me out, and the face is the part I don't like. It looks human. 

We want to be totally upfront. Erin and I have spent the last couple of days mulling over whether or not to write about this. We know that this could be perceived as adding fuel to an already out of control forest fire. But in the end, we decided we needed to document this experience, because it is just too crazy not to.

If you’ve read the blog for a while, you’ll have noticed that because we live in southeast Michigan, we’ve gone to sales put on by RePurpose, which is the company featured on Cash & Cari. We don’t go to these because we’re weird groupies or superfans. We go to them because they’re just one among many companies in the area that run sales. The last time we went to one of their sales, we wrote it up as a letdown for a number of reasons. 

Despite that last experience, we started the day by going to one of their sales. (We go to plenty of disappointing sales and then back to another by that same company the next week.) Less than two minutes after being inside, we were approached by Cari and another woman who works for her. Cari let us know that she saw our blog, and that she was disappointed, and that our entry was mean. Erin quickly asked them if they had read any of the other entries, as we tend to be pretty sarcastic. Cari said no, and let us know that HGTV had found the entry and notified them about it. (Sidenote: Turns out we ARE world famous bloggers after all!!!)

They went on to inform us that the owner of all of the stuff at the “letdown” sale had been mentally retarded, which began their process of insinuating that a) this matters and b) we were making fun of the items for sale because of the man’s mental retardation. Neither of these things is true–we couldn’t have known anything about the seller (and we’ve written about this in the past), and we aren’t evil. They also seemed to be offended by our commentary on the way items were priced, but the fact that prices at their sales have gone up is true, and we aren’t the only ones who are saying so. Erin smiled and reiterated that the sale was overpriced. 

We were both really shocked by what was happening, and sort of stunned into silence for a while. Erin went into another room, and I kept looking at the cute things on the table in front of me–there was a lot of cool, reasonably priced stuff at the sale! But I could tell Erin was really upset–she does not like confrontation. I found her in a bedroom around the corner, and she expressed that she wanted to leave. I reminded her that a) we said nothing untrue and b) they were just upset that someone was criticizing them and c) HGTV was probably upset that someone called them unprofessional. 

A few minutes into looking around in the bedroom, the woman who was with Cari approached us again and asked why we were there. Now, once again, I think it goes without pointing out, particularly if they’ve found our blog, that we were there because we go to estate sales every weekend. If they had taken a moment to actually look at any of the other 70+ entries, they’d have realized that only TWO relate to a sale run by them. But after listening to this woman rant for a while, it became clear that they were under the impression that the sole purpose of us going to their sales was to sabotage their reputation. This is actually hilarious–they must think we have a lot of free time on our hands. Good God.

The woman was so agitated that it was nearly impossible to respond to her questions or say anything at all really. She went on and on about the fairness of the Barbie prices (as if I wanted to buy them all), that they had been priced at “fair market value” and they ended up selling them for much less (shocking!) She also repeatedly tried to bring up the fact that the owner of the items at that sale was mentally retarded, as if it had some sort of impact on what is or is not amusing to us. I interrupted her and explained that it was ridiculous to even suggest that.

Despite anything either of us tried to say, she went on and on with her defense, explaining how stressful that sale was for the company, and that they had been busy ALL DAY and was it really so bad that they took a couple of minutes to laugh at a funny video on the Internet? (The best part is that if they had read that entry closely, they would have seen that I specifically said watching a video of popping a giant blackhead is SOMETHING I WOULD DO MYSELF.) I was getting so tired of hearing her loud, angry defense that I finally just looked at her and asked, “What is it that you want us to do? Do you want us to take down the entry?” She told me no, but then didn’t seem to have an answer about what action we could take to make them happy. She just wanted to yell at us. 

The icing on the cake is that while Erin and I were being scolded, an older woman had come into the room and was observing what was going on with a concerned look on her face. I was facing her and getting more and more uncomfortable because I could tell she was really uncomfortable. Finally, she asked what was going on, and expressed that she did not want to be in the middle of a fight on television (no, they weren’t recording us.) Finally, the woman who was confronting us left the room.

We went through the rest of the house, each bought some cool stuff, and high-tailed it outta there. Erin and I spent the rest of the afternoon going to other sales and reflecting on how insane our morning had been. As this is part of her personality, Erin was searching for ways that maybe we had messed up. We could come up with nothing, besides the fact that it wasn’t necessary to mention the zit video. Even that was a stretch–it was obviously a joke. Also, just in case anyone’s keeping tabs, I think we can all agree that it is unprofessional to watch an exploding zit video while customers are shopping at your estate sale. 

The more I think about this whole experience, the more flabbergasted I am. We write a blog about estate sales, and we wrote about our experience. We also made some jokes. This is what we do in every entry. Combined, Erin and I have spent literally hundreds of dollars at Cari’s sales. How anyone at a company featured on a national television show thought that this was a reasonable way to address online criticism is beyond me. But I’ve gotta say, it is pretty damn beautifully ironic that Cari and her assistant found it appropriate to publicly chastise two people for writing on a blog about the company’s lack of professionalism at a previous sale. 

We will have to post another update about the rest of the sales we went to on Saturday (not to mention Friday). In conclusion, the best part of this whole experience was that Erin found an original Bob Dylan poster in the basement of Cari’s sale. She bought it for $5 and it has sold in the past for as much as $200. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin:  Sarah is right, I did immediately try to find reasons why this was all our fault and we needed to apologize.  The more we talked though, the more I realized that this whole situation was ridiculous and overblown.  

Are we sarcastic?  Yes.  Did we need to say all the stuff we did about that particular Cari sale? No. But we don’t really need to say much of anything we post on here.  We could simply post photos every week of our finds and leave out the commentary, but instead we choose to include all of the things that run through our heads while out at these sales.  It is more interesting to us, and I assume to our (20 or so) readers.

So in that respect, we take responsibility for what we post. We write what we write for some laughs and to shed light on a hobby. And in doing so, I think we just assume that everyone will take this all in stride. Maybe this is a mistake on our part. But Becky and Lance from the “House of Horrors” posts are perfect examples.  I was super hesitant to have Sarah contact them because the things we wrote could come off as offensive. We were light and jokey about that sale, but not everyone is light and jokey.  Becky and Lance thankfully turned out to have a great sense of humor (and also be awesome.) 

It’s not fair for us to ask that anyone and everyone just “take a joke.”  But it is also not fair to go all grizzly bear on two women in public. The amount of yelling that was happening on Saturday was absurd and embarrassing. I got so freaked out that I was physically shaking, which is SO CRAZY. This is a blog with a pretty limited readership, as far as we know.  This isn’t some sort of New York Times-whistleblower-inside source-Wikileaks type shit.

Whew.  I could go on and on.  This whole situation was a giant bummer for Sarah and I. I don’t think we will be sale-ing at RePurpose sales anymore. There will be one more post in the future about my dad being on the show, but I’ll try to keep it glowingly positive.  Which, for the record, I felt like our first Cash & Cari post was.

So last week I had norovirus and Sarah had to roll solo.  I was SO BUMMED because the sales I missed looked great.  Anyway, I decided to go hit some sales today.  The first one was in Farmington and was advertised as having tons of antiques.  It had antiques but wasn’t a very “packed” sale.  There was nothing to really dig through.

I immediately found this old record cabinet and the price on it could not be beat.  It needs to be cleaned for sure, as well as stained and/or polished. $20.

There is a weird piece of carpet sitting on top of it in this photo which is not a part of it.  So if you were worried about that, don’t be.

In the basement of this house I found a little box and inside were these mini liquor bottles.  It seems like I have a habit of buying old-ass liquor at sales, but I really don’t.  I just thought these were really cool looking.  Some of them are still sealed, which can sell pretty well on ebay.

I got all of them for $5.

I also found a bunch of old 78s.  At one point, Zach told me about old records made of heavier vinyl, and how jazz ones or something can be collectable.  I know nothing about records at all, but all of these were $10 so I took a chance.  We’ll see if they end up being valuable, and if they don’t, I will give them to Sarah because she CLEARLY buys records at every sale we go to.  

The BEST part by far of this sale though, was the live cockatoo that I got to hold.  I turned a corner and there it was, just chilling on some guy’s arm.  I asked if I could pet it, and the bird just straight up climbed onto me.  Turns out that this guy didn’t live at the house, he just takes his pet bird out on the town with him.  This is cool with me because the cockatoo was super nice and snuggling all up on me.  It tried to bite the man when he went to separate us two.  That’s right, birds, like most creatures, are obsessed with me.  Anyway, here is a blurry photo the guy took.

When I left this sale, I headed to another one in Garden City.  As I started getting close, I recognized the neighborhood as one I had been to before.  AND THEN I REALIZED WHAT WAS HAPPENING.  THIS WAS A TRICK, and it wasn’t the first time I had fallen for it.

This place is a weird hippie hangout that Zach and I were once lured to.  They often advertise online as being an “estate sale” or an “auction,”  when really they are just the same old creepy warehouse full of hippies selling garbage.  That sounds really mean because it is really mean.  However, it is also true. Since I was there, I went in.

Today, the folks were spray-painting indoors.  The placed smelled like what it smells like when you spray-paint indoors.  Oh, did I forget to mention that this place doesn’t just sell antiques?  It is also an artist collective where you can work on your spray-paint artwork.  And they have music shows there too.  This is the stage.  

And apparently, they also have karaoke.

Here are some Flubbers hanging out on a couch.  I didn’t buy them.

To be fair, I did find one treasure that I am absolutely thrilled over.  IT IS SO CUTE.  It is a mini toy safe from France.  It has tiny little wheels.  I am going to put it in my kitchen next to some other knick-knacks that are similar in style and color. $15, which is steep but so worth it.

The photo doesn’t really do it justice, but believe me, it is REAL cute.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: First, that record cabinet looks like someone threw it out of a moving vehicle a few times. Who are you turning into? Me? Second, I cannot believe you didn’t wait until Saturday to go to the Garden City sale. Look at the ad for it, pasted in its entirety: 

The contents of FOUR seperate estates all in one location.

Home Made Corned Beef & Cabbage Served Saturday ALL DAY!!!

Saturday Night Open Mic Party Doors open at 6pm

I hinted previously that a plastic toy brontosaurus I had bought might end up being part of our “money maker” series, and indeed it did.

When I first picked this guy up, I took a chance on him for a couple reasons.  First, he was stamped on the bottom with all sorts of info.  If he was just a cheapie dino from China he wouldn’t have so many stats.

I also took a chance on him because “Brontosaurus” as a prehistoric creature no longer exists.  I don’t mean that he is extinct (like all his dino pals) but as a type of dinosaur, the “Brontosaurus” is no more.  Some scientists had thought the Apatosaurus and the Brontosaurus were different animals, when they were really the same.  Apatosaurus won out.

Anyway, I put this guy on ebay and he instantly started getting bids.  LIKE A LOT OF BIDS.  So I did a bit of research.  This dino was sold in museum gift shops and was therefore pretty rare to begin with.  He was also made by Invicta Plastics, which was heralded for its high quality dinosaur casts.

So get this, I paid ONE DOLLAR for my Brontosaurus buddy.  And he sold for SIXTY ONE DOLLARS.  Thems good margins.

I messaged the buyer and asked him about the dinosaur and his reason for buying.  Here is what he said: 

Hello! These items are very hard to find!(Almost every invicta plastic dinosaur! Specially in mint condition!)Production line stopped in the early 90’s in the UK!I’ve been wanting these beautifull classic damn plastic dinos since i was a kid maddly!Never did purchase them!Untill these last days!(used! 2-3 items missing!)For enthusiasts like me there pretty collectable! Any info on a Dimetrodon would be great or any Invicta British Museum Of Natural History Plastic Dinosaur!

For the record, this guy is from Greece, which may explain the odd phrasing and abundance of exclamation points.  Anyway, I LOVE his enthusiasm and cannot wait to ship out his dino.  His country may be responsible for the collapse of the Euro, but HELL THEY’VE NOW GOT ONE OF THE RAREST COLLECTIBLE PLASTIC DINOSAURS EVERRRR.  

-Erin

We were lucky enough to have TWO days of sale-ing this past week since Sarah was off on winter break from work.  Thursday morning we headed out to a pretty promising Detroit sale.  I say promising because it was advertised as being in Boston Edison neighborhood, which is crazy fancy.  I got to film at a mansion there last Spring and the home was seriously insane.

When we arrived at the sale, we noticed two things.  One, that we were nowhere near the Boston Edison neighborhood, and two, this bumper sticker:

It’s a little worn, but it says “PIMP PRIDE.”  Holla!

The yard of the house signaled the treasures that awaited us:

If your guess is that this house holds bounties of jewels and gold, you’re wrong.  If you think it might hold rooms and rooms of garbage, you are spot on.

It also held a crap-ton of mugs.

Here is a photo of Sarah looking through the mugs.  There were a lot of mugs she wanted but couldn’t buy.  For some ASININE reason, the mugs were all chained to each other and to the stand they were on.  Unless you brought your bolt cutters, these mugs were for display only.

Some lady passed by and made a joke about Detroit having a mug shortage and now we know why.  Har har har.

The mugs were only the first example of stockpiled items.  Everything in the house came in bulk.  Stacks of unopened charcoal, cleaning supplies, toaster ovens…

When we made it to the attic things started to make sense.  This person was TOTALLY GEARING UP FOR THE APOCALYPSE.  You need 80 toaster ovens because when the world ends, you can’t count on just one toaster oven.  And you need a LOT of ketchup:

If you don’t have anything to put the ketchup on, at least you have a thousand mugs you can pour ketchup into and drink.

And you can salt the ketchup beverage with all the salt you’ve saved:

I was seriously shocked by this house.  We’ve seen our fair share of crazy houses, but this took the cake thus far.  I started getting creeped out, like I was in an episode of The Walking Dead.  At one point, I was rummaging through a box in the attic and something fell out.  The noise of it hitting the ground scared me so bad that I screamed.

Here are some survival barrels we uncovered.  Government sanctioned of course:

This is not to say that we didn’t find ANY treasures.  I found a little brass turtle box that is crazy adorable.  I put him on ebay but am kind of regretting it.  

He already has 2 bids though, so there is no turning back.

I also found this terra cotta cooker.  I looked it up on ebay and they usually sell for between $20 and $30.  

I have it listed now on ebay. Here’s the thing though, I think I have to take the listing down.  I looked up online how to clean these things because it was all dusty.  I scrubbed it with baking soda and hot water, and then it started releasing this INSANE smell.  The filthiest dirt smell ever.  A smell so bad that Zach woke up from a nap and was like, “WHAT IS THAT???”  Anyway, I put the cooker inside a bag with a box of baking soda for two days.  It still smells.  It is now sitting on our back porch hopefully “airing out.”

I’ll keep you all updated if this thing suddenly starts smelling like roses.

-Erin 

Update from Sarah: Erin’s right. This sale was crazy. The quantity of mugs at it was out of control. I have no idea how, but I was able to get one of the crazy chained ones off one of the racks. I was desperately trying to get one with a confederate flag on it off the same rack, but I was not successful. Erin was really embarrassed that I was trying to get that one off the rack because the sale was being run by an African American family. Come on. I’m sure they’ve watched the Dukes of Hazzard. Also, it’s not like I was going to keep it! 

Anyway, here are the four mugs that I did buy. Adam loves the two old timey ones, and of course the Piston’s one. 

I really don’t need any mugs, but when has that ever stopped me? 

The other thing Erin didn’t mention about this sale was that when we got into the basement, there were even more mugs, along with an overwhelming chemical smell that immediately made both of us worry that we were being poisoned. We quickly left the basement. 

I purchased a couple of other items at this sale, including this silver-plated Snoopy bank from 1958. I thought Adam would like it but in retrospect, I should have realized it was sort of gross.

One other, cuter Peanuts-themed item (we’re big Peanuts fans over here) that I purchased: 

Unfortunately, Adam didn’t really like this that much either, but I think I do. I might put it in my office at work. 

Besides all of the tempting ketchup, salt, and instant coffee, here’s another thing we saw there that we didn’t buy: 

An old wheelchair that looks like something out of a Marilyn Manson video, carrying some broke ass lampshades. 

After this sale, we went to a sale in St. Claire Shores that we were really excited to go to, but it ended up being bad because the people running it thought they knew some secret about how much things were worth, but really it was just a bunch of overpriced junk. I am ashamed to admit it but I bought these for $7.50: 

I had to buy them. What they say is true. 

Sorry about the animal hair in that photo. During my week off, this is what I was dealing with: 

Isn’t she cute? She’s my new dog, Betsy. She deserves a moment of recognition on this world famous blog. 

Erin and I also went to National Coney Island again, where I was able to make her buy me TEN bags of those coney chips because she owed me some money. 

Tomorrow, I’ll update you all with how day two went. The highlight of the day may or may not have been a potato taco Lenten special. 

So, because the snowpocalypse was a complete and total non-event, Erin and I were able to hit the road on Friday, and we managed to get out at a relatively early hour. The first sale we went to was a big ol’ dud, but we sort of expected that. The best thing was what happened when we walked in the door: An extremely flamboyant man greeted us, and then said to the woman working the sale with him, “See? I knew the schools being closed today was going to get us some extra traffic… the kids are out.” Now, it is not abnormal for people to think that we are extremely young (especially me–sorry, Erin), but not THAT young. So I said, “Oh. I’m thirty-three.” He tried to cover it up by saying “Oh, I KNOW! I wasn’t talking about YOU.” But it’s like… uh…then who were you talking about, bro? 

Anyway, the sale was bad, but I bought some birthday candles. Because they are always things that Adam and I forget whether we have or not (when we’re celebrating a birthday), so now I can always think back to this crappy sale and remember that we do have candles, and I don’t need to buy more. 

Erin purchased some old dishes that she thought might be valuable. I’m sure she will do an entry on those if they end up actually being good. She also found this, but decided against purchasing it, because the type of exercise it makes you do is far too strenuous: 

I also bought an old Spanish language kit that contains records, which I thought was sort of cool. Anyway, we high-tailed it outta there, because we were really eager to get to the sale pictured here. 

We arrived there, and as we suspected, the sale contained many amazing items, and many mysteries. One mystery: Why did this woman love ironing so much? 

Those are indeed irons peeking out from every drawer. 

As mentioned on Friday, Erin did hit the gold with Marx figures yet again, and at a sale run by the same women! She paid a hefty sum ($60) for her box of goodies, but I think she will make some good money on them. 

Here are some pictures of the goodies at the sale: 

What? You don’t want an armadillo bag? 

I knew this sale was going to be good because it contained a ton of paper ephemera, and even though it was packed, it did not disappoint. I discovered a box overflowing with vintage greeting cards that all seemed to be unused and adorable. Of course, it was not priced, and knowing that these women sometimes like to overcharge, I worried about what she’d say when I checked out. Well, Erin’s habit of chit chatting people at these things worked for me.  Erin blabbed on about how we love this company’s sales (which is true) and asked about upcoming sales.  The lady was super chatty and friendly, which always helps when I am about to ask for a price on something.

For the greeting cards, I was expecting a crazy price like $80… She said, “You didn’t find any postcards in here? Nothing besides greeting cards?… How about $15?” Uh HELL YEAH. Anyway, I paid and high tailed it outta there. When Erin got in the car she immediately expressed disbelief in how cheap the cards were. I just kept staring at the box, saying, “I AM SO EXCITED.” Here’s a picture of the mass of them: 

I purchased a bunch of other stuff at that sale, including some original Battlestar Galactica records that I thought Adam would want. Guess I was wrong about that one. And then I got this adorable thing: 

Paper dolls in a very cool old tray/frame. $20.

The next sale we went to was the gross sale featured last night. I think it’s summarized pretty well there, but I can’t believe Erin passed up this gem: 

She said, “That’s the kind of doll that would kill you in your sleep." 

I purchased two packages of vintage Christmas present tags and immediately regretted it, just because having them in my hands made me feel dirty. 

From there, we had to make a choice about which direction to go in. In the end, we picked the wrong way (East) because the sales in Warren that looked good were really bad (except for finding Mrs. Beasely, who WE SHOULD HAVE PURCHASED). But we did find two amazing things in Warren. 

First, we found Tringali’s, which Erin told me I would not want a treat from–not because she had ever been there, but because she is from the area (sort of) and "it looks real old.” Ok, cool. Good reason. 

ANYWAY, we pulled up and it looked like a typical old/established Michigan bakery. Of course, when we walked in, Erin immediately realized how wrong she was. We wanted ALL the treats. I basically got them all:

And they were delicious. 

Don’t be alarmed by the quantity of treats in that box. That bakery is probably 50+ miles from me. I needed to stock up for the weekend. Erin is more sensible and just got this: 

She then proceeded to leave in my box. So I ate it. 

The last great thing we found wasn’t actually inside a sale. It was a bumper sticker on the car in the driveway of the last sale, obviously meaning that it was owned by someone who was working for the sale company. The sticker was a picture of the “shocker” symbol and said, “Two in the goo; one in the poo.” I tried to make Erin take a picture of it, but she refused. 

The day ended crappy, because we were supposed to reconvene at my house to eat pizza, watch a scary movie, and post our goodies on eBay. But the roads got really icy and Erin witnessed a horrible accident, so she turned around and went home.

Instead I ate chili fries with my dog and sorted through my awesome cards. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: It’s true that I didn’t buy that exerciser at the first sale.  I did test it out, and it did seem kind of hard.  But I also didn’t buy it BECAUSE IT WAS JUST A LAZY SUSAN DISGUISED AS AN EXERCISER.  I prefer my exercise gear to be truly innovative. 

The dishes I bought at this sale were vintage Homer Laughlin china.  I currently have them on ebay, so we will see how that goes.  They are super pretty and made in the USA to boot.

At the second sale, I found the MARX figures that Sarah mentioned already.  I am SO excited about them.  I did pay $60 up front (which is terrifying) but I think it was a good investment.  I emailed the guy who bought my last set of MARX figures to tell him I had found more in case he was interested.  He said the following:

Wow! You are LUCKY! The metallic blue guys are GOLD! You will probably make a lot more money than you did on the last batch (which I loved). Don’t think I can hang with this lot! Thanks again (I will watch, though!)

-John

The metallic blue guys he refers to are a set of 12 cavalry men that came with only one of the MARX playsets. I guess they are super rare!

I’ll keep everyone posted on what they finally sell for.

Other things on my mind are how crazy that whole Mrs. Beasley doll thing was and how totally stupid I am for forgetting my lemon bar inside Sarah’s dessert box. I will have lemon bar nostalgia for at least a few days.