Dig This Treasure!

I guess this is technically a “Hard to Resist” post, because all of the following items were really hard for us not to purchase.  You might remember the dumpster-diving sale last week which offered such fine items as McDonald’s snack makers and “not-laser disc” Tron laser discs.  This sale also offered an incredible assortment of aardvark-related items.

I don’t know what makes someone love aardvarks so much, but I really can’t judge because I was obsessed with manatees and pigs growing up.  I was a card-carrying member of the Save the Manatees Club and adopted a manatee named Ariel.  And for Halloween one year, my parents let me dress as a ballerina pig, which is such a SERIOUSLY BAD decision on their part because I was a fat kid.

Before we move on, here are some aardvark facts:

From what I can tell, aardvarks and Sarah have three characteristics in common.  I’ll let you guess which ones.

I didn’t see any tickets from the 2nd or 3rd annual Aardvark convention, which leads me to believe that numero uno didn’t go so well.

Um, no.  I have not hugged an Aardvark today.  I probably would though.

It took Sarah a good 30 seconds of convincing before she put this on.  So worth it though.

This all just goes to show you that you really can collect anything….although there is no guarantee at your eventual estate sale that anyone will buy any of it.  

-Erin 

Update from Sarah: That plastic aardvark nose grossed me out SO BAD. 

It’s time to share some more estate sale items we had a REALLY hard time not buying.  

Why on Earth would you want a fake life-sized child that just creepily hangs out and pretends to play Hide-N-Seek?  I’ve seen enough The Good Son to know how terrifying kids playing Hide-N-Seek are.  Also, when I wake up at night, I have a hard enough time not scaring myself by imagining a demonic child is going to pop up on the side of my bed.  Imagine this thing in the dark.  IT’S THE END OF BLAIR WITCH PEOPLE. 

“Hey Bill, we are going to put you on a shirt.  Yeah, we are using that photo of you staring into space with your mouth wide open.”

This wizard Santa was in a horrible car accident and is still recovering.  Prayers please.

Who am I kidding? I would totally read this book:

They were sold out of the friendly rabbits.  They were also sold out of the rabbits not holding suspicious items between their legs.

For more HTR entries, look here!

-Erin

Last Friday (Good Friday) honestly didn’t seem that promising. Because of the holiday, there weren’t very many sales. But it ended up being such an awesome day that we’re going to have to split the adventure into multiple posts! 

We started out our day by visiting two sales on the east side of town. The pictures of the first one looked promising, but it ended up being packed full of junk. We knew this was going to be the case when we saw people DUMPSTER DIVING in the driveway. 

For a minute I thought this was a good sign, but it really was not. 

Inside, the place was full of old stuff, but they had a lot of it priced really high, and then the rest was sort of dirty or just cheap and junky. I did find a few cool things. An inflatable birthday cake (don’t worry, it’s never been opened). 

Who wouldn’t want this ultimate birthday gift? 

I also found some old Fantasia postcards…

…And I honestly can’t remember what else I bought at this sale except for an old flip book for Adam. They were selling a bunch of vintage Disney flip books and the I thought the lady running the sale was full of it when she kept telling us they were valuable, but it turns out she was right! Oh well! 

Here is an overview of what you missed out on if you skipped this sale: 

Looking through some show tunes on vinyl.. busted! 

That is one among many paper box tops filled with Agatha Christie mysteries. 

The house was FILLED with these SelectaVision VideoDiscs, which Adam just told me are called CEDs and were the precursors to laser discs. You may recall Erin saying that she only watches movies on laser disc, so I’m shocked that she did not jump on this rare opportunity to enhance her collection. 

On the way out, Erin actually made friends with some of the dumpster divers. 

I asked the guy on the right if he found anything good in there. He started talking about how he found some stuff for movie sets and that he’s in the video production business, so Erin started chatting him up. She asked if he needed any editing work and ended up with his business card. So all of you job seekers out there… check the dumpsters! 

We checked the listings for sales nearby since we had no plan. We found a sale that was described as being at the home of a former gift shop owner and Erin and I both got pretty pumped. It was only about 20 minutes away, so we hit the road. As soon as we walked in, we were transported to A Whole New World. 

Yes, you are in fact looking at a life-size plush carousel. It seriously only got worse. 

Those bears are on bikes, and they were $10 each. 

Now I’m no expert but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that if you have MASS QUANTITIES of Easter goods overflowing your counter space two days before Easter, it would in fact be the PERFECT time to make those exact items half off. 

The den was filled with dirty old plastic toys and “DVDs”…although I’d argue that this woman was fairly confused about what DVD means. 

I would also like to know where on Earth a VHS tape is worth $4. Probably the same place where a dirty, ratty old paperback is also worth $4. I’ll get to that in a minute. 

We headed to the basement and that’s where Erin found Beanie Baby Heaven. When we got down there, it became clear that this was some sort of weird “I’m selling all of my possessions” sale because the woman’s teenage daughter was down there and talked to us for a while. She told us that “everything except the beanie babies” was half off. Right away, I found some vintage teen paperbacks that I thought a friend might like, a couple of records, and an old Pucci doll.

I was about to pay when we realized that there was also an upstairs. Of course we had to check it out. It was the worst of the worst. 

You are reading that correctly. TWELVE DOLLARS for a gross old used men’s sweatshirt. I’m not sure a new sweatshirt costs that much at like, Target.

I also found this totally bodacious one-piece suit. 

To top off our visit, we found this stain. Clearly a biohazard. 

Right after I walked in and saw this, Erin walked in and made a priceless face. I’ve captured it here for your enjoyment.

One more time. 

At this point, it was clearly time to check out and the lady told me my total was $16.50. I almost just took out a $20 but then reality hit me and I had no idea how a couple records, books, and a tiny stuffed animal could cost that much. I asked how much the books were and she said, “Four dollars… so they’re two dollars today.” I still felt confused and then realized that she meant EACH ONE was that much. I said, “…oh…that’s A LOT.” The lady seemed shocked by this, and Erin reiterated that $4 for a paperback that cost 25 cents in the 1950s was insane. Then the woman told me, “oh… well I’ve been selling them like crazy for the last four weeks.” I’m not sure why we did not ask this but… WHY HAVE YOU BEEN HAVING AN ESTATE SALE FOR FOUR WEEKS?! 

Anyway, I paid for everything besides the books and we high-tailed it out of there. In part two of this Friday update, we’ll tell you all about we heard some gossip about this very sale at our next stop! 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: At that first sale, I did in fact call all those weird CEDS “laser discs.”  Some guy heard this and later hunted Sarah and I down to tell us that these were NOT laser discs.  He didn’t know their proper name (thanks Adam) but knew FOR SURE that these IN NO WAY were laser discs.  Thanks man, but I’m still not buying them.

I didn’t find much at this sale, but they did have this snack maker, which Sarah was not shocked to learn I had as a child.  Spoiler alert: I was a fat youth.

I remember this being kind of janky when I was young.  The fry maker would shred a piece of bread into strips and voila, you had fries.  Except not.  I can certainly tell the difference between shredded bread and french fries.

They also had this doormat, which cracked me up immensely:

Someone’s last name was “Chicks” or someone was trying to welcome “the chicks” to this house, in which case, that someone should have cleaned up all the Tron CEDS and McDonald snack makers before said chicks arrived.  

I found one treasure here.  A pennant from the 1950s or 60s, for the St. Louis Cardinals.  When I reported this find to Timmy, he was so thrilled.  Apparently the green background on this is mega rare.  It will be on ebay soon.  I paid $5.

The second sale was held in the fourth circle of hell which, if you don’t remember, is reserved for the hoarders and the spendthrifts. 

Ok, let me explain something about Beanie Babies.  Wait–let me first explain my Beanie Baby credentials.  Early readers of this blog may remember, but this is me:

I know my stuff.  TRUST.

Beanie Babies in 2013 are worth exactly the scrap price of polyester blend fabric and tiny plastic beads, which as it turns out, is $0.00.  That said, at estate sales and garage sales, young children still love them a cheap Beanie.  So here is what you do: sell each Beanie Baby for 25 cents, or even better, let any kid who shows up fill their grubby little arms with as many Beanies as they want–for free.

Instead, the woman at this sale was selling each Beanie for $2.50, which sounds cheap, but isn’t when you have THOUSANDS to sell.

I didn’t find anything to buy here, although chances are I couldn’t afford it anyway.  Case in point:

A few weeks ago, Adam and I were driving to get some breakfast in Ann Arbor, when we spotted a sign for an estate sale. We did the “Secret Sale!” chant, but decided we were too hungry to stop, and that we’d hit it on the way back home instead. Since this blog often mixes food and treasure hunting, I’ll just say that this was a great day as far as both of these things go.

First, the food. It was the day I discovered that Afternoon Delight offers something called “The Berry Patch” on their menu, which consists of frozen yogurt and fresh fruit. No, this isn’t something special and mind-blowing but I have never seen this on a brunch menu, and let me tell you–it’s good. The only thing that was not good was the line we had to wait in to get served, and this man behind us got so close that his iPhone was literally rubbing against me so often that I had to move and make Adam receive the phone rubdown instead. Proof:

He’s so close you can see the dirt under his fingernails! UGH!

Before going back to the sale, we hit up the Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library’s bookshop. If you’re from the area and don’t know about this hidden treasure, you should. In the basement of the main library on 5th, the library’s Friends organization runs a resale shop that consists of book donations and withdrawn stuff from the collection. It’s insanely awesome and most used books are between 1 and 2 bucks. Maybe I’ll feature it another day. Anyway, we found some treasures there and went on with our day.

The secret sale actually wasn’t secret–I just hadn’t noticed it in the listings that weekend. It was the home of an artist, and there was SO MUCH of this woman’s artwork in the house, it was unreal.

That last piece was so awesome, but it was huge, and was marked $475 I think. Fair for a piece of original art, but not in my price range! I wish I could have captured more of the quantity of artwork there, because there was just so much of it. It was all priced very reasonably.

One of the first things I noticed when I went inside was this little box of dudes.

The Santas weren’t in the box–I stuck them in there… but it wasn’t until I bought these that I realized that it’s a nativity scene. They really looked like something Erin would like, and as it turns out I guessed correctly. Am I a nice friend or what? These are bread dough figurines made in Calderon, Ecuador, which apparently is known for its bread dough figurines.

She also had two dolls that were really interesting, and looked vaguely familiar to me. I can’t remember what they were priced, but I remember thinking it was too much for me to pay.

Here in the US, people often call them “puta dolls,” but apparently that’s a misnomer. It translates into “whore dolls.” These are Mexican paper mache dolls that are called munecas de carton. I found a really interesting article about them, and about how people buy them in Mexico for really cheap and then resell them here for about 5x that amount. Ugh. That’s sad. Anyway, I thought they were really cool but you could tell they made Adam want to die.

I left the sale with some cool shirts that I forgot to take pictures of, a few books, the coolest of which is this one,

and some vintage Automobile Association stuff:

I have no idea if it’s worth anything, but it will be cool to sort through.

I also got this little printed cloth.

I have no idea what I’m going to do with it but it sure is cute!

Adam didn’t buy anything but he did shell out a whole bunch of eye rolls.

-Sarah

Last Friday, Sarah and I were at it again.  The sales looked kind of promising, so we headed out full of hope.  The first sale was in Bloomfield Hills and looked packed full of art.  It indeed did end up being packed full of art.

A lot of the art was legit, but some of it was fake paintings on cardboard in frames without glass.  All of it, however, was not really my style.  The mix here was religious-y art and Oriental-type stuff, all with some horse art thrown in.  Those plates in the very bottom of the photo above were horse silhouettes.  They made me feel wild and free.

Speaking of horses, I did actually like this one:

It was priced at $45, which seemed reasonable because someone handmade this.  I didn’t buy it though because I already have one horse sculpture.  Oh wait, I have two.  Although the second one is more alien-horse than horse-horse.

Here are some other things neither I, nor Sarah, bought:

How hard is it to keep clothes on dolls?  Why are ALL old dolls naked? 

I am not a big mid century person, which I am assuming this table is.  It might also be from the 70s, which is even worse to me.  Still, kudos because all of the furniture seemed fairly priced, along with most of the items in the house.

Here is Sarah wearing purple tights and having a bookgasm.

I did buy one thing here, a silver swan bowl/tray.  I bought this to resell because it is REALLY heavy, and my speculation is that it is sterling silver plate, or maybe just silver plate.  I remembered seeing a really similar one at a sale a few weeks ago that was selling for almost $2,000.  I doubt this one is worth that much but it was worth the gamble.

The second sale we hit was in Farmington Hills.  It was run by a company that literally named itself “Oy Such a Deal.”  Maybe they abbreviate it to OSAD, who knows.  SPOILER ALERT: What I do know is that they should call themselves “Oy We Sell Garbage” or “Oy We Sell $75 Chalkboards” or “Oy We Hate Beyonce” (that will make sense in a minute). 

When we walked in, the workers were having this super loud conversation about how Beyonce can’t really sing.  They were going on and on about how it’s “all computers.”  I WAS STEAMING…like honestly furious.  I almost said something, but then started cracking up at how hilarious it would be if I actually defended Beyonce herself at an estate sale.  You know who DOESN’T need my help in this world?  Beyonce.  She is doing just fine.

Anyway, the sale was full of garbage.  And really expensive garbage at that.

World’s Most Expensive “Vintage” Chalkboard.

Sarah liked these little school chairs, but they were $40 each:

Needless to say, I didn’t buy anything.  Oy, such a bummer.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Ok, what is UP with that penis thumb picture that Erin added but didn’t say a damn word about?!

I’ll start with the second sale because it was the most infuriating. I found four records (reasonably priced at $1 each) and two mugs. When I got up to the checkout desk (where that penis thumb was located), she told me that they’d only take cards if the total was $20 or more. You know what’s cheap? THAT. Take the 30 cent hit and let me give you $7 on my credit card for that garbage. Erin and I were both without cash that day because we started pretty late. Oh well. I guess I really didn’t need that ‘80s Care Bears record. Or the '80s Garfield mug.

At the first sale, I found some great stuff, but it took some digging.

First, this adorable reindeer sweater that is acrylic and itchy but worth it for the cuteness.

I also found this very cute (legit) Coach purse for $20. It’s more orange than red.

And these cute earrings.

Finally, before I left for work that morning, Adam told me I was dressed like Punky Brewster. What he meant to say was that I was dressed like a weird elf. That outfit looks so wack from behind–it looks like I’m wearing nothing but a huge coat and purple tights! This is why I don’t have a 3-way mirror in my house.

Anyway, Erin’s right. I WAS having a bookgasm. I get SO excited when I see a room full of books. Unfortunately, these people didn’t have a lot of winners, but they did have a very strange mix. Super conservative Christian stuff mixed with books about hypnosis. Here are some of those cool old books about neurosis, hypnosis, and many other osis-es.

I found the best book in the bunch. And yes, of course I bought it. 

Last Tuesday, I had the day off because of doctor’s appointment mid-day, and I was really pleased because there was a crazy looking sale that started that day. Sales typically do not begin that early in the week, but there are a few boneheaded companies that do such a thing. The pictures of this sale reflected that it was: 1) very dirty and 2) full of old things–especially from the ‘80s. I am cool with both of those conditions, so I was excited to have the chance to go check out this sale. I was right on both fronts. Here is evidence in both regards: 

1) Mega dirty:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dirtier Sesame Street toy. 

2) Lots of '80s stuff: 

What you see here are boxes of cereal from the 1980s that are in plastic bags. They were each marked $10, I believe. Quite a steal. 

First things first–this sale was being run by our old friend, THAT GUY. That guy is a total scammer, and has no idea what he’s talking about. So half the stuff at this sale was overpriced and the other half was underpriced. In the end, it all worked out. And even though this sale was totally, disgustingly filthy, I found some cool stuff. Both to laugh about and to purchase. 

On my way upstairs, I spotted this box of naked Ken dolls. I don’t know why, but it really made me crack up. 

Once upstairs, I made my way into a room filled with possibly the most stuffed animals and dolls I have ever seen in such a small space. 

This doesn’t really do it justice. When I was in this room, a woman came in and asked me, “Do you think this is all one person’s?” How sad that this was probably her first estate sale experience. I told her yes, that this was one person’s stuff. She looked horrified. 

Most of the dolls and stuffed animals in these boxes were in sorta gross shape, but I still was excited about the quantity, because really… there are so many possibilities for treasures. It turns out that I DID find a treasure in one of these boxes. 

Tee hee, just kidding. I found an adorable Rushton mouse, who was in really great shape!

Like I mentioned–half of the stuff at this sale was overpriced, and the other half was underpriced. That mouse was priced the same as Chucky up above! 

Here’s some other stuff I laughed about: 

Look at that dummy! 

If anyone ever wanted to start a collection of California Raisins… here was a perfect opportunity. 

Huggabunch…what up?! Just in case you were wondering, his name was Hugsy. 

In the end, I found some cute things, including another Joan Walsh Anglund doll. She has heart patches on her knees!

I also found two GIANT boxes of photographs.They were marked $75 (for both), and the guy would NOT budge, so I decided to take a risk. As it turns out, there were over 1,000 pictures in the boxes and some of them were bulge photos, so I think I’ll have an update about the outcome of that find, sometime in the future! 

-Sarah

The other day, Erin and I had a conversation about the purpose of those “Baby on Board” signs that people used to put on cars in the 1980s. We had this conversation because we still see cars sporting these signs. The only conclusion I could come to was that people are trying to be like “Don’t hit my car–there’s a BABY inside!” to fellow drivers, but I’m not sure. Does anyone out there have one of these on their car who’d be willing to provide some insight?  

Anyway, at a sale last week I found the perfect thing for Erin, but it was too pricey to purchase as a joke: 

Basically, this is a baby version of ME that Erin could have put on her ride. Note that the actual BABY ITSELF sticks onto your car windows–not just the sign. 

In conclusion, What. The. F*ck. 

-Sarah

Wow, we’re really behind. Well, last Friday we went out for the second day in a row because I’m lucky enough to get a winter break. We started out by going to a sale in Dearborn that was put on by one of our favorite companies. They seem to like us and give us deals, which is awesome. I saw some old paper in some of the pictures of this sale, so I knew we had to hit it. 

Here’s an action shot of me trying to find more. 

I didn’t find any. 

We did end up with some treasures, and it was one of the first sales we’ve been to in a while where there was actually junk to look through. I’ve realized that I get annoyed when things are super organized. It takes some of the fun out of the hunt! We found a pretty interesting board game, but we did not buy it. 

Here is one other awesome thing I didn’t buy: 

I am not sure what a foot charger does, but it sounds life-changing. 

In that same closet, I found a really amazing bag, full of bingo-related items. 

You will not be shocked to discover that I bought this bag. It was too weird not to. 

The next sale we wanted to go to was all the way in Rochester Hills, which is a hike from Dearborn. This sale was full of really amazing stuff–especially pottery. They had a ton of Bybee pottery but all of the pieces I liked were damaged.

Erin took some nice pictures of the inside of this condo. 

It was so nice and warm and cozy in this house. We wanted to take a little snooze on the couch across from this fireplace. 

I was obsessed with this half cupboard but I have nowhere to put it. It reminds me of many of the more primitive pieces of furniture my parents had in our house when I was growing up. 

The basement of this house was home to quite a few treasures, including this awesome old wooden toy truck. 

I bought a few other things at this sale, but this was by far my favorite. 

After we left this sale, we found two others nearby. The first was so overpriced that we only stayed long enough to take a photo of this $35 typewriter. It was ridiculous.

I also showed Erin this tall, narrow case, and asked Erin if she thought it would look cool hanging on a wall horizontally. She then informed me that it was a gun case. Shows you how much I know about guns! 

The last sale of the day was a bust, but it did provide some laughs. When I looked at this next picture just now, it made me LOL again. 

We found those dudes separated and Erin reunited them. They were pleased. 

I have about as good eye contact going on as that dummy does. 

I did find one treasure at this sale–an old Dirty Dancing mug for my mom. My mom LOVED that movie so I could not resist buying it for her. When I went to check out, the woman at the table shrieked and said, “I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!!! WHERE DID YOU FIND THIS?!” I told her I found it in the cupboard with all of the other mugs. Another woman working at this sale asked me, “Well don’t you feel bad now for buying it?” Uhm. What? I said, “No!" 

After this adventure, we ate at an old REAL diner in downtown Rochester, and on the way home, hilarity ensued. I am going to let her tell this story, because I am certain that she will embellish it. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin:  At the first sale, I bought some glass insulators, which I am saving for a separate blog post.  So hold on to your butts for that one.  I did see a cool set of this dishware though, but didn’t buy it:

Anyone know about this stuff?  They wanted $75 for the set, which seemed steep, but maybe it’s collectible and I had no idea.

Like Sarah mentioned, this sale was run by a woman we really like, and who gives us great deals.  On this day, the woman’s brother happened to be at the sale, and she introduced him to us.  I proceeded to ask this man, "What do you do?”  My intention was to figure out if he was in the same business–running estate sales and whatnot.  Sarah started laughing hysterically and exclaimed, “YOU CAN’T ASK PEOPLE WHAT THEY DO!!” It was like that time in Mean Girls when Gretchen said, “Oh my God Karen, you can’t just ask people why they’re white.”

Anyway, I’m not entirely sure why you can’t ask people what they do, but I know from now on not to do that.   (For the record, the guy was a hospice nurse, not like, a drug dealer or something.)

The next sale was the best.  It restored my hope in estate sales.  We’ve been in such a rut lately!  This sale, as mentioned, was a cozy little primitive cabin–except that it was a condo.

I got an excellent deal here on a Bordallo Pinheiro set of Christmas dishes.  Last Christmas, I bought a large platter and bowl from this set, and now I have lots more of it!  I got all of this below for $20! 

I also found this great stuffed Santa for $13.  His beard is rabbit fur.

Sarah mentioned that the last two sales were garbage.  Besides selling a $35 typewriter, one of the sales was selling a Harry Potter card game for $20!!  A card game, like UNO…for $20.  Unbelievable.  

Ok, so on the way home, my phone died.  Sarah needed me to look up directions, so she gave me her phone to use.  When I looked at the screen, an iTunes playlist was pulled up, and the title of it was “erin.”

I said, calmly, “Um, did you name an iTunes playlist after me?”  It felt like I had just caught a stalker peeking in my window late at night.  Sarah was SO busted.  We died laughing for like 10 minutes, after which Sarah explained that a year or so ago she was going to make me a mix CD, but never got around to it.

Sure, likely story.  I should note that one of the songs on the playlist was “My Humps”  because I am apparently mega Fergalicious to Sarah. 

Because I was off of work last week for winter break, Erin and I were able to go treasure hunting for two days in a row. We ventured out on Thursday, ready to hit up a really packed looking sale in Garden City. Don’t let the name fool you–Garden City is not a gorgeous haven. We arrived at the house and it felt like a repeat from a few weeks ago–you had to enter through the back yard and it was a treacherous, icy swamp land.

When we finally made it inside, we were pretty pleased with the offerings right off the bat:

Scary models, lots and lots of junk, 3-dimensional animal artwork, sexy babies… what more can you ask for?

Right away, we saw some cute stuff but it was a little overpriced. For example, these guys were cute but one was stained and the other was marked $25.

There were some other interesting items, but again, a little too pricey and it was the first day, so there was no negotiating.

I would have bought that Pee Wee if it wasn’t so crazy expensive. Adam and I both have a soft spot for Mr. Herman.

There was also a lot of not so great stuff at this sale:

The real interesting collections were down in the basement. I don’t know what it is lately but we sure have run into a lot of beanie babies. This sale was no exception to that recent trend.

These bins alone seem to be holding lots of beanies but they don’t even begin to capture the number that this person had. She also had a lot of other stuffed toys and dolls.

Sexy dress, sexy specs.

Mountains of Barbies. Note that many of them are multiples of the same item.

Lots of Mikhail Gorbachev dolls.

A lot of the dolls (Barbies, etc.) were totally overpriced, but one thing that was not overpriced was a set of Snuggle bears with their original tags, marked $5 for the whole set. This was a steal! And Erin was kind enough to give me them. Here they are, waiting for buyers on eBay:

You’ll notice I also found some talking Taco Bell dogs in their original bags at this sale as well. I’ll take any respectable offers, so please buy them.

Erin and I both bought this snowman “Beanie Buddy” for $1 because it was so friggin’ adorable! Next Christmas he’s gonna be chillin’ (no pun intended) in my living room.

Finally, the best thing I found by far was this music box, featuring breakdancing bears. They dance to the Flashdance theme song.

-Sarah

Update from Erin: That Jesus wall mount looks like a hunting trophy.  When I saw it, I could not stop laughing.  A little deer head Jesus…so weird.

Let me also say here, that if a crazy person buys that large Snuggle bear from Sarah for $70, then she better treat me to lunch.  I don’t know on what planet people buy Snuggle bears for $70, but should it happen, I am a FOOL for finding those bears and giving them away to her.

Like Sarah mentioned, I bought one of those stuffed Christmas snowmen.  It is seriously the softest stuffed animal I have ever felt.  I love him.  

I also bought this Mexican folk art piece for Zach’s mom.  It was her birthday last week, and I knew this would be a perfect gift.  Sandy is Mexican herself, and collects all things south of the border.

A little carousel!  The figures had really worried expressions on their faces, which made this even more cute.

-Erin

Like Sarah mentioned, things have been crazy in our real lives, so sorry for our random postings! Don’t give up on us, we will be back in order real soon.

Last Friday, we weren’t able to go out sale-ing, but Sarah and I did manage to get together for one sale on Saturday. We picked only one sale to attend because it was the ONLY one that looked remotely good. Seriously, I don’t know what is going on, but the sales as of late are just awful. Here’s what we look like every week when we read through the sale listings:

SAD AND CONFUSED. Where are all the good sales at?!

Anyway, the sale we hit Saturday was advertised as a mid-century modern “timecapsule.” When we showed up, there was a line outside. We were so shocked because 1. it was like 2pm on a Saturday and 2. it was FREEZING outside. Here’s Sarah about to cry as we were waiting:

(Interlude from Sarah: Erin thinks she is soooooo slick trying to sneak in a terrible picture of me. Thank god I actually added to this entry and got it out of there.)

When we got inside, we had to put on little hospital bootie things so that we didn’t track mud everywhere. I instantly realized that this sale was going to be out of our league. And it was.

That’s an $1800 silver bowl. And here’s some fish that were like $400 each:

Everything in the house was high end. It felt more like a museum than an estate sale. I don’t know if I even touched one thing.

I did find a bunch of little Dansk paperweight animals that were cute, but they were selling each one for $25. I noticed that I could get them WAY cheaper on ebay, so that was annoying, especially since this was the second day of the sale and things should have been cheaper.

I also found this book, which is basically my life story:

Am I constantly thinking about buffets? Pretty much, yes.

I didn’t buy anything at this sale, so I’ll let Sarah indulge you with her purchases. I did however buy an amazing smoothie at Swirlberry, where we hung out after this sale for awhile. Maybe we will start a blog all about going to Swirlberry instead of estate sales, because Swirlberry never lets us down.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: This sale really blew. I purchased a couple of books…

Oh my god I just noticed the author’s name. OH MY GOD. I’m not sure I’d trust her judgement on this topic—it’s an advice book for boys on how to solicit dates with girls.

I also bought this adorable “Jingle Pup” hat that ended up being too small for Betsy.

Anyone have a tiny dog who needs this?

The only cool thing in this house was a darkroom in the basement.

This made me sad and jealous. I used to have a darkroom in my parents basement when I was in college, because I was mega into photography. I still have my enlarger and other stuff… but I haven’t used my manual camera in years. Oh well.