That’s $50…
On Friday, Sarah and I decided to just hit one nearby sale because we weren’t sure if it was going to snow. The photos for the sale looked pretty good, but when we showed up, it seemed like everything had been sold already. This is interesting because we later heard that a dude who was first in line for the sale walked in the house to mysteriously find several items from the sale photos already marked “sold” or missing from the house completely. Not cool.
There were some old things, but also some pretty lame stuff. And there was only one room so it felt very garage sale-y.
Someone please tell me how to know if a head vase is collectible! These were all marked around $30, which seemed like a steep risk to take on trying to resell them.
Same with Raggedy Anns. Are these ever collectible?
The annoying thing about this sale is that the people running it clearly thought I was some sort of poor person vagabond. EVERY TIME I touched something, before I could even focus my eyes to see it clearly, the people would go, “OH, THAT’S FIFTY DOLLARS." The insinuation here is that I can’t afford that so I better hurry up and put the damn thing down. It was very rude and awkward. When they kept doing it to me, I would say, "Oh, OK” and then continue to fondle the item for many moments before putting it down.
It happened with this tin cat toy thing that I thought was cute. I later looked the thing up on ebay and it is definitely not worth $50.
I did end up buying one thing at this sale that was shockingly priced at a reasonable $5. It is a Fisher Price Happy Hoppers roll toy thing. I figured Everett could play with it when he eventually starts walking.
We were pretty disappointed that this sale was a letdown so we decided to swing by that weird warehouse place where I bought the Pabst Beer Sign.
I’ll let Sarah discuss this place more, but what turned out to be crazy was that any item we found to buy was either “going in an auction later that night” or “going up on eBay." So basically, they opened this place up to the public and then wouldn’t let us buy any of their stuff. Oy.
Things they probably would have let us buy include this guy, who is clearly craving a home in a garbage can:
And they might have let Sarah buy this frog she was OBSESSED with, but being a good friend, I wouldn’t let her buy it.
So gross.
-Erin
Update from Sarah: Oh, so the truth comes out, does it? Erin told me that frog was cute but that it would end up in our next garage sale. What a liar! Here’s a cuter picture of it.
It was soft and shaggy and unique.
Erin started rummaging through this area behind a bar-like structure in the building and I questioned whether she should be there, but figured she was an adult. I spied these weird anti-drug posters from the ‘70s and admired them for a minute.
I also admired these "cassingles."
In all seriousness, there was a bag of antique photographs on a table and I asked how much they were. The guy at the place told me he had to call his boss and ask. When she returned his call, he informed me that they weren’t for sale–they were going to be sold at their auction that started at 5 p.m. Erin was incensed and then asked the guy, "Can you tell me exactly what is for sale in here?” and he told her that basically anything else in the building was up for grabs. WTF?
So the best thing is that late Saturday night, I get a barrage of texts from Erin:
Yes indeed you are reading that correctly–they are trying to sell those posters for $600.
The joke was on us, however, when we looked at their completed listings.
Excuse me while I vomit.
They made sure to explicitly state that the penis pump AND sanitary underpants were both UNUSED. YEAH. RIGHT. Ughughghghghghg.
In all seriousness… we might not want to know the answer to this question but… we sort of do. Why would anyone want old sanitary underpants?
Frog in There
Like I mentioned, I hit up an early sale last Friday while Sarah was at the doctor. She and I met up later for some very interesting sales, which we’ll cover in another entry.
Besides the moccasin slippers, I bought lots of cool things! The whole house was full of quality items, namely glassware and pottery.
I know what you are thinking, “how pricey!” Luckily, not everything at the sale was priced so high. These dishes though were handmade or something in Sweden.
More dishes! And look at that gorgeous hutch!
And this one! See what I mean? Everything here seemed like good quality. I was having a lot of fun looking around.
You can’t really tell, but that is a really tiny couch. It was so cute. I assume it is for dolls. It was only like $30, which seems reasonable for something like this, but it was also in bad shape. Plus, I have no use for it, so I moved on.
I did end up finding this great Crown Devon mug, which I bought for $3:
When you look inside, there’s a little frog! In fact, when I went to check out, the woman running the sale exclaimed, “THERE’S A FROG IN THERE!” She sure got a kick out of it.
I have this up on ebay now, and usually these mugs sell. However, no bites yet!
I also found this enamel on copper plate for $2.
When I first saw it, I got excited that it might be by Miguel Pineda. Here’s a plate by Miguel that I watched on ebay for a long time, but never bought because it was $400:
I should have known that my turtle plate wasn’t a Pineda piece…I don’t think there are a lot of turtles in Mexican folk art. It turns out though that my plate is by a mid century artist named Annemarie Davidson. I have the plate up on ebay now, and so far it is selling like a champ.
Next up, I bought this reproduction cast iron Coca Cola man. He was $5, and I saw that others sold on ebay for over $25. I figured this was an easy resell, so I bought him.
He’s selling on ebay too at the moment!
Here’s a thing I didn’t buy at the sale, and kind of wish I did:
I don’t know what I would do with that little guy, but he sure is hilarious. I’m not sure of his original use (why the long neck?!) but he would make a good shelf prop.
-Erin