Dig This Treasure!

On Saturday night, Zach and I went with my mom and dad to the Plymouth auction.  The photos online looked REALLY bad, so our plan was to go to the auction, make sure there were no good items, and then go out to dinner instead.  When we got to the auction, my mom, Zach, and I all breezed through pretty quickly.  We were ready to abandon ship as soon as we got there.

I did like that little mini doll trunk in the photo above, but I wasn’t willing to wait around 3 hours to buy it.  

Someone PLEASE fill me in on what these old punch board things are (the “Hit and Win” thing above).  Sarah and I have seen these before and are so confused by them.

So anyway, the three of us are ready to leave, and I noticed Timmy over in a corner, kind of lingering, and looking around for the rest of us.  I knew instantly that he found something.  His excitement could not be contained, even though he tried really hard.  He was looking around all paranoid-like, as though Homeland Security was watching him and the items he was looking at.

So what did he find?

This old Art Ross NHL puck in mint condition.  You might remember that I found one of these pucks at an estate sale for $2, and sold it on ebay for over $200.  And mine had a scratch in the orange decal!  

At this point, I went and told Zach and my mom that Timmy found a treasure and now we had to stay.  There were some grumbles, but we all knew that there was no leaving.

I did end up making a purchase.  Zach wanted this lead Indian figure:

And it just so happened that it was bundled with an item I wanted, plus two other lead figures:

Of course, I wanted that donkey.  He opens up and is a secret treasure box:

I paid $29 for the whole lot, which is fine because Zach was willing to pay $25 alone for the Indian.  I almost had the bunch for $15 but then some guy jumped in and kept bidding me up by $1.  We kept going back and forth and I wanted to yell to him (he was across the room) “BRING IT.  LET’S GO.”  I thought that would be funny, but it would most likely not be had I really yelled it.  

So in addition to Timmy’s puck, there were two other items he wanted.  A Gordie Howe collectors’ plate and a plastic baseball cup (I think from the 1960s).  The cup had my dad’s favorite baseball player on it, whose name I now have forgotten.  The auctioneer miraculously put all three items together in a lot.

And then the bidding started.  I was so nervous for my dad that I was shaking.  I know, so lame.  I just really wanted him to win that puck!  At $27 the bidding fizzled out, and Timmy was victorious.  His max was $150, so I am sure he would have won no matter what, but it was AWESOME to see him get this so cheap!  

I was standing in the back of the room (away from my dad) while the bidding was happening.  When the lot ended at $27, this guy next to me said how my dad had just overpaid and obviously “that guy” doesn’t know the Gordie Howe plate is only worth 10 bucks.  Of course, when this guy was saying this to me, he didn’t know that the winner was my dad.  I said back to him, “Hmm, you know, I think they were bidding on that puck more so than the plate.”  In my brain, I was smiling. 

I saw this guy then go up to my dad later and ask him about the puck.  Now–this is important–my dad made a cardinal sin.  HE TOLD THE GUY WHAT THE PUCK WAS WORTH.  Not smart.  You have to keep these secrets to yourself, or next time, that puck won’t be going for a mere $27.

The last thing I will mention is that a woman brought a ferret to the auction.  A LIVE FERRET.

That’s a photo of her kissing it.

-Erin

So like Sarah mentioned, we headed back to Windsor on Wednesday so I could try to buy those antique moccasins that totally burned me last time.  Kudos to Sarah for actually getting to my house on time.  We made it to the auction only 15 minutes late, and luckily the moccasins had not been up on the block yet.  In fact, the only thing we seemed to have missed was this giant box of VHS tapes:

Here’s how I probably looked waiting for the moccasins to be auctioned:

I won’t keep you all in suspense…I didn’t win the moccasins.  I KNOW RIGHT?!  Unbelievable.  Here is how it went down:

The moccasins went up for sale and the same auctioneer from last time (my mortal enemy) started them at $100.  He went down to 50, then 40, and when he got to 30 dollars I bid.  I didn’t want a repeat of last time where I think he is going to go lower and instead he ends the item.  So here I am, the ONLY bidder on these for $30.  

At this point, no one else is bidding and he starts doing his final countdown before he says “SOLD.”  All of a sudden, one of the EMPLOYEES starts bidding.  (Very fishy I know.)  I’ve seen workers bid at an auction before, but this was strange considering how badly the auctioneer did not want to sell these to me last time.  And why did she wait so long to bid against me?  

So we go back and forth and get up to $85.  At this point, I am convinced they are trying to bid me up on purpose, so I bow out.  The auctioneer seemed genuinely surprised that I did.  

To be fair, I did see this female employee leave with the moccasins, so she probably did buy them.  I felt at peace.  I got a fair chance to buy these (FINALLY), and $85 was more than I wanted to spend.  At least it was my choice, and not someone else telling me I couldn’t bid.  

So with that all settled, it was on to more treasures.  I bid on and won this amazing old box from the Canadian Salt Company.

There was still a little bit of salt in the bottom of this, which I was sure the border agents would think was cocaine when we tried to reenter the States.  I didn’t tell Sarah about this because she already acts like a crazy person at customs.  Not really a crazy person actually, but more of a deaf mute frozen in terror.

I then bid on this old bottle from Bright’s Winery, which is the second oldest winery in Canada.  I just liked the look of it, but might end up putting it on eBay.  

The bottle came with a ton of other glassware that I will end up putting in our garage sale this summer.  I also gave some stuff away to the lady next to me, which was great because it lightened the load a lot.

Next, I bought this old glass rolling pin, which Sarah thought looked very suggestive.  In reality, I bought this to use while baking, as it was just last week I made pizza dough and realized I had no rolling pin.  

The lady next to me said I need to get a cork for the end, and that way I can put ice water in the rolling pin while using it.  Apparently the cold will help your dough roll out more easily.

I also bought this cool book for Zach, which has lots of useful information in it.

I’ve been thinking of upping the number of servants in our household, and this book confirmed that I probably should.

Here are some things we didn’t win:

Sarah and I both wanted those green canisters, but they ended up going for like $40 or something.  If we got them cheaper, they would have been an easy eBay resell.  Oh well.

This hockey game would have also been an easy item to resell, but it too sold for a high price, around $50.  

And look at this great, retro table!  It wouldn’t fit in my car, otherwise I’m sure Sarah would have bought it.

She also would have bought this Beagle, but she wasn’t for sale.

We waited around until the end of the auction because there was some stuff that Sarah wanted.  I got us “2 Pop” again, and then went to wait in line to check out.  For some reason, this place has a woman who can’t do math who checks everyone out.  It literally takes 10 minutes for each person in line.  I waited in line while Sarah bought her last items, and then paid for both of us when I checked out.  This let us hightail it out of there pretty quickly so we were home at a reasonable time.

This guy in the background also had some pop, but he obviously brought it with him:

Also of note here is Sarah’s equally hilarious and confusing expression.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I don’t know why we thought that man with the two-liter was so funny but we did. Also, can you believe that beagle?! Oh my gosh, I was obsessed. Her name was Maggie and she was 7 months old. She also had on red nail polish. Her owner, a hipster-looking guy, told me that she was a “princess” which was sort of an odd thing to hear from a guy like that.

In the end, I got a few cool things. First, this cool map of the Detroit river from 1952:

I also got these cool old rulers:

And I also got this JC to match my Mary from last time.

He’s also busting out the immaculate heart…

Finally, I got two things at the end of the night that I had to wait around for. First up was this cool vintage book of valentines.

Quite adorable!
Also adorable are these vintage doll heads from Japan.

The only annoying thing about these were that the auctioneer made me pay $7.50 for them. Absolutely nobody else was interested in them, but he would not go down to $5 once he knew that I wanted them. Still, I have a feeling they’ll sell on eBay!

After my strikeout the day before, Zach and I decided to stop by a nearby estate sale last Sunday after we went out for breakfast.  The pictures of the sale looked good, but when we arrived, the signs told us that the sale was in the basement only.  I figured that this meant there wouldn’t be very much for sale, and since we were there on the last day, that everything would be picked over.  

The sale was in fact small, but there was still a lot to look at.  Because of the confined space, I didn’t take any photos.  Here are our great finds though:

I found two giant foam fingers (Tigers and Red Wings) for my dad.  These aren’t particularly valuable, but they make great display pieces in a collection.  In time, these will look “vintage” and will be a nice nostalgic reminder of going to the games.

You can also see there are two pieces of Brigg Stadium memorabilia.  Zach noticed these in a display case at the sale, and I completely overlooked them.  They were already priced reasonably, but the seller said he would reduce the prices even more because it was the last day of the sale.

My dad was so happy about the pin on the left.  He said it is really rare, and he doesn’t even have one in his collection (he has a HUGE collection of Brigg Stadium stuff).  The item on the right is a pen topper, which isn’t as rare, but still very cool.  

I found this great lead alligator:

He is currently living on our kitchen windowsill, guarding my bisque chickens.

So when we went to check out, Zach and I realized that it was a cash only sale.  The guy running it told us $20 for everything in our pile and we started counting our money.  We had $14.  I was about to ask the guy what I should take out of the pile when he said, “Good enough. It’s all yours.”  How nice is that?!  We were thrilled.

And then, as we are about to leave, the seller guy says, “Oh hey, have fun hunting for TREASURE this summer.”  First off, I have never seen this guy before, so I don’t know how he knows I go to estate sales in the summer (or ever).  This could have been my very first estate sale for all he knew.  Second, he used the word “treasure!”  This leads me to believe he is a secret reader of this blog, which is AWESOME if true.  

So hey mystery man, if you are in fact reading this blog…HELLO!  And thanks for the mega deals!

-Erin 

I had Thursday and Friday off this week, so Erin and I had maximum fun times. We got started bright and early on Thursday morning, and the first sale we hit ended up being a story on its own. So today’s entry will just be about this sale. 

The pictures of this sale looked amazing–it was incredibly full and looked fairly disorganized which is always a plus (more chance of finding a hidden treasure). The sale was out in Royal Oak, and as soon as we pulled up and started walking into the backyard, we noticed this guy that we’ve written about before–most descriptively in the Goonies Poster entry. We both groaned and said something along the lines of, “Oh God… THAT guy…” but it wasn’t until we got back into the garage and started browsing around that we realized that he wasn’t a shopper–he was running the sale. I wasn’t really sure if that was going to end up being a good or bad thing, and at first, I wasn’t sure if it was his house of treasures that he was selling or what. After a few minutes, I realized that he was actually liquidating someone else’s estate (he kept referring to this person as an antique collector but she seemed to be a cross between that and a garage sale junky.) Here’s an example: 

Anyway, first thing that caught my eye in this monstrosity of a garage was a giant bin full of pins (shocking, I know). Here are my finds from that: 

I really love “no teeny weenies”… What is that even from?! I also love the two pins about French.

There was so much stuff at this house, I was really going crazy with joy. After being there for a few minutes, I said to Erin, “This is my favorite sale.” She said, “I noticed.” I already had quite the armload of items, including this adorable Michigan-themed cross-stitch: 

After perusing the junk in the backyard and garage, I went into the screened-in porch that led to the interior of the home. I was filled with glee when I discovered that almost the entire porch was filled with vintage glasses–another thing that I have way too many of. Anyway, I only bought a few, and the coolest thing was that some of these Detroit News glasses that Adam and I have at home. I’ve never seen them at another sale. It only made sense to increase our numbers there. 

I also found this glass for my father-in-law, who is always leaving notes around his house, reminding himself to take pills: 

Can’t get any weirder, or more perfect than that. 

Another great thing that was in the screened-in porch: 

So the porch actually led right to the stairs to the basement, which sadly, neither of us photographed. But we should have. It was jam-packed with stuff. Mainly books and magazines, some of which just seemed sort of…damp. Someone needs to contact all of the collectors of the world and let them know that basements are bad places to store paper material.

Anyway, I quickly snatched up some vintage scouting magazines (not sure if they’re worth anything but thought I’d check)… but then noticed a sign that said that magazines were $3 per issue. WTF?!!!! I put those magazines down. I kept walking around and noticed an ENORMOUS box of vintage Playboy Magazines. At first, I just figured it was a lost cause since a) they were so pricey and b) the man running the sale is sort of crazy. But then I figured I’d go out and ask if they’d take a flat price for the whole lot. I went outside and asked the guy’s poor wife if they’d take a flat price and of course, she had to check with him. I also mentioned that they weren’t worth $3 per issue. The guy said that there should have been a price of $75 on the box. I just stared at him. Then he said, “For you, I’d take $50.” Sold, crazy man! 

Anyway, here is a picture of just SOME of them… Notice that there are also piles on our liquor stand. 

I hope the pervs come out in full-force and snatch these suckers up! Turns out they’re mostly from the mid ‘70s to early '80s but I did find one issue from 1958 up in there. And, based on yesterday’s entry, they will provide us with hours of amusement, if nothing else. 

Inside the house, the guy had two women working a cash register, and outside, his wife was (wo)manning another. In retrospect, I should have done all of my checking out with those ladies inside, because they were giving deals left and right. It was like they knew that the guy was being unreasonable about some prices, and they would just sort of wink and give you deals without asking. They did give me deals on a bunch of vintage (we’re talking '80s) earrings–I absolutely love finding tiny earrings at sales. Some of the best here include the ducks and the corn: 

Anyway, the inside of the house was just as packed as that picture of the garage, and even though it was sort of chaotic, either the woman who lived there or the sale guy had arranged everything into different themed rooms. Here’s Erin digging through a room filled with books: 

When we were in that room, I almost had a panic attack because I’m sure there are a ton of valuable things in there…but how in the world do you find them? 

Here’s another themed room–the stuffed animal and toy room: 

In this room, I found some adorable vintage budddies: 

I also found this terrifying monkey that reminded me of one just like it that I had as a child. I believe I got mine the one and only time I went to the circus. I think the fur on it is rabbit fur: 

Don’t worry–I didn’t buy him. But does anyone else remember these scary monkeys? 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: This sale was definitely Sarah’s favorite.  It had the perfect storm of smut magazines, stuffed animals, and pins that Sarah might or might not ever wear.  Speaking of pins, not sure why she passed on this one:

I’ll say up front that I was super distracted last week while we were sale-ing.  I had tons to do for a Relay for Life event happening on Saturday.  My mind kept rehashing all the things that awaited my responsibility, so my energy for digging through this sale was low.  By the time we got to the living room, Sarah had two full boxes of stuff and I had literally nothing.

Then magically, I was rewarded for my total laziness.  Sitting right on a table in the middle of the living room was a vintage Detroit Red Wings hockey puck.  I knew instantly that it was super valuable.  My dad taught me when I was younger and we would go to sales, that I should always look out for the infamous “orange octagon pucks.”  These pucks were made in the early 1960s for game use by the NHL.  They are super rare.  Here is a glimpse at some recently sold on ebay:

I grabbed the puck immediately and called Timmy.  He couldn’t believe it.  He kept saying “DON’T SET IT DOWN.”

I went to ask THAT GUY how much he wanted for the puck, bracing myself to be ripped off.  He told me that the puck was supposed to go with some street hockey stick so I need to go look for that.  I told him I didn’t want the stick but he made me look anyway.  After casually glancing around and finding no such stick, he agreed to sell me the puck for $2.  DEAL.

My next interaction with this guy was not such a deal though.  As we were leaving, I saw this gravestone rubbing kit–essentially some giant paper and a block of wax to capture artwork off of old graves.  I asked one of the women working how much it was and she said that it was bundled in with two framed pieces of “rubbing art” for $75.  

Now here’s the deal, I am all about bundles, but this one made NO SENSE.  The “rubbing art” was not gravestone related but instead two dancing Japanese ladies.  And they were silkscreened, not rubbings.  The woman agreed with me and said we could go ask THAT GUY for a price on just the rubbing kit.

He refused to separate out the items, even after the woman helping me said he was being ridiculous.  When I went to leave though, he offered me the kit for $25.  I politely said no thank you but he really wanted to argue with my apparently.  I said I could find it online and under his breath he said, “Good luck paying the outrageous shipping charges.”  Anyway, here is the EXACT same rubbing kit on Amazon…with free shipping.