Dig This Treasure!

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:

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.