Dig This Treasure!

I like to tell myself that I purposefully saved some of these sale-ing wrap-ups for busier times of the year, but the truth is that I’ve just been lazy. At the end of SEPTEMBER, Adam and I tried to stop at a sale in the late afternoon that was supposed to be open until 7. When we got there (literally at 3:55), there was a note on the door saying they were going to close for an hour and re-open at 5, when, at that point, everything was going to be half off. Because this was in the front of the house, I did make the choice to come back at 5. 

The sale was close to our house so that made it an easy decision. When I arrived back, there was a super long line out front, but I stuck it out. When I finally got inside, things were pretty picked over, but it was worth the wait. 

This is mainly because the house basically looked as if nothing new had come inside since 1974. 

There were lots of books but this guy was the owner of all of them, apparently. He had been behind me in line and was huffing and puffing the whole time, and was also located about negative 3 inches away from me at all times. This is one thing I will never understand–do people think that invading your personal space will get them inside more quickly? Anyway, he was not allowing me to get anywhere near those books so I had to get on with things. 

The thing I loved the most about this house were that the bedrooms of the kids who grew up there were completely untouched. That means that every single wall hanging and poster was still on the wall. My favorites, of course, were these handmade emo banners. 

The second one is courtesy of David Bowie. I wanted these banners so badly but everything was so old and dried out that as soon as you tried to remove it from the walls, it crumbled. 

I left with a few treasures, and also a lot of sadness because I’m sure the house was just completely packed earlier in the day, so I know I missed out on some cool things. But here’s what I did find. First, these cool old valentines. I featured one of these that looked like Adam the other day. 

I also got some cute flannel baby blankets (for our dog beds) and kitschy little books, including one of my faves by Joan Walsh Anglund. 

Finally, I got some great records for myself and Adam (the Zombies, what what!) and a cute illustration of a beaver or otter taking a bath.

Here’s something I passed on. 

I know, you’re shocked. 

-Sarah

Last Thursday, Sarah and I were diligently setting up for our annual garage sale.  We decided to take a break though because we saw a sale listing that looked particularly intriguing.  The sale was clearly of a hoarder, but it looked like a neat and tidy hoarder, similar to Best Sale Ever.  Even though the sale was all the way out in Troy (about 40 mins. away) we still made the trek.

The upstairs of this sale was really promising.  These old flags were BOSS, but each one was priced between $25-$55.  They must have known this was pricey because look at that little sign they stuck on the wall near the flags: “VISA M/C DISC.”  Yeah, we get it…people can charge their expensive nautical gear.  

There was also an entire wall of old salt and pepper shakers, and they were all cute! I don’t collect these, but I imagine that someone who does would be in hog’s heaven.

I immediately found these cute vintage sunglasses.  They had no price and the guy running the sale told me $5.  This turned out to be awesome because later I found more vintage sunglasses and they were all priced over $20 each.  Here’s me wearing the specs in a totally non-embarassing selfie:

As we got further back into the bedrooms of the house, things started to get a little more freaky.  The quantity of items was overwhelming.

Look at that blue man above screaming for help.  LOL.

Literally every single person at this sale was trying to make sense of all the stuff.  We all kept saying, “She must have owned a store.  Yes, that’s it.  She had a store, and it closed, and here are all of the things left over.”

But you guys, the lady who owned this house DIDN’T OWN A STORE.  Heartbreaking, I know.

The basement was worse.  Kudos to the people who ran the sale though, because everything was organized impeccably. (This is where we found the art capes.)

It was literally as though every single item in this house was secretly a tiny family of rabbits that just kept multiplying and multiplying.  The woman probably only bought one of each item and then through some obvious witchcraft there was suddenly 24 of everything.  

Obviously, the comparison to Best Sale Ever was shot.  Everything here was newer and seemed very dollar store-esque.  I breezed through the sale pretty quickly and then found Sarah in a mountain of greeting cards.  I knew then that we would be here awhile.

Sarah did find some treasures buried in the rubble here, so I’ll let her tell you all about them.  I ended up with a giant metal rolling clothes rack for $15 (we used it for the garage sale), the sunglasses I mentioned already, and a giant box of bubble wrap.  

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Erin is right–in general, there was a lot of organized garbage at this sale. I did find some treasures, and some funny stuff. First the funny stuff. 

In the book area of the basement, I found a whole sexy section of shelving (tongue twister for you): 

And the award winning book, Hugs for My Wife: 

Not only was the house super organized, but it was organized by holiday, which was very helpful. 

Some of it was dollar store quality, but other stuff was Hallmark store quality, which is one step up. Some of the stuff I found was vintage Joan Walsh Anglund stuff. Some to sell and some to keep. I want to keep these little plates–they’re cute!

They’re really tiny–don’t worry–I’m not going to start collecting commemorative plates. 

I also found lots of vintage greeting cards, but most were ‘70s and '80s. Unsurprisingly, many of them were sealed packs. Hopefully I can sell some of these. 

Erin found these Easter knee huggers–they’re so cute!

It was very nice of her to give them to me. 

I also found some cute vintage ceramic Christmas items. 

These were little plates made by Josef Originals–very cute. 

This cute little house is hollow inside so you can put a little light or candle in there. Made by Lefton. 

I also found some very cute wrapping paper and these old Gummi Bears Easter egg wrappers: 

All in all, a very successful trip! 

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

Alright ya’ll! We’re back in action. Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few weeks. The holidays definitely caught up with us and there was very little treasure-seeking happening.

This past Friday, Erin and I ventured out to a couple of sales that looked pretty good. One in particular, my mom had told me about the night before. It looked pretty packed in the pictures so we hit it first. When we arrived, I could tell it was going to be mass chaos. There were so many cars on the street. There weren’t a whole lot of sales happening on Friday–I think things slow down at this time of year for everyone. Anyway, we obviously weren’t the only ones who thought this sale looked like the best option:

I can’t even describe how crowded it was in this house. The pictures don’t even capture it. The house was small to begin with, but it was mainly filled with people trying to check out and buy stuff! I don’t know if it was already picked over or what, but there wasn’t much there that was worthwhile. You couldn’t even get into certain parts of the house because of the sheer quantity of people inside, and let me tell you, they were NOT happy about having to let other people walk by. Thankfully, nothing caught on fire. We all would have died.

That blonde lady is on to us!

Here are some of the offerings at this sale that we did not buy. This first one is something that was actually really awesome looking and decently priced, in my opinion ($125)…

Those are some very organized bulbs and towels.

I called my mom to let her know that it wasn’t worth her drive, and that I was about to have a panic attack from the quantity of people in the house. Our next conundrum was to figure out how the hell to get out of the house without having to wait in line. The line literally weaved throughout the front room, through to the back sunroom, and then looped back on itself into the front room again.  Since we each only had like two items, Erin asked a guy working the door if we could just throw some cash money at him and leave. Thank goodness he said yes or we both would have had a meltdown.

I had found a bunch of greeting cards–all used and none of which were very great. Here they are:

He asked his wife how much the cards cost and she told him $.50 each. WTF?! I know those first couple look good but they’re deceiving–the rest were not nearly as awesome and they were all used! Anyway, I told him I didn’t want any of them, but then he ended up giving me a (sort of) deal. I got everything for $25. Here are the other things I purchased:

I’m not sure if that’s a tablecloth or a lightweight blanket but it sure looks awesome, doesn’t it? Erin found the exact same one at the house where I found that corpse picture. I’m not sure why she never posted a picture of it.

I also found this Joan Walsh Anglund figurine. Even though it’s a little “Precious Moments,” I’ll probably still keep it.

Next up was a sale all the way across town. It was also a pretty big dud. Every room looked like this (not good):

I ended up finding more greeting cards–this time, unused. Erin found a trash can covered in pictures of pennants:

I have a confession to make: I also found a sort of cool looking decanter but while I was carrying it around, the top of it fell off and broke. I felt guilty about this but was too scared to admit my wrongs.  Also, the top was really loose, so this accident was unavoidable.

This sale was depressing because everything was cheap and old and polyester or plastic. Here’s a bunch of stuff we did not buy, but laughed about:

I’m pretty sure if you’re dressing like that dude above, it’s probably why you’re still single.

Erin also decided against buying this little Tigers guy for Timmy after he told her that it was clearly homemade (how she didn’t know this until he pointed it out, I have no idea!)

We did hit up one final place after this sale, but there’s a lot to say about it, so we’ll save that for another entry.

Thanks again for putting up with our holiday hiatus! It’s good to be back!

-Sarah

Update from Erin: WHAT THE HELL?!  Of course I knew that tiger was handmade!  I don’t know where Sarah comes up with these allegations.  What I didn’t know was whether my dad would WANT this thing because it is homemade and one of a kind.  Anyway, here is what I have to say to Sarah:

Sarah is right about one thing, and that is the fact that the photos above do not do justice to the mass of people at that first sale.  I was outraged at the irresponsibility of the people running this sale.  Pretty much everything in this house was glass, and here we are, a mass of people bumping into every surface area possible.  Why there wasn’t some crowd control at the door is beyond me.  

I knew from the photos of this sale that there was some high end stuff I was interested in but instead of looking for it, I spent my time repeating the phrases, “Excuse Me” and “Sorry, sorry, oops sorry” over and over again as I groped my way through people.  At one point I bumped a lady in the kitchen and the look in her eyes was ferocious.  Honestly, I would have taken all the money out of my pocket and given it to ANYONE in that house that didn’t bump one person. It would have been a feat.

I ended up buying this cool metal box for Zach.  It’s an old souvenir from Washington DC.

I had been carrying around some Christmas plates, but put them down after I almost dropped them 4 times in the crowd. 

The only other thing I bought this day is the tin wastebasket that Sarah mentioned earlier.  I am going to sell it on ebay because old NCAA stuff is usually collectible.  Plus I think it is made by Ohio Art, which made old tin toys.  Which, now as I am looking at photos of Ohio Art stuff, I am getting slowly obsessed.  I might need to buy some of these cute things.

-Erin

About a month ago, we dedicated two posts to the Best Sale Ever, where I found a buttload of Joan Walsh Anglund items–specifically books. Remember? I posted this picture: 

I am still not finished selling everything I bought at this sale, because the quantity of things is just so overwhelming. However, I have, I believe, sold all of the Anglund items I plan on selling. And because of this, I would like to brag about the total amount of money I made.

Now, let me say this. I had planned on keeping one copy of each book–especially those that were duplicates. But then, the more I thought about this, the more I realized that was stupid. I don’t really need to own all of her books. And there were a lot that were really religious that I knew I didn’t want. I mainly like her illustrations, and I already have a set of her prints and copies of her older, more classic books. 

I also honestly had no idea what I had before I was able to start sorting it and listing it all. Some of the books had “Autographed Copy” stickers on them and others were signed but I didn’t realize it right away because they did not have the stickers. I also ended up with a TON of first editions. Needless to say, I quickly discovered that I am not by any means the only person who enjoys these adorable illustrations, and everything I listed quickly had watchers and/or bidders. So I ended up selling most everything that I wasn’t in love with. 

The biggest surprise ended up being these teeny tiny miniature books–The Christmas Cookie Book and The Christmas Candy Book, which are apparently extremely rare. I had two copies of each! To see how small they are–in the picture above they are the green and red books in the top row. 

One woman purchased 10 of these books. She sent me a very nice message and told me she has an entire bedroom in her home decorated with Anglund stuff for her granddaughter. So cute. It’s nice to hear from friendly people–it helps balance out the not-so-friendly ones. 

Anyway, let’s cut to the chase: 

Those are just a few screenshots that capture the vast quantities of cash I made off of these seemingly valueless books. Keep in mind that most of these are small books–about 4" x 6" or so…or smaller! 

Grand total sales just on these items: $595.00

(And in case anyone is wondering how much I’ve made on all the rest of the junk from that sale… I just totaled it up: $450.) 

CHA CHING. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: Sarah, I need to borrow exactly $1,045 which happens to be the total price so far on all this stuff you sold.  If you say you don’t have it for me to borrow, then you are 1. a bad friend and 2. a liar.