Dig This Treasure!

Erin and I were really looking forward to a sale a few weeks ago, but for the life of us, we could not figure out how the company running the sale was able to score it. I regularly refer to the two guys who run this company as The Ragamuffins. Historically, The Ragamuffins have gotten crazy hoarder houses and the guys look like they’re about 19 years old, but it appears that they’ve stepped up their game. The sale was at the home of an advertising collector, and it looked packed. Adam met us there and was there for over an hour before we got there, and left at the same time as us–just to give you an idea of how packed it was! 

The whole house was pretty much like this–but each room had something different. The first room you got to had a lot of metal signs and other advertising memorabilia. All of it was priced pretty high but it was the second day of a four-day sale, so that wasn’t surprising. 

A slot-type machine where the prize is ciggies. Pretty awesome. 

So the really weird thing was that some rooms had really cool, old memorabilia (one room was filled with paper) and others were totally filled with newer toys, many of which seemed like things that you’d get by sending away for them in the mail, or from a fast food restaurant. 

The basement was filled with two kinds of things: fast food toys and car parts. LOTS of car parts. 

I found a few things at this sale, but the coolest was a small group of old photographs of buildings in Detroit (and other snapshots) and a big box of old postcards. I bought all of this paper for $120 which is a little pricey, but I am fairly certain that the postcards will sell for a decent amount of money and I was willing to risk it. Most of them are of cities–buildings, etc. 

There were also some cool ones of Detroit. 

And then here are the pictures: 

I found some other really cool photographs in the group that I bought but I’ll post those another day. 

Nothing too crazy or scandalous happened at this sale–pretty straightforward, and it was way more organized and reasonable in price than other sales that they’ve run. I can only imagine what it looked like in that place on Sunday–everything was half off then. 

The second sale we went to was in Dearborn, and it looked like it might have some treasures. When we pulled up, we discovered that it was in a condo complex and two condos next to each other had stuff for sale. We never quite figured out why that was, but ok. The first condo we went in was super gross and smelled like 40 dogs and zero people lived there. But the dogs who lived there had great taste in books! I bought a couple. 

I think this must be a picture of a room upstairs that Erin checked out on her own. 

Thank god I didn’t make the trek. Here’s a picture of the carpet on the main floor. It appears that the dogs figured out how to put down deodorizing powder, but failed to finish the job.  

EEEEEEEEEEEE! 

The other condo was in much better shape, and was filled with stuff, but you sort of had to dig for treasures. I found these cute little wooden apples that open up: 

And a very nice quilted tree skirt. 

Scout is going to be so pumped this Christmas. He loves sitting under the tree. I tried to find a picture of Scout sitting under the tree during a past Christmas season, but all I found was this old picture of Zach and Erin when I first met her. We were at a wedding. 

I also found some very cute, tiny handmade dolls. One is a cat and one is a bunny. The cat is cuter. 

I also don’t want to admit this but I bought this little Rose O'Neill style kewpie doll. Erin had taken a picture of it for a Hard to Resist post so when she saw it in my bag when I walked outside, she almost died. 

Finally, I found these two waechtersbach bowls at the last minute. I thought they’d be cute for Scout’s food but it turns out they sell, so I’ll probably sell them. 

I’ll let Erin tell you all about her treasures, and also about a coat she prevented me from buying for myself. In retrospect, now that I’ve seen the picture, I should have gotten it. It’s cute in an ‘80s way! 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: That kewpie doll that Sarah found at the second sale is seriously horrifying.  I DIED when I saw she had bought it.  I’m sure it will be in next year’s garage sale for anyone interested.

Here is the coat that I talked Sarah out of buying.  First of all, it is WAY too big on her.  Also, it looks like those coats cosmetic counter ladies wear.  Seriously, this coat was so gnarly I thought Sarah was messing with me when she wanted to buy it.

Those sleeves are rolled up like six times because the coat is so huge.

Anyway, at the first sale, I found a great treasure.  It is this old Blatz beer statue thing of some beer bottle men playing baseball.  Timmy actually has this statue already, so I knew from him that it is valuable.  Here is just how valuable:

So I will be listing mine on the ol’ electronic bay soon.

So here is the thing about the ragamuffins running this sale…they for some reason are intimidated by or really like Sarah and I.  I’d like to assume it is our feminine wiles, except that I currently have a huge melon belly and Sarah was still wearing a boot on her broken toe.  But seriously, every time I have asked them for a price on something, they act all nervous and then give me some crazy low price.  And yet, despite the low price, they act like they’ve just given me a super high price and are ashamed of it.

So I ask one of them how much this Blatz figure is–mind you, the whole sale is overpriced.  The dude gets all nervous and then says $15, which made me SO HAPPY.  I am hoping to make a decent profit on this.  

I also bought this cool porcelain lady.  I thought she would resell well because “bathing beauty” figurines are really collectible.  I paid $20 but it only sold on ebay for $26.  Whomp whomp.

After we left the overpriced sale from hell, Erin and I were ready for some num nums. On our way to find food, Erin spotted a sign that said “Sale” in front of a store. We had no idea what sort of store, but I did a U-turn and pulled into the parking lot. As it turns out, we discovered a tiny little gem in the middle of… wherever we were. 

There’s a picture of the storefront through my disgustingly dirty windshield. 

I’ll admit that the front looked a little janky but the inside was awesome!

The store was filled with lots of antiques, vintage clothing, and just nice, cool stuff in general. Here I am, about to annihilate this cabinet of goodies. I bought three things inside of it! 

You can also see that I’m holding an awesome red buffalo plaid jacket. I found it on a rack in the back and it was from J. Crew, in perfect shape. It looked small to me but ended up fitting perfectly! 

(Yes, I am married to this person.)

Erin was really interested in that Kewpie doll in the case above but it was priced too high. I ended up with the jacket and some other small items. Here are some of the cutest: 

Can you believe those puppies? They’re almost too cute to look at. They’re breaking my computer monitor with their cuteness. 

I bought one other item at this sale that I’m going to save for another day because I love it so much, I want to highlight it. 

The lady who ran this shop was awesome. She was a little old lady but was very cute and hip, and shared all sorts of gossip with us once we started talking to her. She also had reasonable prices and would negotiate. I’ll let Erin tell you about the gossip. 

She was also the perfect person to ask for a restaurant recommendation. After we left her shop, we went to River Crest family dining, per her suggestion. 

It was great. Good ranch dressing and chili fries are all I ask for in a restaurant. All Erin asks for is good cole slaw and egg salad sandwiches. This place lived up to our expectations. And they had free tootsie rolls. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: First of all, and most importantly, I got a BLT, not an egg salad sandwich, at RiverCrest.

Anyway, when we rolled up at this little shop, I mentioned to the owner that we spotted the store after visiting an estate sale in the area.  It was instantly clear that this woman was well aware of the estate sale we were talking about.  We were then told the following tale:

So apparently, the crazy woman running the $7 bra estate sale (here is the link again) had originally hired a company to come in and run the sale.  The company cleaned up the entire house (it was apparently chaos) and organized everything on tables, etc.  Once the clean-up was done, the crazy woman who owned the house CALLED THE POLICE.  She told the police some lie about the company and fraud and how they were now trespassing on her property.  The police forced the company to leave, and not return.  

So, if you’re not following, this woman got a free house cleaning and estate sale set-up, because she is absolutely bat-sh*t crazy.  I must say, though, this is kind of genius.

So I bought two things at this store.  First was a Johnson Brothers huge, heavy platter.  

It looks like a winter scene, but there’s a turkey hidin’ up in there, so this platter is now multi-use.

The store owner wanted $50, and I was about to put it back when she asked what I was willing to pay.  I said $30, but we settled on $35.

That kewpie doll in the case was really cool.  It had a little heart sticker on its chest that looked very old.  I don’t know a lot about kewpies, but I was guessing that this one was a Rose O'Neill because of the heart.  Anyone know if I’m right?  It looked like this one I found online:

It was marked $100, which I didn’t want to spend, but maybe it is worth that.

The second item I bought was a Navajo ring.  The stone is spiny oyster in a really cool color.

I’m really antsy to wear this ring, but I have to get it sized first.  It’s just slightly too small.  

Ok, stay tuned, because this day’s adventures are far from over.  Sarah and I had one more stop, and it turned out to be a doozy.