Dig This Treasure!

Zach and I took a short trip to New York City this weekend.  We wanted to sneak in some freedom and fun time before the baby comes in October.  NYC has got to be my favorite place on Earth (Zach’s too), and even though we only had a couple days there, we made the most of it.

We spent our first day visiting Rosie Pope Maternity (shout-out to Bravo TV fans), perusing fake goods in Chinatown, and going to the bar with friends.  Sunday, however, was dedicated to treasure hunting.  We started the day at a street fair near our hotel.  I bought some of these embroidered pillow shams (a zebra and giraffe).  Supposedly they are handmade in Kashmir, but that is probably a lie.

You might remember that last year Zach and I visited Brooklyn Flea.  This year, we decided to check out GreenFlea in Manhattan.  It wasn’t as large as Brooklyn Flea, but ended up having really great treasures.

Zach spotted David Fricke of Rolling Stone magazine fame.  This was actually the first of two celebrity sightings, as Zach inadvertently found a seat by Andre 3000 later this day at the airport. 

David Fricke wears flip flops.

Some of the best things at GreenFlea were:

This INCREDIBLE Skookum doll.  I actually missed this when walking around and Zach brought me over to it.  When I saw it, I hoped so badly I was going to get an amazing deal on it.  So far, I have never paid more than $30 for a Skookum.  The woman selling this though wanted $200.  

These silver and bakelite bugs.  The old man selling these actually makes them himself! They were each around $200, which was out of my price range.  I would have bought one in a heartbeat though, as I am always looking for nice pins for my Fall jackets.

These shadow boxes.  SUCH A GOOD AND SIMPLE IDEA.  This person buys old lead figurines (just like Zach collects) and then mounts them in shadow boxes.  Very cool.  Here is another one, but with old razors:

This giant metal horse head.  The woman selling this said it came from a kids’ ride-on toy from the 30s.  I would have liked to buy this for the nursery, but it was $75, which seemed steep.

This HERWI nodder made in Germany.  Clearly this is really old, but does anyone know if it is valuable?  I couldn’t find anything on ebay.  Asking price was $40.

We ended up buying only a couple things.  First was this super old Santa figure.  It seems to be carved out of wood, or some sort of chalkware type material.

It was $5. Also $5 was this lead soldier Zach found:

Zach also found the last two items we bought.  First was a cool Andy Warhol card from the 80s.  We haven’t found out much info on the company that put this out, but it seems to be some sort of super tiny, independent erotica place.  I’m only saying that because there is stuff on the back of the card about sex.

The last purchase was this old business card.  Zach couldn’t pass it up because of the hilarity.  When he asked the price, the man selling this said, “Hmm, I don’t know…it could be valuable.”  That is always THE WORST thing to hear a seller say, especially when something is clearly not worth much.  Zach bartered him down to $1.

Eleanor was real sassy.  Just like David Fricke and his flip flops.

I should also mention that at this flea market I ate the best treat of my life.  It was a waffle with nutella and ice cream.  Seriously so boss.

Until next time New York!

-Erin

Last week was 4th of July and, with our extra days off, Zach and I decided to take a day trip up to the Livingston Antique Outlet.  I had actually never heard of this antique mall, but the Google reviews gave me lots of hope.

We got there early in the day so we had plenty of time to leisurely stroll through this place.  It was pretty huge.

The first thing I noticed was that the prices were really fair.  This is always surprising for an antique mall, but made me very, very happy.

The second thing I noticed was this dog sculpture that looks just like one of Sarah’s dogs:

Amazing, right?

I also noticed many, many cute things.  I wanted this Mobo pedal horse so badly for the baby nursery.  I thought it would look so baller sitting in a corner.  Sure, it’s a serious tetanus hazard, but still worth it.  The price on this was too high though ($185).  Turns out that they sell for WAY cheaper on ebay, even with shipping.  And you can find restored ones on ebay too.

And check out this German folk art sleigh.  I’ve never seen anything like it!  So beautiful, even with that lady’s boobie hanging out.  

I literally just texted Sarah to ask her if I could even say “boobie” on here.  So if you are offended, my apologies, and also, blame Sarah.

I saw two of these Tammany mechanical banks.  One was priced $495 and the other was $299.  They are really adorable and I assume highly collectible.  The price though made me wish they made reproductions so I could enjoy this without breaking the bank.  

That little dude is like my soul sister now that I’m pregnant.  I pretty much enjoy sitting in a chair all day.  And I exclusively wear fancy suits now.  Just kidding, I wear pajamas all day.

Look at this buddy:

Give me all of these egg cups.  I don’t eat hardboiled eggs, but still, give me all of them.

These mugs accurately represent my face pretty much anytime Sarah buys something at a sale with stains all over it, or made out of glass window blocks:

Ok ok, so what did we buy?  A few things!  Zach found these great paintings first.  They seem kind of newish, so for all I know, they are from Pier One.  We still love them.  They are painted on wood and were only $10 each.

Zach also found a lead figure of a mailman.  Very cute.  $9.

His face is so contemplative.

I found this old tin wind-up toy of Peter Cottontail.  I got it to put on a shelf in the baby’s room.  $15.

Also, is there a difference between Peter Rabbit and Peter Cottontail?  I just realized I have no clue.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Wow. So many burns and I wasn’t even invited to come along. 

And let’s be frank. That mailman is making that face because he just tried to deliver mail to Erin’s house but George scared him away. (Which actually happened in real life–not just in the world of lead soldiers.) 

Oh also, yes there is a difference between the two rabbits. Peter Rabbit is Beatrix Potter’s rabbit:

And Peter Cottontail is Thornton Burgess’ rabbit.

But Thornton Burgess’ rabbit was also named Peter Rabbit before he decided that he needed a more exciting name. TRUE STORY.  

Sarah and I will have a longer entry soon about our vacay to Charlevoix, MI last week, but in the meantime, here is a preview of some of the treasures I found.  These were so good that they deserved their very own write-up.

The first two treasures are part of a larger lead soldier set, which was being sold at an antique-filled consignment shop in Petoskey.  The set was unusual because not all of the soldiers were holding weapons.  Here are some pics I pulled off the internet to give you an idea of the scope here:

It’s like these little dudes each had their own little dude job to do, and they all did them well.  The detail is amazing.  The shop we were at didn’t have all of the figures shown above, but did have two that struck my fancy.  First was this guitar playing man:

He’s having a grand ol’ time for sure.  Also, I suppose that is a banjo and not a guitar.  Whatever.

The next figure I bought was a real tough boxer man.  He is probably my favorite.  The set is made by Manoil, which is apparently pretty collectible.  Most range in value from $20 to $70.  Some, however, are so rare that they are worth almost $200 each!

And it looks like I scored with my two selections because I paid $17 each for them.  Here they are for sale on a toy soldier site:

Cool!

The toy soldier saga doesn’t end here though.  On the last day of our trip we stopped by that huge antiques place in Traverse City (you may remember it from last year).  There I found this great piece:

These soldiers aren’t lead, but instead are composition.  And they are so dope.  The detail is incredible.  Look at the blood on this man’s arm sling:

I kind of feel like that bro could’ve walked if he only had an arm injury.  Maybe there was a huge loss of blood.  Or he is super dramatic.

This set is made by Lineol Germany and dates to the late 1920s.

I paid $25 for this, which is what similar ones sell for on ebay.  

Definitely a nice addition to the ever-expanding soldier collection in our house!

-Erin

P.S. You can see more of our “Fave Finds” by clicking here.

The rumors are true.  Dig This Treasure was lucky enough to snag some press passes to the Detroit stop of Antiques Roadshow.  If you’re not familiar, Antiques Roadshow is PBS’ highest-rated ongoing primetime series, in which guests are invited to bring their dusty old treasures in for appraisal.  The show is best known for surprising antique owners with high-price valuations for items the owner believed to be worthless.  

The Detroit event had 28,922 ticket applications, with only 6,000 tickets being issued.  Each attendee is permitted to bring up to two items for appraisal, which meant that over 10,000 appraisals were expected this day.  Which also meant, long lines…

Luckily, after checking in at the media area, we were escorted by Roadshow aficionado Peter, who whisked us right past the 2+ hour wait.  (Sorry everyone!)

They call this first waiting area –yes, it’s only the first–triage.  Once you get through triage, you must show your appraisal items at this table:

The Roadshow person working here will decide which category of item you’ve brought.  There are 22 categories.  I asked Peter if there is a sort of “catch-all” category for items that don’t fit into the other categories.  Kind of like ebay’s infamous “Other” category.  Surprisingly, Peter said no.  I assume this means that Antiques Roadshow has seen every sort of item under the sun, even the weirdest of the weird.

Peter had us pull out our appraisal items.  All three of us (me, Sarah, and photographer extraordinaire Zach) had items in the Toys & Games category.  I also had some folk art, and Sarah had some jewelry.

After getting a category ticket, guests approach a line of Roadshow workers.  They are there to guide you to your next line of waiting.  Here, you will wait to meet the Roadshow appraisers (of which there were 70 at the Detroit event).

All of the appraiser tables are arranged in a circle.  This is by far the most chaotic, and yet most interesting, part of the Roadshow.  The lines are pretty haphazard and we heard lots of tales of line jumpers.  At the same time, this is the best area to scope out what other people have brought.

Don’t worry!  We will have a whole entry tomorrow on other guests’ items.  Anyway, this waiting area was also the best place to see all of your favorite Roadshow appraisers.  They are hard at work looking at each item, researching it if necessary, and then calculating their best price estimate for the item. [Fun Fact: All of the Roadshow appraisers participate on their own dime!  The exposure is good for their appraisal businesses.]

We stepped up to the Toys & Games appraisal table.  I had brought a weird sort-of-taxidermy toy horse that I bought last year at a Brooklyn, NY flea market.  I knew that it wasn’t worth very much, but I was super curious as to how old it was.

Appraiser Julie Scott figured the horse wasn’t really that old, perhaps only a few decades.  She also humorously said that it looked like the horse had its “neck smashed down with a hammer” because it wasn’t anatomically correct.  The horse was in fact made with real horse hair, and Julie explained that the very best and oldest toys like this one are made from fetal horse skin because the hair lays nice and flat.  My horse was made from an older horse.  Julie also suggested that the horse may have come from Mexico.  In the end, she said it was worth about $45, which means I definitely overpaid (I bought it for $70).  Whomp whomp!  I still love this weird little guy and his gnarly neck.

Zach had brought a box of his lead soldier collection.  Julie seemed much more interested in these toys than my horse.  She began to rummage through the assortment.

The soldier on horse above was estimated to be from the turn of the century.  Zach also bought this at Brooklyn flea last year.  Julie said it was worth about $50, which is exactly what Zach paid for it (the seller originally had $150 on it).  In fact, a few of Zach’s soldiers were worth between $35-$50 each.  The more common ones he had were about $10 each.  

Julie liked the soldiers, but was clearly more interested in the lead Santas that Zach had.  She said that his large skiing Santa (made in the USA) was from the 1920s, and his sledding Santa was from the same time, except from Germany.  Each were valued at around $50, which is great because we got them for way, way less.

I’ll let Sarah go over all of her appraisals.  She had one at the Toys & Games table too, and after that, we headed to the Folk Art appraisal area.  I had brought my coveted whale tooth scrimshaw to be examined.

We walked up to the table and lo and behold, there was Wes Cowan from PBS’ History Detectives!  I told him that we were big History Detectives fans, and he kind of chuckled at that.  Otherwise, Wes was all business.  I pulled out my scrimshaw and he asked me what I knew about it.

I explained to Wes that the tooth was supposedly from the 1920s, and supposedly from a MSU Zoology professor’s collection.  I told him how I bought it at an antique festival, to which his eyebrows sort of raised.  

Wes then proceeded to essentially “school” me about my scrimshaw being illegal.  The problem here was that my scrimshaw was indeed on a real sperm whale tooth.  Most scrimshaw nowadays is on plastic fake teeth.  You see, in 1973, sperm whales became protected, and the selling of their ivory was banned.  Only ivory, and thus scrimshaw on real ivory, that is at least 100 years old can be sold legally.  Wes had serious doubts that my piece was that old.  In fact, he couldn’t really tell how old it was at all–just “not that old.”

I had secretly feared that my scrimshaw was illegal when I bought it, but had held out hope that it wasn’t.  I felt like a real bad kid getting caught smoking outside of school or something.  I felt like Wes Cowan himself was ashamed of me.  This didn’t stop me, however, for asking how much this illegal scrimshaw was worth.

Turns out that the appraisers cannot appraise illegal things.  That would be like me taking a giant bag of cocaine up to Wes Cowan and asking him how much the going street price was on it.  Wes did eventually reveal to me though that if a dude came up to me in an alley on Cape Cod, opened his jacket and had illegal scrimshaw, he would probably want “a few hundred dollars.”  Fair enough…at least if I illegally resell this, I’ll make a profit.

After our appraisals, we got a peek at some of the actual TV show taping.  The way this all works is that everyone who attends Roadshow gets an item or items appraised, but not all of these appraisals are on camera.  Producers are flagged down by appraisers when a particularly interesting item comes up to the table.  The item’s owner gets whisked away to hair and make-up, and the appraisal ends up being filmed on a tiny set near to the appraisal tables.

The individuals chosen for filming are super lucky!  Only about 50 appraisals are filmed, and remember, there were about 10,000 appraisals done this day!

After peeking at a few of the filmings, we caught up with some Roadshow attendees to ask all about their items and how their appraisals went.  Stay tuned for all of that goodness! 

-Erin 

Update from Sarah: Ok, so I knew nothing about Antiques Roadshow before this trip, so my mind was a little blown. First off, I’ll just say THANK GOD for Erin. She is so good at talking to strangers. Here’s proof:

That was about 30 second after meeting Peter the tour guide. Look! They’re already BFFs!  I know this is poor quality but I had to share. Pictures on iPhone were prohibited except for in the triage area, so I took a couple of pictures while I was allowed! (After the triage area, we had Zach as our pro photographer, so thanks to him!)

Anyway, Erin’s excellent at talking to strangers and I am not. She kept whispering things to me that I should ask during my appraisals, and asking if she was talking over me. Heck no! I don’t do that well in crowds of people in big open spaces like that–my eyes dart around and I have no idea what to look at–so I was just trying to keep cool and calm while there were 8 zillion people around.

Oh also, one other thing–I felt REALLY BAD about getting to skip that insane triage line. But also very grateful! You should take another look at how crazy it was. 

Oh well! Guess everyone just has to deal with it when there are world famous bloggers in the hizzy. 

Here’s the first item that I had appraised:

That adorable bunny that you see is Bunnykins, my dad’s stuffed animal from childhood. My dad gave me Bunnykins before I can even remember–I’ve had him for what seems like forever, and I’ve always kept him on my dresser. I love him. But I don’t know anything about him, so I thought I’d have someone give me the lowdown. 

Julie Scott (I just wrote Jill Scott and then remembered THAT’S A RAPPER) also did Bunnykins’ appraisal. 

She looks a little pissed here, but rest assured, she loved Bunnykins. I learned a few things about him. He was made after WWII–probably around 1952 or 1953, which makes sense. He’s also not made of mohair, which I thought he was. He’s synthetic. But she did say that dressed bunnies are very collectible, and that he is VERY cute. True dat. Also, he’s worth about $90. Even with his to’ up feet! 

The second item that I brought with me was a diamond ring that I inherited from my mother-in-law, who passed away two years ago.

It was her grandmother’s engagement ring, and it is absolutely gorgeous, and I am blessed to have it. She wanted me to have it in case Adam and I ever had a daughter, so that it could keep getting passed down. I got it appraised the year she gave it to me, and I just wanted to know more about it. This baller, Kevin Zavian, did my appraisal and he sounded like a true New Yorker. 

He told me that it looked like it came from the early 1900s–between 1910-1920, and that it is interesting because the prongs/setting are platinum, but the band is 14k gold. Usually platinum is matched with 18k gold or higher. He thought that maybe the band was added later–possibly in the 1930s, meaning the top was probably originally on a necklace or brooch. He also told me that retail, it would probably run about 3K less than what it appraised for when I got it appraised! Oh snap!

This disappointed me at first, but then Erin explained that an insurance appraisal is different than the sort of appraisal he was doing. Also, he estimated the number of karats in the ring incorrectly, and I only know that because of the previous appraisal. Anyway, it was fun to talk to him about the ring but he sort of made me nervous with all of his do-dads and special eye pieces. Also, him and Zach bro-ed down about watches. Apparently, Kevin is a “watch guy” so it’s his favorite thing to appraise. Cool enough! 

Stay tuned for more exciting Antiques Roadshow tales! 

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