Dig This Treasure!

Like I mentioned, my family was in Canada for vacation two weeks ago.  We were in the same area of Ontario as our day trip last year, only this time we were staying for 6 days.  Fun fact is that Grand Bend (our precise location) is featured in a MTV Canada show called Grand Benders.  We didn’t know this until our third or fourth day of vacation.  The show is basically Vanderpump Rules (a Bravo show).  It was fun to try and spot cast members while we were out to eat or at the beach.

Of course, we hit up our favorite antique haunts and tried a few new places. 

That’s Everett driving a car at a flea market.  He smoked that little girl in the background.

Those giant luggage trunks above were on the Titanic.  Just kidding, they weren’t on the Titanic.  Still cool though.

This Griswold rabbit mold is my all-time biggest holy grail antique item.  I have wanted it for YEARS.  They have one at an antique store near our house but it is $400.  This one was $300.  I literally dream about finding this for cheap at a garage sale or something.

These wind up metal guys were pretty neat but were $70 each.  No thank you.

I did buy a few things.  Most to resell.  I got these Armand Marseille doll heads for mega cheap.  I am hoping someone who restores old dolls might be interested.

I also got this Wyandotte tin train because I saw that brand on American Pickers once.  It was $10.

I think I will keep this pewter rose ice cream mold.  I have a thing for molds if you can’t tell.

My favorite purchase by far was this set of ceramic pig heads.  I thought for sure Zach was going to put the kibosh on this purchase, but he actually liked these.  (Or he was being charitable…not sure.)

Their heads actually hold dishtowels.  Very practical.  I will be hanging them in the kitchen.

That’s all!  See you next year Canada!

-Erin

A few weeks ago, I saw a listing for a sale in Ann Arbor that started on a Saturday. Adam and I hit it up BEFORE breakfast, which is pretty unheard of, but I needed to get there early. It looked like it was a retired professor’s home, and there were TONS of books. As mentioned in the past, I love me a sale with a lot of books. (Remember that store in Montague?!) I’ve also been known to make a killing on books that people don’t realize are valuable. 

We arrived and man, were there books. 

Nearly every single room I entered looked like this one. It was so overwhelming and so awesome. The non-awesome thing was the pricing on these books. I was pretty disappointed by this because we have been to other sales run by this company, and their pricing was really reasonable. At this sale, hardcovers were $4 each, no matter what. Softcovers were $3. Oversized books were $6. Little paperbacks were $2. I’m sorry but if you have THAT MANY books in a house, you’re gonna want to make those prices a little lower. I grabbed a bunch of books but put a lot of them back once I saw the pricing list and the quantity throughout the rest of the house. 

Adam quickly moved through the house and I could tell he wanted to cry because he knew it would be a long visit. It was also hot as hell in the house because there was no AC and it was during a heat wave. 

There were a lot of vintage Heritage Press copies of classics, which can sell for a decent amount of money on eBay, especially if you get them for cheap (meaning, not $4 each). I ended up with just two–a copy of Pride and Prejudice, and a copy of The Moon and Sixpence. 

The Austen book sold right away–for $28. Woo! The Maugham didn’t sell, and I’m sort of surprised because it’s got some beautiful illustrations. Oh well. 

Even the basement was filled with books on every available surface.

The other cool thing that I saw in the main room (first picture) were these old wood carvings/molds that were hung on the wall. There were a few very large ones and then a bunch of small ones. The small ones were all marked $20 a piece, which seemed reasonable. I was interested because I know that primitive butter molds can be very valuable. If you ever seen something like this, and it’s cheap, BUY IT.

These things can sell for A LOT of money. 

I asked the people running the sale what they knew about the carvings. The company is a couple and their daughter who is a little younger than me, and the daughter immediately said, “I think they’re printing press blocks.” Adam and I just looked at each other because they clearly were not blocks used to print a design onto a flat surface–the pattern was cut into the wood–not sticking out from the wood. I tried explaining this to Erin in the car the other day and she lost her mind. YES, in both cases the design is carved INTO the wood. But the actual design of a stamp/press block sticks OUT from the rest of the wood, and in a mold, the design goes down INTO the wood. In other words, you put a stamp ON something to see the design, and with a mold, you put things INTO it, in order to get the design. This is simple to me, but Erin’s brain did not get it for about 20 minutes. 

Anyway, the dad interrupted and said, “No, I think they’re just decorative carvings from somewhere in Europe. I know they bought the whole lot at auction at Schmidt’s.” This made me more intrigued, because Schmidt’s is a fairly high-end auction house down the street from me. I ended up taking a risk and bought two of the molds, so we’ll see if they’re worth anything. 

The first says “PIG” in chalk on the back, and the second says “CHICKENS.” You have to use your imagination to see either of these animals in the wood. They’re up on eBay now, so we’ll see what happens! 

-Sarah