Dig This Treasure!

On Monday night, I called Cindy and zz popps to see if they were going to their secret auction. They were, so I hopped on board! Normally on Monday nights, I get my fitness on (Turbo Kick, WHAT UP?!) but I decided that treasure hunting was going to take priority. 

In case you didn’t read the other entry about this auction, it’s a little different than most. At any given time there are THREE different people auctioning off items, so it’s a little stressful, but in a good way. You might remember that last time, I scored a GIANT lot of Muffy bears and made a small fortune off of those. Well, here’s what I saw when I walked in on Monday: 

I’ll be frank—I was almost trembling with excitement when I saw all those Muffies sitting there, waiting for their new (temporary) home with Mama Sarah. Right away, I ran over to my mom and exclaimed something like, “Awwww sh*t, look what I found!!!!” and showed her that picture on my phone. I mean what’s the likelihood of that happening twice—the only times I’ve ever gone to this auction?! 

There were other cool things up for sale in the other areas—mainly in what my parents called the “guy area.” In the “guy area” there’s an auctioneer who mainly sells old toys, tools, and other collectibles. While I was looking at things in this area, I stopped to check out this thing of marbles: 

Because I’m a dummy, I did not realize that this jar did not have a lid, so I proceeded to knock it over when I grabbed it to take a look. Fortunately, only a few were lost in the abyss. I also saw some other interesting items for sale:

Lots of early ’70s heads up in the mix. 

That buddy knows what’s up. Also, for a while my mom wanted one of these lightening rods for her garden (?! I know!) but thankfully she changed her mind.

After dumping the marbles, I high-tailed it outta there, and headed back over to Muffy-ville. It felt like I had to wait FOREVER for them to put them up for auction and in the meantime, my mom stopped over and won this terrifying thing: 

The funny thing is that my mom sent me this picture and the name of the file is Jiggy, but his name is actually Zippy and apparently he was from Howdy Doody. You’re welcome, mom. Anyway, I think she paid $3 or $5 and it looks like she will definitely make a profit! Also, people would NOT stop commenting on this purchase. 

After getting Zippy, my mom went to another auction area and I was left to stress on my own about the bears. They started with the ones in boxes like this one: 

There were six of those, and I got them for $3 each. I got a little worried because I thought, “Are they going to sell ALL of those Muffies one by one?” I wanted to maximize profit, of course, so I wanted them to be sold in a lot! Well, spoiler alert: In the end, I got that GIANT group of bears for $10. YES YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY!!!!!!!! Here’s the big pile of bears: 

I was seriously so pumped. 

A few minutes later, a guy came up to me and said, “You’re the girl who won all those teddybears. Whachoo gonna do with all those bears?!” I should have been a smartass but I told him they were semi-valuable. He then proceeded to talk my ear off about how one of his friends has a huge collection of Shirley Temple dolls that she’s willing to part with. Cool story, bro. I didn’t bite and then he said, in a very annoyed tone, “I’m trying to give you a hint here.” I said I didn’t get what he was saying (even though I did, I just didn’t want any more dolls after scoring 30+ teddy bears!) and he proceeded to call the woman on the phone and hand me it! WTF?! It was so weird! Thank god the reception in that joint is terrible because the call dropped and I was able to get out of that one. I told him that I really wasn’t interested and he gave me the most “you are a fool” look I’ve ever seen, but then insisted on giving me her number! In retrospect, maybe I should have called her, though:

There are lots of other Shirley Temple dolls that aren’t worth nearly that much, so I’ll just hope THOSE are the kind she owns. 

Right after this wacko encounter, the area with all of the cool older antiques started getting put up for auction and I won this egg scale that I had my eye on. 

My mom won a bunch of other cool things: 

Chalkware! 

Cool old tin toy made in Italy. 

And a tin sign. I am not sure whether or not this is actually old or if it’s a repro. 

My mom also bought some not so great stuff: 

The biscuit tin had potential but I think it’s missing it’s glass window. Still, maybe she’ll resell it. One like it resold for a decent amount but it was complete. 

I think the big winner of the night was zz popps. He bought a Federal Sign & Signal Beacon Ray for $80. Apparently it’s the same emergency light they used on Hawaii 5-0.

There are different models of these beacon emergency lights, but one identical to my dad’s sold a few months ago for $500! We’ll see what happens. 

All in all, a very fun night! The only regret I have is eating Nachos and chocolate cake for dinner. At one point, a lady next to my mom was raving about the homemade frosting on the chocolate cake, so I tried it.

Betty Crocker all the way!!! Still delicious. I shouldn’t be surprised, though. At the end of the evening, they put out all of the hot dogs that did not sell in a paper basket and people can come up and grab one for free with their grubby little fingers. 

Utterly disgusting. And that’s coming from a true hot dog lover. 

-Sarah

A few weeks ago, Adam and I were driving home and as we turned into our neighborhood, we saw the sign advertising our annual neighborhood garage sale. It was about two weeks away, and Adam suggested I participate. I reminded him that Erin and I were already planning to hold a sale this summer during her neighborhood sale (just like last year!) but Adam wasn’t having it. He convinced me that it made sense to try to get rid of some stuff first, and then take the remains to Erin’s sale in June. Conveniently, Adam was going to be out of town for work during our neighborhood sale, so I enlisted my parents (my dad, specifically) to help, because trying to do a garage sale on your own is the worst.

You’ll remember that Erin and I converted my mom Cindy into an estate sale junkie last summer, so she has her own hoard of leftovers waiting to be resold. Like Adam, my dad was thrilled for the opportunity to purge their house of some of the garbage my mom has brought home with her, so we both got to work! 

For example, my mom had quite the selection of vintage Jell-O molds to offer our shoppers! Looks like she had some fun buying these early on and then realized that they’re not that re-sellable, even though Erin seemed to think so at some point. By mid morning on Friday, the sale was jumpin’ (Erin would not approve of that messy table of clothes): 

For this sale, I focused on purging clothes rather than leftover treasures, and that worked out in my favor. Around noon, I found myself surrounded by a swarm of teenaged girls, all from the same family (I swear to god this mom could have given Michelle Duggar a run for her money), and all eager to buy my sh*t! I think my dad was a little overwhelmed (not that I can blame him) because at one point I saw that there were other people (not part of the Duggar fam) ready to pay, and I had to shout, “Dad! These people want to give you money!" 

By the end of the day, our sale was totally picked over, and we were pumped! 

Those tables were stuffed to the gills when we had started! 

Erin stopped by at the end of the first day and I enlisted her help in gathering more goods for the next day. I allowed her to step foot in eBay World, our spare bedroom that is currently used as a warehouse for all of the goods I have purchased at sales to resell or eventually display. I have never seen such a shocked look on someone’s face when she stepped foot inside the room. She begged me to allow her to take a picture, but I wouldn’t let her! But I will show you something else: 

This is a sign for eBay world that one of my nieces made for me last summer. Erin saw this in eBay world and started dying laughing because SHE THOUGHT I MADE IT FOR MYSELF. 

Anyway, she was very helpful in giving me some tough love on what I need to get rid of. Many of these items were things that you’ve seen before. It hurts my soul to admit that she was right about the fact that I should NOT have bought some of these items. With one exception: 

I bought this Murano style glass fruit at the Windsor auction we attended a few times, and Erin is the person who told me to buy it! She actually told me to keep bidding! I ended up paying something obscene like $25 for it! Sold it for $5. 

Now here are some purchases she was right about: 

This bird without a name has a long backstory that I won’t bore you with. Bottom line is that I found it at the sale where Erin wanted some overpriced moccasins for her unborn baby. Erin pleaded with me to not buy this bird. I thought it looked pretty cool, though! Erin insisted it was a seagull but I still disagree. Seagulls aren’t black underneath. They’re dirty and grey. But it’s possible that NEITHER of us is able to properly identify a common animal. 

This kitty has been hanging out in eBay world for quite some time. I found her last spring. I have no idea what I was thinking and I’m sure Erin tried to talk me out of it at the time. 

If this little buddy looks familiar to you, it’s because you’ve seen him before. I thought Adam would be tickled by the fact that there was a lamp with a little Adam and Max on it. But he wasn’t impressed. Erin actually spotted this lamp at that really weird sale we went to a few months ago, and it was priced at $2.50 so I couldn’t pass it up. And she didn’t talk me out of it. 

You might remember these little buddies because I found them at that sale where we got SUPER scolded by a crazy woman. 

Both Erin and I thought this Immaculate Heart of Mary plaque was awesome, but in the end, it just freaked Adam out too much. 

These Muffy and Hoppy dolls aren’t actually things that Erin told me not to purchase–they’re things that Erin loves (just like Beanie Babies), and I’m surprised she didn’t try to steal them when she was over on Friday. Anyway, you’ll remember that I bought a boatload of these at an auction last winter, and these are the little dudes that didn’t sell on eBay. Turns out nobody wanted them in the garage sale either, so I’ll have to put my thinkin’ cap on. 

On Saturday, people must have been in the mood to chillax, because for the first two hours, this is what our list of profits looked like:

The weather was great and people straggled by, but most seemed interested in the free box near the curb and disinterested in walking up my driveway into the garage itself. Speaking of the free box, I put this guy in there because I just couldn’t imagine asking someone to give me money for him. 

My dad warned that the other occupants of the free box might catch hepatitis from him. Of course, someone quickly snatched him up!

In the end, even though Saturday was slow, my dad and I each made about $250 and had lots of fun people watching! 

There are still quite a few items leftover for Erin’s sale, not to mention all the crap I haven’t even gone through in my house yet. Here’s a picture of the state of my garage this evening, three days after our garage sale: 

All in all, a successful garage sale! I can’t wait for round two! 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: I have never seen a more seagull-looking stuffed animal seagull in my life.  In fact, Zach just confirmed that this is a seagull.  At one point, Sarah tried to say this was a goose.  Look at that neck!  That ain’t no goose.  What I do know FOR SURE is that Sarah should not have bought this.

And I’ll admit that I was wrong about that glass fruit.  To be fair, I bought some teeny tiny glass pumpkins around Halloween on ebay and they were like $10 each.  So I thought for sure she could sell that fruit.  Whoops!

As for ebay world, Jeez Louise.  I really should have snuck a photo of the place.  At this point, I’m pretty much entirely convinced that Sarah goes home after a long day of sale-ing, puts her purchases in ebay world, and then sentences them to a life of quiet solitude and uninterrupted slumber.  I suggested she get one of those locks with the skeleton key so that she can lock all the purchases in there like Jane Eyre or something.

Ok ok, so I’m exaggerating a bit.  And really, I’m cool with ebay world because it means we get to keep sale-ing each week!  

As mentioned, on Monday night I went to an auction with my parents and scored a boatload of Muffy VanderBear and Hoppy VanderHare dolls. Before I tell you the tale of this auction, I need to share one more thing related to the Muffies. This is, by far, the most adorable thing in the lot of stuff I purchased. It’s a Muffy BATH TUB!!!! 

Once again, proof that Erin and I were destined to be BFFs. I mean, if I’m being completely honest, I would have DIED if I had this stuff as a kid. It’s just so stinkin’ cute.  And look at the inside of the bathtub!!! 

Anyway, my parents go to this auction every week, and it’s pretty far from where I live, so I’m not normally able to go. But this week is our winter break at work, so I’m free like a bird. This auction house has auctions all of the time, and the Monday night auction is actually three different auctions going on simultaneously. My parents like going because you can get some great treasures for very little money. It is a very odd auction because it really is a mix of valuable/quality stuff and just plain old junk. 

As soon as we got there, I was overwhelmed. 

It was impossible to really capture the number of people who were up in this joint, as well as the quantity of crap there for sale. That picture above does not do it justice but it’s the crowd of men around the “man sale” area–I guess one of the auctioneers is always selling man stuff. 

What they do is they start at the front of the room and work their way back. It was a little stressful to try to pay attention to what might be coming up in each of the three places. I was also worried at first that I would never find my mom and dad again but then I realized that my mom was wearing the same color vest as a crossing guard in elementary school. 

There she is, inspecting a high-quality wooden basket. 

I spent most of my time between the Muffy sale and the middle sale, which was a mish-mash of stuff. The mish-mashy sale was lots of typical estate sale stuff–glassware, figurines, some paper, etc. But then they also had things like this:

Fun fact: I owned both of these Barbies when I was a kid, and they came with a Barbie and the Rockers record. 

I ended up missing a lot of that auction, because I spent so much effing time waiting for those Muffies to go up on the auction block! That auction was being run by the son (I think) of the main auctioneer on that side of the room. Besides the Muffies, there were more Beanie Babies than I’ve seen in my life. When the son went to put the Muffies on the auction block, the dad stepped in and was like, “No way, I’m not selling those as a group.” I wanted to cry. It was about 110 degrees in the joint, and I had worn my down coat inside. (Excellent decision on my part.) As I stood there and sweat bullets, the auction guys started separating all of the Muffies and beanies into piles that they were going to choice out. First I won the bin with some of the Muffy furniture and stuff still inside, and then they started choice-ing out the plush lots. I was the ONLY PERSON who bid $5 and nobody bid me up. I bought all of the Muffies that they had just separated out, but then after I did that, people bought some of the groups of beanies for way more. I have no idea how or why it went down like that, but I’m not complaining! 

While I was fighting off grandmas for my scores, I missed out on some adorable wooden dog head bookends that went up in the other area. Probably for the best. I also missed out on a box of cards that someone probably spent too much money on. 

Early on, I had spotted an old E.T. lunchbox in the “man sale” area.

I really love E.T., which I think I’ve mentioned in the past. I ended up winning it, but then afterward realized that I don’t really need an E.T. lunchbox, so I’m reselling it. It’s in really awesome shape for its age. If you’re a fan, please buy it! 

One thing that I did not buy, which I’m now regretting, was a Show ‘n Tell phono viewer for Adam. It looked like this: 

It somehow plays records and projects images. I have no idea how. He had never heard of one, and seemed pretty bummed when I told him I stopped bidding at $35. Oh well, you win some you lose some! What I bought him instead was an old parking meter. No joke! I thought he might want to tinker with it. 

Finally, at the end of the sale, I won two really nice vintage quilts. 

My mom ended up with an '80s Spuds MacKenzie Bud beer sign. I have to admit that I laughed at her when I found out she bought it, but it’s actually got bids on it already! My dad bought three little children’s books that ended up not being valuable. Oh well! But he did do an awesome job of carrying all of my items to the car for me! 

One final weird thing about this place. This is the sign you see in the women’s bathroom: 

-Sarah

Update from Erin:  One day I will go to my parents house and photo the obscene amount of Muffy Vanderbear stuff I have packed away in their basement.  My Aunt Cathy used to gift me Muffy things for every birthday/holiday/etc.  It was such a delight.  

Anyway, I wanted to comment on this entry because I noticed a photo in our DTT dropbox that I am assuming Sarah took at this auction.  I think she forgot to include it in this entry.  The photo is so magical that I had to add it in:

Brilliant.  

Alright, so, as mentioned, Sarah and I hit one more sale last Friday.  I believe this one was in Trenton.  When we arrived at the sale, it was immediately clear that this person was rich, and that they had a lot of time to buy rich people things.

The first room was filled with these elaborate dollhouses.  They were all pretty remarkable.

What’s interesting about these type of dollhouses is that you never actually see little miniature dolls inside of them.  What’s up with that?  

Upstairs at this sale was a room completely full of designer purses, all of which still had the tags on them.  At first I was sure they must be fake or something, because who buys $400 purses and doesn’t use them?  All of the tags though had Macy’s stickers on them, so certainly they were real.

I think Sarah and I both would have loved to buy some of these.  There were at least 100 to choose from. All of the bags were priced pretty close to retail, so we had to pass.

Back in the dollhouse room, I found a Muffy Vanderbear.  When I was a child, my Aunt Cathy (who comments on this blog often and also publicly called my blonde hair “FRIGHTENING”) gave me Muffy bears and accessories every Christmas.  They were by far my favorite childhood toys, even beating out Beanie Babies.  I still have all of my Muffys and hope that one day I will have a daughter to play with them.

Anyway, this particular Muffy was one I already had in my collection, but it was in PERFECT condition, so I decided to buy it.  I was carrying it around, and kept thinking, “Hm, I don’t remember my original Muffy having this gold necklace on it.”  

Looking closer at the necklace, it was pretty clear that it was REAL gold.  Someone had put a REAL GOLD chain on Muffy.  

Knowing that gold is like crazy valuable right now, Sarah and I started speculating what it could be worth.  I looked online and it said 14K gold was worth around $18 per gram.  I then speculated that a gram was like one paper clip.  However, neither of us could figure out how many imaginary paper clips might make up the necklace I had.

On our way to lunch we spotted one of those “Cash for Gold” places.  When I say “spotted” I actually mean that we drove down the street specifically looking for any place that might buy gold.  We were just way too excited.

So we got buzzed into the store, had the necklace weighed, and ended up selling it for $44!  That price actually covered all of the purchases I had made that day, including lunch!  Pretty exciting!  

The lesson here people is not to store your gold jewelry on teddy bears, and then sell those bears.  The other lesson here is that if someone does store their gold jewelry on a teddy bear, then totally buy that teddy bear.

-Erin