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

It’s been awhile since we’ve shared some items that were really tempting to purchase.  Ultimately, we left these items behind, but I’m sure they all found good homes…maybe.

This is either supposed to be a gold glitter angel or that girl from The Ring.  For sure, it is terrifying.  It is also garbage.  Literally, this is a piece of garbage being sold at an estate sale.

These guys look like some of the villains in the Sega version of Aladdin.  They would chase you with machetes.  Super rude.

Do you need a portrait of an old man?  No really, do you need a portrait of an old man:

What about a photograph of two babies?  Do you need that?

Ok, so we are all thinking it.  CHECK OUT THAT BABY ON THE LEFT.  Woo man!  Let’s just assume this is a bad angle.

FRAGILE.  It must be Italian.

There is no way this TV Tennis EVER worked.  EVER. 

Sarah painted this pig picture.  She did an okay job.

Ok and lastly, here is me taking a selfie wearing a bear mask.  I cannot believe I did this in public but the opportunity was too good.  The things I do for you guys…

-Erin

Oh my gosh. I know it will be hard to top Everett’s debut on the blog, but we have to keep things rolling here. Right?…

OK, FINE… I’ll show you ONE more picture of him… 

Squeeeeeee!!!!! 

Ok, back to our adventures in Grass Lake a few weeks ago. So, after Sarah and I left The Copper Nail, we decided to drive to nearby Chelsea and hit up the Chelsea Antique and Collectibles Mall. I tend to forget that antique malls are places where I might find cute things, so I was glad to have the opportunity. There were actually a lot of cool things at this place, one of which I already blogged about–my adorable pose dolls! Here are some other cool booths & things: 

Below you’ll see a little Cairn Terrier figurine that Sarah spotted. She has a Cairn Terrier so she was interested in this little guy but he was priced outrageously. I just looked online and it seems these are fairly abundant on eBay, so Sarah–go get one! 

Even though this sign includes improper punctuation, I loved it. There were a stack of these small signs for sale but again, they were priced $15 or $20 each, which just seemed to steep for a piece of paper. 

I LOVED this baby quilt but it was also priced a little high and even though I’ve bought things for my non-existent baby in the past, I couldn’t really bring myself to do it here, but now I sort of regret it. 

I really wanted this book but figured I could find it cheaper online. I think it was marked $12. Turns out I was wrong about this one! The cheapest one on Amazon used is $23. Whomp whomp. 

If you look close at the prices, you can see this is a baller collection of mason jars. I was just taking note the other day of the fact that hipsters enjoy drinking things out of mason jars, so maybe this is where you go to get a jar that is different from other hipsters’ jars. 

Sarah was interested in learning more about old things and what draws me to specific items. I gave her a perfect example of something that is tempting to buy (cute, cheap, different)… 

….but that I need to start training myself not to purchase. In this case I did ultimately decided that I did not need to purchase a miniature figurine of a beagle wearing a dress, playing a harp. You’re welcome, Adam. 

There were lots of funny things to see here, but I’ll save that for a rainy day. But before I go, you want to know what I came away with, right?!

I couldn’t resist this mug–since I love hounds and love coffee. The sexist rating scale on the side sealed the deal. 

I got this little piglet for my miniature shelves. He’s cute and weird. 

I also got another vintage baby blanket but I forgot to take a picture of it. 

Oh I forgot to mention the best part about this place–it’s connected to a bowling alley!

Fun here for SURE! 

-Sarah

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 

Last Friday night, I drove out to my parents’ house (about an hour away) to stay overnight and attend the Utica Antiques Market the next morning.  I’ve been visiting this market since I was a teenager, and Timmy has taught me that it’s important to get there right when the place opens.  [For new readers, here is pretty much all you need to know about Timmy, and that time he was on Cash & Cari.]

So Timmy, my sister Lindsay, and I got to the market bright and early, and it really felt like the world was our oyster.  

Here is Lindsay scoping out the goods:

See those tiny fuzzy chicks in the bottom left corner of that case above?  I loved them.  But what are you supposed to do with a giant box of tiny fuzzy chicks?

Oh here’s a thing:

And another thing:

All jokes aside, this market had some GREAT stuff.  And the prices were really reasonable.  I zeroed in first on a booth that had a bunch of cast iron banks and molds. We all know about my love affair (and money-making extravaganza) with old chocolate molds.

The heavy mold with the two babies was really the best, but it was priced around $150. I stared at it for a good long while though.  And see that little cast iron pig bank at the top of the photo?  More on him later.

We moved through the show for a good 45 minutes or so, and I was yet to buy anything.  That’s not to say I didn’t see lots of potential purchases.

Like this creature:

He was priced at $100 and carved out of solid wood.  I WANTED HIM SO BAD.  But alas, where am I going to put a giant wooden monster?  Probably right next to a box of tiny fuzzy chicks.

There’s Timmy and one of his “peers.”  They are probably reminiscing about the good old days.

I like to imagine that these Santas are all drowning in quicksand.  Don’t they look distressed?

I probably should have bought this for llama-obsessed Sarah.  Also, LOOK AT THAT TINY HEAD STRAPPED ON!  I died laughing at this for a good 5 minutes.

Ok ok, so what did I buy?  My first purchase was a Skookum doll.  You might remember that I already own one Skookum doll, purchased last Christmas in Holly, MI.

The little one is my new guy, and the larger one was the one I already had.  I paid a mere $18 for the new one:

I also went back to that booth with the cast iron stuff and bought a cast iron pig bank.  I debated between the pig shown in the photo earlier, and the one I eventually bought.  This was a little steep at $30, but he’s just too cute.  And, he is full of old coins, so maybe there is a good one in there!  I have yet to open him and check.

And my last purchase was another lead figurine for Zach.  This time not a soldier, but a cool-looking Indian.  I paid $10, and it was originally marked $15.  In an ideal world, this would only be $5.

Timmy bought a Little League bobblehead to go with the rest of his collection.  He hemmed and hawed over this purchase for a good hour.  It was $35, which is kind of high for a later bobblehead (1970s?), and especially one that doesn’t have pro team markings.  He negotiated down to $25.  Here it is in the middle of some of his other nodders:

Tim seemed kind of bummed that he might have overpaid for the nodder, when all of a sudden he found this Tigers pin for $5!  What a steal!

And what did Lindsay find?  I know she bought a rhino statue (she is a zookeeper) and a ceramic pumpkin.  Her best finds by far though were these little charms:

That man is giving some sassy face!

-Erin

Update: So Sarah just texted me with the following:

I’m still skeptical that that carved thing is an alligator.  Or a crocodile even.  It seems like a pretty obvious, run-of-the-mill land monster to me.

I guess this is technically a “Hard to Resist” post, because all of the following items were really hard for us not to purchase.  You might remember the dumpster-diving sale last week which offered such fine items as McDonald’s snack makers and “not-laser disc” Tron laser discs.  This sale also offered an incredible assortment of aardvark-related items.

I don’t know what makes someone love aardvarks so much, but I really can’t judge because I was obsessed with manatees and pigs growing up.  I was a card-carrying member of the Save the Manatees Club and adopted a manatee named Ariel.  And for Halloween one year, my parents let me dress as a ballerina pig, which is such a SERIOUSLY BAD decision on their part because I was a fat kid.

Before we move on, here are some aardvark facts:

From what I can tell, aardvarks and Sarah have three characteristics in common.  I’ll let you guess which ones.

I didn’t see any tickets from the 2nd or 3rd annual Aardvark convention, which leads me to believe that numero uno didn’t go so well.

Um, no.  I have not hugged an Aardvark today.  I probably would though.

It took Sarah a good 30 seconds of convincing before she put this on.  So worth it though.

This all just goes to show you that you really can collect anything….although there is no guarantee at your eventual estate sale that anyone will buy any of it.  

-Erin 

Update from Sarah: That plastic aardvark nose grossed me out SO BAD.