Dig This Treasure!

I briefly mentioned a purchase I made at this sale, but promised a full rundown.  So here it is…

If you remember, I had planned to return to this sale on its last day and hopefully score some deals on Herend porcelain.  When I saw that the Herend was all sold, I had to come up with a new plan.  I was prepared to spend around $200 on Herend, so I figured, what the hell, might as well take a chance on something else.  Except I didn’t want to take a $200 risk on something non-Herend…

I ended up taking a $90 risk on this piece of Moorcroft pottery:

The photos don’t even do this justice.  It is handpainted and crazy beautiful.  The shiny glaze makes it look extra fancy.

Before this sale I had never even heard of Moorcroft pottery.  I did some brief research on it after the first day when Sarah and I visited the sale.  From what I can gather, Moorcroft started in England around the turn of the century.  Early pieces are crazy valuable because they are made by the founder William Moorcroft.  Later pieces are made by William’s son Walter and are still collectible, just not as pricey.  From what I can tell, Moorcroft is still made today.

Here’s what we’re dealing with people:

That’s some expensive-ass pottery.  $90 certainly seemed like a good investment.

I decided to buy this particular piece because it was the pomegranate design and I read that that style was highly desirable.  I also bought this piece because as I was looking at it, this dude started hovering near me.  He was staring at the bowl like it was a giant glass of water and he was in the Sahara.  Finally he said to me, “Are you going to buy that?"  I said I wasn’t sure and he asked to look at the bowl.  He explained that he was a Moorcroft collector and this was an excellent piece except that it looked like it had been repaired.  Really?  There were absolutely NO signs of this.  Not one line or discoloration that suggested the piece had ever been chipped or cracked. 

I walked around for awhile with the bowl and saw the guy staring at me and following me.  Then another guy, who had seen our interaction, came up and said, "I hope you know that that guy wants you to put that down.  He’s trying to convince you not to buy it so that he can."  So that was the final straw.  Of course, when you know someone wants something you have, it makes you want it more.

I did actually start to fall more and more in love with this bowl and even considered keeping it.  It was like a repeat of Little Dummy, where I decided I might be too in love with something to sell it, even though I knew I was probably going to make a lot of money.

In the end, I did sell the bowl, and I did make money:

Turns out though that the bowl might have once had a lid, which was now missing.  Two separate people messaged me to say that.  If it had a lid, the piece would have sold for twice as much.  Whomp whomp.

Overall though, still a good investment and return.  So keep an eye out everyone!

-Erin

On Friday, Sarah and I were eager to hit a sale in Farmington Hills because it had a bunch of Herend fishnet animals.  Ok, so I was more excited than Sarah, but she still seemed interested in the other items at the sale.  Everything in the photos looked high-end and collectible.  The sale was run by the same people who put on that amazing folk art sale where we scored some mega deals.

Sure enough, the person who owned this house had expensive taste.

That lamp was so badass, but it was priced $395 :(

As for the Herend I mentioned earlier, I didn’t buy any because it was all priced pretty close to retail.  I decided to return to this sale on Sunday when they were discounting.  Unfortunately by then someone had already scooped up all of the fishnet pieces!  That’s what I get for singing the praises of Herend on this blog!  Now everyone loves it.  Sheesh!

I did buy one piece of non-fishnet Herend.  This tiny rabbit box for $20:

I know, that is about the most precious thing you have ever seen.

One more story about this sale is that Sarah got busted by the police on our way home.  She made a questionable pass through a yellow/red light and a cop car started following us.  He didn’t put on his lights right away so Sarah and I were living in terror for a good couple minutes. 

Finally, the lights and sirens went on and Sarah and I sat in scared silence as we waited for the cops to approach.  I thought about asking Sarah what she was going to say to the cop, but I realized she was silently freaking out so I figured it best to just keep my mouth shut.  I’m sure she appreciated that gesture.

Then the weirdest thing happened and this young, cool dude cop strolled up and said all nonchalantly, “Watch those yellow lights ok?"  And then he started to walk away!  Sarah was like, "Do you want to see my stuff?” (meaning her license, etc.)  He said, “No, I already know who you are.”

So then the BEST thing happened.  I said really loudly and shocked to Sarah, “YOU KNOW HIM?!?!"  In my brain, they were like high school buddies or something.  Sarah pointed out that I was in fact the dumbest person of all time and that the cop simply meant he had already run her license plate and knew her name and info.

DUH.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Erin covered this sale expertly. The only thing I’ll add here is… yes, these people are very nice and get lots of very nice high end sales. But sometimes I want to take items up to them and say, 

For example: 

Yo, dawg. A full sheet set should cost about $10 at an estate sale. FORTY FIVE DOLLARS? And we all know that Style&co. is the cheapo Macy’s brand. It’s not like those are some high quality Calvin Klein sheets. The things that are most offensively overpriced at their sales are things like this! Everyday items that do not need to be marked up a billion dollars. 

I did buy one item at this sale. A very cute, super fat "art glass” bunny (that’s what it said on the tag.) It was marked $20 which is a little steep for a brandless bunny but it’s still pretty unique and cool. 

She fits right in among all of the other bunnies that live in our dining room. 

And thank god that officer was so awesome! I would have totally deserved that ticket because the light was right at the questionable level. And thank god ALSO that Erin made the wise choice to keep her mouth shut during the whole transaction (until the very end when she thought we were long lost homies)… it’s a true miracle that she didn’t say anything else. 

Ev didn’t come with us on our adventure, and when we got back, it looked as if he was pretty pleased with that decision. 

Also, I feel sad that Erin didn’t get any of her fishnet pieces. That baby bear was adorable. 

A few weekends ago, Erin and I saw a listing for a really baller looking auction at an auction house that’s just a mile or two down the street from where I live. I had never gone but always wanted to, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Erin arrived first and warned me it was very, very crowded. It was even more crowded than I expected. While waiting in line for a number, I heard people saying that there was some other antique market that weekend, and there were probably a lot of out of town dealers there. Makes sense. The stuff for sale was all very high quality, and there were tons of gorgeous quilts, woven coverlets, and lots and lots of antiques and primitive items. I was sort of overwhelmed. 

Seats were a very hot commodity at this place, and Erin smartly and quickly grabbed two in the back. The auction started and here was our view. 

Right when the auction started, I said to Erin, “I think that’s ______ _______ (name of annoying auctioneer from previous post.)” He was dressed so differently and had such a different way about him this time, that Erin was in denial at first. But it was indeed him. They were doing this crazy thing (because there was so much stuff there!) where as soon as one auctioneer ended, the other would start on the next item. It made things move incredibly fast. 

I had my eye on a few items, but based on how high things were selling, I didn’t think I’d end up with them. One of them I was right about. 

I mean how freakin’ cool is that thing? Anyway, it sort of reminded me of the card catalog type thing I spotted at a garage sale in Charlevoix. Anyway, this sold for $600+. I did, however, score an old post office shelf that someone repainted a beautiful green color. 

I think I might set it long ways on top of my big desk in eBay World. Not sure yet. Right now it’s still in my garage. I paid $75, which seemed fair to me. 

It was a really long night with so much stuff… a lot of things that seemed interesting or bid-worthy just went so high so fast that we didn’t get a chance to even bid! I had seen an old folk art dog carving that I was determined to go home with. They ended up putting him up with a taxidermy mini horse toy like the one Erin had appraised at Antiques Roadshow. I will not even admit what I paid for these two guys but I did go home with both of them. The horse is terrifying looking and will be listed on eBay shortly. 

Awesome doggy! 

Freaky horse!

On my way up to the check out counter, I did spot a paper doll of Erin: 

Isn’t she darling? 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: The items in this auction were all from the same owner, a collector named Irene Marinovich, who clearly had good taste and lots of scratch.  You can look at all the items for sale here, although I don’t know how much longer that link will be up. Googling Irene, it looks as though she was an artist and jewelry maker who unfortunately passed away in March.

I saw several items that I was interested in, the first being this weird mosaic frog.  I think it’s a frog anyway.  It was made of cement and super heavy, so I figured it was some sort of lawn ornament.  

I think maybe it was art and not a lawn ornament because it sold for like $80.  That was one of the cheapest prices we had seen all night.  

This cool face was some sort of weird resin/wood blend.  I was kind of obsessed with it because the eyes were super real looking.  I thought this would be nice above a door frame in our house, but it sold for over $100.  

I was starting to feel like Sarah at the last auction we attended, when she kept getting shut out from buying things.  Hours into the auction I had only bid one or two times and came nowhere near winning anything.  The only success I had had was buying snacks for Sarah and I all night long.  Here’s how it looked around my seat at the end of the auction:

To be fair, I think one of those chip bags wasn’t ours.  It just snuck in with ours to make me look bad.

Ok, so here we are.  I am getting kind of bored and antsy.  Sarah has had success but it has come at a price (literally, not figuratively).  There was one more item I was interested in.  It was this weird art bowl thing from some artist in the 80s.  I just liked the design.

The auctioneer had stuck this bowl in a box with a bunch of other pottery, so I was bummed because I figured that would make the price jump up.  So the whole lot goes up for sale and the price starts at $50.  No one bids.  He drops down to $25 and I throw my hand up (that was the lowest price he was dropping to all night).  

And then, like a true miracle, NO ONE ELSE BID.  The lot was mine, for a mere $25.  I was shocked.  

When I got the box, I saw that mixed in with my bowl were three pieces of Pre-Columbian pottery.  I am not particularly interested in stuff like this, but it was pretty neat looking.  I thought Zach might want it, but he encouraged me to put it on ebay instead.

I was hoping on ebay that I could just make my initial investment of $25 back.  Turns out though that this stuff is Jalisco pottery, from that region in Western Mexico.  I instantly had over 10 watchers in the first hour, and two bids soon thereafter.

There are five hours left on the auction and I have nearly doubled my money.  SO COOL.  I have no clue what this will sell for, so I will have to keep you posted.  I do know that I have had a bunch of people message me about it, so I have my fingers crossed.  One dude asked me to end the auction and let him buy the pieces outright.  No way man.

So after all, totally worth going to this place, even if our not-so-favorite auctioneer was there.  Oh, and I almost forgot, look at this doll of Sarah I saw there:

She has on her “fancy” dress.

Two Fridays back, the sale listings looked awful, so Sarah and I contemplated staying home.  We eventually decided to suck it up though and find some garage sales.  You all remember how entertaining that was last time…

Before the garage sale-ing, however, we did stop at one estate sale that looked kind of not-horrible.  It turned out to be, well, horrible.

Everything was really Hallmark-y, but like the dollar store version of Hallmark stuff.

It was like the Boyd’s bears strolled up into town and took this home by force.  Except that it wasn’t really the Boyd’s bears, but instead their creepy backwoods cousins who you don’t normally invite over for Thanksgiving dinner.

To be fair, I did buy two Waechtersbach mugs to go with my Christmas set.  They were 50 cents each which is a steal.

We hightailed it out of there and, while driving, saw this sign:

A 4 day vintage market?!  That is EXACTLY what we need!  What sounds better than some sort of market filled with old treasures that probably occurs only once a year and is therefore filled with only the finest of goods?!

When we followed the signs to the “vintage market”  we found more signs (the ones you see above).  Here, let me zoom in more:

Well, sh*t.  Turns out, our “vintage market” was the name of a party store and they had some MAD DEALS on ribs.  When I realized what was happening, Sarah refused to believe it.  She was so heartbroken.  She tried to convince me that these were different signs than the original, but there was no denying the truth:

So after this huge failure, things were looking bad.  We started driving in a neighborhood after we saw a garage sale sign, and came upon this:

A big ol’ trash heap, and a metaphor for how our day was going.

But then things started to turn around.  We rolled up to one garage sale and it looked really good!  It was like our own private “vintage market” tucked away in this grandma’s garage.

There was a huge table filled with old, really collectible pottery.  The first thing I saw was that she had a Van Briggle vase.  I was familiar with the brand because of Antiques Roadshow and knew that some pieces sold for thousands.  It turns out that the pottery actually belonged to the old woman’s friend, who proceeded to tell Sarah and I all about his pottery collecting.  

The Van Briggle piece he had marked $50, which was too risky for me to buy.  I looked up a few similar pieces on ebay and they all sold for around $100.  After last week’s ebay disasters though, I wanted to take a less expensive risk.  I decided to buy three pieces of Roseville Mostique pottery for $5 each.  Very reasonable.

We’ve seen Roseville pottery a lot at estate sales, and I’m not a huge fan of it.  I know it is really collectible though, so I figured I could flip this set pretty easily.  

And, I did!

The pottery guy at this garage sale even gave me this McCoy cookie jar for free!  I had been looking at it and he decided I must take it home.  Ok!

So our luck was definitely changing!  It even continued when we visited a nearby thrift store.  Thrift stores are something Sarah and I barely dabble in, although we have many blog friends who do their picking exclusively at these places.  Maybe we should go more often, because there are certainly great deals to be had!  You might as well call me Macklemore because I loved this thrift shop so much.

I got a whole garbage bag full of baby clothes for $30.  Some still had the tags on them!  And there was a bunch of Ralph Lauren stuff in there.  (Also, can you tell I’m ready to pop?  My face looks like a marshmallow.)

So cute.  

I think Sarah bought these shoes:

Or maybe she didn’t.  I can’t remember.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I definitely bought those shoes for my next trip clubbin’. They are the perfect mix of sexy and schoolgirl. Ok, I’m lying. I did end up finding a nice lightweight cotton Land’s End cardigan and some books at the thrift shop, but that’s about it. Oh and this t-shirt for Baby Everett.

Erin and Zach LOVE cute little t-shirts with sayings on them like this, so be sure to send all your hand-me-downs their way.

The first estate sale was such a nightmare. It was one of those sales where you’re looking around for ANYTHING you might possibly want, and coming up shorthanded. For example, I actually considered buying this. 

Then I saw it was marked $20. 

The garage sale was the surprise of the day–Erin passed on the Van Briggle vase but I thought about it for a while and remembered how valuable Arts & Crafts stuff can be, so I asked if he would go lower than $50. The lowest he would go was $45, so I took the chance. It was a really beautiful piece, even though I don’t even really care about pottery! 

I looked it up and ones like it seemed to sell for $100-150. So I listed it at $155 and let people make offers. After a couple of days, someone swooped in and the rest is history! 

The only thing that Erin forgot to mention is that the guy selling the pottery drove and parked THIS THING in front of the house! 

Overall, it was a very strange sale. 

A few weekends back, I went with Timmy to “The Super Auction” being held in Ann Arbor. The auction was in a giant pole barn on some farmland, and was actually several different auctions all happening at the same time.  Timmy of course went to the sports auction, while I minced around at the others.

I should note that my dad isn’t crazy about us calling him “Timmy” on this blog.  I learned of this recently, but told him that the readers would have a hard time following along if I suddenly started calling him “Tim.”  Anyway, here he is picking up some of his winnings:

There were lots of great items at this auction, and prices seemed to be pretty high as a result.

That box of arrowheads in the photo above sold for over $500!  

I didn’t stick around to see what that casket sold for, but no bones about it–it probably sold for lots. 

One of the auctions taking place was all pottery.  Pottery is actually something I could see myself collecting.  I just don’t know enough about it yet.  

Most of the pottery was Roseville, which Sarah and I have seen at estate sales before.  I can’t say I’m a Roseville fan.  It seems kind of boring. 

I did see two non-Roseville pieces right away that I loved.  I couldn’t make out the signature on the bottom, so I asked someone to look at the auction catalog.  Turns out, these are made by Common Ground Pottery, and more specifically, a man named Eric Olson.

Gorgeous, right?  I liked how these looked kind of Art Nouveau.  Unfortunately, I didn’t buy either of these.  Each vase sold for $275.  This price is actually pretty good, because looking elsewhere, Common Ground stuff usually sells for over $500.

I started an ebay alert for Common Ground pottery on the off chance that someone is selling some cheap.  Otherwise, it will remain a holy grail.  One day, when I am rich, after buying Sasha dolls, I will buy Common Ground pottery.

Here are some other amazing examples I found online:

Ok, and to finish up, here are my dad’s auction treasures in the back seat of his car:

He seriously spent about 5 minutes flipping these around to find the safest travel position for each one.  

-Erin

On Saturday night, Sarah and I decided to hit up my favorite local hotspot–the Plymouth auction.  Our friend Lisa was also in attendance, and we were all excited because the items this night looked really good.  Spoiler alert: we all got some GOOD stuff.

I bid on and won the first item up for auction.  It is this framed Harper’s Bazaar print featuring an old baseball team.  (Sorry for the glare on the glass in this photo.)

I got this for Timmy, the #1 baseball fanatic himself.  It was $10.

There was a lot of really nice furniture this night, but none of us needed any furniture.  It all of course went obscenely cheap.  I was particularly obsessed with this seemingly simple table, which opened up to reveal a baller writing desk.  It sold for something like $50.

Lisa and I loved this chair below, and Sarah thought we were crazy.  It just needed some new upholstery.  

And then there was this crazy thing, which I saw and instantly thought, “Who the HELL is going to buy that?!”  Sure enough, this knitting machine (?) sold for $800!  Everyone clapped and cheered when it sold because that is some serious bank to drop on that thing.

I can only assume this thing is used to make these pony sweaters:

Lisa ended up getting two of the best items at the auction.  First was this horn; “horn” here being used in two ways: an animal horn and a musical horn.  

I’m not entirely sure what she is going to do with this, but it was definitely the most badass purchase made that night.  Also, look at that frowny lady in the background!

Lisa also bought this AMAZING carved wooden screen.  It has all sorts of animals on it.  If I had a place for this in our house, I would have fought her over it.  Probably the best buy of the night.

Lisa and I also split a lot of Pewabic pottery, which I have just now realized I still need to pay her for.  My piece in the lot was this little bear tile:

My best score of the evening was a gorgeous stained glass lamp.  We have needed a new living room lamp for awhile now, but I had yet to find one I really loved.  Our old lamp was broken and made a weird sizzling noise which I am sure meant our death in a fire was imminent.  Luckily, I bid on and won this:

I love the pattern so much.  It’s floral but not super femme-y.

I’ll let Sarah fill you in on her purchases, but I will say that at one point she bought this old plastic puzzle.  It came with another item she wanted, so she had no choice but to buy it.  When she got it, we realized it was all chewed on and gross.  I can’t believe this was even an auction item.  She ended up leaving it behind because as far as we knew, it was a biohazard.  

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I was expecting a lot more awesome treasures at this auction, but I did come away with some cool stuff. As Erin mentioned, Lisa came away with some of the coolest items–especially that horn!

In the end, I did come away with some cool stuff. One of the first things I noticed at this auction was an old metal Peanuts tray. I knew as soon as I saw it that I would pay a decent amount of money for it, because both Adam and I love the Peanuts. I won it for a whopping $13, and it came with that ugly ass puzzle that Erin posted above, and some expired astronaut food.

Anyone know any hungry astronauts?

Very adorable.

I also purchased this semi-creepy but also cute old woodblock print. Lisa was the first to notice it and bid on it. I hadn’t seen it but once I got a closer looked, I wanted it.

One thing that I did not end up winning was a HUGE lot of Grateful Dead beanie babies. I didn’t even know that such a thing existed until I took a closer look at the pile of beanies on one of the tables. Apparently there are people in the world who want to own Grateful Dead beanie babies, so the reselling potential was there.

One hilarious thing about these bears was that the person putting them up on the auction block called them WALKING Dead dolls, instead of GRATEFUL Dead dolls.

I didn’t think anyone on earth would be interested in them, but apparently people did their research. I think they ended up selling for something like $60, which was too much for me to pay, but then again, maybe there were some really obscure bears up in there. 

Also, in case you were wondering you can buy a plush Jerry Garcia.

You’re welcome.

Pretty much every Sunday Zach and I go out to breakfast at a place called Thomas’, mostly because I am addicted to their pancakes.  Last week, after breakfast, we decided to stop at a random estate sale nearby.  It was advertised as being 50% off everything, so it was definitely worth a look.

The house was completely full of random treasures, without any real rhyme or reason.  These people collected a little bit of everything, which was great!  

I know Sarah will look at the above photo and ask why I didn’t buy her that little German ornament guy in the middle.  She collects these, but I forget their names.  I didn’t buy this one because he was broken.

Most of the items in the house were unfamiliar to me, and I didn’t have the best reception on my phone to look things up.  Because of the discount pricing though, I took a chance on a few items.  The first was this old puppet, made by Hazelle’s.  I found out later he was called Teto the Clown.

I also found this cool punched tin box.  I don’t know how old it is, but regardless, it’s interesting and pretty.  I decided to try selling it, but knew I was happy to keep it if it got no bids.

I think maybe it’s a mailbox or something!  It mounts to the wall.  And for the record, it did get bids on ebay, so so much for keeping it.  Teto the Clown sold too.

Zach had the best find by far.  A piece of Native American pottery by artist Sally Garcia.  Neither of us knew of her when he found this piece, but after doing some research, it turns out she is rather well-known.  She is credited “as the first pioneer of hand etchings on ceramic pottery.”  Her large pieces sell for hundreds and even thousands of dollars.  The piece Zach bought is pretty tiny, and had its original price sticker on it marked $84.  He ended up paying $15 for it.

We both love this piece so much and will probably keep it forever. Definitely a fave find, so kudos to Zach for eyeing it!

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I’ve never met another person so addicted to mediocre pancakes. Why didn’t you buy those HO cars?