Dig This Treasure!

Erin and I were really looking forward to a sale a few weeks ago, but for the life of us, we could not figure out how the company running the sale was able to score it. I regularly refer to the two guys who run this company as The Ragamuffins. Historically, The Ragamuffins have gotten crazy hoarder houses and the guys look like they’re about 19 years old, but it appears that they’ve stepped up their game. The sale was at the home of an advertising collector, and it looked packed. Adam met us there and was there for over an hour before we got there, and left at the same time as us–just to give you an idea of how packed it was! 

The whole house was pretty much like this–but each room had something different. The first room you got to had a lot of metal signs and other advertising memorabilia. All of it was priced pretty high but it was the second day of a four-day sale, so that wasn’t surprising. 

A slot-type machine where the prize is ciggies. Pretty awesome. 

So the really weird thing was that some rooms had really cool, old memorabilia (one room was filled with paper) and others were totally filled with newer toys, many of which seemed like things that you’d get by sending away for them in the mail, or from a fast food restaurant. 

The basement was filled with two kinds of things: fast food toys and car parts. LOTS of car parts. 

I found a few things at this sale, but the coolest was a small group of old photographs of buildings in Detroit (and other snapshots) and a big box of old postcards. I bought all of this paper for $120 which is a little pricey, but I am fairly certain that the postcards will sell for a decent amount of money and I was willing to risk it. Most of them are of cities–buildings, etc. 

There were also some cool ones of Detroit. 

And then here are the pictures: 

I found some other really cool photographs in the group that I bought but I’ll post those another day. 

Nothing too crazy or scandalous happened at this sale–pretty straightforward, and it was way more organized and reasonable in price than other sales that they’ve run. I can only imagine what it looked like in that place on Sunday–everything was half off then. 

The second sale we went to was in Dearborn, and it looked like it might have some treasures. When we pulled up, we discovered that it was in a condo complex and two condos next to each other had stuff for sale. We never quite figured out why that was, but ok. The first condo we went in was super gross and smelled like 40 dogs and zero people lived there. But the dogs who lived there had great taste in books! I bought a couple. 

I think this must be a picture of a room upstairs that Erin checked out on her own. 

Thank god I didn’t make the trek. Here’s a picture of the carpet on the main floor. It appears that the dogs figured out how to put down deodorizing powder, but failed to finish the job.  

EEEEEEEEEEEE! 

The other condo was in much better shape, and was filled with stuff, but you sort of had to dig for treasures. I found these cute little wooden apples that open up: 

And a very nice quilted tree skirt. 

Scout is going to be so pumped this Christmas. He loves sitting under the tree. I tried to find a picture of Scout sitting under the tree during a past Christmas season, but all I found was this old picture of Zach and Erin when I first met her. We were at a wedding. 

I also found some very cute, tiny handmade dolls. One is a cat and one is a bunny. The cat is cuter. 

I also don’t want to admit this but I bought this little Rose O'Neill style kewpie doll. Erin had taken a picture of it for a Hard to Resist post so when she saw it in my bag when I walked outside, she almost died. 

Finally, I found these two waechtersbach bowls at the last minute. I thought they’d be cute for Scout’s food but it turns out they sell, so I’ll probably sell them. 

I’ll let Erin tell you all about her treasures, and also about a coat she prevented me from buying for myself. In retrospect, now that I’ve seen the picture, I should have gotten it. It’s cute in an ‘80s way! 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: That kewpie doll that Sarah found at the second sale is seriously horrifying.  I DIED when I saw she had bought it.  I’m sure it will be in next year’s garage sale for anyone interested.

Here is the coat that I talked Sarah out of buying.  First of all, it is WAY too big on her.  Also, it looks like those coats cosmetic counter ladies wear.  Seriously, this coat was so gnarly I thought Sarah was messing with me when she wanted to buy it.

Those sleeves are rolled up like six times because the coat is so huge.

Anyway, at the first sale, I found a great treasure.  It is this old Blatz beer statue thing of some beer bottle men playing baseball.  Timmy actually has this statue already, so I knew from him that it is valuable.  Here is just how valuable:

So I will be listing mine on the ol’ electronic bay soon.

So here is the thing about the ragamuffins running this sale…they for some reason are intimidated by or really like Sarah and I.  I’d like to assume it is our feminine wiles, except that I currently have a huge melon belly and Sarah was still wearing a boot on her broken toe.  But seriously, every time I have asked them for a price on something, they act all nervous and then give me some crazy low price.  And yet, despite the low price, they act like they’ve just given me a super high price and are ashamed of it.

So I ask one of them how much this Blatz figure is–mind you, the whole sale is overpriced.  The dude gets all nervous and then says $15, which made me SO HAPPY.  I am hoping to make a decent profit on this.  

I also bought this cool porcelain lady.  I thought she would resell well because “bathing beauty” figurines are really collectible.  I paid $20 but it only sold on ebay for $26.  Whomp whomp.

We are a little behind on our updates. What can we say–the holiday season is upon us!

Two Fridays ago, Erin and I started off our afternoon by hitting up the sale where we found Beefy. As mentioned, this was the home of a party store owner. It only took about three steps into the house for you to realize that this was the case:

There was a major liquor theme going on.

We didn’t spend much time there.

Next up was a sale that had some cool stuff, but it was pretty overpriced. I don’t remember a lot about it–maybe Erin does. I bought a vintage travel Scrabble kit for $4 that I sold for $45 the next day. Whoop!

After this, we went to a sale in Warren that was advertised as having lots of antiques. I was a little leery of going to this sale because the pictures didn’t look that great, but Erin was obsessed. Turns out this sale was in a condo, and also turns out that this sale was just a glorified indoor garage sale. As soon as I stepped foot in the house, I felt creeped out. The guy wasn’t very old–maybe 40–and he seemed to be clearing out the contents of an antique booth, from what I gathered (everything had booth stickers on it). I bought another stereoscope and a printing drawer. It was impossible to take pictures because it was a cramped area and the guy was right there.

At one point, Erin was crouching down looking at some stuff on the floor and a little white cat came out of nowhere. This cat looked like a true crypt keeper–I would have guessed it to be about 16 years old. Erin asked the guy how old the cat was and he said she was two. I gave Erin some whammy signals and we booked it.

Erin has a habit of feeling bad for people really easily, often for odd reasons. For example, we will see an older man eating lunch by himself, and she will almost start crying because she has decided that he must be very lonely and sad. Maybe he just wants to eat alone! Anyway, she felt bad for the weirdo running an “estate sale” out of his home with a crypt keeper cat, and decided to be a Good Samaritan to him. The sign indicating where to go to find the sale was blown over and wouldn’t stand up, so on our way out, Erin fixed it.

TA DA!!!!

Next on our agenda was another house that Erin was pumped to go to, because it supposedly had Limoges boxes. When we got there, the guy told her that the family had decided to take all of the Limoges stuff out of the sale. Likely story, buddy! All I found at this sale was an old zodiac needlepoint. I tried to resell it pretty high, but after Christmas I’ll try again for less:

Pretty cute if you’re into ‘60s/'70s kitsch.

Finally, we ended the tour with a sale that looked a little more high-end based on the pictures. It was, sort of, but the people running the sale also were a little big for their britches. This is what I mean by that:

What do you think this is? A museum?

They also obviously thought that Erin and I were hoodlums. I’m used to people thinking I’m young, but when people start associating that with me being a trouble-maker, I get super annoyed! I’m 34, people! And I want to give you my money! Anyway, the women running this sale kept following us around asking if we needed help. No, I don’t need help. I need you to back off! Still, I found some cool stuff at this sale–mainly to keep. My favorite find was this beautiful handmade quilt. My mom and dad helped me identify it as a “star of Bethlehem” design. It’s lovely, and I think it was a steal for $35! 

I also got a bunch of cool (newer) hardcover children’s books that were in great shape, and some other stuff that I’m forgetting. All in all, a worthwhile stop, despite the employee annoyance factor!

-Sarah

Update from Erin: At the first sale, I bought some vintage blow up Santas that I had planned to put up immediately on ebay and sell in time for Christmas.  I never got around to it, so these guys are now sitting in a bin waiting for next summer’s garage sale.  I hope at that time I’ll make my $2 back.  

I should note here too that these guys were partially blown up at the sale, and I proceeded then and there to blow them up the rest of the way.  Sarah commented how I was going to get a crazy disease, and as it turns out, I suspiciously ended up with a cold soon thereafter.  I should know better not to put my mouth on strange things after the time I put a child’s Mr. Potato Head mouth in my mouth (to pretend it was my smile) and ended up with near deadly norovirus.

I have no recollection of the second sale, except for this photo I snapped:

I felt bad for the guy at the condo sale because he mentioned that no one seemed to be coming to the sale.  The google map directions were really confusing, and when I saw that his sign was ALSO knocked over, I felt extra bad.  I fixed that sign so good though. It wasn’t going anywhere.

At the next sale I was horrified by that Aquarius cross stitch that Sarah bought and pictured above.  I think she spent $10 on it, and I bet the people running the sale had their own $10 wager going on whether anyone was going to buy that crazy thing at all.

I still hadn’t bought anything since my blow up Santas, and that trend continued through the last sale.  Sarah was right about the women working there.  When I went to look at this Mickey Mouse Seiko watch, as soon as I touched it, one of the women said, “OH! THAT’S $140 DOLLARS!”  Um, cool.  I have $140 to my name, maybe I will buy it.  Maybe not.  Now stop following me around.

Sarah forgot the best part of the day, which was our ride home.  Traffic was INSANE because it was rush hour and we were somewhere around West Bloomfield (extra traffic-y in general).  I saw this storefront though that I assumed was a cool holiday boutique, sure to be filled with great Christmas gifts for our loved ones.  I begged Sarah to navigate through the lanes of traffic so we could stop.  She agreed because there was a nearby Starbucks, and she said she would buy us some coffee with a gift card she had.

But then the “holiday bazaar” turned out to be a weird rich person grocery store.  After this realization, we chuckled, but then realized that we were blocked into our parking space by a long line of cars trying to navigate the nearby road traffic and the tiny parking lot.  Sarah got increasingly irritated by our entrapment and decided that in fact she would NOT buy our Starbucks with her gift card.  Instead, I had to pay for it.  It was a cruel punishment.

The last great moment of the day was me asking this teenage boy where he got his shirt because I was obsessed with it.  I didn’t realize Sarah snapped a pic of this moment.

Before responding, the boy looked at me like I was the mommy-est mom mom ever.  Sarah and I laughed about this the whole ride home, and used different hilarious voices to reenact the moment over and over.  "OHHH…HALLO I LUVVV YOUR SHIRT, WHERE IN THE WORLD DID YOU EVER FIND ITTT?“

UPDATE FROM SARAH: SLANDER! I did NOT buy that needlepoint for $10!!! I bought it for $1!!!!