Dig This Treasure!

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.