Dig This Treasure!

Sarah and I have been super lazy bloggers, but luckily our disciple Zach has been much more proactive.  Husband Zach collects and resells vintage watches, so lately he has been scoping out estate and garage sales in hopes of finding some. 

On Sunday I got a Facetime call from him, which looked like this:

He explained that he bought this doll because it was only $1 and he thought it might be valuable.  I told him I thought so too!  At least more than $1 valuable!  Zach also bought this crazy Knickerbocker doll because he knew we had blogged about that brand before:

This doll is amazingly weird.  It is a baby and a Santa.  A Santa Baby…like the song, except I don’t think the song literally meant a baby that is also Santa.  Anyway, we are going to stick it on ebay and see what happens.

So while on this call, Zach explains that this sale he was at had tons of old train stuff but he didn’t know what to buy.  He described this “service station” thing and I convinced him to go back and buy it.  It sounded like something we should take a chance on.

It turned out to be way cooler than I imagined while talking to Zach on the phone:

I could tell this was crazy old because it was wood and not tin.  It was in great shape.  After doing some research, we figured out it was made in 1949 and sold at Sears.  It is up on ebay now and already has a $50 bid.  It has 18 watchers too, so hopefully it will go a little higher.

So then flash forward to today and Zach gets home later than usual after work.  Turns out he had stopped at an estate sale.  I was just about to nap with Everett when Zach informed me that I REALLY needed to get up and go to the sale he was just at.  “It was like a hoarder and there was all this stuff and I know we could resell some of it and blah blah…”

Well, his assessment was right on.  This place was packed.  And the stuff was good.  The prices seemed fair.  I had apparently taught Grasshopper well.

They even had a doll of Sarah’s future child there:

Check out those teefers.

I ended up buying the following:

An Ohio Art tin buggy which seems like it should be an easy resell:

A cool old ice bucket by Hazel Atlas Glass company:

And this hilarious watch which was only $1.  People like Duran Duran don’t they?!

(Zach seemed very skeptical of this purchase.)

I will probably go back tomorrow with Sarah because there were other things I was interested in but wanted to wait and barter over.  Prices today were pretty firm.

When Zach was at the sale, he got this cool toy wagon for $15.  It was really dirty and he cleaned it all up.  It is all wood and super cute.

So good job Zach!  You have officially earned the ranking of DTT Scout.  We are so proud :)

-Erin

You might remember the auction in Romulus that kind of kicked off Sarah’s auction fever.  Remember she bought that whole platter of dolls?  

We ventured back to this auction a few Fridays ago.  The wares looked really appealing.

We ran into a friend of ours at this auction and he was there scoping out some paintings.  He thought they might be mega valuable, like tens of thousands, if they were real.  Sarah and I explained to him that prices at this auction sometimes go really high (we saw a saxophone sell for $4,000 once).  Really though, to us, “really high” means something goes over like $60.  Our friend said he was willing to spend a couple grand on the paintings which made me be like 1. Are you secretly rich?  2. Why have you never told me you were secretly rich? and 3. Buy me those paper mache Santas because I don’t want to spend more than $50 on them.

[Spoiler alert: The paintings sold for over $2,000 each and our friend didn’t win any of them.  The Santas went for over $200, and not to me.]

There were actually two auctions happening at this place at the same time.  A back room was filled with all old, ceramic baby plates being auctioned off separately.  

Here is a plate showing me on the day that I got chased by another dog while out walking George and then in anger called a man fat:

Sarah and I hung out in this baby plate room the most because items were selling really affordably.  In the main auction room, things were quite different.  You see, this auction is great because they have really nice things all the time.  However, the auctioneer is, to be frank, super obnoxious.

He does this whole act with EVERY item in which he says, “Ok we got this [insert item] and clearly this is very old and it must be WORTH AT LEAST [insert some crazy high price].”  This gets so frustrating because sometimes he doesn’t even know what an item is, and yet he makes up some fantastical price for it.  And then the item always sells for around that price.

Kudos to him for having such a trustworthy audience, all of whom are going to be so sad when they do some research on ebay later.

Ok, so back in the baby plate room, I scored two items.  Both of these are Roseville pottery, a brand I bought and sold recently.  These plates came together in a lot that I paid $40 for.  I am keeping the rabbit one for future baby’s room:

I love this because the rabbits kind of look like weird martian rabbits.

The second plate has chicks on it and I am going to list it on ebay:

Other than these two things, I didn’t buy anything else at the auction.  

Sarah tried to buy some things but kept failing miserably.  After the baby plate auction, a third separate auction started for a bunch of old postcards.  There were literally thousands of postcards, all stored in huge albums.  Each album was selling for $80-$200 each, depending on the content of the cards inside.

It was sad to watch.  In my head I was cheering for Sarah, and visibly holding my breath each time she was bidding.  But this SAME WOMAN each time would outbid her.  This woman bought nearly every album and spent a ton of cash doing so.  

There’s Sarah looking forlorn in the crowd.  I wanted to yell out, “Come on! Just let her buy one!!” but there was a whole crowd of people wanting to just buy one album and they didn’t get to either.

It turns out that this woman owns an online store in which she scans vintage postcards that are past copyright and turns them into “new things”–probably prints them on a ton of sh*t.  To be fair, this is a genius idea.  Still though, she could have shared a little bit of the bounty.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Before I get amped up with postcard talk, let me show you a few things that were cool at this auction that I did not purchase. 

I’m really kicking myself for missing out on that sign because Adam realllllly liked it when I showed him the picture, and it would fit in very well in our kitchen. 

That plate is so stinkin’ cute but I could not rationalize buying it because I do not have baby boys. 

Giant shelf with tiny drawers? Yes, please! 

These aren’t cool–they’re super ugly and look like ducks with alligator heads. But I think they were Roseville and I wanted to show them to you. 

Ok, postcard time. What that lady does with her postcards is what Adam has been begging me to do with all of the paper goods I find that are past copyright. There is something about this that really bothers me and makes me feel bad–that I’d be turning someone’s old artwork into something mass produced. Also, in case you forgot, Adam–I have a full-time job. I don’t know–good for her. But it’s not something I’d want to do. Also, I actually felt hatred toward her while the auction was happening. I mean come on. These albums had HUNDREDS of cards in them each–do you really need 10,000 postcards?! 

They were really cool cards and in very good condition. Here’s an example of why I wanted just ONE album to sort through. 

Oh also at one point, when they were letting people choice out the albums of cards (there were so many albums that the auctioneer would say the winner had to take 4 or 5 at the high bid price) and she won, she looked at her loooong list of what she wanted and said, “Where’s 41? I want that one.” The auctioneer was like, “You already bought that one.” WTFFFFFFF?!!!!! Clearly, she didn’t even know what she did or didn’t have in her possession! 

I wish we had gotten a picture of her because she had a little minion/friend with her who was in charge of her book full of notes about each album. Erin said that when we get older, that’s going to be us. But *I’m* going to be the a$$hole buying all the postcards. :(

I did end up buying two things. First was this baby plate with hounds running on it. I’m not sure why I wanted it so bad but I did, and it was only $20. 

The second item was this set of baby plates that I really loved. Shockingly, Adam also really loved these. 

So cute! 

What Erin explained about this auctioneer is true. This experience really just made me not want to go to his auctions again. We had a surprise run-in with him the following week, though, which we will tell you about soon! 

Holy moly! This is a late update!

On my birthday (end of August), Adam and I stopped at a book & treasure store in Ann Arbor, located in what’s called “Kerrytown.” He actually wanted to go inside and I did not, because I had a vague memory of having a semi-bad experience at this place in the past. But the store is my kind of place–a huge space filled from floor to ceiling with books, paper, and collectibles, so I agreed to go. 

The guy who runs this place is my kinda guy–besides old books, he has TONS of old postcards, greeting cards, and stereoviews. 

Check out that creeper. 

These are all semi-organized in card catalogs throughout the store. I started really getting excited because I found whole drawers of Christmas postcards…

(Note–this was the day after Erin and I got manicures for my birthday. Check out those nails!)

…but then I started noticing the prices located on the backside. Each of these awesome postcards cost between $15 and $40. What the heck?! 

Amid the adorable postcards, I also found some hilarious and scary ones. 

If that’s what Santa looks like, I’m not sure I want him coming down my chimney. 

Have you ever seen a kid so scared to hear Santa? That dog sure is excited, though. 

In the end, I did buy a few postcards and greeting cards–the ones I selected were between $3 and $5 each. 

I went to check out, and when I was doing so, the store owner started chit chatting with me, asking if I saw all the other postcards. I told him that I did see them, but that they were super overpriced. He started lecturing me on rarity and how you determine the value of something–like I was a total dummy. Then I immediately remembered why I didn’t want to go in the store in the first place. The guy was so condescending and thought everything was worth a billion dollars! Many things in the store had tags like this: 

One of his favorite words was “scarce”. 

I told him that I knew they were valuable, but I’m not sure they were worth THAT much… I think in the process of talking to me, he realized that I was not a total idiot, since I do collect paper. So then he insisted that I look at a special box he had behind the counter of his most prized postcards. I went along with it because Adam was giving me The Look (he wanted a good story), but really, some of the postcards in the drawers were way cooler than the ones in his special box.

Then I happened to mention that I collect photographs so he insisted that I look at these groups of photos he had. Well, it turns out he had a whole envelope filled with people and their pets, so I was actually pretty excited. Here’s what I bought: 

Sorry for the darkness/quality–I took those pictures in my dark living room.

The big prize was this cabinet card: 

It was marked a hefty $16 but I really wanted it. 

I brought up my second round of treasures to the checkout desk and he seemed very impressed with my selections. Then he took one look at that cabinet card and said, “This is a $30 photograph.” I said “NO WAY DUDE.” Those words exactly. He said “Oh no I’m going to honor the price on the back but I want you to know this is a very rare, valuable photograph." 

But then things changed. He started telling me about his dogs. If you know me at all, you know that all you have to do is talk about an old dog around me and I fall apart. He went on to point out the freakin’ professional photo/glamourshots he had of his three pugs hanging on the walls. There is so much crap in this place, I hadn’t noticed them until then. He then told us the story of Taz, his oldest pug (16), who he had to put down this year. He and his wife do community theater, and when they took him to the vet, it was Valentine’s Day. He sang "My Funny Valentine” to his 16 year old pug, as the vet euthanized poor little Taz. Oh my gosh. 

As he told us the story, he got a little teary, and I could not help but end up liking this guy. I think he must just be really attached to all of the things in his store. The high prices seem to be a way to allow him to keep holding on to all of it. He asked me to send him a photograph of the cabinet cards, and I haven’t yet. I should go do this now. 

-Sarah

Zach and I took a short trip to New York City this weekend.  We wanted to sneak in some freedom and fun time before the baby comes in October.  NYC has got to be my favorite place on Earth (Zach’s too), and even though we only had a couple days there, we made the most of it.

We spent our first day visiting Rosie Pope Maternity (shout-out to Bravo TV fans), perusing fake goods in Chinatown, and going to the bar with friends.  Sunday, however, was dedicated to treasure hunting.  We started the day at a street fair near our hotel.  I bought some of these embroidered pillow shams (a zebra and giraffe).  Supposedly they are handmade in Kashmir, but that is probably a lie.

You might remember that last year Zach and I visited Brooklyn Flea.  This year, we decided to check out GreenFlea in Manhattan.  It wasn’t as large as Brooklyn Flea, but ended up having really great treasures.

Zach spotted David Fricke of Rolling Stone magazine fame.  This was actually the first of two celebrity sightings, as Zach inadvertently found a seat by Andre 3000 later this day at the airport. 

David Fricke wears flip flops.

Some of the best things at GreenFlea were:

This INCREDIBLE Skookum doll.  I actually missed this when walking around and Zach brought me over to it.  When I saw it, I hoped so badly I was going to get an amazing deal on it.  So far, I have never paid more than $30 for a Skookum.  The woman selling this though wanted $200.  

These silver and bakelite bugs.  The old man selling these actually makes them himself! They were each around $200, which was out of my price range.  I would have bought one in a heartbeat though, as I am always looking for nice pins for my Fall jackets.

These shadow boxes.  SUCH A GOOD AND SIMPLE IDEA.  This person buys old lead figurines (just like Zach collects) and then mounts them in shadow boxes.  Very cool.  Here is another one, but with old razors:

This giant metal horse head.  The woman selling this said it came from a kids’ ride-on toy from the 30s.  I would have liked to buy this for the nursery, but it was $75, which seemed steep.

This HERWI nodder made in Germany.  Clearly this is really old, but does anyone know if it is valuable?  I couldn’t find anything on ebay.  Asking price was $40.

We ended up buying only a couple things.  First was this super old Santa figure.  It seems to be carved out of wood, or some sort of chalkware type material.

It was $5. Also $5 was this lead soldier Zach found:

Zach also found the last two items we bought.  First was a cool Andy Warhol card from the 80s.  We haven’t found out much info on the company that put this out, but it seems to be some sort of super tiny, independent erotica place.  I’m only saying that because there is stuff on the back of the card about sex.

The last purchase was this old business card.  Zach couldn’t pass it up because of the hilarity.  When he asked the price, the man selling this said, “Hmm, I don’t know…it could be valuable.”  That is always THE WORST thing to hear a seller say, especially when something is clearly not worth much.  Zach bartered him down to $1.

Eleanor was real sassy.  Just like David Fricke and his flip flops.

I should also mention that at this flea market I ate the best treat of my life.  It was a waffle with nutella and ice cream.  Seriously so boss.

Until next time New York!

-Erin

Wow… with all the Antiques Roadshow posts and garage sale planning, we’re really behind on our normal Friday wrap-up posts. 

Two Fridays ago, Erin, my mom and I went to some sales that looked pretty good. The first was in Dearborn and seemed like it had a decent amount of antiques.

There’s Cindy, inspecting the valuables. 

A lot of the older pieces were pretty pricey. 

This was a handmade high chair that Erin was obsessed with. To me, it looked like something the Dothraki made. 

In the end, I found an old Pyrex travel thing–you know–the kind of thing with a warmer/carrier? Can you tell I cook ALL THE TIME? I also got a really cute sunhat that I’ll hopefully be able to use next week. Spoiler alert: DTT is going on vacation! 

I found some other items but it was so long ago that I’ve forgotten about them. The one complaint about this sale was that a) the employees were a little pushy and b) they had too many people collecting money! Whenever you went into another area of the house, they would “ring you up” there, which just made everything take so much longer. Look people, nobody is going to steal that grandma’s old clothes. 

Next up on our agenda was a sale that looked pretty high-end. We could tell because of the company running the sale. Anyway, even though it was high-end and a little pricey, I found some cool stuff. These people had a lot of really neat things in their house: 

I was mesmerized by this thing: 

We have these in our teaching labs at work and I could not figure out why in the world someone would have one mounted to their kitchen counter. Maybe they do powerpoint presentations for fun. 

A few minutes into being in this house, my mom asked me to look on eBay to figure out if bagpipes were worth anything. 

I tried, but in the end it was too complicated. I could not figure out which ones were or were not valuable, or whether this thing was even real! A few minutes after this, Erin came up to me and said, “Your mom’s buying a BAGPIPE?” Hey, she’s bought crazier things! 

My favorite part of the house was the basement, where they had their collection of (repro) cast iron banks. 

When I was down there, I also found this little model of me zooming around in my convertible: 

(EIGHTEEN DOLLARS?!)

For some reason, I really liked this picture: 

In the end, I came away with this really adorable model of a carnival ride. 

I love it so much. Adam does not. 

The women running this sale were not very friendly at all. They were also completely unwilling to negotiate, which is a drag. I’m sure Erin will tell you more about that. My mom bought this thing: 

I have no idea what it is. 

The last sale on our agenda looked good to me because there were TONS of books: 

In the end, I didn’t find much that was interesting. Except this old book about “sexual glands”: 

I also found some cute little minis and some old Garfield placemats. Here are some things I didn’t buy: 

And of course, this entry wouldn’t be complete without some info about what we ate that day. As I’ve mentioned, these days Erin only likes to eat at places with “family dining” in the name, so we ended up somewhere where she could eat this: 

I think my mom and I would like nothing more than to forget this meal forever and ever. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: Sarah is right, the first sale had way too many sales people, and they were mega aggressive.  I got in one room by myself and the guy there said, “I’m not letting you out of this room unless you buy a pair of shoes.  We got too many shoes.”  Um, ok, that seems kind of not fair/illegal. (I mean kidnapping women at an estate sale, not owning too many shoes.)

I actually did buy a pair of shoes which was hilarious.  They were black Keds tennis shoes, brand new, and were $2.

I didn’t buy much here.  I got Zach some soap from Saks Fifth Avenue because he loves fancy soaps and once had a soap blog.  I know, very exciting.

The soap looks grody there, but it wasn’t.  I also bought this (vintage?) cigar that says, “It’s a boy!”  because we found out the day before that our baby is going to be of the male gender.  (Do boys like estate sales?  I HOPE SO.)

The second sale was fun to look at, but I’m really not into reproduction antiques.  There were a few real-looking antique pieces in the house, but it was hard to trust them when everything else was new.  These Toby mugs were real, but super super pricey:

I will buy a repro if it is MEGA cute.  Some of the cast iron banks were contenders:

Ultimately though,  I didn’t buy any.  I did want to buy this large Santa bulb (I pulled this pic from the internet).  While the one I found looked “vintage,” you could tell from the markings that it was brand new…probably from Pier One or something.  The filament inside was broken so it wouldn’t light up, but I thought it was still pretty cute as a decoration.

The woman running the sale told me $20 for this and I was astounded.  I told her I’d pay $10 (still a stretch) and she seemed really irritated.  I apologized and said I didn’t mean to offend her and then put the bulb back.  At this point, Sarah and her mom were still shopping and I was out of breath from going up and down stairs while being pretty hugely pregnant.  I asked the same woman if I could sit on the couch in the living room while I was waiting (it was a nice couch so I thought I’d ask) and she looked like she wanted to kill me.  I did end up sitting there but I just barely put my butt on the edge.  Oy.

The last sale was nothing to write home about, except that I found these adorable snowmen.  They were missing their hats which I found nearby, and then proceeded to place back on each one of them.  I didn’t buy these, but I was happy that with their hats on, someone else might.

P.S. Sarah’s mom didn’t buy the bagpipe after all.

The rumors are true.  Dig This Treasure was lucky enough to snag some press passes to the Detroit stop of Antiques Roadshow.  If you’re not familiar, Antiques Roadshow is PBS’ highest-rated ongoing primetime series, in which guests are invited to bring their dusty old treasures in for appraisal.  The show is best known for surprising antique owners with high-price valuations for items the owner believed to be worthless.  

The Detroit event had 28,922 ticket applications, with only 6,000 tickets being issued.  Each attendee is permitted to bring up to two items for appraisal, which meant that over 10,000 appraisals were expected this day.  Which also meant, long lines…

Luckily, after checking in at the media area, we were escorted by Roadshow aficionado Peter, who whisked us right past the 2+ hour wait.  (Sorry everyone!)

They call this first waiting area –yes, it’s only the first–triage.  Once you get through triage, you must show your appraisal items at this table:

The Roadshow person working here will decide which category of item you’ve brought.  There are 22 categories.  I asked Peter if there is a sort of “catch-all” category for items that don’t fit into the other categories.  Kind of like ebay’s infamous “Other” category.  Surprisingly, Peter said no.  I assume this means that Antiques Roadshow has seen every sort of item under the sun, even the weirdest of the weird.

Peter had us pull out our appraisal items.  All three of us (me, Sarah, and photographer extraordinaire Zach) had items in the Toys & Games category.  I also had some folk art, and Sarah had some jewelry.

After getting a category ticket, guests approach a line of Roadshow workers.  They are there to guide you to your next line of waiting.  Here, you will wait to meet the Roadshow appraisers (of which there were 70 at the Detroit event).

All of the appraiser tables are arranged in a circle.  This is by far the most chaotic, and yet most interesting, part of the Roadshow.  The lines are pretty haphazard and we heard lots of tales of line jumpers.  At the same time, this is the best area to scope out what other people have brought.

Don’t worry!  We will have a whole entry tomorrow on other guests’ items.  Anyway, this waiting area was also the best place to see all of your favorite Roadshow appraisers.  They are hard at work looking at each item, researching it if necessary, and then calculating their best price estimate for the item. [Fun Fact: All of the Roadshow appraisers participate on their own dime!  The exposure is good for their appraisal businesses.]

We stepped up to the Toys & Games appraisal table.  I had brought a weird sort-of-taxidermy toy horse that I bought last year at a Brooklyn, NY flea market.  I knew that it wasn’t worth very much, but I was super curious as to how old it was.

Appraiser Julie Scott figured the horse wasn’t really that old, perhaps only a few decades.  She also humorously said that it looked like the horse had its “neck smashed down with a hammer” because it wasn’t anatomically correct.  The horse was in fact made with real horse hair, and Julie explained that the very best and oldest toys like this one are made from fetal horse skin because the hair lays nice and flat.  My horse was made from an older horse.  Julie also suggested that the horse may have come from Mexico.  In the end, she said it was worth about $45, which means I definitely overpaid (I bought it for $70).  Whomp whomp!  I still love this weird little guy and his gnarly neck.

Zach had brought a box of his lead soldier collection.  Julie seemed much more interested in these toys than my horse.  She began to rummage through the assortment.

The soldier on horse above was estimated to be from the turn of the century.  Zach also bought this at Brooklyn flea last year.  Julie said it was worth about $50, which is exactly what Zach paid for it (the seller originally had $150 on it).  In fact, a few of Zach’s soldiers were worth between $35-$50 each.  The more common ones he had were about $10 each.  

Julie liked the soldiers, but was clearly more interested in the lead Santas that Zach had.  She said that his large skiing Santa (made in the USA) was from the 1920s, and his sledding Santa was from the same time, except from Germany.  Each were valued at around $50, which is great because we got them for way, way less.

I’ll let Sarah go over all of her appraisals.  She had one at the Toys & Games table too, and after that, we headed to the Folk Art appraisal area.  I had brought my coveted whale tooth scrimshaw to be examined.

We walked up to the table and lo and behold, there was Wes Cowan from PBS’ History Detectives!  I told him that we were big History Detectives fans, and he kind of chuckled at that.  Otherwise, Wes was all business.  I pulled out my scrimshaw and he asked me what I knew about it.

I explained to Wes that the tooth was supposedly from the 1920s, and supposedly from a MSU Zoology professor’s collection.  I told him how I bought it at an antique festival, to which his eyebrows sort of raised.  

Wes then proceeded to essentially “school” me about my scrimshaw being illegal.  The problem here was that my scrimshaw was indeed on a real sperm whale tooth.  Most scrimshaw nowadays is on plastic fake teeth.  You see, in 1973, sperm whales became protected, and the selling of their ivory was banned.  Only ivory, and thus scrimshaw on real ivory, that is at least 100 years old can be sold legally.  Wes had serious doubts that my piece was that old.  In fact, he couldn’t really tell how old it was at all–just “not that old.”

I had secretly feared that my scrimshaw was illegal when I bought it, but had held out hope that it wasn’t.  I felt like a real bad kid getting caught smoking outside of school or something.  I felt like Wes Cowan himself was ashamed of me.  This didn’t stop me, however, for asking how much this illegal scrimshaw was worth.

Turns out that the appraisers cannot appraise illegal things.  That would be like me taking a giant bag of cocaine up to Wes Cowan and asking him how much the going street price was on it.  Wes did eventually reveal to me though that if a dude came up to me in an alley on Cape Cod, opened his jacket and had illegal scrimshaw, he would probably want “a few hundred dollars.”  Fair enough…at least if I illegally resell this, I’ll make a profit.

After our appraisals, we got a peek at some of the actual TV show taping.  The way this all works is that everyone who attends Roadshow gets an item or items appraised, but not all of these appraisals are on camera.  Producers are flagged down by appraisers when a particularly interesting item comes up to the table.  The item’s owner gets whisked away to hair and make-up, and the appraisal ends up being filmed on a tiny set near to the appraisal tables.

The individuals chosen for filming are super lucky!  Only about 50 appraisals are filmed, and remember, there were about 10,000 appraisals done this day!

After peeking at a few of the filmings, we caught up with some Roadshow attendees to ask all about their items and how their appraisals went.  Stay tuned for all of that goodness! 

-Erin 

Update from Sarah: Ok, so I knew nothing about Antiques Roadshow before this trip, so my mind was a little blown. First off, I’ll just say THANK GOD for Erin. She is so good at talking to strangers. Here’s proof:

That was about 30 second after meeting Peter the tour guide. Look! They’re already BFFs!  I know this is poor quality but I had to share. Pictures on iPhone were prohibited except for in the triage area, so I took a couple of pictures while I was allowed! (After the triage area, we had Zach as our pro photographer, so thanks to him!)

Anyway, Erin’s excellent at talking to strangers and I am not. She kept whispering things to me that I should ask during my appraisals, and asking if she was talking over me. Heck no! I don’t do that well in crowds of people in big open spaces like that–my eyes dart around and I have no idea what to look at–so I was just trying to keep cool and calm while there were 8 zillion people around.

Oh also, one other thing–I felt REALLY BAD about getting to skip that insane triage line. But also very grateful! You should take another look at how crazy it was. 

Oh well! Guess everyone just has to deal with it when there are world famous bloggers in the hizzy. 

Here’s the first item that I had appraised:

That adorable bunny that you see is Bunnykins, my dad’s stuffed animal from childhood. My dad gave me Bunnykins before I can even remember–I’ve had him for what seems like forever, and I’ve always kept him on my dresser. I love him. But I don’t know anything about him, so I thought I’d have someone give me the lowdown. 

Julie Scott (I just wrote Jill Scott and then remembered THAT’S A RAPPER) also did Bunnykins’ appraisal. 

She looks a little pissed here, but rest assured, she loved Bunnykins. I learned a few things about him. He was made after WWII–probably around 1952 or 1953, which makes sense. He’s also not made of mohair, which I thought he was. He’s synthetic. But she did say that dressed bunnies are very collectible, and that he is VERY cute. True dat. Also, he’s worth about $90. Even with his to’ up feet! 

The second item that I brought with me was a diamond ring that I inherited from my mother-in-law, who passed away two years ago.

It was her grandmother’s engagement ring, and it is absolutely gorgeous, and I am blessed to have it. She wanted me to have it in case Adam and I ever had a daughter, so that it could keep getting passed down. I got it appraised the year she gave it to me, and I just wanted to know more about it. This baller, Kevin Zavian, did my appraisal and he sounded like a true New Yorker. 

He told me that it looked like it came from the early 1900s–between 1910-1920, and that it is interesting because the prongs/setting are platinum, but the band is 14k gold. Usually platinum is matched with 18k gold or higher. He thought that maybe the band was added later–possibly in the 1930s, meaning the top was probably originally on a necklace or brooch. He also told me that retail, it would probably run about 3K less than what it appraised for when I got it appraised! Oh snap!

This disappointed me at first, but then Erin explained that an insurance appraisal is different than the sort of appraisal he was doing. Also, he estimated the number of karats in the ring incorrectly, and I only know that because of the previous appraisal. Anyway, it was fun to talk to him about the ring but he sort of made me nervous with all of his do-dads and special eye pieces. Also, him and Zach bro-ed down about watches. Apparently, Kevin is a “watch guy” so it’s his favorite thing to appraise. Cool enough! 

Stay tuned for more exciting Antiques Roadshow tales! 

At the Plymouth auction this week, things felt very garage sale-esque.  That’s not to say I didn’t see anything worth buying, there just weren’t any $200 Art Ross pucks or $400 cast iron banks for sale dirt cheap.

This cigar box had some human hair braids in it, which is NOT CREEPY AT ALL.  I’m shocked that these weren’t mixed in with some women’s underwear and random drivers’ licenses…you know, because that is how serial killers normally store their HUMAN HAIR BRAIDS.

Speaking of creepy, this container had a tiny alien fetus inside:

It was marked “Area 51” on top and was obviously a souvenir from there.  Lemme tell ya, people were going nuts over this alien.  I sat in my seat and just watched as each person would pick this up, look at it for a good 10 seconds, and then look frantically around the room for their loved ones.  They would then mouth to them, “Did you see this thing?!”  It was such a hit.  I got a really good kick out of how much everyone was amazed by this.  It sold for like $20.

I also cracked up over this gigantic walking stick/staff.  It was hardcore Gandalf style.  Zach for weeks now has been talking about buying a walking stick because “it’s cool,” even though he doesn’t really walk anywhere.  He talked about this nonstop, and I would get really worked up over how embarrassed I would be if he started walking with a walking stick.  I was literally begging him not to buy one online.  A few days ago, he finally revealed that it was all an elaborate charade just to get my goat.  And got my goat he did.

I just realized that there actually was one high priced item at the auction.  This turkey platter sold for $300!  I was going to bid on it, but when it passed $30, I was like nevermind.

The platter was flow blue and made by Ridgways of England.  From what I have read online, it was probably from the 1920s or so.  I’m really curious if this was worth the $300 price it sold for, or actually more.  I can’t find anything comparable on ebay.  Anyway, it is always a shock when things sell for lots of money at the Plymouth auction, so everyone clapped when the platter sold.

I was waiting on an old cast iron mailbox to go up on the block.  In the meantime, I bought the following:

A nice giant rug that George and Milo were so kind to model for me.  I’m not sure if this rug is Native American or Mexican, but I sure do love it.  I got it for $5!  It reminds me of the rugs/table runners I bought at auction in Canada.

I also got these Santa sticker things.  I say “stickers” because that seems to be the only reasonable purpose for these.  Maybe I should say “stamps” because it appears that you lick the back of these and stick them on things.  I am planning to frame the whole sheet as is and hang it up at Christmas.

The last thing to note is that Timmy and Joan came to the auction, and they bought a Herman Miller office chair for like $30.  Sold new, the chair is over $500.  FTW!  They were so pumped over this purchase that it kind of made them auction tyrants.  They thought they owned the place.  When I was being outbid on a cast iron mailbox, they started yelling at me, “KEEP GOING!  KEEP BIDDING!  WE’LL GIVE YOU THE MONEY!  DON’T LOSE.”  It was hilarious.  I listened to them for a minute and then bowed out of the bidding because it was up to $75…for a mailbox!  Insanity.  There are tons on ebay for $30-$40.

-Erin

Wow, we’re really behind. Well, last Friday we went out for the second day in a row because I’m lucky enough to get a winter break. We started out by going to a sale in Dearborn that was put on by one of our favorite companies. They seem to like us and give us deals, which is awesome. I saw some old paper in some of the pictures of this sale, so I knew we had to hit it. 

Here’s an action shot of me trying to find more. 

I didn’t find any. 

We did end up with some treasures, and it was one of the first sales we’ve been to in a while where there was actually junk to look through. I’ve realized that I get annoyed when things are super organized. It takes some of the fun out of the hunt! We found a pretty interesting board game, but we did not buy it. 

Here is one other awesome thing I didn’t buy: 

I am not sure what a foot charger does, but it sounds life-changing. 

In that same closet, I found a really amazing bag, full of bingo-related items. 

You will not be shocked to discover that I bought this bag. It was too weird not to. 

The next sale we wanted to go to was all the way in Rochester Hills, which is a hike from Dearborn. This sale was full of really amazing stuff–especially pottery. They had a ton of Bybee pottery but all of the pieces I liked were damaged.

Erin took some nice pictures of the inside of this condo. 

It was so nice and warm and cozy in this house. We wanted to take a little snooze on the couch across from this fireplace. 

I was obsessed with this half cupboard but I have nowhere to put it. It reminds me of many of the more primitive pieces of furniture my parents had in our house when I was growing up. 

The basement of this house was home to quite a few treasures, including this awesome old wooden toy truck. 

I bought a few other things at this sale, but this was by far my favorite. 

After we left this sale, we found two others nearby. The first was so overpriced that we only stayed long enough to take a photo of this $35 typewriter. It was ridiculous.

I also showed Erin this tall, narrow case, and asked Erin if she thought it would look cool hanging on a wall horizontally. She then informed me that it was a gun case. Shows you how much I know about guns! 

The last sale of the day was a bust, but it did provide some laughs. When I looked at this next picture just now, it made me LOL again. 

We found those dudes separated and Erin reunited them. They were pleased. 

I have about as good eye contact going on as that dummy does. 

I did find one treasure at this sale–an old Dirty Dancing mug for my mom. My mom LOVED that movie so I could not resist buying it for her. When I went to check out, the woman at the table shrieked and said, “I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!!! WHERE DID YOU FIND THIS?!” I told her I found it in the cupboard with all of the other mugs. Another woman working at this sale asked me, “Well don’t you feel bad now for buying it?” Uhm. What? I said, “No!" 

After this adventure, we ate at an old REAL diner in downtown Rochester, and on the way home, hilarity ensued. I am going to let her tell this story, because I am certain that she will embellish it. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin:  At the first sale, I bought some glass insulators, which I am saving for a separate blog post.  So hold on to your butts for that one.  I did see a cool set of this dishware though, but didn’t buy it:

Anyone know about this stuff?  They wanted $75 for the set, which seemed steep, but maybe it’s collectible and I had no idea.

Like Sarah mentioned, this sale was run by a woman we really like, and who gives us great deals.  On this day, the woman’s brother happened to be at the sale, and she introduced him to us.  I proceeded to ask this man, "What do you do?”  My intention was to figure out if he was in the same business–running estate sales and whatnot.  Sarah started laughing hysterically and exclaimed, “YOU CAN’T ASK PEOPLE WHAT THEY DO!!” It was like that time in Mean Girls when Gretchen said, “Oh my God Karen, you can’t just ask people why they’re white.”

Anyway, I’m not entirely sure why you can’t ask people what they do, but I know from now on not to do that.   (For the record, the guy was a hospice nurse, not like, a drug dealer or something.)

The next sale was the best.  It restored my hope in estate sales.  We’ve been in such a rut lately!  This sale, as mentioned, was a cozy little primitive cabin–except that it was a condo.

I got an excellent deal here on a Bordallo Pinheiro set of Christmas dishes.  Last Christmas, I bought a large platter and bowl from this set, and now I have lots more of it!  I got all of this below for $20! 

I also found this great stuffed Santa for $13.  His beard is rabbit fur.

Sarah mentioned that the last two sales were garbage.  Besides selling a $35 typewriter, one of the sales was selling a Harry Potter card game for $20!!  A card game, like UNO…for $20.  Unbelievable.  

Ok, so on the way home, my phone died.  Sarah needed me to look up directions, so she gave me her phone to use.  When I looked at the screen, an iTunes playlist was pulled up, and the title of it was “erin.”

I said, calmly, “Um, did you name an iTunes playlist after me?”  It felt like I had just caught a stalker peeking in my window late at night.  Sarah was SO busted.  We died laughing for like 10 minutes, after which Sarah explained that a year or so ago she was going to make me a mix CD, but never got around to it.

Sure, likely story.  I should note that one of the songs on the playlist was “My Humps”  because I am apparently mega Fergalicious to Sarah. 

Last Friday, Erin and I were pretty excited because there were two sales that seemed sort of promising…FINALLY. We ventured out a little late, as Erin mentioned, but got on our way shortly after noon and headed to Fraser, which is really far away. 

When we got to the house, we had to park in a parking lot behind it, and walk through a very, very muddy backyard to get inside. The house was on a main road, so I realize that this makes sense, but what does not make sense is not laying down some cardboard or something so that people didn’t have to track mud into the house. Turns out that it didn’t really matter if mud got tracked through the house, because it was in pretty rough shape. Here are a few examples: 

That is a ceiling, if you can’t tell. Lookin’ good. Here’s what that wall looked like from afar: 

That is no environment for newborns! 

This sale looked enticing because there were a lot of old toys and dolls, but they were outrageously priced. For example, I really liked these guys: 

But guess how much they cost, each? If you guessed $20 you are wrong. They were each marked $375. Crazy times. There was an employee in each room of dolls, monitoring the situation. There were no thieves in these rooms–just crazy old ladies speaking to the dolls. At one point, I did find an exact replica of Baby Erin. This doll manufacturer must have obtained some photographs from her parents of her as an infant–it’s just so spot on. 

Not tired of looking at dolls yet? Ok! 

Shortly after we took this picture, a lady holding a different doll turned around and exclaimed to us, “This baby has a penis!” Ok, awesome.

How many people do you think this baby has killed?  

There was even a man doll playing air guitar. 

And some terrifying baby masks that I tried to convince Erin were “sort of cute." 

As you can see by my arms, I found a bunch of records at this sale. They were all children’s records, and I asked if I could just buy two whole cases of them because I’m always too lazy to sort. Many of them were Peter Pan records from the ‘50s and '60s, which ended up being super awesome. The coolest ones in the bunch, though, were these picture discs: 

Overall, the sale wasn’t fabulous, but it was definitely an interesting house with some crazy stuff inside. And I was happy with my purchases.

After we got out of Doll Land, I convinced Erin that we needed to pick up some cupcakes, since we were near my favorite cupcake place in Michigan. Just a word to the wise–lemon yogurt cupcakes ARE good. Next, we hit up a sale that Erin was excited about but based on the pictures, I was not. I ended up buying a children’s book and a small vintage piggy bank. I don’t think Erin bought anything at all. Whoomp Whoomp. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: The first house had some cool stuff, but it was all just so filthy.  It made me sad, and annoyed to be honest.  A man working the sale told me that some of the dolls they had there were worth up to $2,000 each, so I can’t understand why you wouldn’t try to take care of them.  Oh well, things happen.  

Sarah didn’t mention that the house also had a Doo-Wop motif, which was interesting.  Look at that plastic diner food in the corner.  

I unearthed a great treasure pretty early.  It was hiding in a box under a table, or else it surely would have sold before we got there.  At the time, I didn’t know if this was a Rushton bear or not, but really hoped it was.

I put this guy up on ebay and explained that I didn’t know the maker.  Silly me, it said "The Rushton Co” RIGHT ON HIS CHIN.  I didn’t even see it.

This guy is doing amazing on ebay right now, currently selling for $74.99.  And he has 34 watchers!  The auction ends tomorrow, so I will keep you all posted.  I only paid $3 for him!!

I should also note here, that while doing some rubber face animal research, I found the best blog all about them.  Everyone should check out Grubby Rubbers.  This girl’s collection is seriously incredible.  She has about 500 old rubber toys in her collection.

Ok, so back to the sale.  At one point, we were in the basement, and it was just a nightmare.

You could hardly move, and everything was so dusty.  I started to feel all asthma-y. And then I got MEGA thirsty.  Just then, I looked over and saw this hiding among all the treasures:

A giant bottle of Coke!  I laughed mightily to myself when I saw that.  Also, how did that man get back there?  A true mystery.

Later in the house I found Mrs. Beasley.  Remember her?  Sarah and I were fools for not buying her the last time we came across her.  This time, when I found her, I scooped her up immediately.  I will have her up on ebay shortly, but in the meantime, I am trying to get her hair in order.

Her hair was sticking straight up, so I wet it down and then made that little Beasley-bonnet.  Hopefully her hair will stay down when the bonnet comes off so that I can sell her.  

The last item I found was for keeps.  This stuffed Santa is hilarious and adorable.  He was pretty grody, but I washed him.  He was $3.

His hands move up and down, so he kind of looks like he is raising the roof when they’re up.

I didn’t buy anything else.  Not even this baby doll that looked exactly like Sarah:

Those eyebrows are spot on.

The second sale, like Sarah mentioned, was a total bust.  They were trying to sell this old washing machine, which was cool, but useless.  And totally huge.

They were also selling this “Merry Christmas” garland that only had the letters “M-E-R-R-Y C-H-R.”  I wanted to take this up to the people running the sale and say, “Excuse me, but you are literally selling a piece of garbage at this sale.  This piece of garbage literally has a price tag on it.”  Astounding.

They were also selling this:

Although, I shouldn’t be too hard on this one.  All you need is a really giant button and that doll is as good as new.

-Erin