Dig This Treasure!

Last night, I hit up the secret auction with my folks. When we got there, the guy who gives out numbers greeted us by name which made me feel like I belonged to a secret society. It was great. But what wasn’t great was the merch at this auction. As discovered on previous trips to this auction, it’s a mixed bag. It had been a while since I was able to go, so I was excited at the prospects, but pickins ended up being slim.

There were lots of toy trains and cars, which, you will be shocked to hear, are not my cup of tea.

There were some cool things but none of them were cool enough to wait around for hours to buy. For example, this photograph:

This duckpin bowling set was pretty cool.

They appear to sell on eBay, so if you ever spot one for cheap, snatch it up!

I also spotted another rare Cabbage Patch Kid—but it was on the last table and I did not have the patience to wait for it. Also, it was an elf. You can’t see its ears in this pic but trust me.

Here are some extremely desirable goods that I passed on.

(Guest appearance by Cindy—checking out comics, a sweet velvet painting and Stanley Cup Dr. sign.)

Wat?

In the end, I came away with two things. First up is this new car for Erin

Now that she’s a mom, I thought this would give her the extra room she needs to transport Everett around.

The other thing I bought was this crocodile skull.

Chomp chomp.

It was a world record for me—least amount of money spent at auction ever. $10.

-Sarah

Update from Erin: I can’t tell if Sarah is joking about buying that car and crocodile! I hope so! That car looks jank!

Also, I read “Stanley Cup Dr.” as “Stanley Cup Doctor” which was confusing to me and ultimately hilarious.

Ok and final thoughts: Despite not being able to “see the ears” I think the elf shoes on that cabbage patch doll are a dead giveaway.

So it happened!  I went to a sale!  It was actually Halloween and I had a doctor’s appointment.  Since Zach was watching the baby, I figured I could sneak in a quick trip to a nearby sale.

The sale was advertised as a “Moving Hoarder Sale.”  I LOVE hoarder sales.  Some people don’t because they can be creepy and grody.  Unless they are ultra heartbreaking, I generally want my hoarder sale to have at least a little bit of sadness.  I want to walk in the house and be consumed by piles of stuff.  I want to imagine said piles of stuff to be silently weeping to themselves, longing to be loved and cherished.  And then I want to buy a bunch of this stuff and put it in the backseat of my car and say on the drive home, “Don’t worry stuff.  I will love you.”  Because that is the problem with hoarders, they don’t usually love their stuff enough.  They think they do, but they don’t.  It’s very philosophical.  

So anyway, I roll up to this sale and there is a huge dumpster outside, which is a good sign.  But then I walk in, and the sale is…well, pretty damn clean!  Such a bummer.  I think estate sale companies are using the word “hoarder” in their listings to lure people in.  The most hoarder-y part of the house was the basement and it pretty much just looked exactly like my basement, or any other basement really.

The rest of the sale was really normal.  Like things you see at every sale.

Creepy doll that looks like Sarah?  Check.

Country cottage style craft show purchases?  Check.

Super happy smiling bull knick knack?  Check.

Retro-ass game of skill and strategy that also has a ridiculous name?  Check.  

Actually, let me zoom in on this one for you:

That man looks like he is competing in the Hunger Games.  So intense.  Also, the box said that this game was like having an amusement park in your living room.  To which I say, UM NO.

There was a cool taxidermy ram here, but it was $175.  He looks like a very pleasant ram.

I did end up buying some vintage Pyrex items.  I got a set of Pyrex Shenandoah bowls and a set of 3 other orange small casserole type dishes.

The orange bowls aren’t pictured here, but I paid $12 for the whole lot.  I wasn’t sure if this is a good deal.  I know a lot of people collect vintage Pyrex, but I have never looked into its value.  Any Pyrex collectors out there want to give some tips???

Spoiler alert: Luckily, this isn’t the only sale I’ve been to since Everett’s birth.  Sarah and I managed to get out and sale on Friday.  Look for that update soon.  We had a blast and found great stuff!!

-Erin

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.

Wow, we have really gotten caught up in the magic of summer and are behind in telling you about our various adventures over the past few weeks.

About three weeks ago, I tagged along with Cindy and zzpopps to the secret far away auction. When I first stepped into the place, I saw this pinball machine that had obviously been sold at a previous auction.

Adam is super into pinball machines and has two vintage machines that are in various states of disarray in our basement. I momentarily convinced him that I watched this one sell for $40. I am so mean. Anyway, that was a bold faced lie. I have no idea what it sold for, but I’m sure it was not $40 since homies will pay that much for a janky Transformer at this auction. Adam also wants everyone to know that that is NOT an official Beatles pinball machine—such a thing does not exist. But it is the only unofficial one that does exist. #immarriedtoanerd

The auction was packed with treasures that night, mainly on the “man stuff" side of things.

I saw that Vernors crate right away and knew I had to have it. I love me some burny ginger ale. I ended up with it but not without a fight. More on that in a minute.

These bats might have been worth something, but Erin is the resident sports memorabilia expert—not me.

While there were many cool things, there was also, of course, a plethora of things to laugh at.

Bedtime Bubba is a sassy, redneck bear for children to snuggle with at night. Here’s a picture of the back of that packaging that I snagged from eBay.

Look close. There is a lava lamp and a weird pudgy purple guy. WTF?

Check out those fancy magician hands.

First, let me show you two things that my mom bought. It’s been so long, I can’t remember anything else that she got!

I thought she was insane for purchasing this (I actually bid on it FOR her because when it came up, I didn’t think she was paying attention! Little did I know, she almost bid me up on it), but actually it seems like Cindy had some good Spidey sense that night. Here’s a similar one that sold:

My mom also got this adorable Horsman Mickey Mouse Club doll:

So cute! I don’t think she’s tried to sell either of these things yet.

So back to my Vernors crate. There was a woman at this auction who I’ve seen almost every time I’ve been there. Well, homegirl has the same taste as me apparently, because every single thing I wanted ended up being the same thing SHE wanted. My parents were laughing at me for getting so annoyed but it was CONSTANT. Anyway, when those crates went up for sale, I just let her go hog wild and take as many as she wanted. I just kept hoping she had no interest in Vernors and I was right. I ended up with that Vernors one and this Pepsi one:

They both came in handy because by the end of the night, I had a lot of stuff!

Every time I’ve gone to this auction, the very last thing the “man stuff" auctioneer sells are big box lots of various things. Until this visit, I hadn’t paid much attention to this area, but this small box of old advertising ephemera caught my eye. I liked these ice cream labels the most:

The way they do the box lots is they separate it into areas, letting people choice out boxes that they want—the highest bidder takes as many boxes as he/she wants for the price they win at. Anyway, right before the box lot auction started, my mom and I noticed that there was a big box of old half-filled apothecary/pharmacy bottles. Well, I was the high bidder at $25 and it was one of those “going, going, gone" moments and at the last minute, the Auction Thief swooped in and stole it from me. I was so annoyed that I just let her have it, hoping that those bottles weren’t what she wanted. But OF COURSE they were! Oh well.

In the end, I won the advertising lot:

And some boxes of books, and then one other box of really random stuff that happened to have an old Pelouze scale inside. I didn’t even notice the scale at first but I sold it for $22 the other day. I also discovered a little box of old soda and beer labels. I looked online and it seems like these don’t really sell, and I can’t figure out why in the world not, because they’re so cute!

Also, who can tell me what these are?

They’re big—like coasters. Is that what they are? There are smaller ones that I think are milk caps, but what the heck are these?

Ok, one final cute thing I found in one of the boxes that I won:

You may think it’s crazy to buy a big box of crap when you only know that there’s one good thing inside but hey, that’s what Goodwill is for! I figure I’ll find some neat stuff along the way and then just send the rest on to the next treasure hunter. I also got a couple of boxes of children’s books that I’ve sorted through—there were a few really good finds and the rest I just donated.

By the time we finished up that night, the place was totally empty!

I thought my dad was going to have a nervous breakdown when he saw how many boxes I purchased. ZZ gets a little agitated when it comes to packing cars. Thankfully, it all fit just fine!

On my way out, I was once again tortured by the sight of this amazing piece of furniture that’s always there when I go there. It seems like it’s sold because it has a sticker on it but I don’t know why it’s still always there. It looks like it was used in an art classroom.

If it was for sale and I had 1) a moving van and 2) some big, hunky men to move it for me, I’d snatch that thing up in a heartbeat!

-Sarah

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! 

Last Friday, I saw a listing for a sale that sounded amazing and awesome.  It was described as being on 12 acres and packed with antique delights.  I thought the sale looked so good in fact, that Sarah and I should make a special effort to leave extra early that day to get to it.  Sarah seemed to disagree:

The “look at my horse” part was related to the cast iron horse I blogged about the other day.  At this time, it was blowing up on ebay.

Anyway, we did end up going to this sale.  And Sarah did end up being partially right.  The sale was not 12 acres of treasures after all, but it was still a really great sale (Sarah will disagree on this part).  There was a lot of glassware/dishware, including Wedgwood and Johnson Brothers.  One of the “Game Birds” plates I featured on Thanksgiving was found at this sale. 

There was also cool taxidermy to look at, although it was priced really high.

And check out this pool!

That’s a big ass pool.  You could look down on it from nearly every room in the house.  

Anyway, the first item I found to buy was this old baseball game for my dad.  I don’t know why I didn’t just buy it and give it to him for Christmas.  Instead, I stupidly sent him a picture of it and said, “Do you want this?”  He was all excited and said that he did.

I also found these amazing bisque chickens from Germany.  Their legs are springs so they bob up and down.  They are in the kitchen near my egg scales. I am crazy about them.

I would love to have a whole army of these little chickens.  And maybe other farm animals with spring legs.  The man running this sale only charged me $2 for these, which was astounding because he was SUPER GRUMPY.  People kept asking him prices and he would exhale really loudly each time before answering.  He would then tell them some crazy price.  

After leaving this sale, we made our way to Huntington Woods.  I was leery of this sale right off the bat.  This bumper sticker greeted us:

WTF?  I don’t even understand what that means.

The inside of this sale actually felt like taking a beating.  It was really filthy and I instantly had asthma.  

Look at that poster hanging on the wall.  It was one of those old cat ones that says, “Hang in there!”  I felt like it was cheering me on, even though I was suffocating and my skin felt all itchy.

Oh hey, a car:

At one point during this sale, I saw some containers I thought were filled with old buttons.  I had found a similar container elsewhere that WAS filled with buttons.  When I opened these containers though, I found some super old rotten corn flakes.  Needless to say, I didn’t buy anything at this sale.  One cool thing I did see though were these old ticket stubs.  The person who went to these shows wrote on the back of each ticket who played:

Sarah got in a fight at this sale, so I’ll let her break that insanity down for you.  I also think she bought stuff here, which is even crazier than the fact that she got in a fight.

-Erin 

Update from Sarah: The first sale was seriously the worst. The guy who runs the company hosting the sale is such a turd. He prices things SO insanely high and is, as Erin described, ultra grumpy when you approach him or ask him anything. Hey bro! Answering my questions is your job! Erin doesn’t remember, but she left another sale he was running empty-handed and annoyed after he told her some crappy repro she was interested in was $100 or something insane like that.

I didn’t mind going I was just so confused about why Erin was so obsessed. The pictures looked bad to begin with, and the sale was no better in person. I bought three old books–two of them were Nancy Drews. I haven’t figured out if they’re first editions or not (they look like it!) but I’m going to be super careful before listing them because one time when I accidentally listed a Hardy Boys book as a first edition and it wasn’t, the Hardy Boys Police (eBay Unit) came after me hardcore.

Anyway, as I was saying, the sale was the worst. Here is proof:

These masking tape signs were all over the house and most of them said, as this one does, “Watch U Step.” Excuse me?

Actually, this one that was taped to a chandelier made me laugh.

I really like the added touch of the smiley.

Erin forgot a sale we went to in between the two she wrote about. I have two things to say about this sale. The first is that we each paid $15 for an item of clothing, which I believe is unprecedented. Erin bought a pair of pink Minnetonkas and when the woman told her they were $15, Erin looked at me and asked if she should buy them. The women said to her, “They sell these for $59 in Petosky. They’re worth it.” Oh really? You go to Petosky for your Minnetonkas? Because I just go to Marshall’s. I bought a Ralph Lauren sweater, but again, $15 is extremely and insanely expensive for an estate sale.

The second thing I’ll mention about this sale is that I spotted this silver rabbit platter that looks strikingly like kokopelli!

Of course I couldn’t remember that word, so I stared at the plate and excitedly said to Erin, “Look! It’s the Native American pipe man!!!!!” She had to sort of calm me down because the sale was high end and I was REALLY excited about spotting the pipe man, so I think she was a little embarrassed.

Erin is actually right about the last sale. It was dirty and gross, but I got a bunch of old photographs for $15. I haven’t really looked through them yet so I don’t know if they were a good buy. I also got this old set of J.D. Salinger paperbacks that’s in great shape, so that was a good find.

She did forget to mention the wonderful art throughout the house.

I’m not sure who would want to document a woman’s body in that position, but there you have it.

Check out the creeper.

Ok, so the “fight” that Erin mentioned was not really a fight… more of an “altercation.” Erin’s pictures accurately represent the condition of the basement of this house. I was unprepared for what awaited me down there, so when I got to the bottom of the stairs, I just made a sharp right and went into this room of junk. There were art supplies and boxes and just CRAP all over. I was really overwhelmed and saw this wicker hamper filled with old books in front of me. There was a woman nearby bending over a box on the floor.

I picked up one of the books in the hamper and she WHIPPED around and said, “HEY HEY HEY that’s all mine! OK, WHERE IS IT?!”–meaning, “Where is the book that you clearly just stole from me?” I was sort of stunned because as soon as she whipped around, she startled me and I had put the book back down immediately and raised my hands. I then looked at her and demonstrated how I had picked up the book and set it right back down, saying, “That is exactly what I just did. I’m sorry. I had no idea that this stuff was yours.” She said to me, “Oh, yeah because it’s not obvious!!!” Uh…. whut?

I said, “It’s really obvious that an overflowing basket of books belongs to someone when you’re in a hoarder’s basement?” She said, “That’s what I’m saying! Don’t you think it looks a little out of place?!?!” Clearly she thought that her items looked particularly special and not junky. I just stared at her in disbelief and then left the room.

Hopefully this weekend our adventures will be filled with less confrontation and kokopelli and more treasures and misspelled signs.

So my New York adventures continue with a trip to Obscura Antiques & Oddities.  You may remember my post from a few months back in which I interviewed Obscura’s Ryan Matthew.  He and the store are featured in Science Channel’s Oddities.  Since I only knew about the store from this TV show, and from the interview, Zach and I decided to go check it all out in person.

Everything in New York opens super late, which we weren’t aware of.  Heading to Obscura, we saw Ryan Matthew sitting on the steps outside.  We breezed past and killed some time by drinking $13 raw juice smoothies (only in New York!).  When we got back, the store was open, and packed with people.

My first thought was that it looked EXACTLY like the TV show.  I know this seems obvious, but I once visited the pawn shop featured on History Channel’s Pawn Stars, and it looked completely different in person.  Mostly everything in Obscura has been featured on the show, or is visible while watching the show.

The store is really cool.  It is full of so many things.  The first item that really caught my eye was this taxidermy pig.  It looked less like real taxidermy and more like an adorable Steiff collectible.

Ok so actually, in this picture, he looks terrifying.  Trust me that in person he was cute. Anyway, at this point, I introduced myself to Ryan Matthew and asked about the pig.  He told me that it was a Victorian specimen and not for sale.  If it was for sale, it would be about $5,000.  

Ryan also told me that he confuses “Dig This Treasure” with the phrase “Take This Bottle”, which is a “phrase” I have actually never heard of.  I am thinking this is some sort of word association thing having to do with messages in a bottle/pirates/buried treasure.  Who knows.  Either that, or Ryan is the Zodiac killer and speaking to me in ciphers.  

Zach and I didn’t find anything to buy at Obscura, even though we went there determined to do so.  Everything was pretty out of our price range or wouldn’t fit on the plane home.  I kind of regret not buying a t-shirt from the store because it had a nice design. Whomp whomp.  

-Erin

On Saturday night, Zach and I decided to head to an auction in Plymouth.  This particular auction happens EVERY Saturday in Plymouth and is similar to waiting around to bid on items that you could buy at any thrift store.  Once and awhile though they have some interesting things, as evidenced by this boar head we bought there last year:

When we first walked into the auction, they were busy selling some Hawaiian shirts.   Then they moved on to this giant box of silverware:

We passed on the silverware, but were definitely interested in another item.  You can see it there in the background of the above photo.  Ok, here’s a close-up:

This is a human skeleton that a local family LITERALLY KEPT IN THEIR CLOSET since 1919.  Zach and I aren’t normally in the market for such items, but we knew that antique skeletons were pretty valuable.  We consulted ebay and saw that a similar skeleton (namely with brass fittings) had sold for $1500.

We decided that we would bid to at least $300.  This seemed reasonable to us because we once got two antique wardrobes for $30 total at this place.

Turns out we were totally wrong about getting the skeleton for an equally cheap price, because as soon as the bidding started, it sailed right past our $300 limit.  It eventually sold to some hairy man for $1300.

We left the auction empty handed which was probably for the best.  We don’t have any closets that can fit a human skeleton.

-Erin

I wasn’t going to go sale-ing on Friday because, as I mentioned, I still had tons to do for my charity relay on Saturday.  I am SO glad I decided to go though!  We headed out to a house in Royal Oak that was formerly home to a professor.  The house was gorgeous, and packed full of really interesting things.

I wanted this chair so bad:

You can’t really tell, but that chair was HUGE.  It would never fit in my car or our house really.  Here is what I did take home though:

This bell jar is really large and heavy.  I found it hidden under some stuff in the basement of the sale and the guy working down there told me it was $6.  At the time, it had some old coral in it, but I later found a giant Abalone shell to put in it.  The shell was $2 I believe, which is a steal.  I love both of these items so much and am happily displaying them in our living room.

I also found some weird old glass photo plate.  It seems like an old negative but on glass.  This is probably a super common thing that I am just uneducated about.  Anyway, it is from 1905 and has some sailors on it.

And by “sailors” I guess I really mean fishermen.  

The last item I will mention had some drama attached to it.  It is a little brass bust of George Washington.  I figured Zach would want it, so I asked a lady at the sale how much it was.  She said $5.

I wasn’t sure that I wanted to pay that so I set little Washy back down.  As soon as he hit the table, the woman exhaled really loud and frustratedly, like I was totally wasting her time.  I ignored it and moved on to look at a desk and as soon as I touched it, the woman snapped at me, “THAT’S SOLD!”  I apologized and said that I didn’t see any sort of SOLD sticker on it, and she informed me that that was because there was no sold sticker on it.  Uh, ok.

I had made an enemy.  Not sure how, but I did.  By the time this lady rung me up later, I had picked back up the little Washington.  As she was writing down my items, she wrote,  "Jewelry $5.“  Now, I hadn’t bought any jewelry so I thought maybe this was a mistake, and I asked her about it.  She exhaled her hatred for me again and then announced that the "jewelry” was the little Washington statue that she had CLEARLY ALREADY GIVEN ME THE $5 PRICE ON.  I apologized to her, even though I think it is totally fair to assume a brass statue is NOT jewelry.

-Erin 

Update from Sarah: Erin has a terrible memory. Worse than mine, which I didn’t even think was possible. The professor sale was the second sale we went to, unless she found something out that I didn’t know. She didn’t even mention the second sale!

The first sale was cool, though. And don’t you think it’s obvious that the woman just wanted Erin to wear that bust around her neck, Flava Flav style? Anyway, these people had a lot of very old, nice things. They also had a lot of very old, not as nice things. Once again, the whole basement was covered in books and they were all pretty damp. Not a great idea. Especially since all of the books were either older or actually antique. I did, however, find some good treasures in the basement. I found a stack of memorabilia from the Mission Inn in Riverside, CA. At first, I put all that stuff back where I found it, but then I looked on eBay and Mission Inn memorabilia seemed like it might be collectible.

Also, while I was in the basement I noticed this woman sorting through an enormous stack of cards. I just sort of hung around the area for a while because I couldn’t tell which ones she was keeping and which ones she wasn’t. After a few minutes of just lumbering around, I decided to act like a human and actually ask her if any of the cards were ones she didn’t want. Turns out the big stack were ones she didn’t want! Score. Here are some of them:

I also found a cool wooden box that I forgot to take a picture of, and two really nice quilts for our couches. Here’s one of them after one of my dogs “made her bed” on it:

After this sale, we hit up a garage sale run by four women who were a little older than us. They had some cute stuff for sale but after leaving, I was shocked by the fact that I had spent $12 there. I guess ultimately it was worth it, though, because I found this: 

Felted Mr. Toad Christmas ornament?!! Heck yeah. I bought him even though he was $2. 

After this sale, we hit up Treat Dreams in Ferndale. I was really excited for this because I was fiending for something delicious to eat, but was then sadly disappointed by my choices. It’s my own fault. I really wanted something fruity and got salted caramel and lemon olive oil as my two flavors. I was so annoyed with myself that Erin finally convinced me to go back up and get the sorbet. I got some coconut lime sorbet that was so terrible. It was like… pure ice with coconut flakes in it. It tasted like nothing. Anyway, next time… if there is a next time… I will go with my gut and get something good. 

The last sale of the day (the one that was in a professor’s home) was a sale in Palmer Woods. Erin was shocked by this neighborhood. It is fairly strange–a gorgeous old neighborhood in the heart of a very not so great area. I bought some books, a piggy bank, and a couple more quilts. Here is an obese cat sitting on one of them: