Dig This Treasure!

Shortly after Everett was born, there was a sale being put on by our favorite Ragamuffins, but it was really far away, so Erin passed on the opportunity and I went alone. It was a former antiques dealer, according to the ad, so I was prepared to find some cool stuff! 

I ran into my parents there, and they were in the market for “guy stuff”–so this sale did not disappoint. They bought some of those very trucks pictured above. 

The guy on the left is my dad, checking out some high quality items. 

My only complaint really, was that there was cool stuff–but it was all priced super high. We’ve had this problem with the ragamuffins in the past. The good thing was that there wasn’t anything I was dying to buy that was overpriced. If there was, I would have been really annoyed. For example, look at how some of this vintage Christmas stuff was priced: 

That flocked Santa is marked $25!! Now, if those were a bunch of knee huggers or Joan Walsh Anglund Christmas items, I would have been ticked. 

Another example: Playboy puzzles marked $20 each. No.

Actually, I shouldn’t say I wasn’t disappointed because I was. This person had a ton of books, but they were priced so outrageously that I didn’t get any. 

Promising room: 

Disappointing reality: 

Oh well! 

I also spotted these cuties but they were a little too dirty for me. 

I did end up finding some deals because the basement was filled with boxes and boxes of vintage Playboys–which I have admittedly vowed to stop purchasing. However, they were selling them for $1 each, and if you had patience, you could find some cool super old ones. So that’s what I did. While I was down there, this guy told me that if I put together a big box, they’d give me an even better deal. So I did that. 

You can see both the deal maker and some of the boxes of Playboys in the picture above. One thing I learned during this trip–a big cardboard box of Playboys is hella heavy! 

The ragamuffins ended up charging me $50 for everything in my box, and I made that up quickly by selling the two “Coca Cola” issues that I found. If you ever stumble across one of these and it’s priced cheaply (meaning less than $5 and it’s in good shape), snatch it up. 

I sold each copy of this for $35. I have a ton more old issues to sell, but the first lot did pretty well. It included issues from 1959-1962 and sold for $30. 

Cha-Ching! 

-Sarah

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

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

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

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

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

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

There were also some cool ones of Detroit. 

And then here are the pictures: 

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

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

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

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

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

EEEEEEEEEEEE! 

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

And a very nice quilted tree skirt. 

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

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

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

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

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

-Sarah

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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