Dig This Treasure!

I’ll just tell you now…I get into a fight at the end of this entry.  So stay tuned for that.

To begin though, Sarah and I visited a sale on Friday that looked GREAT.  It was the home of a former skin diver and overall adventure man.  There was a ton of ephemera and photographs so of course our girl Sarah was practically drooling looking at the photos of the sale online.

We had to bring the baby meatball with us to the sale, and he was nestled happily in a Moby wrap, which I highly recommend to all moms.  Little man is pretty much pissed off in all other carrier options.

I know what you are thinking…yes, I have the cutest baby.  Yes, it is as though he fell from a heaven cloud and is now an angel living on Earth amongst all of us lesser creatures.  

Anyway, the sale, like mentioned was pretty paper heavy.

The photos at the sale did not disappoint:

All of the photos were interesting and fun!  I didn’t buy any because I am not exactly sure what to do with other people’s photos, but I know Sarah snatched some up.

The basement of the sale was straight up Bear Grylls’ house.

I ended up buying only one thing–a set of Gurley pilgrim candles.  They were $2 each and totally worth it.

They were in great shape!

Ok, so after we left this sale, we visited another nearby.  We got out of our car and were about to cross the street when a crazy man in an SUV came flying 40mph IN REVERSE towards us.  If Sarah would have taken one more step forward, she would have been toast.  I even reached out to pull her backwards.

I was furious.  I was carrying Everett and all of us could have been hit.  After flying past us and throwing his car in park, the man literally jumped out of his vehicle and started racing towards the front door of the sale.  You would’ve thought this was McDonald’s in 1997 and they were giving away Teeny Beanie Babies.  This guy was a maniac.

I WAS SO FURIOUS.  I felt hot all over.  So I marched up to him and said, “I REALLY HOPE THERE IS SOMETHING IN THERE FOR YOU WORTH ALMOST KILLING US OVER."  He said really snottily, "I saw you.  I didn’t almost hit you.”

YEAH RIGHT BOZO.  I continued yelling at him and called him a “crazy man."  I then told the people running the sale (we know them) not to give the guy any deals. 

Should we have been killed though, we wouldn’t have missed much at the sale.  Except for this:

In case you can’t tell, that is painted on the wall.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Man o man, Erin was sort of a crazy person at that second sale. But honestly, I couldn’t believe what a giant d*ck the guy was. He really was driving like a maniac (reminder–IN REVERSE at about, if we’re being honest, 30 mph in a residential area), and he did almost hit me. 

So Erin is right–I was so pumped about this sale! I even considered going and getting there early/standing in line. But I was too lazy.

If you look at that picture of me sorting through stuff with the diving gear hanging from the ceiling, you’ll notice a person standing on the left side of the picture. This guy was the worst. As soon as I got into the basement, I saw a big box of more photographs and started sifting through them. This guy had already been down there and had his chance to look first. Instead, he proceeded to just stand super close to me and stare while I sorted through the pictures. Note to you readers: If you frequent estate sales or other places where there are small things to sort through, DON’T DO THIS TO OTHER SHOPPERS. It is so annoying. I never hesitate to say things to people so I looked at him and said, "AM I IN YOUR WAY?” He said, “No, I’m just looking while you look.” UGH. 

Anyway, I found very cool things at this sale. I am going to save a lot of the pictures for another post but here’s one of my faves: 

Something sexy is going down there. There are THREE sets of shoes, y'all! 

I also found very cool greeting cards. 

And I also found some cool vintage baby animal prints. 

Oh wait there’s one more picture I want to show you guys. It’s an old shot of Erin on a Thanksgiving of yesteryear. 

I found these cool old children’s picture discs. 

Finally, here’s a great looking log cabin quilt that I purchased. When the lady was ringing me up, she did the worst thing a seller can ever do. She said, “Oh wow. You’re getting a great deal on that. I usually price those at $80.” It was priced $40. I said, “Cool. If it was $80, I wouldn’t be buying it.” SO ANNOYING! 

Erin might have the cutest baby but I clearly have the cutest dog. 

You may have noticed that we aren’t posting as much as we used to. Some of that is due to this lil’ man existing. 

But some of it is because I’ve been crazy focused on selling rather than buying these days. 

So exactly a month ago, Adam challenged me to a month-long eBay battle for the holiday season (in case you missed it, we’re trying to pay the $2,000 in medical bills that our cat racked up after eating cellophane). This was the challenge: we both sell as much as possible and the person who makes the lesser sum of money pays the person who makes the greater sum of money $100 when it’s all said and done. I’m not sure I’ve ever turned down a bet that I have a decent shot at, so I was game!

I recognized that Adam was really just trying to motivate me to purge, but I was fine with that. I thought I was clearly going to win, because little did Adam know, I had a stockpile of Christmas goods, just waiting to be listed. 

And that’s because… little did I know… Adam had a stockpile of video game systems, rare emo records, magazine back issues, Kickstarter products, Legos, and an iPhone to sell. 

So it sort of goes without saying–Adam is kicking my a$$ right now! If you have a heart and love treasures, please feel free to buy my sh*t. Perhaps your special someone loves The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and needs a new iPad case. Perhaps your BFF loves chihuahuas AND vintage photographs.

Perhaps you love the film adaptation of The Island of the Blue Dolphins. I even pulled out one of my favorite photographs and am willing to sell it for the right price.

Meaning, perhaps what you really want is to pay $150 for an old cabinet card. Hey now–don’t judge–I’m just going based on completed listings like it.

Whatever your taste, I can offer goods that will satisfy.

Our battle ends on Sunday so I’ll be sure to update you on who won on Monday!

-Sarah

Two Fridays ago, Sarah and I hit a couple sales that looked packed.  And even more exciting, packed with good-looking treasures!  The first one was obviously the estate of former antique dealers/hoarders.

When we walked in, the person at the front door said we had to give up our purses, and stash them in a big ol’ purse pile behind the cash-out area.  This always bugs me.  It is true that people steal from estate sales (remember “THAT GUY”), but I know I’m not going to, so I instantly feel offended.  It’s like, “We must steal your purse from you, with all of your monies and car keys and lip balm before you are able to steal from us.”  Oy.

And in the end, I wish this sale actually turned out to have more worth stealing.  The photos online had looked so good, but things seemed picked over or too pricey.  

If you aren’t familiar with that new rap song on the radio that says, “I WOKE UP IN A NEW BUGGATI,”  then that’s ok because it sucks.  In other news, this is what a Buggati looks like.  Seems practical.  Also, $6,000 seems cheap.  Is that cheap?

I did find this hilarious magazine that explains 10 ways to make your wife “more useful”:

Seriously, so rude.  Someone give me a magazine article that teaches husbands to find ANYTHING in the house without having to ask where it is first.  AMIRITE LADIES?

I did buy a couple things.  First was this adorable stocking that reminded me of those stalker snowmen I keep seeing at every sale.  It will be the baby’s stocking this Christmas.

I bought this old cap gun to resell.  It was only $8 and other ones sold for good money on ebay.  Mine isn’t in as good of shape, but worth the risk.

At the next sale, there were a lot of knick-knacks and typical household goods.  Here is Sarah and her monster broken-toe boot looking at stuff:

I was striking out pretty bad here, until I went in the basement and saw this:

The top part of this chalkboard turns, and there are tons of cool vintage graphics to choose from.  At $25, this was a total steal.  I snagged it for the baby nursery.  Here it is now, after I stenciled on future baby’s name:

The cowboys and Indians scene at the top was my favorite, and perfect for a little boy’s room.  

Sarah found some slides at this sale, and due to her recent success with slides, she decided to plop down and check them all out.  It was mega hot in this house, but somehow she convinced me to help her.  It was torture.  All of the slides were of plants and buildings, but Sarah was convinced there were good ones in there.  

I stopped helping after probably 30 seconds.  Sarah endured another 10 minutes or so and then decided not to buy any of these.  Whomp whomp.  I’ll let her tell you about all of her other finds this day.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Erin failed to mention so many important details from this first sale. First, the person who told us we had to give our purses away was no more than 13 years old and they had her manning the door. I’m cool with that, I’m just saying–it’s weird to take orders from a little kid. Second, this sale had three different areas with entrances, and when you were in each place, they made it sound like the next was going to be SO much better. As it turned out, the next was always worse. 

I did find some treasures, though–mainly of the paper variety. But before we get to those, check out this awesome pixie Erin snagged for me at the last minute!

She’s not in fabulous shape, but she was only $3, and the more important part of this find was that it led me to discover that there are TONS of these figurines with hair but not all of them are on the phone! Instead, many of them are “pixies” and can be found by searching that way. Totally rad, and I just spent the last hour buying more on the Internet instead of writing this very blog entry. I just made a boatload of cash on eBay, so I can afford more cuties like this. 

I also found some very cute mini dogs. My favorite is this one, who really DOES look like my dog, Betsy. It’s head comes off the top so it wobbles. so stinkin’ cool! 

One question: Have you ever seen a cuter dog? 

Ok on to the paper… there was a ton of it, but they were pricing it all individually, which was sad. I’ve gotten some really good deals buying mass quantities of paper from the people running this sale in the past, so that was a bummer. In the end, I bought a few photographs, some vintage greeting cards, and a couple of postcards.

I had to buy this old illustration. Rock of Ages was (still IS) a record store near where I grew up. True story: I bought a purple Jellyfish t-shirt there when I was 16 and then gave it to Zach when I met him because he was a megafan just like my own husband. Man, where is that thing now?

I had to buy this postcard because IT MAKES NO SENSE.

Ok, so the worst thing about this sale was that no matter where you were at any given time, 4 other people wanted to be in that EXACT PLACE. I was standing near the check out area where they keep more valuable stuff, and there was a box of postcards that I was sorting through. As I am sorting through them, I sh*t you not, this lady comes up behind me and grabs HALF of them, and moves to the side and starts looking through them. I was so stunned that I didn’t say anything but Erin looked like she was going to lose it. Are you kidding me, lady?! 

The only thing worth mentioning about the other areas of the sale is that Erin and I bonded over this: 

I thought it was bad enough that I was told by a therapist when I was in my early 20s, after confessing my extreme fear of house fires, to purchase one of these. But Erin actually had one under her bed as a child for the same reason, and her dad used to help her take it out and practice using it. People, this is why we’re friends. 

It’s true that at the second sale, I left without any slides, but don’t you worry–I’ve already made up for it. Stay tuned!  

A few Fridays ago, Erin and I hit up a handful of good sales that were spread out across town. The first that we stopped at was a sale that looked very granny-ish, but was PACKED, so I insisted that treasures could be found. Turns out I was sorta right!

When we walked up, we discovered that the sale was 50% off, and prices were very reasonable to begin with. There were some cool old things in and around the garage area: 

I liked this cart but decided I didn’t need it. 

(Erin took a picture of that dolly so I think she must have thought it was cool.) 

I thought this Census box was really cool but Erin convinced me that I had no need for it. In retrospect, I should have ignored her and purchased it. It’s cool!

Inside, it was quickly apparent that this was the owner’s motto: 

And I’m cool with this, because it meant that there was a lot of stuff to sift through. 

The basement was overflowing with stuff–most of it pretty useless. But we did find a lot of cool old party supplies and wrapping paper. Here are two of my finds: 

Y'all know I can’t resist old Holly Hobbie. 

A lot of the basement looked like this: 

Lots and lots of patterns all over the place. While we were down there, we ran into our #1 Groupie. This lady was following us all over, asking, “Where did you find that?” and told us that she had been in the basement for two hours. Well, if you’ve been in the basement for two hours, how did you possibly not notice this dumb felt ornament kits that I saw sitting out in the open? 

One very cool thing we saw in the basement, but had no use for: 

That is one sweet children’s table and chairs. I think it was really reasonably priced, and at half off it would have been a steal. I honestly have no idea how it was still there. 

I spent a hot minute or two being convinced that I needed this terry cloth cape: 

Erin’s voice of reason actually came in handy this time. 

The upstairs of this house also contained a few treasures. When I noticed how much crap this woman had, I kept thinking, “Where are the greeting cards???” Well, at the top of the stairs to the upstairs/attic, I found them! Two huge boxes. I haven’t finished sorting, but they’re not fabulous. But the woman charged me $20 for all of them, which is an excellent price. 

It was at this sale where Erin was reunited with her snowmen. As you can see, this woman loved her some googly eyes and crafts:

The face Erin was going for here was “spooky” but I’m not sure she succeeded. You be the judge.

While we were checking out, #1 Groupie stood behind us and once again, kept asking “Where did you find that? Oh that’s a lot of greeting cards, what are you going to do with them?!” I have a hard time lying to people and Erin does not, so I just said, “If they’re old enough they sell online.” Erin said she just kept thinking to herself, “Say scrapbooking, Sarah. Say scrapbooking.” Oh well! I’m an honest lady. 

We high-tailed it outta there and made our way to a sale that was super far, but looked to be filled with TONS of photographs. It was here that I found those amazing pictures of dogs that NOBODY IS BIDDING ON on eBay right now and that I decided to have end on THE FOURTH OF JULY because I’m an idiot. 

Here’s an action shot of me hyperventilating over the awesome pictures: 

Here’s more picture shots: 

Midway through exploring this sale, the woman running it came out of the bathroom, swearing up a storm. She proceeded to let us know that she allowed a shopper to use the bathroom and the woman “sh*t all over the place.” Cool, lady. Now we both want to barf. 

Ok, back to the pictures. All of the photo albums (there were TONS) were priced extremely high ($60, $75, $100, etc.), and all of the 8x10 pictures were either $2 each or had prices on the back. Considering the extreme number of pictures remaining on the second to last day of this sale, I figured that there was no question that she’d negotiate with me. My plan was to just gather everything I wanted and ask her to give me a flat price. However, she proceeded to tell him that they would have to count all of the pictures in the basket. Here they are, doing just that: 

I tried to reason with this woman, but she was not having it. I said, “The reason I’m willing to just pay you a set amount for all of this is because I DON’T want to go through this box of pictures here in this house. If you’re going to charge me for each one individually, I don’t want all of them.” She told me, “I can’t give these away for free.” Did I ask for anything for free?!

So here’s the deal: I had at least 20 8x10 photographs (so that means $40+), I had an album marked $25 and an album marked $40, and then she said that the pictures in the basket added up to at least $200.

I was super annoyed and finally said, “I was going to just offer you $100 for everything here.” She looked at me and said, “You were? Well you should have just said that!” and proceeded to take my $100 like Tiny Tim snatching up a new pair of crutches. We ran outta there as fast as possible and just stared at each other in awe. I said, “Does she not know how to do math?” Erin was like, “I don’t think so. But you handled that like a BOSS.” So basically, I got $300 worth of priced photos for $100. Woo!

The last trip of the day was back to the DJ sale in West Bloomfield. They had opened the basement, which I thought would mean lots of treasures, but it didn’t. I did get a good deal on a glass head and a sealed Kool-Aid Dixie Cup dispenser. 

Both to resell, of course!

I don’t think Erin bought much this day, but I’ll let her tell you all about it. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: Yes, that’s my spooky face.  Get over it.

The first sale, let me just say, was so fairly priced that I wanted to shake all of the workers’ hands.  They were going to clear out that house so quickly and still make a super fair profit.  Kudos.  The photo sale lady should learn from this because even after Sarah bought all those pics, there were still literally THOUSANDS left in the house.  And probably about 20 albums packed full too.  They are never going to sell if you price every photo at $2-$5 each.

Anyway, at the first sale, I got the cutest party decorations.  I am putting these away for future child’s birthday.  Zach was super skeptical that I was actually going to remember in a year that I had bought these decorations, but I informed him that I actually have a box in the basement labeled “PARTY SUPPLIES.”  I consult this box on every single birthday occasion, so these supplies will NOT go unused.

At the photo sale, all I found was this tiny ship figurine.  It had no price on it, so I was pretty leery after watching Sarah haggle so hard over the photos.  The women running the sale said, “This might be silver.  I have to be sure this isn’t silver.”  I said “OK” but I was really thinking, “There is NO WAY this is silver.”  It has no markings on it and is light as a feather.  It isn’t tarnished like silver.  At the very least, it’s pewter.  It is, however, most likely brass or tin.  After scrutinizing it, she charged me $2.  Phew.

At the DJ sale, I didn’t buy these giant phones:

I did buy this old biscuit tin though.  It was kind of pricey at $10, but I really wanted it.  Plus, I hadn’t bought much this day.  

So neat, right?  I’m a sucker for anything with sheep on it. 

Last Thursday, Sarah and I were diligently setting up for our annual garage sale.  We decided to take a break though because we saw a sale listing that looked particularly intriguing.  The sale was clearly of a hoarder, but it looked like a neat and tidy hoarder, similar to Best Sale Ever.  Even though the sale was all the way out in Troy (about 40 mins. away) we still made the trek.

The upstairs of this sale was really promising.  These old flags were BOSS, but each one was priced between $25-$55.  They must have known this was pricey because look at that little sign they stuck on the wall near the flags: “VISA M/C DISC.”  Yeah, we get it…people can charge their expensive nautical gear.  

There was also an entire wall of old salt and pepper shakers, and they were all cute! I don’t collect these, but I imagine that someone who does would be in hog’s heaven.

I immediately found these cute vintage sunglasses.  They had no price and the guy running the sale told me $5.  This turned out to be awesome because later I found more vintage sunglasses and they were all priced over $20 each.  Here’s me wearing the specs in a totally non-embarassing selfie:

As we got further back into the bedrooms of the house, things started to get a little more freaky.  The quantity of items was overwhelming.

Look at that blue man above screaming for help.  LOL.

Literally every single person at this sale was trying to make sense of all the stuff.  We all kept saying, “She must have owned a store.  Yes, that’s it.  She had a store, and it closed, and here are all of the things left over.”

But you guys, the lady who owned this house DIDN’T OWN A STORE.  Heartbreaking, I know.

The basement was worse.  Kudos to the people who ran the sale though, because everything was organized impeccably. (This is where we found the art capes.)

It was literally as though every single item in this house was secretly a tiny family of rabbits that just kept multiplying and multiplying.  The woman probably only bought one of each item and then through some obvious witchcraft there was suddenly 24 of everything.  

Obviously, the comparison to Best Sale Ever was shot.  Everything here was newer and seemed very dollar store-esque.  I breezed through the sale pretty quickly and then found Sarah in a mountain of greeting cards.  I knew then that we would be here awhile.

Sarah did find some treasures buried in the rubble here, so I’ll let her tell you all about them.  I ended up with a giant metal rolling clothes rack for $15 (we used it for the garage sale), the sunglasses I mentioned already, and a giant box of bubble wrap.  

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Erin is right–in general, there was a lot of organized garbage at this sale. I did find some treasures, and some funny stuff. First the funny stuff. 

In the book area of the basement, I found a whole sexy section of shelving (tongue twister for you): 

And the award winning book, Hugs for My Wife: 

Not only was the house super organized, but it was organized by holiday, which was very helpful. 

Some of it was dollar store quality, but other stuff was Hallmark store quality, which is one step up. Some of the stuff I found was vintage Joan Walsh Anglund stuff. Some to sell and some to keep. I want to keep these little plates–they’re cute!

They’re really tiny–don’t worry–I’m not going to start collecting commemorative plates. 

I also found lots of vintage greeting cards, but most were ‘70s and '80s. Unsurprisingly, many of them were sealed packs. Hopefully I can sell some of these. 

Erin found these Easter knee huggers–they’re so cute!

It was very nice of her to give them to me. 

I also found some cute vintage ceramic Christmas items. 

These were little plates made by Josef Originals–very cute. 

This cute little house is hollow inside so you can put a little light or candle in there. Made by Lefton. 

I also found some very cute wrapping paper and these old Gummi Bears Easter egg wrappers: 

All in all, a very successful trip!