Dig This Treasure!

It was pretty dreary on Sunday, but Zach suggested we go to the Flat Rock Speedway, where they were having a flea market.  I’m glad we did because it turned out to be lots of fun!

I just looked at the large version of this photo on my computer and there is a giant Confederate flag dead center.  UGH.  I will assume it was a person selling only authentic Civil War memorabilia.  (It wasn’t.)

Man, what I wouldn’t give to drive one of those buses around the track.  They were all smashed up and looked like they had several different rounds of fire damage.  I’d still totally drive one though. And crash it.

Here are my boys.  Aren’t they cute?  I gave Everett a tootsie roll pop to keep him busy.  He sat in silence and ate it for about 2 hours.  Shoutout to tootsie roll pops.

Look! It’s another one of those ICP dolls!  On what planet was someone like, “we should totally paint the doll like this.”  It’s awful.  No one will buy that doll.

There were a ton of these jail mugshots in a ziplock bag.  I wanted all of them.  They were so amazing.  Most of the crimes were gambling and larceny related.  The guy selling these though wanted $4 EACH.  No way.  I wanted the whole bag for $10.  No deal.

I also liked this old “flicker” watch.  It was similar to a hologram.  The baseball player would swing his bat when you turned your wrist.  The guy selling it said it was from the 50s but it looks more 60s or 70s to me.  He wanted $95 for it.  That was out of my range but still very cool to try it on.

Speaking of holograms, how do you say “hologram?”  Zach says HOE-LOW-GRAM to which I promptly called him an idiot.  I say HA-LAH-GRAM.

Here is a hotdog I ate.  It was good as hell.

I only bought three things but they were all great.  This whole flea market had treasures I had not seen before, and everything was priced pretty reasonably.

I got these Gurley Halloween candles still in the box.  They are on eBay now, but I fantasized about keeping them.  They are seriously the cutest. I paid $10.

I also got this Halloween blow mold. It is also cute.  It was $5.

My largest purchase was this gigantic lot of old Sesame Street toys from the 80s and 90s.  Sarah will 100% murder me for not giving these to her.  I paid $15 and put them on eBay Buy It Now for $50.  They sold instantly, which is a blessing and a curse.  It is nice to make a profit, but the fact that they sold instantly makes me think I should have listed them for higher.

Zach bought an old railroad poster that was framed.  It was really neat until he realized it was just a photocopy of an old railroad poster.  The aging on the edges and the slight tears were not real when you looked close, just a copy!  He returned it after we raised a stink.

Zach also bought an amazing old watch here, but only after we went home first.  It was pricey, marked $395.  I could tell it was weighing on Zach’s mind and that he loved it so much.  When we got home, he texted with a watch friend in New York, who valued it around $1200.  A similar one on eBay recently sold for $980.  Zach raced back to buy the watch.

He ended up getting it for $300 which is a great deal.  This watch is a chronograph, which is way more collectible than your average vintage watch.  The brand is Vulcain and it is from the 60s. The dial style is called a “surfboard.”  I think he will probably wear it awhile and then eventually sell it.

That’s all from Flat Rock! 

-Erin

Wow, hard to believe that over a month after my trip out there, I still have tales to tell about South Carolina. 

After our two previous treasure-seeking trips were pretty big busts, we decided to head out to another nearby town–Summerville–to see if there was anything good to find out there. Our first stop was the Summerville Antique Gallery. 

Right away, I knew it would be at least good for window shopping. It was a huge building with lots of little booths throughout. 

For the most part, prices were more reasonable than they had been at the place the previous day. Some were still pretty high. My dad was really interested in this Coca Cola stadium carrier. It had a strap that you’d wear around your neck–you know, to walk around baseball games and sell pop. 

But I looked it up for him and it was priced a little higher than what they sell for on eBay. Whomp whomp. 

I thought this was a pretty cute ways to display cards and other paper items! I loved those teeny clothespins. 

Here’s some of the cards close up. 

Cuuuuuuute! 

Does anyone know if these civil war bullets are legit? I thought they were but maybe I’m dumb. 

This thing was so cool…but what would you do with it? 

Ok, so I found a few cute things to purchase. First up is this adorable little girl sitting with her dog on a dresser. I don’t really know why I bought this or if I really need it (answer is no) but it was too cute to pass up. 

I also found a collection of these little trinket boxes. I’m almost positive that they’re new, but I still thought this one was too cute to pass up. 

Yep! When you open it up there’s a tiny little dog bone inside! 

I also bought this small, beat up chalkware dog for my mini shelf.

Anyway, we knew it was time to leave when I spotted this piece of sheet music.

I actually immediately hopped on a plane and flew home to Michigan.

-Sarah 

On Friday, Sarah had an important work meeting (apparently more important than treasure hunting), so I headed out alone.  There was a sale in Oak Park that looked AMAZING.  From the online photos, I could tell that the house was packed.  Everything looked kind of “tribal,” which either meant that the sale was of an extensive world traveler or of someone who shopped at Pier One. 

This guy above was $40.  I should have bought him.  He kind of looked like one of those apple face dolls we’ve unfortunately come across in the past, except he was way cute and not that gross.

How cool is that giant sun?  Seriously, it was amazing.  I have no room for it in my house, otherwise I would have bought it for sure.

Here’s that tiny dude from the Twin Peaks Black Lodge, except he is wearing his day clothes:

Garmonbozia, AMIRITE?

This sale was lots of fun because, as I mentioned, it was packed.  It was also stressful though because there were so many people and very little space to move around.  I was also on a mission to buy stuff to resell, so I was constantly trying to look stuff up on ebay on my phone.  This was problematic because I kept stopping and kept ending up in the way.  I knew there were valuable items here, I just needed to figure out the best ones to buy.

At one point in the sale, I said to one of the men working, “Wow, this person sure was a world traveler!"  To that, the man replied that in fact the owner was not.  He had simply bought all of these things at estate sales.  This made me kind of sad at first, but then I realized that our own home gives off the same impression.  We have items from all over the world, and barely travel.  All of the things in our house make me so happy and make me feel cool and cultured, so who cares really if we don’t travel much!

What did make me sad though was the basement of this sale!  It was like that Grey Gardens house we visited all over again!

Yikes.

Ok, so I bought 4 things at this sale.  The best two purchases were framed Carol Jablonsky prints.  These regularly sell on ebay for over $100.  I paid $15 each.  They already have bids and so far I have more than doubled my money.  Very cool!  These are so cute so I am glad I was able to list them for people who collect her art.

I got my dad this Tigers pennant for $1!  I don’t know why so cheap but I was thrilled.

Ok so my last purchase was maybe a bad one.  I bought this old wooden horse with some sort of inlayed shell or bone.  It was only $20 and I liked enough that if it didn’t sell on ebay, I would keep it.  The thing looks really collectible to me.

When I did some research though, I started to think that this is a tourist piece and similar objects like it are mass produced in India.  Whomp whomp.  If anyone has info, let me know.  They sell for all sorts of amounts on ebay, from as low as $15 to as high as $300, so I have no clue what the deal is with this thing!

-Erin

I’m about to shock you all and say that last week Sarah bought NOTHING when we went sale-ing.  This is unprecedented.  So for that reason, I’ll be handling this entry. 

The sale we visited looked great online.  It was in Ypsilanti and promised all sorts of fabulous vintage treasures, including old Beistle Halloween decorations that I wanted badly.  Someone else wanted them badly too, because they were gone when we got there.  There were some interesting pieces left but the prices all seemed really high.

Sarah’s hand looks kind of crazy in the pic.  She will probably yell at me for not cropping it out.

Sarah wanted to buy this wood tree shelf thing above, but in some sort of crazy miracle, I was able to talk her out of it (Adam, you’re welcome).  It reminds me of this country cottage store that my mom used to shop at in the 80s.  You’d buy like miniature honey pots with fake honey coming out of them there.  It was pretty much the worst.

I immediately grabbed this bag of old plastic baseball men for Timmy.  I texted him and he said he really wanted them, despite the steep $15 price.  I got the guy to sell me these for $10, which seems more fair.

Timmy is going to use these to make molds and subsequently more tiny baseball men for his baseball artwork.  Someday when I retire, maybe I too can spend my time making baseball artwork.

At some point in the sale, I found this wacky Coors hat and told Sarah to take my photo in it.  She obliged:

Sarah then asked if I thought the hat was COLLECTIBLE.  She looked at the inside tag and repeated herself, saying, “Is this a collectible brand?”

This was my reaction:

Excuse my no makeup.  Anyway, what can I say.  Sarah was obviously desperate.  But no, that Coors hat is NOT collectible.

So here are the other things I bought:

These old stockings are from the 40s or 50s.  I paid $1 each and hope they will sell on ebay come next Christmas.  One of the stocking belongs to BIZ:

I can only assume his (or her) website is BIZ.biz.

I also bought some stamps, which never turn out to be valuable, but these were cool and cheap:

I also bought this WWII Army container with camouflage paint inside.  It was $1, but I am hoping it sells for more on ebay.  I can’t find any previous listings for an item like this, but it is so cool!  I have a hard time believing that no one would want it.

I probably should have put some of that on before I took the photos above.  That white color seems to match my paleness well.

-Erin