Dig This Treasure!

Zach found a random box in one of our closets that said “ebay stuff” on it.  It was a bunch of paper items I got at a sale over a year ago and never put on ebay.  Included in all of the stuff was a huge stack of letters.

I haven’t taken the time yet to read through all of these, but one letter did stand out.  It was addressed to good ol’ Santa Claus.

I was so excited to open the letter and read what one child of yesteryear was wishing for that Christmas so long ago.  I unfolded the letter and found this:

Seriously, it looks like the Zodiac killer himself wrote this.  And unless there is some sort of secret Santa language that I don’t know about, this child got NOTHING for Christmas.

Poor Harriet Robbe, you failed at Christmas.

-Erin

Sarah and I are working on some longer entries about our recent adventures, but in the meantime, let me share some new fave finds with you guys.

My sister and I visited the Romeo Peach Festival a few weeks ago.  We’ve been going to this since we were children, and every year we always swear it is the last time we will go.  You see, the Romeo Peach Festival is a really good place for people (not me) to buy Confederate Flag t-shirts and marshmallow shooting guns.  It is no longer a good place to buy antiques or high quality crafts.

To be fair, my sister and I went because we were on a mission to find these peach cookies we had two years ago, which then disappeared off the planet.  Turns out that these cookies aren’t even part of the Peach Festival, but come from a grocery store just outside of town.  We found them living in their peach cookie heaven, and proceeded to buy about 26 boxes each:

Just kidding, we each only bought 1 box each, and then I b*tched the whole way home about how I was an idiot for not buying more.

Ok, so besides the cookies, I did miraculously find one good treasure at the Peach Festival.  Two guys were selling random junk in a booth and I came across this old ceramic walrus bank:

I KNOW, RIGHT?! That is the cutest chef walrus you have ever done seen.  I bought him for $5 and put him in the last available space next to my kitchen scale collection.

OK, so another recent fave find came from the totally random thrift store trip that Sarah and I took a few weeks ago.  You might remember that I snagged a ton of baby clothes, but the best by far was this vintage baby sweater:

What is so perfect about this is that we are naming the baby Everett, so the E’s on the sweater actually make sense.  Baby E is going to be stylin’ and profilin’ for sure.

The last fave find is also for future baby and I found it at the Ferndale DIY Fair.  There was a booth selling all vintage clothes and knick-knacks called Octopus Pie Studios.  I found this sweater and pants set featuring whales and sailboats.  Sarah contends it is for a baby girl, but I refuse to believe that.

It might be kind of itchy to wear, but that is the price of dressing so fly.  

If you have any “fave finds” you can share them on our Facebook page.  Post a pic and tell us where you found your treasure.

-Erin 

I’ve always been a huge complainer about vintage reproductions.  There are few things more frustrating at an estate sale than a seller trying to convince you something is truly antique, even though it has Philips head screws and the freshest paint you’ve ever seen.  And don’t get me started on the phenomenon of “primitives” that have overtaken every antique mall.  

Anyway, I learned recently that there is a time and place for reproductions.  Especially when it will save you some cash and give you a huge boost in your holiday decorating.  

Case in point: A few weeks ago, Zach and I received the latest Vermont Country Store catalog.  This catalog is pretty much the best because you can order Christmas onesie pajamas and things like this:

You can also order great vintage reproductions.  Zach called (yes, you still have to CALL to order) and bought us the following two things:

A Halloween light up blow mold and some Gurley style candles.  

Now here is why I approve of these repros:

Every time I find an old Halloween blow mold at an estate sale or antique store, the cords look like 26 different cats chewed on them.  Or the lights inside are burnt out.  Or they are priced around $40.  I have never found a true vintage blow mold worth buying (except for a Santa face that ended up having a short in the cord).  This Vermont Country Store version cost $16 and will last for years.

Speaking of lasting for years, true vintage Gurley candles do not.  When I come across them at sales they are dented, smushed, half-burnt, or have lint stuck all over them.  They can also be crazy expensive.  Seriously, like SO CRAZY EXPENSIVE considering these are candles!

The ones we purchased from Vermont Country store are nice and clean and cost $20.  Still a little pricey, but worth the splurge for a good vintage look.

I might even buy these Thanksgiving ones next:

All of this thinking about repros made me realize that one of my most coveted antique items might best be purchased new.  Remember how obsessed I am with those old paper mache Halloween pumpkins?  Seriously, these things have evaded me for years now.  First, they are so hard to find (at least for me).  And they are obnoxiously pricey:

Plus, most of these pumpkins are in bad shape considering what they are made of.  And almost all of them are missing their paper inserts that give them spooky eyes and mouths.

Perhaps one day I will find one in good shape and at a good price, but in the meantime, why not buy a reproduction version?  There are plenty of good ones out there.

Only $22 and this will look adorable on my mantle for Halloween.  And if my cats chew on it I will be less sad.  

So maybe repros aren’t all bad.  They certainly have their place.  So tell us, do you buy reproductions or do you find them oh-so-offensive?

-Erin

Update: OK, heads up.  You don’t have to order over the phone.  Sarah was sure to inform me:

Two Fridays back, the sale listings looked awful, so Sarah and I contemplated staying home.  We eventually decided to suck it up though and find some garage sales.  You all remember how entertaining that was last time…

Before the garage sale-ing, however, we did stop at one estate sale that looked kind of not-horrible.  It turned out to be, well, horrible.

Everything was really Hallmark-y, but like the dollar store version of Hallmark stuff.

It was like the Boyd’s bears strolled up into town and took this home by force.  Except that it wasn’t really the Boyd’s bears, but instead their creepy backwoods cousins who you don’t normally invite over for Thanksgiving dinner.

To be fair, I did buy two Waechtersbach mugs to go with my Christmas set.  They were 50 cents each which is a steal.

We hightailed it out of there and, while driving, saw this sign:

A 4 day vintage market?!  That is EXACTLY what we need!  What sounds better than some sort of market filled with old treasures that probably occurs only once a year and is therefore filled with only the finest of goods?!

When we followed the signs to the “vintage market”  we found more signs (the ones you see above).  Here, let me zoom in more:

Well, sh*t.  Turns out, our “vintage market” was the name of a party store and they had some MAD DEALS on ribs.  When I realized what was happening, Sarah refused to believe it.  She was so heartbroken.  She tried to convince me that these were different signs than the original, but there was no denying the truth:

So after this huge failure, things were looking bad.  We started driving in a neighborhood after we saw a garage sale sign, and came upon this:

A big ol’ trash heap, and a metaphor for how our day was going.

But then things started to turn around.  We rolled up to one garage sale and it looked really good!  It was like our own private “vintage market” tucked away in this grandma’s garage.

There was a huge table filled with old, really collectible pottery.  The first thing I saw was that she had a Van Briggle vase.  I was familiar with the brand because of Antiques Roadshow and knew that some pieces sold for thousands.  It turns out that the pottery actually belonged to the old woman’s friend, who proceeded to tell Sarah and I all about his pottery collecting.  

The Van Briggle piece he had marked $50, which was too risky for me to buy.  I looked up a few similar pieces on ebay and they all sold for around $100.  After last week’s ebay disasters though, I wanted to take a less expensive risk.  I decided to buy three pieces of Roseville Mostique pottery for $5 each.  Very reasonable.

We’ve seen Roseville pottery a lot at estate sales, and I’m not a huge fan of it.  I know it is really collectible though, so I figured I could flip this set pretty easily.  

And, I did!

The pottery guy at this garage sale even gave me this McCoy cookie jar for free!  I had been looking at it and he decided I must take it home.  Ok!

So our luck was definitely changing!  It even continued when we visited a nearby thrift store.  Thrift stores are something Sarah and I barely dabble in, although we have many blog friends who do their picking exclusively at these places.  Maybe we should go more often, because there are certainly great deals to be had!  You might as well call me Macklemore because I loved this thrift shop so much.

I got a whole garbage bag full of baby clothes for $30.  Some still had the tags on them!  And there was a bunch of Ralph Lauren stuff in there.  (Also, can you tell I’m ready to pop?  My face looks like a marshmallow.)

So cute.  

I think Sarah bought these shoes:

Or maybe she didn’t.  I can’t remember.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I definitely bought those shoes for my next trip clubbin’. They are the perfect mix of sexy and schoolgirl. Ok, I’m lying. I did end up finding a nice lightweight cotton Land’s End cardigan and some books at the thrift shop, but that’s about it. Oh and this t-shirt for Baby Everett.

Erin and Zach LOVE cute little t-shirts with sayings on them like this, so be sure to send all your hand-me-downs their way.

The first estate sale was such a nightmare. It was one of those sales where you’re looking around for ANYTHING you might possibly want, and coming up shorthanded. For example, I actually considered buying this. 

Then I saw it was marked $20. 

The garage sale was the surprise of the day–Erin passed on the Van Briggle vase but I thought about it for a while and remembered how valuable Arts & Crafts stuff can be, so I asked if he would go lower than $50. The lowest he would go was $45, so I took the chance. It was a really beautiful piece, even though I don’t even really care about pottery! 

I looked it up and ones like it seemed to sell for $100-150. So I listed it at $155 and let people make offers. After a couple of days, someone swooped in and the rest is history! 

The only thing that Erin forgot to mention is that the guy selling the pottery drove and parked THIS THING in front of the house! 

Overall, it was a very strange sale. 

Right before I broke my toe, one of my best friends told me that her mom (who I know pretty well) had a bunch of stuff at home that she was interested in getting rid of, that once belonged to her mother and aunt. I agreed to help her out by looking at the stuff and listing those things that were valuable (while taking a small cut of the profit).

I started listing some of the items last weekend. She had this cool, super old B.F. Goodrich rubber hot water bottle that had really lovely advertising (the box was in great shape, had all it’s paperwork, etc.) I didn’t think it was worth anything but Adam insisted that someone would want it because it was in such good shape and the advertising was so clean. 

I got it all set up and took out all of the attachments, etc. I don’t know if I’m dense or naive or both, but I almost died when, while taking pictures, I noticed this: 

In case you have poor eyesight, that says, “Douche and enema pipes and fittings for syringe use.” I’m not sure WHAT I thought all of the piping and attachments were for (filling the water bottle?!) but I had NO CLUE. 

I had just handled said attachments and so I promptly ran downstairs screaming, “ADAM! ADAM! ADAM!!!!” I explained what had just occurred and he said, “You didn’t know that’s what that was?!” NO I DID NOT. 

Also, another lesson was learned. That sucker sold for $41 and had a ton of watchers/bidders (including someone named something like RonPoo567… no joke), so apparently people like to collect old enema bags. Don’t think I’ll be selling another one anytime soon, though. 

Stay tuned–I’m selling a lot of other cool things for my friend’s mom so I’ll feature those another day. 

-Sarah

When I saw the listing for a “Collector’s Dream” sale, I had a good feeling in my gut that I might score some treasures.  The photos in the listing showed lots and lots of porcelain, and it looked high end.  I had my fingers crossed that there would be Herend-aplenty and that it would all be priced to move.

When we got to the sale, the Lord himself might as well have opened the doors for us, because I was like 99% sure we were in heaven.

The majority of the sale was porcelain, but they also had Limoges boxes, nutcrackers, vintage Christmas and Easter decorations, collectible pottery, and more.

There was also some random stuff, like this giant box of snow owls.

Anyway, I first zeroed in on this white Herend rabbit.  I normally only collect Herend fishnet pattern pieces, but I have always wanted this white rabbit.  He is seriously so adorable.  

They had him priced $45, which is about what he sells for on ebay.  I, of course, wanted a deal though.  While looking at him, a woman came up and asked if she could help me.  I told her that I am a Herend collector and love this rabbit, but would only be interested in him for $30.  She said that was fine.  I was thrilled.  Here he is now next to one of my other Herend rabbits:

The lady helping me mentioned that there were some other Herend pieces floating around, which I had missed on my first pass through the place.  She pointed out a small Herend trinket box and larger serving dish.  Both were in the Rothschild pattern, which again, I don’t collect.

What I do know about the Rothschild pattern is that a lot of other people collect it.  I checked ebay and saw that both of these pieces should be an easy sell.  However, the serving dish was marked $110.  I decided to push my luck again and ask the woman for a deal.  I told her that I was interested in the dish but could only offer her $50.  She said yes!  I was thrilled again.  As for the trinket box, I paid the full sticker price of $20 because I didn’t want to haggle with this poor woman again.

Both pieces are up on ebay, so we will see how they do!

I also bought some paper mache Easter eggs, which I’ve already packed away in our Easter decorations box.  Here is a photo I pulled offline though.  They are really similar.

I got 6 of them for $10.  

I’ll let Sarah tell you all about her huge scores at this sale.  She had quite the motherload.  Before that though, I’ll mention that we did hit one more sale this day.  It was awful.  You can probably tell by the decor:

Sorry Betty Boop collectors, I will never understand you.

Oh, also!  It was Sarah’s birthday, so we got manicures.  

Sarah is way older than me so I sometimes forget her exact age.  I think she just turned 44, but I am not sure.  Also, I made her this cake:

She really likes beagles.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I told Erin she couldn’t post the original version of that picture of me at the nail salon and her photoshopping made me laugh until I cried. Amazing. 

I already posted about my favorite find from the porcelain sale–the frog crossing sign. I also found a bunch of items to resell–the coolest and possibly most profitable of which are all of these Fisher Price Little People things. 

They had these things marked incredibly reasonably. I bought a farm, village, house, merry-go-round, and school bus, all for about $40. I grew up playing with Little People and now they don’t make the little ones anymore (I guess too many homies choked on them?) but Adam and I might keep the house for our future children. This won’t be the first time I’ll have kept something for my non-existent children. 

I also found this Italian made Pinocchio to resell,

and an adorable Pewabic tile. Mine looks just like that one but it’s blue. 

I also bought this little car from a huge mess of Department 56 Snow Village stuff. 

We had snow village stuff when I was growing up and this little car was my favorite piece. It was only $2. 

Here is one really cool thing at that sale that I didn’t buy. 

I didn’t buy it because it was $1200. It’s by C. Jere, who is a famous mid century sculptor, I think. Check out this amazing sculpture by him of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Wowee Zowee. 

The second sale we went to was the absolute worst. Everything was overpriced and stunk like cigarettes. For the first time in my life of estate saleing, I had to THROW AWAY something I bought when I got home. 

I bought this baggie of dolls because there were some Playmobil guys in there. When I opened the bag, all of the dolls smelled so bad. They are PLASTIC and smelled like smoke. WTF?! I should have known, though. Here’s what the rest of the sale looked like: 

I don’t know if you can make out that sticker well enough, but that is a $3 sign that says Help Retarded Children. 

P.S. I turned THIRTY FIVE, not 44. 

A couple of Fridays ago, we were out and about again.  The sales looked just alright, but actually turned out to be pretty good.  I was determined to find some stuff to sell on ebay because I have had quite the dry spell.  I can’t remember where the first sale was, but I’m thinking it was Dearborn or something.  It had lots of cutesy vintage stuff.

There were a ton of these placemats made from pieced-together magazine clippings.  Super cute.  

Anyone know what these weird old glasses are?  The clear glass parts separate out from the colored metal bottoms.  But the glass parts cannot stand alone, so I am not sure why they separate out.  They look to be from the 1950s or 60s.

Guns guns guns.  These were cool but really pricey…I think like $40 each.  

Here’s something interesting I learned about selling cap guns on ebay.  Remember last week when I bought one to resell?  I listed it on ebay in the vintage toy section and clearly labeled it as a cap gun.  However, ebay instantly pulled down the listing because it looked too much like a real gun.  To sell a cap gun on ebay, you have to attach an orange tip to the barrel, so that it is obviously a toy.  I don’t know where to buy such a tip, so I am thinking of photoshopping my photos so it looks like my gun has the orange tip on it.  Blargh.

Anyway, Sarah found this cute apron thing to wear when she cooks, except that she doesn’t cook…so maybe she will wear it while sorting through vintage photos and slides (more on this later).

My first find were these tiny gold spoons, perfect for feeding a baby.  I texted Zach and asked if we needed gold plated baby spoons and he responded with a “YESSSS.”  At $15, these were a little steep, although they are real gold plate.  Only the best for future baby I guess.

I also found this Captain Hook marionette to resell.  I thought he was just so cute.  However, when looking him up on ebay, I couldn’t find anything similar.  Turns out, I was searching for “Captain Cook” instead of “Captain Hook.”  Some lady walked by me and said, “Oh cute!  Captain Hook from Peter Pan!”  and that made me realize my mistake.  I saw that these could sell for decent money on ebay, so I snatched him up for $10.

When I got home,  I realized he was missing his hook!!  Oy!  I am hoping he still sells.

Also to resell are these Ohio State glasses from the 1960s.  They were $3 each so definitely worth the risk.

So I check out and am ready to book it out of this place because it is getting increasingly hot and crowded.  I see Sarah and it looks like she only has a couple of things to pay for, so I figure our time here is almost done.  Sarah then informs me that she has just decided to purchase a serious megaload of old photo slides, and that said slides are IN THE BASEMENT.  For pete’s sake.  

Sarah’s still wearing a boot from her broken toe and I am a giant melon belly, so carrying slides up stairs (and doing so in multiple trips) sounds like a real sad time to me.  I immediately started sulking.

Luckily, the people running the sale helped us, so we each only had to take two trips up and down the stairs.  Maybe Sarah made more…I just know I made two and then gave up on helping.  YOLO.

That’s the backseat of Sarah’s car packed to the brim with slides.  At some point, she said to me, “I don’t know how I’m going to get these in the house without Adam seeing.”  I wished her luck on that, as she would surely need help from a magician or magic elf or strong sedatives to use on Adam.

We hit one other sale that was in a cute farmhouse, but I don’t think I bought anything.  It was pretty picked over.  

That blue stool caught my eye, but I realized I don’t have a place for it.  When I got home though, I remembered that I specifically want a stool to use in “Ebay World” where I photograph and list all my ebay stuff.  Ebay World has a high counter I usually stand at, but since I hate standing now, I could really use a nice stool.  Darn! 

After this sale, we went to a Middle Eastern bakery that is pretty famous in Dearborn.  Sarah can fill you in on the name because I don’t remember.  All I do remember is that we stood in line for 45 minutes because it was so crowded.  Worth it though, because the treats were pretty fly.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: For the record, I never even asked Erin to help me with the slides. I just told her she was going to kill me because there were so many and it was going to take a while to get them out of the house. You saw the backseat–there were a lot. No lying there. The reason I warned her is that when it gets over 70 degrees and she has to wait somewhere, Erin acts as if she’s in the Sahara wearing a snow suit, without water. Also, she was wearing LONG SLEEVES AND JEANS that day. I know we had quite the cool spell in MI but come on! Anyway, here’s what she looks like when she’s too hot: 

I found some cool stuff at this sale and actually went back the next day. The guy was a retired math professor and had all sorts of math-y sh*t in his house, so I knew Adam would be totally down with it. I did buy him a few things–the coolest of which were these Ford Motor educational posters. 

I also purchased a few things for myself but I’m cleaning out eBay world and can’t find some of them. Good sign, I know. But here’s a very cute cross stitch from the ‘30s that I bought that Adam was super thrilled about. 

I want to make a cross stitch wall somewhere in my house. Workin’ on it. 

So Erin left out the best part of the day, which was stopping at the Dearborn Farmer’s Market. While we were there we spotted a beignet truck that had a sign out front that they had CRONUTS. Now all you sassy hipsters are probably not impressed by this but we don’t have stuff like this in SE Michigan, and Erin’s been wanting a cronut forev. Here she is, losing her cronut virginity. 

My car was covered in powdered sugar by the end of this because we both kept laughing while eating them, which would blow it all over. 

At the second sale, I found an old Chorus Line tshirt from the '70s. 

As Erin mentioned, we ended the day at Shatila Bakery in Dearborn, which is pretty famous. One of our student assistants at work is from Jordan and he told me to go there. I wasn’t disappointed! Here I am later at night, displaying my treats. 

Each of these things only cost $1.50. The only downside is you have to wait for 45 minutes to get them. Also, never had better baklava in my LIFE, yo!