Thursday, July 30, 2015

A Tight Circle

We are still a week behind on our blogging. This post is for the weeknd of July 18th and 19th. We have no doubt that we will be caught up soon!

A week long search through the ads for sales netted very few sales of interest. Unlike last week when our list was longer than time would ever allow, this week's sales of interest numbered exactly three. The good thing was that all three sales were in a pretty tight. None were more than twenty minutes from our house and we had complete confidence that we would make all three with plenty of time to spare. We were ready to search them all. And so, off we went.


Our first sale was listed as "antiques to vintage" and was run by a tag sale company that we know well. The pictures in the ad showed a couple of old Christmas things and that, alone, was enough to sell us on coming here.


The basement was packed and there was plenty of places to search.

The basement was really, really packed! 

We spent over thirty minutes in the basement and found a few great things at a very low price. Unfortunately, the rest of the house was not quite as packed and we moved through the main floor and upstairs quickly. By the time we left, we had some Christmas things, an old baseball game, a book, an old blow mold pumpkin and a few other things.

We moved along to the second sale, making sure not to disrespect any traffic laws. We remembered not to make a turn on Fred.

Our second sale was described as "a hoarder's house" and a "picker's dream". Unfortunately the claims were overexaggerated. 

It was an outside sale where all of the items for sale were dragged outside except for the contents of an old abandoned sunroom at the back of the house. The door to the entrance was a great old screen door.

The sunroom had not seen the light of day in many years and it was packed. We had to climb over things to conduct any type of search and so many of the items were in very bad shape.

Still, we spent twenty minutes within its cluttered confines and our search paid off. We left with two old Pyrex casserole dishes and one old set of glass grapes.

Sale # 3 was non-existent. We arrived to find a sign on the door that said that the sale was cancelled. We were home early and that was okay. We took a nap, did a few chores and then Rob barbecued. We then spent a nice relaxing evening together which is always nice!

We originally planned to stay home on Sunday but those plans changed pretty early that morning. We had considered going to a sale that was 45 minutes away but we were not greatly excited by it and decided to skip it...that is until Rob read his emails that morning. The owner of the tag sale company emailed Rob that he found some vintage Christmas things in the attic and that we should come. So...we showered, got dressed and off we went to a Sunday sale.

It was a very, VERY hot day and our trip here was slow because we got caught in the beachgoers traffic but, after an hour, we made it.

We first searched the garage which had some cool old wooden crates and some old license plates. We were not interested in either but they were cool to see. 

The owner, Ron, was happy to see us quickly showed us the way to the attic.

There was a mounted pencil sharpener by the entrance to the attic. That was a good sign! 

The attic was huge and there was plenty for us to search. On a cooler day, we might have spent an hour up here but, as hot as it was outside, it was even hotter in the attic and we were dripping wet in a matter of minutes!

We worked quickly to get a quick look at everything, pick what we wanted and then return to the cooler floors.

The other floors had a few cool things like these old dolls which are not things that we wanted but were still cool. By the time we left, we had found some old Christmas things, an old sewing kit, a poodle mail holder and a few other things. It was worth the trip!

We took our time going home, stopping to get pizza along the way. We even stopped at the flea market just to walk around.





Years ago, we would go here more often but we are only here once or twice a year now. There are still some great old things but the dealers get many of the things at the same sales that we frequent and they have marked them up quite a bit. Still, we did manage to find a couple of hardstock beer coasters on this trip.

Despite being out a good part of the day, we still managed to get our errands and chores done and to barbecue again before the day was through.

Here are some things we found over the weekend:


A pair of records


A book from 1948 and a sewing kit marked Japan


A set of glass grapes, an Elmer Fudd glass from 1973 and a poodle mail holder (marked Japan)


A baseball board game from 1968 and a pair of Rheingold New York Mets beer coasters

A pair of Pyrex casserole dishes

Some old Christmas photos which made us laugh

An old Christmas tablecloth

A pair of old plastic Christmas dishes and an old snowman decoration

We try not to buy any glass Christmas ornaments because we have more than we could ever use but we have a weakness for stencilled ones and we loved these. The ceramic pitcher and the mugs are marked Japan.

Some more Christmas things. The ceramic Christmas girl, the elf decorations and the mica house on the right were all made in Japan

There may not have been a lot of sales for us but the ones we went to were fun and we managed to be productive at home and have fun together all weekend long...and that will always mean more to us than anything else ever could. 

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

From Famine To Feast

This post is for the weekend of July 11th and July 12th. We are, once again, a little behind on the blog but only by a week! We will be caught up soon! 

Just recently, we were thinking about quiet the estate saling has been for us lately. The last few weeks have only provided us with a few opportunities to go to the type of sales that we like. This week was different. Our search during the week provided us with a list of fourteen opportunities. Based on location, we narrowed the list to eleven by Saturday morning though we knew we would not make all of them. There were two sales that were our primary targets. They started within thirty minutes of each other and were over 30 minutes apart from each other. Well...we would have to decide which one to hit first. After a little deliberation, we chose our first target. It wasn't either of the two sales. 


Sale #1 was located just five minutes from our house. It started an hour earlier than any of the other sales on our list so it made sense to start here. It was a private sale described as "vintage", "mid-century" and "garage dig". It sounded like a good start.


There was a decent amount of things to look through in, both, the basement and the garage. This pole lamp was the thing that caught our attention though we did not buy it. First of all, we have a few pole lamps and we probably don't need another. Secondly, a piece of the wood pole was broken. We inquired into the price anyway. After all, it had a cool starburst pattern on the lamps and the pole was repairable with some good glue and would look like new. They wanted $10 for it. We passed on the offer. That seemed like a lot for something that was broken and that we really didn't need. We did manage to find a pamphlet and two spare "Go To The Head Of The Class" game pieces for free. It was not a wasted trip.

Now, we had a decision to make. Which of our two targeted sales would we go to next? The "vintage time capsule" whose ad showed several tiki mugs and some other cool things or the "mid-century" estate sale whose ad showed some cool Christmas things? It was a tough decision but we chose to go to the "vintage time capsule" first. We thought the tiki mugs might go quickly and, as optimists, we were hoping to get everything we wanted at both sales. We figured that this route gave us our best shot.


 So...we arrived at the "vintage time capsule" about thirty minutes before its opening and was greeted by the dreaded line. 


It was not a short line either. We were #26 and #27. 

It took about thirty minutes to get inside but we weren't too worried. The people ahead of us didn't look like a tiki crowd and we always try to be cautiously optimistic.

Once inside, we went downstairs first where the bar (and the tiki mugs) appeared to be in the ad pictures. Lo and behold...they were. We got them! They are not in this picture because we used good judgment in deciding to take the merchandise first and THEN take pictures! 

The basement was the best floor in the house, not only because of the bar, but because there were lots of vintage Christmas things there and none of the 25 people ahead of us had any interest. Aside from the tiki mugs and Christmas things, we also found a really cool cocktail stirrer set, some other holiday things and more. It was a great first stop! 


Sale #3 was our other target and it was two hours into the sale by the time we arrived... 


...well, two hours and one minute by the time that Rob took a picture! 

Our first stop was the basement which was one of the biggest basements that we have ever seen! We made the right move because the Christmas things were housed on this floor. One of our targets was a pair of old blow mold reindeer and we watched as someone else took them away. We were five minutes too late! We did find some other good Christmas things here, a few books and a few other things. It was a pretty good stop and, in retrospect, the order in which we chose to travel was the right one.

It was now midday and we chose to stop for a bite to eat before continuing our saling adventures. There were still eight more potential stops and it was clear that some would be excluded. We chose our next sale based on its proximity to our late breakfast stop. It was just three minutes away.

The sale was a privately run estate sale described as "50 years" of accumulation. The sale began outside and we found a great barbecue dish there. This was just the start. The inside was where the remainder of the search would be. 

There was a basement, a garage and a main floor and our time spent inside was pretty short until...it happened. As we were waiting to get priced, we spied a box on the floor of the living room. It was beneath a table. It was a pretty big box. It was filled with greeting cards...vintage greeting cards...from the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. We spent over an hour looking through every card and choosing the ones we wanted. We left with over 400 cards as well as a few other things. It was a great stop!

It was very, very hot and our next task was simply to seek out a 7-Eleven and get a slurpee. It was July 11th and that is the annual 7-Eleven Day on which they give out free slurpees! We took advantage of their kindness.

After the unexpected length of our last stop, we did not have much saling time left. We decided to travel thirty-five minutes and make just one more sale. One of our favorite tag sale companies was having a sale and we figured we would stop by to see them.

We finally arrived and were greeted by this house. It was simply described as "entire contents" and the furniture in the house looked old in the ad pictures. We would see.

Once again, our first search would be conducted in the basement. There was the mounted pencil sharpener. Good sign! 

The basement was big and there were many things to look through

It had some cool, old cabinets...

...and it had a cool, old kitchen table.

Our host, Ron, was happy, as always, to answer any questions we might have.

We did not find a lot in the house but we did find some old Lake George and Niagara Falls souvenirs in the garage. Although we did not find much, it was a fun house and a nice trip.

It was still hot outside on our journey home and it really seemed like a good idea to stop at another 7-Eleven for a free slurpee...and so we did!

Here are some things we brought home on Saturday:

A pair of records


Books and other things


An old booklet about math and two "Go To The Head Of The Class" game pieces.


Old outdoor drink holders


Lake George and Niagara Falls souvenirs from the 1960's. 


Charlie Brown and Snoopy from the late 1960's


An old box of cocktail stirrers, an old plastic Poconos creamer, a Brim mug that Monica will use at work and a pair of old metal cars. Each of the cocktail stirrers has a small hanging plastic record that is supposed to be a replica record. Bing Crosby, Nat Cole (no "King" mentioned), Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley are all represented.

An old ceramic seahorse ashtray, some cocktail stirrers and an old glittery seahorse hanging for the bathroom.

A ceramic barbecue tray. It is marked Japan.

A turkey shaker (missing its mate. It is marked Japan) and an old plastic Easter dish.

Tiki mugs. All made for the long defunct Hawaii Kai and all marked Japan

Vintage St. Patrick's Day cards


Vintage Easter cards


More vintage Easter cards


More vintage Easter cards


More vintage Easter cards


More vintage Easter cards


Vintage baby cards


More vintage baby cards
Vintage birthday cards


More vintage birthday cards


More vintage birthday cards


And...more vintage birthday cards


Some more vintage birthday cards


Vintage birthday cards


More vintage birthday cards


More vintage birthday cards


Vintage birthday cards


More vintage birthday cards


A few more vintage birthday cards


Even more vintage birthday cards


And finally...more vintage birthday cards


Vintage anniversary cards


Vintage Mother's Day cards


Vintage Father's Day cards


Miscellaneous vintage cards


Vintage Get Well cards. Several are for tonsil removal


Vintage Valentine's Day cards


More vintage Valentine's Day cards


Some more vintage Valentine's Day cards


Vintage Valentine's Day cards


Vintage Valentine's Day cards


More vintage Valentine's Day cards


Even more vintage Valentine's Day cards


Vintage Valentine's Day cards and...


Vintage Valentine's Day cards
Vintage Christmas cards


More vintage Christmas cards


Some more vintage Christmas cards


Even more vintage Christmas cards


Some more vintage Christmas cards


More vintage Christmas cards


A few more vintage Christmas cards


Vintage Christmas cards


Vintage Christmas cards


Vintage Christmas cards


Vintage Christmas cards and...


Vintage Christmas cards


Some mica elves and a pair of Christmas angels. All marked Japan

Some salt and pepper shakers (the candy cane is missing its make) and a pair of small ceramic Santa mugs. All marked Japan

Lots of old plastic Christmas things

An old creepy snowman and an old creepy Santa, both from the 1950's and a Christmas Carol booklet from 1934.

It was a long, hot day and the first thing we did when we came home was to take a nap. We still had time to barbecue and to spend a relaxing Saturday night together. We spent Sunday doing chores, errands and housework but made sure to leave time for barbecuing again and some downtime together. Although we didn't make every sale on our list on Saturday (we knew we wouldn't), it was nice to finally have a big list of potential sales again and, as always, it was even nicer just to spend this time together!