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!