Saturday was the last day in September and there were very few signs that autumn was upon us (other than on the store shelves where pumpkin spice everything was now available for a "limited time"). We saw temperatures reach a daily high of at least 80 degrees on twelve occasions and it was humid on every one of those days. We were holding onto summer for as long as we could. It was the last weekend of September. It was the last weekend of baseball's regular season. Summer's sport. America's pastime.
We would begin our Saturday with saling as usual. The temperature was a little cooler now and maybe autumn was just around the corner. We had five potential sales on our list and they were spread out. After repeatedly looking over the details of each sale and the pictures associated with them, we decided on our route for the day and hoped to make as many sales as we could.
It was busy everywhere in the house and the employees had their hands full.
Ron, the tag sale company's owner, posing by the old toys.
The basement had this very old circus-themed toy chest that had the wear of fifty plus years upon it.
Inside the trunk was this label identifying the maker of the toy chest.
The main floor had this great old bathroom which probably has seen little change since the house was built in 1955.
A great pink sink surrounded by...we know you see it.
Boomerang!
And now for the story of the baseball cards. About ten minutes after getting inside, when we found the small room in the basement with the Christmas things, the owner of the tag sale company found Rob and was thrilled that he had gotten to this room first. Rob mentioned that the biggest draw for him was the picture of the 1968 baseball cards but that he knew he would never get them. Ron said he didn't think that they were sold yet and that they were asking $200 for the lot. Rob said he was interested and Ron took him to them. Unfortunately, a dealer was already looking at them when they got there. He was trying to talk down the company to get a lower price though Rob knew that he had no actual love for these cards. He was just looking to make a bigger profit when he unloaded them.
Ron told his employee, who was showing the cards, that Rob was interested. In an effort to help the tag sale company, Rob said he was interested in the cards at $200 if the dealer chose not to take them. The dealer stopped his haggling and paid the $200 immediately. In less than five minutes after paying for the cards, the dealer walked out to the sidewalk in front of the house and proceeded to sell these cards for $420 right in front of the tag sale employees!
Everyone has the right to make a profit but it should not have done in front of the tag sale company and certainly not after trying to talk them down from $200. We've seen this dealer before. He lacks class and he proved it once again.
Everyone has the right to make a profit but it should not have done in front of the tag sale company and certainly not after trying to talk them down from $200. We've seen this dealer before. He lacks class and he proved it once again.
On the bright side, we found a lot of great things. We went home with some records, some books, a vintage birthday tray, some vintage bar items, a 1960's Banana Splits thermos, some Christmas things and even some empty bins for storage.
Although disappointed, we had this guy with us the rest of the way to console Rob.
Our second sale was about 45 minutes from the first sale and was also run by a tag sale company that is one of our favorites. It was listed as a "basement digger" with trains from the 40's through '60's, baseball cards from the '40's and '50's and baseball programs from the '40's and '50's among those items listed. The baseball cards and baseball programs caught Rob's attention.
This is the sale's picture of the cards which we knew we would never see when we arrived. That was okay. Rob was more interested in seeing if any of the old baseball programs remained.
The den was old and, to the left, there were bookshelves with lots of books, mainly about trains and baseball. Rob found several books on baseball that interested him.
The basement was big and there were lots of things down there including this mounted pencil sharpener. That's always a good sign.
The upstairs had a bedroom with so many toys that we remembered from our childhood.
As for the baseballs cards, they were long gone before we arrived. As for the programs, there were several left and Rob brought home two 1948 Brooklyn Dodgers programs and one 1949 New York Giants program. We also took home lots of baseball books and one Christmas thing.
Our last sale of the day was in our town and that was its primary draw for us. It was listed as a "digger's delight" with antiques but there were no pictures to support its claim. As it turned out, there was all that much for us here though we did find a couple of records and some Christmas things to bring home.
More often than not, we limit our saling to Saturday but we had one sale planned for Sunday. The tag sale company that ran our second sale on Saturday was having another on Sunday so we made plans to go. After a relaxing Saturday night together, we knew how our Sunday would begin.
Sunday's sale was simply described as "great vintage items" with a house, basement and garage to search.
The dining room table had the famous cranberry set upon it. Monica had this same set in her house as a kid. Over the years, we have bought two of these, one for us and one for Monica's sister. We did not need another today.
Some day, we will bring home a deer like this. Today was not that day.
This bar was really cool (as was the floor). We imagine that many great basement parties took place in the 1960's in this very spot.
We really liked this red kitchen table. The legs were great!
This was the perfect spot to play pool during those basement parties.
It was a cool house and we enjoyed the visit. We did not leave empty-handed either. A vintage barbecue tray, a hula girl, some records, Thanksgiving place cards, a hat for Monica, a vintage recipe box and more came home with us.
This is what we found during our saling adventures:
A 7-inch record by The Monkees
Some 7-inch Christmas records
Some 12-inch records
12-inch Christmas records
Some 1960's Panorama nature books
How and Why books
"Space" books
Cookbooks
More books
Baseball books
Some more baseball books
More baseball books
A few more baseball books
Two more baseball books
Even more baseball books
Two 1948 Brooklyn Dodgers programs and one 1949 New York Giants program
A 1965 Yogi Berra card. This was a surprise. Rob missed out on the baseball cards at the other two sales but this one was found inside one of the baseball books when we got home!
A flowery vintage hat for Monica
A vintage musical birthday cake stand, a hula girl (made in Japan), a Banana Splits thermos from the 1960's and an old metal recipe box. Monica had the same birthday cake stand in her house when she was a kid. As a matter of fact, we have it. It doesn't hurt to have a second one!
Two old unopened package of Thanksgiving place cards and an old Easter cake topper.
A vintage barbecue tray
A large and a small vintage hardstock Knickerbocker coaster and a metal Knickerbocker Beer tray.
Vintage Halloween things
Three old Christmas blow molds
More vintage Christmas things
Our new four and a half foot Santa
Sunday was not the end of our weekend because we took a vacation day on Monday. We had concert tickets for Sunday night and we took Monica's brother, Richard, with us.
Paul Weller was playing thirty minutes from our house. Who's Paul Weller, you ask?
Paul Weller (pictured on the left) was the frontman of The Jam, a punk/mod revivalist band from 1977-1982, which was very popular in England but not known within the mainstream of these shores. He later formed The Style Council before becoming a solo artist. Rob saw The Jam back in 1982 but had not seen Paul Weller since. Monica saw Paul Weller solo once. Monica's brother, Richard, saw Paul Weller as a solo act many times.
He did not disappoint the crowd. Including his two encores, he played for two hours and fifteen minutes and sounded great. It was a really great show. Of course, we did not get home until nearly midnight so taking a vacation day on Monday was a really smart idea and, as it turned out, that nasty cold that Rob was getting set in on Monday. The day of rest was needed.
There were a few other things that we took home over the weekend. On Sunday, we visited Monica's dad and he is looking to clean the attic and basement and his plan to do so is to give us boxes of things to look through and either keep or toss. He sent us home with five boxes (one of which is completely filled with vintage greeting cards). We have not had a chance to look through it yet but it will be a fun task when time allows (which will be soon since Rob's cold has ended as of this writing).
Another week of work awaited us but it would be an abbreviated one since we were off on Monday. We would get through it. It was just a necessary part of our life together and our adventures amongst the ducks.
I was very angry about the baseball card guy. I wanted to give him a big kick...until I read that Rob found a wonderful baseball card in one of the books he purchased. Talk about Karma! Giant Santa was looking out for you guys. LOL
ReplyDeleteThanks, Granny Annie! We like a lot of the people we regularly run into at estate sales, most of which are dealers, although many are rivals for what we want. A few know what we like and avoid competing with us because they know we are collectors and not sellers and they respect that. We have seen the guy who sold the baseball cards many times before and he is not respected by anyone. It would have been nice to get those baseball cards but it was not in the cards (see what I did there?). The Yogi Berra card was a fun one to have and I think you are right...karma! (Rob)
DeleteI am so glad to see your post and have been thinking of you and wondering how you are both doing. I absolutely love all the vintage items!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Linda! We had to take a brief break as I recovered from my cold and Monica took up a lot of the slack. We will be catching up on your wonderful posts tomorrow! (Rob)
Delete