Flashback - The First Two Weeks Of January, 2020

We continue to wait out the coronavirus outbreak and practice smart social distancing practices. Even as the outbreak may now have reached its plateau here in New York, we know that it will be months, maybe even a full year, until life becomes normal again. Estate saling is a long way away. We will use this time to catch up on the six month period during which our blog was on hiatus. This post covers the first two weeks of 2020. 

The first weekend of the year found us with two sales on our list and that was fine. The end of the year was slow and we were anxious to go to estate sales again! The first one looked very promising so we got an early start to get an advantageous position in line!

We were at the first sale over an hour early but there were plenty of people there before us. The sale was run by a tag sale company we really like but whose sales we don't often go but only because they don't often have sales with a lot of older items. This was an exception. It looked like there were some old salt and pepper shakers here and a few Christmas things and that was enough to make this our priority sale of the day. 

Our numbers weren't awful and we did get in with the first group. 

The house had a basement and a sub basement. The basement seemed like our target and we got there first. 

Some of the salt and pepper shakers (after Rob picked the few that were of interest)

There was an upstairs to search and a living room (view from above).

A very old air conditioner in a very purple room. We didn't get anything in this room but we did find several good things in this house including some salt and pepper shakers, a few Christmas things and several other things. 

After getting some breakfast, we went to our second and final sale of the day which was run by another tag sale company very familiar to us and who have had some great sales over the years. This one was described as having "vintage furniture throughout" and we were here more to view the furniture than to buy anything.

This vintage entertainment / bar unit was amazing! It was already sold but we got a picture before it left the house. We have one of these but not exactly like this.

We also saw this amazing telephone table. We already have one so we did not buy it though we did think about it.

Check out this amazing basement bar...and the great bar stools! 

A mounted pencil sharpener in the basement is a great sign that we'll see some great things in the house which we did even if we didn't bring much home. At the sale, we found a few magazines and a few pamphlets but we had a great time looking at the furniture. 

When we went home, we had a chance to see what we found at the day's sales and this is what we found:

A record

Some pamphlets

Two issues of Sports Illustrated

A vintage dress for Monica

A chalkware fish and a container of vintage food picks

A set of artist palette snack dishes / ash trays

A vintage ceramic turkey tray and a vintage guitar shaped Niagara Falls room thermometer (marked Japan) in its box

Some vintage salt and pepper shakers and a pair of anthropomorphic tomato condiment dishes. Those monkeys are marked "Occupied Japan".

A vintage metal kitchen scale, a heavy metal pterodactyl, a vintage ceramic fish ash tray and a pair of squirrels (marked Japan)

A few vintage Christmas things

We did pretty well during that first weekend in January and the second week looked promising as well. There were sales on our list for both Saturday and Sunday so we had a full weekend of saling. 

Our first sale of the day was a bit of a mystery. It was listed as an estate sale but it definitely seemed to be private. There were only a few pictures of the things inside but one, in particular, caught our attention. It was a table filled with Christmas things and most appeared to be vintage. We figured that we better get there early in order to have a chance at the stuff on that table. The sale began at 10am. We were there at 7:30am. 

No one else was here. We were the first. We quickly made some numbers so we could hand them out as other salers arrived. Of course, # 1 and #2 would be us. At 10am, when the sale began, we were still the only ones there! That table would be ours to pick through! 

Everything was ours to choose. A little over half of what you see was vintage and at 25 cents apiece, we took everything that was vintage. Most of what we got here was Christmas but we also found a great vintage vase and that came home with us too! 

After getting some breakfast, we went to our second sale which was close to home and didn't look like much but it did have some tiki mugs in the pictures. Those tiki mugs and a few tiki party picks were all we found here. Nothing was vintage but they were cheap and we figured they would be great for future parties and so they came home with us. 

Our sale on Sunday was run by one of our favorite tag sale companies. We go to most of their sales (at least the ones that fall on the weekends) because we always find something of interest. This was described as the "entire contents of home of a woman whose husband was an airline pilot who brought very strange and interesting things from around the world". We would see.

Another view of the home and the line of people there before us. There weren't many. 

In fact, there were only five people ahead of us. We knew we would be inside as soon as the doors opened.

Our host was just about ready for the fun to start! 

The kitchen was older and the cabinets were made of actual wood.

The old refrigerator in the basement was cool! 

There was some Christmas stuff in the basement but most of it was newer. 

There were lots of things in the curio cabinet but most of it was new too. We did find a couple of Christmas things and a few more things. 

On our way home, we took little Spizz for a visit to Mario Spizzeria. Oh, it may look like Mario's Pizzeria but we knew it was really Mario Spizzeria! 

Since it was unusually warm for January, we went to All American Drive In for dinner. It has been around since 1963 and we go here several times per year. The burgers, fries and shakes are perfect! 

It was a busy weekend but we did make a little time to sit down and see what we found this weekend and here is what we saw:

A vintage Pin the Nose on the Clown game and an autographed picture of Dean Martin. The frame in which the picture sits is scratched but the picture is in great shape!

Two vintage New Year's Eve noisemakers, a vintage Shawnee vase and a ceramic girl bell (marked Japan)

 Vintage wooden shoes

New tiki things for a future party

An old wooden Santa made from a kit and painted. We will have to repaint his left foot

Lots of vintage Christmas (all are marked Japan)

More vintage Christmas. Everything is marked Japan except the blow mold carolers and the large sputnik ornament. 

It was a great two weeks of saling and a great start to the new year together! We'll be back soon!