Flashback - The Second Week Of December, 2019

Staying indoors still remains what the smart kids are doing now and it is the best way to beat the Coronavirus epidemic. Estate sales are out for the immediate future. This continues to be an opportunity to share our adventures from the six month period when our blog was on temporary hiatus. This post will recap the second week of December, 2019.

The second week in December brought us another three day weekend as we looked to use our remaining vacation days. Friday became the start of our weekend. We had one sale on our radar for Friday and there was every possibility that it would be a good one. We got up early and set our course for the 35 minute drive to our destination. 

This first sale was listed having vintage toys, books and magazines amongst the items up for grabs. There was aso a few Christmas items in the pictures supporting the ad. The sale was run by a well followed tag sale company whose sales we have gone to for years.

Although we were here an hour early and it was a Friday, we were nowhere near the front of the line.

This was a little disappointing because Rob was interested in these old science fiction magazines that were in the ad's photos.

With these two numbers belonging to us, there was little chance of seeing those magazines.

Once we got inside, we knew there would be plenty of places to search.

This would have been pretty cool if the vintage party grill was in this box.

What do we have here? 

It was  Red Ryder BB gun! We did not buy it. We did not want Rob to shoot his eye out! 

The basement was the place to be. There were books and magazines galore. There were even a few science fiction magazines down here but the only ones left behind were the newer ones. We even saw a box of old Famous Monsters of Filmland magazines go past us. Rob would have jumped at the chance to buy them. He loved this magazine as a kid and still has some but he always dreams of finding them. It would not be today. 

 The basement was really popular! 

We took our time here and searched through everything that was left and it was worth the search. We left with several records, some magazines and books, a few Christmas things and a little more. It was a fun sale! 

On Saturday, we had one sale, too, and it was being run by one of our favorite estate sale companies. It was the "packed house of famous artist Peter Saari". It didn't look like the greatest of sales but there was a few old things in the pictures and so we went. We didn't rush and we were about 25 people deep in the line. The wait was not all that long. 

The upstairs had once held some board games that would have been of interest to us but the good ones were already snatched up by the time we got to this room. 

The shelves had to be checked too! 

A mounted pencil sharpener! Now we knew we would find something! 

The kitchen was old and the stove had a shiny backsplash and a fan behind it. 

Our host was having a good time.

There were lots of military items for military collectors.

There were toy military items too. These items were not for us but we did find some records and a few other things so we did not leave empty-handed. 

We had lots of time to visit Monica's dad as we were in his general area. We go to his house to visit almost every Saturday. Around the corner was this house which was featured on The Great Christmas Light Fight; a seasonal television series where homes compete for a $50,000 prize for the best decorated house. This house is a blow mold explosion! 

A second view of the blow mold house

We spent a good amount of time at Monica's childhood home and, as he wishes to do some weeks, he enlisted us to go through some things and take them home for us. Pictures to follow.

We had plenty of time on Sunday to look at our new stuff. Here is what we got at the sales:

Some record albums

Some seven inch records

More seven inch records

Two ten inch records

Seven inch Christmas records

Two cut out promo records. One is a Mouseketeer record (from Wheaties in 1956) and the other was a giveaway from Count Chocula, Franken Berry and Boo Berry (from 1979)

Some vintage magazines

A vintage stamp album and two paperback books

A vintage pennant 

A Snoopy "walker" toy from the 1970's

The Dating Game board game

Two Christmas carol books (1944 and 1938 respectively)

A vintage Christmas merchandise catalog

Two of the pages in the catalog. The 30 inch "Illuminated Standing Santa Claus" (top right on the first page was selling for $4.25. The 16 inch x 15 inch "Santa Face wall decoration (middle left on the second page) was selling for $1.45 for two dozen! The prices are in the back of the catalog. 

Another page from the catalog. That plastic Santa came in three inch, four inch and five inch versions but the five inch version is out of stock. The other two versions could be yours for 80 cents per dozen. Those plastic reindeer were also available for 80 cents per dozen. 

More Christmas stuff. Three plastic reindeer, one ornament with a plastic reindeer inside of it and four Barclay cast iron figures.

As we mentioned, we also brought home some things from Monica's dad and here they are:

Vintage New Year's noisemakers

A Noma Christmas tree star. This is the box...

...and this is the star. It was the one on top of Monica's family Christmas tree when she was a child. 

A Shiny Brite ornament box

The yule log that held Christmas candles when Monica was a kid

Vintage Christmas bulbs

Porcelain Christmas dolls

Santa's candy wagon with its reindeer

A plastic Santa

A small blow mold snowman

A small blow mold Santa

Two vintage ceramic Christmas trees

A creepy Santa

We added lots of Christmas stuff that weekend and it was a perfect time in keeping with the spirit of the season. We got our Christmas cards made (we took the picture the prior weekend) and we prepared them for the mail. It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas!