Waiting For The Digger

This post is for the weekend of April 9-10, 2016. We'll be caught up soon! 

We're still waiting for it...the digger. This is the type of sale we like best. It's the type of sale where you spend more than an hour. It's the type of sale where you don't know what you will find even when you stand before it. A digger means sifting through piles of stuff. It means searching through multiple layers to find what lies underneath. It means searching through countless boxes. It leaves you dirty and dusty. It leaves you always wanting even more. Diggers are not for everyone but they are for us. We'll sacrifice every other sale on our list if that's what it takes to thoroughly dig through everything. We've been to a few sales this year that required digging but nothing we would actually call a digger. They will come. We'll find a few this year. We can't wait! 

We didn't expect to find any diggers on our list today but we hoped to find a few decent sales. Our list was fairly small. We had four sales with potential and we decided to start with the only one east of us. It began at 10am which meant that there was no need to get an early start. We would ease into the day and then step on the accelerator.

Sale #1 was run by a tag sale company run by a friend of ours. It was described as a digger (though we suspected that it wasn't our idea of a digger) and loaded. From the moment we got a glimpse of the house, we thought it might have potential.

We knew we were in the right place when we pulled up to the house.

We arrived on time but we were number fifty on line and we would have to wait awhile. The first fifteen were let in as we arrived.

After thirty minutes, we were let in and the saling officially began. The first room we entered was a bedroom and we discovered this old crib. Look at the cool pictures on its side! 

There was a big basement and it had a lot of things. The old chalkware to the left was cool but chipped. Rob would have picked up this Battling Tops game (it was one of his favorites as a kid) but it was too beat up.

We found a cool, old bar in the basement which Rob, thoroughly, searched. Look at the old Easy Bake Oven in front of the bar. Like the Battling Tops game, it was a little too beat up to consider.

The garage was filled with tools. The cabinet once held something. Look at the shelp it sat upon...

...turquoise boomerang!

There were so many old things inside this house including an old green bathroom. After almost an hour inside, we left with some vintage greeting cards, a penguin ashtray, an old glass, a vintage cocktail glass holder and lots more. It was a good first stop.

Sale #2 was an estate sale that listed old stuff in its description. It was worth a shot, especially since it was in the same area as the other remaining sales on our list. It was a quick stop with not too many rooms to search but we did not leave empty-handed. An old vintage fancy flashlight, a record and one book came home with us.

Sale #3 was an estate sale run by a company that runs lots of estate sales. It listed "Christmas and holiday", "records" and "vintage toys" in its description. As it turned out, the Christmas and holiday stuff was too new to interest us, the records were not that great and the vintage toys must have already left the house. We did find one old vintage Christmas card and that came home with us.

Our final sale of the day was an estate sale with a very quiet ad mentioning 50-60 year old furniture. When we were arrived, we were the only ones there aside from two relatives of the deceased who were running the sale.

There were several drawers and boxes to search downstairs including those found in the old den with knotty pine walls. We spent 45 minutes here and found some records, an old recipe file, some books and an old plastic Christmas wreath.

After visiting Monica's dad for awhile, we came home to relax after a fun day together. Here is what we found this day:

Some 12-inch records

A 7-inch record

Cookbooks

A book, pamphlets and road maps

Old decorating books and an old baby book

Vintage birthday cards

Vintage Valentine's Day cards

Miscellaneous vintage cards

A vintage cocktail glass holder. The vintage glass ice bucket is something we already had but we placed it in this picture to show where you would keep the ice bucket.

A pair of vintage eyeglasses with holder for Sharon (Our mannequin), a penguin ashtray (marked Japan) and a vintage fancy flashlight for Monica.

A metal recipe file from the 1960's, a ceramic poodle marked Japan (that is from the exact same set as the three we found the week before) and a Thicka Shake glass from Sealtest in the 1950's. 

A large vintage Christmas card and an old plastic Christmas wreath.

As always, it was a fun weekend spent together and that is what always counts the most. The weekends together go by way too quickly and Mondays come around way too soon! Next week was our next three day weekend as we both took vacation days on Friday to start Monica's birthday weekend early. We'll tell that story next time! 

April Begins!

As you can gather from the title of this post, we are a little behind on our blogging but we're catching up and will be up to date soon! 

April has arrived! Warmer weather is coming! The days are getting longer! And this month, we should start seeing garage sales. This is good. It gives us lots of choices. Some weeks, the list of potential sales has been very small. Garage sales will help us fill the gaps on those slow days. As it turned out, we had no shortage of potential sales for this week. After compiling our list, we had eight sales in our sights. We didn't know if we could make them all but we would try. None looked spectacular so we set up our route to give us the best chance to make them all. We woke up fairly early on Saturday, showered, got dressed and got out the door early. 

Our first sale began at 8am and was in our town. We got there just after it opened. The sale was described as a "last minute move" and "full house and basement". It was worth a shot. The sale was run by a small tag sale company who we have run into on a few occasions. The house was a mixture of old and new stuff and the house and basement were, as advertised pretty full. We spent about 45 minutes here going through many boxes and many rooms. We left with a "Little Roquefort" hand puppet from 1960, an old pennant and some books. It was a good start.

Our second sale was about ten minutes from home and was advertised as "100 years" of stuff. It wasn't identified as being run by a tag sale company but we wondered if it might be. It didn't take us long to find out. When we walked in, we saw that it was run by a guy that used to work for a tag sale company and has been running his own for about a year now. We love his sales because he seems to take on good ones and he gives us great prices. 

The basement was pretty packed and it was manned by another guy who used to work for the same tag sale company that our host left. We spend a considerable amount of time down here. There were lots of boxes to search! 

We found a mounted pencil sharpener along the basement staircase. That was a very good sign! 

One of the bathrooms was partially pink and partially green and definitely old! 

The other old bathroom in the house was primarily turquoise. We love seeing old bathrooms that have not been ruined by time. 

It was a fun house to search and we spent a lot of time here. Making all of our planned stops was very much in doubt now but we would rather take our time where we know there is potential. When we left, we took a vintage "snack" glass, a tiki mug, a vintage carafe, some vintage Christmas cards and a few other things with us.

After stopping for a quick breakfast, we made our way to our third sale of the day. We weren't expecting too much. It was run by a tag sale company that we visit a lot but the ad didn't say too much. A few of the pictures, supporting the ad, showed the potential for old contents but there was nothing specifically that drew us here. 

 There was an old basement and, in that basement, we found a mounted pencil sharpener. This is normally a good sign but, having been halfway through the house already without finding anything, we didn't get our hopes up.

Inside a small sectioned off room in the basement was this old piece of counter top. Alas, the remainder of the counter was nowhere in sight nor was anything we wanted. We did manage to find one record so it wasn't a total loss. We would visit this company's other sale a little later in the day. On to the next sale.

Sale #4 was about twenty minutes to the north of the previous sale and we were optimistic about this one. It was run by a tag sale company that we like a lot and it was described as a "loaded estate sale".

There was a basement and...Elvis was in the building! 

The basement was cluttered (that is good!) and it had this cool, old television.

Upstairs, Rob found a giant rat head. It did not come home with us.

Monica found viking horns and a bust of The Incredible Hulk. They did not come home with us either. What did come home with us were several records, Tupperware glasses and some old Christmas things.

Our next sale was the second sale run by the tag sale company that ran the third sale. This sale was an even quicker stop than their other sale. Almost everything was new and there were very few rooms to search. We left with an old ceramic pineapple.

Stop #6 was even quicker than the previous stop. We arrived to find a sign on the garage that the sale was postponed one day due to the weather. It had been raining earlier in the day. It turned out to be a garage sale.

Our seventh and final sale (we didn't have time for the remaining sale on our list) was in Monica's hometown which is where we like to end our Saturday saling. We like to visit Monica's dad for awhile on Saturdays. The sale was run by a tag sale company we know and was described as "overloaded" with "collectibles". There were many rooms to search and we took our time. It was not a wasted trip. We found an old herringbone cape for Monica, some old ceramic poodles, cat salt and pepper shakers and a record.

After visiting Monica's dad for awhile, we went home to relax and look at what we found. This is what we saw:

Some records

Some Chubby Checker records

Books and booklets

Books and an old travel map

The two sides of a postcard from an old service station.

A vintage houndstooth cape for Monica

A "Little Roquefort" hand puppet from 1960 and an old felt pennant

An old ceramic pineapple glass from New China Inn (long gone), a giant vintage "snack" cocktail glass, a pair of vintage cat salt and pepper shakers, a vintage carafe, a set of three ceramic poodles (marked Japan), some old Tupperware glasses and a tiki mug. 

Vintage Christmas cards

A Christmas record, a pair of ceramic Christmas head mugs and some elves. Everything, except the record, is marked Japan. 

We spent Sunday doing our usual housework, chores and errands but found time to relax together, too. We love our Saturdays adventuring together. It is one great part of a life we love spending together.