A Few Random Flea Market Finds

My old college roommate came for a visit last weekend, and since she's not a vintage lover, we didn't get the chance to go out and do any shopping. Well, we did swing by a Goodwill to rent a carpet shampooer and I did grab a Pyrex dish, but it was such a bad, bad, bad experience that I think I might share what happened for a later post. Instead, I'll post about some quick flea market finds I snagged at the I-23 Flea Market a few weeks ago.

 
Though I absolutely despise onions, I love French onion soup. The only problem is that I like it the real way, where you cook the onions down for hours and bake the soup in the oven with cheese and croutons. I found two of these Capri Bake 'n Store dishes for $1 each from a dealer going out of business. The funny thing is that I almost bought a set of small bean pots (not vintage) at another flea market a few weeks later because I forgot I bought these. I can't believe I'm the only one who does that LOL.

 

These two Fire King dishes came from another inside dealer. It was two women who had so much crap laying around that I almost walked right by. One charged me $1 for the largest and then threw in the smaller one. Sadly, when I was trying to organize all my Pyrex and bakeware last week, I discovered a big chip in the largest casserole. I don't think it was there when I bought it, so I probably did it myself.

This is quite possibly the worst picture ever taken of my front porch. The shelf is probably as close as I'll ever get to a rolling cart. The prices around here for one are just out of control. That one came from a thrift store like two years ago. My ex and I picked it up for $2 and went to pay. While standing in front of the cashier, he pulled the tag off and handed it to her to make things easier. If he didn't hand her the tag, he would have had to do some crazy gymnastics to get the edge to her (the aisles are super small). Even though she saw him do it, she flipped out and lectured us on how you never, ever take off the tags and how she's not even supposed to sell it to us now. She even called over a manager to tell us the same damn thing. Since it was the only thing I planned to buy, I offered to just put it back and leave. Suddenly, it was okay and they let us buy it.


The stepladder came from the aforementioned I-23 Flea Market. I have another older Cosco stool that I got years ago sitting in my dining room. The dealer charged me $5 for this one, and it luckily fit in the trunk of my dad's car. I have big plans to restore it, but I had big plans for the other one too and never got around to it. Sadly, my other one is that cool red color, but whoever owned it tried to paint it brown for some reason, and I'm not sure what to do.

I know newer Pyrex isn't that exciting, but this dish was only $2. We can always use more casserole dishes and faux mixing bowls, but this one ended up becoming a water dish for my cats. Hey, they have a vintage Pyrex casserole with stand as their food dish, so why not a water dish? LOL

 
Funny story about the donkey. I was literally just saying in the car that I kept seeing vintage donkey planters online and really wanted one. An hour later, I came across this little guy at the flea market. He came from the same dealer who had the Pyrex, and he also cost $2. He's currently on the coffee table holding our remotes and some other miscellaneous items.


A few years ago at a completely different other sale, my dad picked up one of those vintage donkey figurines with saddlebags as the salt and pepper shakers. I wanted it, and he wanted a Coca-Cola tray I found cheap, so we traded. He then fell in love with my planter and keeps talking about it, so I either need to find him one for Christmas or give him one of mine. Decisions, decisions.


Sadly, the same dealer had a collection of holiday blow molds. They were newer ones, but he was selling them 2 for $20, and he had some adorable Christmas ones. My dad's trunk is big but not that big, so they had to stay behind.


Hopefully the rain finally passes through southwestern Ohio this weekend so I can hit some yard sales and maybe do a flea market. If so, you can bet I'll be back to post some recent finds!

World's Longest Yard Sale Finds

I had a tooth taken out this week, and since I couldn't do any work-work, I thought it was the perfect time to finally post my finds from the World's Longest Yard Sale last weekend. Our first stop was at a sale miles before the real one started. The woman worked at a daycare center and put out a lot of their stuff. 

 
Everything here was $1 a piece. The Fisher Price school is just like the one I had when I was a kid, except mine had a missing door. The shelf is already hanging in our bathroom, and the vase was a roommate pick. The lady actually giggled and said she wasn't even going to put it out because she didn't think anyone would buy it, but he loved the colors.

 
I'm always on the lookout for vintage Tupperware, and both these pieces came from a sale at a church. It was part church sale/part flea market with individual vendors set up, and both came from one of those vendors. The funny thing is that my mom sold Tupperware back in the day, and when I came walking back to the car she said, "how much did you have to pay for the ham keeper?" Yeah, I had no clue what the biggest one was. I just knew it was big and we needed some big containers. The ham keeper was $3 (I think, or $3.50) and the pie holder was $2.50. The base snaps off, which makes it super easy to store!

 
Two more pans for my collection! The woman was closing up for the day and had these priced at $5 each early in the day. By the time we got there, she let me have them both for $1.

 
All four of these came from the same sale. The Pyrex custard cups are newer but will let me feel better about displaying my older ones, and all four were $3. The pink aluminum creamer and sugar dish were 50 cents, and the crock pot (which my roommate bought) was $3. I saw one of these mushroom dishes in a thrift store and couldn't find a maker's mark. Turns out that it was made by Corning. I'll have to swing by the thrift and see if the others are still there! There's something about the 70s colors that I love.

 
Can you tell my roommate loves Mickey Mouse? I think he paid 50 cents for the book, and I know the plastic lunchbox was $5 and has its original thermos and the metal one was $10. Funny thing is that I collect lunchboxes and the lady with the plastic one also had a Voltron one that I loved. She wanted $15 for it, and it didn't even have its thermos!

 
The Shiny Brites at the top are the same one the woman wanted $5 for, which I thought was too high. Her husband offered them to me for $3, and she whined and complained that it was too low for something that old and that the box was worth more than that. We could still hear her snapping at him when we left. The Corning meat platter/dish thing was $5, but I never, ever see this with the metal piece still on it.


I'm not sure who makes the white mixing bowl. It's not Pyrex, but it does go with a mixer and came with the smaller bowl for $4, which my roommate couldn't resist. I have a similar one that I use as a water dish for my menagerie, and he still gets upset when he sees it on the floor. I collect the Spring Blossom pattern, so there was no way I was leaving behind this little creamer for 50 cents. The green chip and dip set was another roommate buy. We keep seeing them in thrift stores, but they're always missing one piece or another. He got all three pieces for $5.

I also picked up three vintage board games with all the pieces. The Alvin and the Chipmunks game at the top is from the 80s and was 50 cents. The other two were on a table at a big parking lot sale with no one around. We kept checking back and no one was ever there. We checked one last time before leaving and the seller was finally back in his booth. He said the games were $6 each, I asked if he'd take $10 for two, and he grumbled a bit before agreeing. The Popomatic Alvin and the Chipmunks game is all mine (big surprise!), and the other is for the roommate. I wish now that I had grabbed his Miami Vice game too!

 

I bought the Corning piece for $2 because it's small but super deep, which will make it great for dips. The Tupper Silent Partner poker chips were $1 and are the most amazing shade of pink, which just so happens to be my favorite color! I snagged these three magazines from the 70s/80s to look at the ads off of a free table. And I have two funny stories about the others.


Literally an hour after my roommate got his chip and dip set, we came across this one. It came with the large bowl, four smaller matching bowls, and a bracket for $3, so you know it came home with me. Sadly, the silver flaked off all over our hands, so I'm not sure I'll actually use it. As for the pink Three Way Dispenser, I pointed it out to my roommate. He bent down to look at it, saw a $7 tag on it, and was deciding what to do. The seller said he'd take $2 for it. Before the roomie could even stand up, I had my money out and was paying for it. He claims it should be his because it was in his hands, I say not only did he snooze and loose but that I'm the one with a pink kitchen LOL.

 
A vintage hamper has been on my wishlist forever. This one was only $10 and is in almost perfect condition. It literally looks like no one ever used it. Plus, it's a Redman! It took up way too much space in the car, especially since I bought it at an early stop, but I love it oh so much. We came across another one later on for $3, but it was a fairly ugly shade of blue and the inside was pretty disgusting. 

 
And of course I had to find some Pyrex. A dealer had two sets of the bowls priced at $15 for each set. I wandered around for a bit, came back, and asked if he'd take less. He said yes and then just stared at me for 30 to 60 seconds before finally saying $12. The roommate really hates the pattern and kept calling them ugly, but I kind of like it. I also found the opal Pyrex at a barn sale for $2! The dealer had Fire King and Glasbake stuff priced higher than that.

 
This was probably the find of the day. My roommate started collecting this pattern after finding a few pieces for $5 each at a thrift store. The dealer had the top two smaller dishes priced at $5 for the set and one of the larger dishes for $5, so it was $10 for three pieces. When he went to pay, my dad popped up and, ever the flea market guy, asked for a discount. The dealer dropped the price to $8 and threw in the dish on the bottom. He ended up getting four pieces of Fire King Candle Glow for $8! I'm a little jealous that I can't find such great deals on Spring Blossom!

Observations from the World's Longest Yard Sale

This was my first year doing the 127 yard sales, but it definitely won't be my last. Between my dad, my roommate, and myself, we ended up filling the trunk of the car and pretty much had to cram in some small stuff between us in the backseat. I think we may need a much larger car next year! We left Dayton at 8 am, stopped at a small yard sale in Eaton, and got on 127 around 9 am. We made it just past Greenville by 5 when we turned around to come back, which was just over 40 miles. That's insane! While I don't yet have any pictures of my finds, I thought I would post a few quick observations.


(1) Someone(s) definitely got the message about Pyrex being a hot seller! The first booth I found with Pyrex had antique mall prices, which wasn't surprising given that the seller left her tags on her bowls. The cheapest thing in her set up was a divided dish with its lid for $18. The same seller had a set of Fire King mixing bowls that the roommate loved but not for $55. Despite that, I did pick up a few finds. I found a smaller opal casserole with lid for $2!! I also snagged a set of mixing bowls for $12.


(2) Barn sales were usually the worst. There's something about this route that seems to make anyone with a barn think they're a secret antique dealer. One sale had antique furniture marked anywhere from $200 to $1,000+. Did I mention that those "dealers" left things uncovered in the barn, or even worse, just sitting outside? There was so much damage to that stuff that I just had to walk away.


(3) "We had more stuff yesterday" seemed to be the mantra of several off the beaten path stops. One lady had a ton of overpriced "collectibles" and kitchen stuff. Stuff like $10 for a worn down pair of shoes and $15 for a newer Halloween figurine. She said everything was half off and that she had a lot more yesterday but sold a lot. Another vendor said he sold so much on Friday that he had to go gather some more stuff for Saturday. Yes, I'm sure that your crappy stuff sold out while people with cool stuff didn't.


(4) Old=expensive. While on the hunt for some cheap mouthwash, we wandered through a setup of sellers and found a woman selling mouthwash, toothpaste, shampoo, razors, etc. She also had a table of older stuff with a box of Shiny Brites sitting out. When asked how much, she said she wasn't sure. She wanted "to look things up" and "ask some other dealers" before pricing it. She suggested $5, I said it was too much, and her husband popped up, handed me the box, and said $3. When I said I would take them, she flipped out about how "those are old" and "the box is worth more than that," which led me to point out that the plastic was damaged on the box. While she kept moaning and crying about selling the box so low, her husband took my money and grabbed me a bag.


(5) Where were the bake sales? We spent 7+ hours on the road and only came across one bake sale, which was run by cheerleaders and severely lacking in the brownie department. Everything they had looked like something bought in the store. Found another sale advertising baked goods, but all they had left were two pies: blueberry and peanut butter pie. The roommate loves peanut butter pies but balked at the price. They wanted $2.75 for a single small, tiny, oh so tiny slice. I don't care if those pies are homemade, that's insane!


(6) I learned (again) that I need to buy something on the spot. I still regret walking away from a green Pyrex serving dish for $5 and the electronic football and basketball games from the 60s that were priced at $10 a piece and came with all the parts and pieces.


(7) I need a much larger car or truck for next year! My dad bought a very large picture at one of our first stops, and I picked up a hamper at another sale. While we did manage to stuff the hamper full, those two pieces took up quite a bit of space. I saw so much stuff that I wanted to buy, including a mid-century modern bookcase for $10 and a set of three mid-century modern wood living room chairs for $5 each! There was just no room in the car.


(8) Prices were all across the board. At one field sale, a woman had a few tables filled with miscellaneous junk. Most of it was kids' stuff, but she did have one stand ashtray for sale. I had one years ago that got lost during a move and have been looking for a replacement. It wasn't the best or in the best condition, but I figured I could use it as a temporary solution. As soon as I asked, she said, "oh, he said that's really old so the lowest I could go is $25." For a metal ashtray stand missing its ashtray with pitting along the base and some serious rust issues? No thank you.


(9) Field sales are dangerous! We were walking through a field/barn sale, came around the side of a barn, and my dad almost went down hard. There was a huge hole probably 16 inches deep right next to a sale. As it was covered in grass, there was no way to see it. If the roommate hadn't been there to grab him, he would have gone down.


All in all, we had a lot of fun and were seriously tired by the end. I'll save my pictures for a future update. Until then, I'll leave you with a shot of this little Fire King bowl I picked up for $1.50 at an antique mall recently. Even though I "don't collect Fire King," I have a hard time leaving behind anything in this pattern!

Flea Market Finds!

I posted the other day that I went to the flea market where my parents have a booth last weekend. They actually have two, and it's funny because I found some of my stuff there that I left at their house when I moved out the last time. Not sure anyone wants to buy my old Fear Street book, my NASCAR pint glass, or the textbook from grad school, but go for it.


I haven't been there in a few years, but it's a pretty nice flea market. There's a guy selling vintage posters and movie memorabilia, and if he still has it the next time I swing by, that Giant lobby card is coming home with me! What can I say? I'm a gal who loves her James Dean.


There were a number of dealers selling new stuff, especially food and pet stuff. I managed to get a few bags of in-date dog treats for my hound and some new toys for her too. She had a bad habit of ripping apart dog toys in a fast period of time, but these have lasted her nearly a week. I also got for me:

I know these noodles are so bad for me, but they're the perfect thing when I was something fast and yummy. Plus at 69 cents a box, it's cheaper than the store. The summer sausage was 2 for $5. I like to keep it sliced up in the fridge with a bag of sharp cheddar next to it for snacks.


One of the sellers had a bunch of toys, and I managed to find a few vintage goodies.

 
The top picture is one of the Rainbow Brite Sprites. She had all of the larger ones for $3 each. I couldn't even get shipping for that price online! I only bought one, but I'll have to get the rest if she still has them next time. The bottom is the Rainbow Brite Puppy. Puppy Brite was $4, but it was one I didn't have but desperately wanted as a kid.


The vendors at this flea market clearly got the memo about Pyrex. I picked up a medium size bowl in an ugly pattern, saw the $10 price tag, and quickly put it back down. The cheapest mixing bowl set I saw was $35, and that seemed to be the going rate. Most of what I saw was ugly and boring patterns from the 1980s. I did find a couple of gems though.

I believe the top one is Colonial Mist. It's the medium sized casserole dish, and it was $3. The seller marked it as "miscellaneous kitchenware" on the tag. The bottom one is the Desert Dawn pie plate. It's the first piece of Desert Dawn I've ever found! It was from the same booth and had "old pie plate" on the tag. She had it marked $3 too. I really need to find a list of all the Vision Ware pieces made because the seller had tons of it for $5 or less. I started out buying the brown pieces after seeing a set at a yard sale for $150. Yes, $150. Then I started buying the purple and cranberry pieces too, but I have no clue if I have a full set or not.


It's an interesting flea market, but I'm not sure I would visit very often even if I lived there. The new stuff is abundant, and the old stuff is priced on par with my local antique mall. I need to go over once a month to stock up on dog toys, cat treats, and noodles and to check out all the cheap food LOL.

Community Yard Sales = Lots of Fun

Community yard sales have been something of a miss for me lately. It's all baby stuff, clothing, and other random junk that I don't need or want. This year was a lot better! My dad called to remind me of a community yard sale not too far away from them and asked if I wanted to go. While I didn't fill the car, we still did pretty well.


The first sale we stopped at had a lot of fresh veggies, which led to the dad buying tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and who knows what else. I don't know if it's like this everywhere, but a lot of sales around us have a lot of new stuff. This one had tons of razors, shampoo, body wash, deodorant, and other brand new things. I'm guessing it's extreme couponers trying to make some extra cash? I did buy four Glade candles from the sale because she had them marked $2, I liked the scent, and I just paid over $3 for a Glade candle in the store. I also picked up these two books for 25 cents each (sorry but they aren't my pics, I totally forgot to snap some!):

 
Danny and the Dinosaur I had as a kid, and I loved the illustrations in the other one. I also picked up a copy of Howdy Doody Meets Santa for a quarter that I had my dad take to his flea market booth. Funny story about the Baby's Christmas book! My dad asked me if I was trying to tell them something since I'm a single woman buying a baby book. I had to break the news that if I was secretly pregnant, I would be buying a lot more than just one book!


From there, we headed to the actual town with the sale. The first spot was a real honey hole. Years ago, my parents went to auctions in the building, and the people who owned it now had a big sale. Turns out that they have a booth at an antique mall, and some of their prices definitely reflected that. 

 

 

These salt and pepper shakers are the perfect shades of pink and turquoise! I took one look and fell in love. Not too crazy about paying $2 for the set at a yard sale of all places, but I can deal with it.

 

This guy is about 12 inches tall and still has his Made in Japan sticker on his butt. He was $3, which my roommate thought was about $3 too much. He really and truly hated my new little friend, but he'll probably hate him a lot more when I put him out on the mantle this year!

 
How pretty are these?? They look big, but they're actually the small ones. I paid $3 for the whole box, but I thought that was a good deal since the box is in near perfect condition. Can you believe that this is the first time that I ever bought a box of Shiny Brites? Last up is this beauty:

 
The same sale had some items inside with higher price tags attached, i.e. $15 for a jadeite plate, $35 for a Coca-Cola phone. I spotted it as soon as I walked in, but some other woman picked it up, looked at the price, snapped about it, and put it back down. The price she didn't want to pay? $6! It has some scraps, but it's the first piece of aqua Butterprint I've ever found in the wild. Funny thing is that the same woman then followed me around the shop waiting to see if I would put it down again. Nope!


My dad found some vintage Elvis magazines at the same sale for $1 and then spotted a John Lenon book inside. He asked for a price, and the woman running the sale flipped out. She started talking about how all the books inside were her reference books and not for sale. Really? It was a biography of Lenon, how is that a reference book for a reseller? It ticked me off too because she had a whole shelf of books that apparently weren't for sale and other shelves filled with merchandise for her antique mall that were unpriced and not for sale.


At another sale, I found a stack of Corelle bowls in the Spring Blossom pattern for 50 cents each. When I got home, I realized that only four had that pattern and the other four were different. Oops.

 

A few years ago, I started collecting these Wilton cake pans to hang on my kitchen wall. My roommate and ex made me an amazing Winnie the Pooh cake from one, the ex and I made my roommate a Care Bear one for his birthday, and the roommate and I made the ex a Garfield one. A few months after I started collecting, the price on these went through the roof. I've seen them priced at $10+ at some thrift stores. I got the Big Bird and the Cookie Monster cake pans for $1 each. The Cookie Monster one even had his original decorating booklet!

 

The seller said that she used them both for her daughter's first birthday party and then just forgot about them. I'm glad she decided to clean out her kitchen.

 

I also picked up this XBOX 360 set from her for $2. We absolutely loved DJ Hero, but the keys aren't in the greatest condition because I bought it used. The ex bought DJ Hero 2 for me from a flea market last year, but we misplaced the copy. Now I have a new copy and an extra controller just in case the roommate ever decides to play with me!

 

I currently own seven billion shot glasses and have no space for them, but I couldn't resist this vintage Las Vegas design for 50 cents. I have maybe a dozen or so out on display in my kitchen and two completely filled boxes of wrapped glasses. The ex and I both collected and bought a bunch whenever we took a trip together, so he just helped foster my bad habit LOL.

 

I've seen all three Chipmunks movies in the theater, had the soundtrack to the last film downloaded on my phone, and still love and watch the original cartoon. Every time I see these Ty Beanie Babies in the store, I have a hard time walking away. I got them both for $2.

 

I am a Hello Kitty nut! I have almost all the kitchen appliances: toaster, toaster oven, coffee maker, waffle iron, juicer, etc. I even have a bread box, and the complete bathroom set from the shower curtain and toilet seat cover to the toothbrush holder and soap dispenser. The same lady who had the Chipmunks had this lunchbox for $1. I had no clue they made these plastic designs in 2011.

We also made it to a few other sales that were pretty much misses. Both my dad and I bought a book from a "name your price sale". He wanted a James Patterson paperback, she told him to give her a price, he said 50 cents, and she looked super pained. If you want to set prices, set your prices! I had him had her another 50 cents for a book for me.


There was a Brownie troop selling treats that were a little expensive. Is $1 really the going rate for a piece of peanut butter fudge? It was the size of a brownie but still. They also had lemonade, and both me and the roommate got a cup. They didn't say anything when the little girl handed me a half-filled cup, but when they did the same thing to the roomie, her parents made her fill it up. I also got a delicious pulled chicken sandwich, and my dad and roomie got the biggest hot dogs I've ever seen in my life!


Our last stop was at a church sale that looked like someone with multiple personality disorder did the pricing. You'd see 5 cent mugs right next to a plate with a $5 price tag on it. They had two boxes of Shiny Brite ornaments, but they wanted $1 for each ornament. They also had a porch swing outside that was exactly like the one my parents have but in a different color. They bought theirs for $100 on sale last summer, and the church wanted $75 for one that was several years old. Really?


It was an amazingly busy day! After the sales, we drove 45 minutes to the flea market where my parents have a booth, came back, went to two different indoor flea markets, stopped by a Chinese restaurant, and swung by a thrift store. I'm looking forward to spending even more time with the pops this weekend, and I'll post some more of my finds later this week!