Since I actually cleaned out my car
last weekend, I thought now would be a good time to post the rest of
my finds at that epic mid-century modern/atomic yard sale.
I grabbed this pink album case for $2 right when I was about to leave. It was probably the thing I was most excited about, but my roommate didn't have any clue what it was. I don't have a ton of records, but at least now I can get them out of that old milk crate :)
This is the nifty melamine ashtray that I mentioned before. It probably isn't worth the $2 I paid for it, but I like the look of it.
I see these Trick of Treat blow molds all the time online, and I see them selling for $12+ plus shipping online. I paid $3, but when I was taking it out my car, I saw that someone sold it at a yard sale for 75 cents and my seller paid 59 cents for it at Goodwill. I don't care that he made some money on it, and since I have a ton of real black cats, this one is staying here.
Blue Heaven! I bought this for $3 before I found the other bowls and pieces the next day at his sale. I now have this cake plate, a bunch of berry bowls, and a bunch of coup bowls, and my roommate has the matching juice glasses. I hope I can find more!
Speaking of the roommate, this is his awesome bullet lamp that he got for $3. The funny thing is that he has so many lamps that I'm actually using one of his in my room and that was before he bought two at this sale. The seller warned him that it needs to be rewired so it's currently sitting in the garage on top of the MCM desk that I got for free at a sale last year.
I don't necessarily collect ET stuff but I don't leave it behind either. It was the first movie I saw in the theater, and it created a special bond between me and my dad. He bought me the very expensive limited edition boxed set of the movie with the book and soundtrack a few years ago, and I bought a lot of stuff when they rereleased the film. I also have the card game that came out around the same time thanks to a gift from the ex.
If ET is me and my dad's thing, Holly Hobbie is me and my mom's thing. She bought me the Holly Hobbie doll cradle when I was a kid. I used the hell out of that thing, and I still have it. This game was only 50 cents, and the ET game was a buck.
I love this pattern! And unlike a lot of the pieces that I buy, I don't mind sticking these in the cabinet for every day use. They look a little like the pieces that Target sells in the summer, but these are Texas Ware melamine dishes probably from the 60s. I got four plates for 50 cents each.
I'm obsessed with the confetti ware look, but I can't really afford the prices found around here on the bowls. For $1, I'll settle for this ashtray.
I've been looking for one of these sets for so long that I grabbed this without really looking at it. Once I got home, I realized that it's probably missing something from the top and it looks like the salt and pepper shakers don't match. The salt is solid without any lettering like the pepper has. This set was only $3 though and the only other set I've seen was $15 plus tax.
This was probably my favorite find of the entire sale. It's a blow mold bank! It was sitting right next to the guy's table with a $1 price tag on it. I decided to throw it in my stash, and he told me to just take it. Here's the bottom:
It's marked A.J. Renzi Corp. out of Massachusetts. This site has some great information on the company and the blow molds they made. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for the black and orange cats and the My Little Pony blow molds!
This was one of the best yard sales I've been to in my entire life. He had so much more stuff that I've seriously thought about getting in touch with him to ask about picking his garage again :)
I probably shouldn't have used the
exclamation point, because the rummage sales this weekend were far
from exciting. The roommate now works third shift, so I figured he
wouldn't be in the mood to hit a church sale with me yesterday. We'd
never gone to that one, but they had tons of ads on Craigslist, so I
thought it might be fun.
The parking lot was ridiculously
full, but I have no clue what people were buying. The first room was
full of new-ish Christmas stuff exactly like you'd see in dozens of
thrift stores. When I made it to the main room, there was someone
from the church standing in the middle of the room and auctioning off
whatever he picked from the merchandise. I found a few unmarked
things, but the people running the sale claimed they didn't know how
to price it. Sigh, and I really liked that orange ashtray too!
I found exactly two things, and
while on my way to get in line, the auctioneer guy started handing
out boxes to people and randomly writing down a number. Then he would
shout that these were professional pickers that were there to get all
the good stuff so we better start buying. Yeah, sure.
I grabbed this little set because
the larger soup style bowls on the bottom are the perfect size for
snacks. When I flipped the bowls over, they were all marked Oneida. I
never realized the company made anything but utensils! The little
plates on top of the soup bowls have a completely different mark, and
the two smallest bowls on top are Texas Ware. I know Texas Ware is
melamine, but I don't know if the rest are melamine or plastic. I
also found this:
I was a huge Strawberry Shortcake
fan back in the day. My mom still picks things up for me here and
there, and she has a soft spot for the doll too because she still
uses a vintage set of Strawberry Shortcake salt and pepper shakers in
her house! One time, she even carried a kid's SS rocking chair all
over this big ass flea market just to replace the one I had as a kid. It's marked 1980 on the bottom, but I think these actually came out around 83 or 84. Many of the American Greetings dates refer to the trademark on the characters and not the toys.
It even has space inside to store my dolls! Well, if I had any of the dolls LOL.
When I went to check out, one of
the "cashiers" had me cracking up.
Cashier 1: What's that apple for?
Cashier 2: That's not an apple!
C1: It looks like an apple.
C2: Have you ever seen a pointed
apple before?
Me: It's actually for the old
Strawberry Shortcake dolls.
Blank stares from both.
C1: But you could use it for
carrying berries, right?
Sure. Oddly enough, whoever priced
this put it in the kitchen stuff, so maybe they all thought it was
some kind of berry transporter. I paid 50 cents for this and $1 for
the dishes. I totally need to track down some of the dolls now!
We then headed out to a "big
sale" advertised in a former school that was turned into a
business space. I have no clue where the stuff came from, but it was
one of those sales where you walk in and walk right back out. They
had everything from old hotel dressers for $100 to Avon bottles for
$10. The two people working the sale sat on the opposite side of the
room and kept yelling to make an offer on anything. No thanks.
We also managed to make it to a
church "flea market." They call it a flea market, but they
really just hold a big rummage sale. This morning was half off
everything, so we got there as early as possible. I've found Pyrex
for 25 cents there, and both my roommate and I bought these cool
mid-century modern cabinets two years ago for $10 a piece. The church
used them to store records and art supplies for their classes. I only
picked up a few things though.
The roomie gave me one of those
puzzling looks until I explained that they're the trays for the old
Corning casserole dishes, of which I have many. One was priced 25
cents and one was priced 50 cents.
The little red fired on Fire King
bowl was $2 and the blue flowered one was $1.
I was once a HUGE NASCAR fan. I've
been to multiple races, met 10 to 15 different drivers, and even have
a nice collection of autographed die cast cars and race used
memorabilia. Even though I don't follow the sport as closely now, I
still consider myself a Kyle Busch fan, so I have to love the M&M!
The ex used to pick up M&Ms stuff for me all the time, but this
is the first one I bought for myself.
This was another weird pricing
thing. One was 25 cents and one was 50 cents. These aren't super old,
but I have a Santa one that my grandfather gave me before he died in
84 or 85, so they're probably early to mid-80s. I can't seem to leave
any behind.
Not old or cool, but I want to try
my hand at making a wreath this year, and these were only 50 cents.
There's something on the side that says these were made "exclusively
for K-Mart," which is funny because we live five minutes away
from the only K-Mart left in Dayton.
I really couldn't resist this
little guy! The roommate had no clue what it was, so I explained to
him that it's for making whipped cream. Turns out that it's actually
an egg beater. It's marked Federal Housewares on the bottom, and I
found another one priced online for $18. All in all, my total came to
almost $8, they cut that down to $3 something, and I gave them $4 and
had them keep the change.
Not only were the sales
disappointing, but I was so looking forward to some homemade
brownies. This church sale always, always, always has a huge bake
sale every year. This year, they had some store bought donuts sitting
out, and the lady working the sale told us that they were serving
breakfast.
There were three sales going on on
the same street, but all were a bust. One was run by a woman who had
a bunch of clothes and books and was sitting in a tent in her yard.
Every time someone came close to her house, she would hop out of the
tent and run up to this comfy chair and take a seat. We didn't even
bother walking up the driveway to another. As soon as we got close,
we heard the sale guy screaming at his neighbor and his neighbor
screaming back at him. Fighting in the middle of a sale probably
isn't a good idea.
The last sale could have been good
except for two things. One was that the woman had two dogs, one of
which barked and snarled at strangers. She (for some reason) decided
to leave the door open so both dogs could run in and out of the house
whenever they wanted, which left the dog barking constantly. The
other issue was that she set up last night, it rained, and she didn't
bother covering anything. She was literally moving stuff into her
garage while we were there and made a comment about how she left her
sign out in case people wanted to shop while she was cleaning up and
that she's made some great sales that way.
Since I didn't want to dig through
the box of soaking wet vintage Christmas decorations, the vintage
cookware covered in rain, or the musty boxes in her garage, we just
took off. She did have a vintage hamper that I liked, but she wanted
to sell the linens she stuffed inside with the hamper. She had
everything priced per piece too, but all I wanted was the damn pink
hamper! It was an okay day all in all, but nothing too exciting.
Over the weekend, I had a family
reunion in Monroe, Michigan, which is around three hours from where I
live in Ohio. Since I was the one in charge this weekend and pushed
for a noon start time, we got up at seven and got out of Dayton
around eight-ish. Did I mention that I didn't get to sleep until
after four the night before? Needless to say, it was an early
morning.
A little after noon, only a few
people showed up and an aunt needed some spoons for the dishes she
bought. Myself, my dad, and the roommate took a short drive to the
most random dollar store I've ever seen! They literally had party
hats and streamers for "Biker Mice from Mars" and party
accessories for the original "Powerpuff Girls" cartoon
right next to lighters, the same random tchotchkes you might see in
the Dollar Tree, clothing, "designer" perfumes, and god
knows what else.
We also managed to make it to one
thrift store, but I only spent around $10, which included a few 10
cent items from their outdoor sale. After spending most of the day
outside, we finally managed to get out of Michigan around six or so,
and after a stop by Lima's famous Kewpee Burger, we made it home.
Since I still haven't had a chance to go through the rest of the yard
sale finds, I thought I would post some of my favorite pictures.
Remember this book?
It's an Esquire cookbook that I
picked up at that epic yard sale. Originally published in the 1930s,
this is the (I believe) third reprint, which came out in the early
60s. Still too tired to even think about working or really doing
anything last night, I kicked back with "Forgotten Planet"
on Netflix and pulled out the book to give it a flip through. The
illustrations in this book are so amazing! I want to make them all
into decorations for my kitchen LOL
And for my absolute favorite! How
cute would these look framed and hung on a wall??
Hope everyone had a great weekend
and found some great things!
Hope everyone had a great weekend
and found some great things!
Hope everyone had a great weekend
and found some great things!
Hope everyone had a great weekend
and found some great things!
Does anyone out there know anything
about this casserole dish? A few months ago, my roommate and I took a
trip to Columbus and stopped by a few antique malls. The one was so
expensive that we only spent a few minutes there before turning
around the heading off. It was the kind of place where $100 might
(might) get you a single piece of Pyrex, and if you want a metal
sign, you're looking at spending a few thousand.
One of the other ones was a little
more affordable, but I ended up spending $15 to buy a book on Heywood
Wakefield and an ashtray, and he spent well under $10 for this. It
wasn't until last weekend when we were unloading the Best Yard Sale
Ever stuff that he found this and remembered buying it. It didn't
click in my mind until he unwrapped it at the house that, "hey!
That looks like a Georges Briard piece."
Sure enough, it's marked right on the lid.
I have absolutely no experience
with stuff like this. I can identify a Glasbake, Fire King or Pyrex
dish from 20 feet away (and sometimes have!), but this is way outside
my area of expertise. I'm hoping someone in the blog world can tell
him if this was a good deal or not. I believe he paid around $8 for
it?
My concern is that the cradle
doesn't match the casserole. It looks similar to a small one I picked
up from a rummage sale that goes with a Corningware dish. If anyone
knows if it matches or goes with something else, let me know!
When the roommate got home from
work the other day, we headed out to the mid-century modern/atomic
era yard sale that was listed on Craigslist. From the moment I got
out of my car, I didn't know where to look! Everything he had was so
cool and interesting that I wanted everything. It turns out that he
had a booth at an antique mall and pulled out when the recession hit
and he wasn't making any money. If the prices on his stuff is any
indication of how he priced things in his booth, he definitely needs
to get back to it.
I didn't take much cash with me,
but we ended up going back on Friday and buying even more. Everything
in this post is just from our Friday trip and doesn't include the
black mushroom lamp my roommate bought (marked down from $35 to $17
and in perfect working condition) or the turquoise bullet lamp that
he bought ($3 because it had a minor chip in the shade that you can't
even see when it's turned around) or anything else he bought. I'll
post Friday's purchases when I clean out my car!
First up is this awesome
mid-century table. I love everything about it from the great pattern
on the top to those amazing legs with the brass feet. Excuse the
grossness of my garage; we're in the process of turning it into a
little lounge area. The funny thing about this table is that I almost
didn't buy it. I saw it, the roommate pointed out that he already has
a mid-century modern table in our living room, and we got in the car.
We didn't even make it a block until we realized that it was perfect
for the garage, so we turned around and went back. A ten-dollar bill
and it was all mine.
I'm so jealous of the blow molds
that I see on everyone else's blogs, but now I have a few of my own!
The Christmas ones will look great
sitting on the mantle this Christmas. I love how how casually he's
leaning on the chimney.
The little snowman looks so happy,
and he'll go nicely with the Empire one I picked up a few years ago.
This is the only one with a maker's
mark on the back. It's marked Empire and it's from 1970. Oddly
enough, he charged me $1 for this one and $2 for the others. I bought
one on Thursday for $3, so he probably marked things down a little.
I also picked up this smiley guy
for $2.
And his new best friend for another
$2.
Speaking of Christmas, how about a
happy little mouse? He's marked Roy Des FLA 1970. I've seen other
designs online but I know nothing about him. He has a slit in his
back, and some of the listings online claim it's a bank. He's clothes
are so tight that I have no idea how you would put money in and get
it out. For $2 though, he'll look nice at Christmas.
This little pixie has hands that
let him hold onto something. Unfortunately, his arms are pretty
loose, so he'll probably just end up in a sitting position. How could
I leave him behind though, especially for 50 cents?
I also grabbed some other
knickknacks that I probably don't really need.
I love the Miller Studio fish,
mainly because I remember my mom having two of the fish and the
bubbles in our bathroom. I've only found two of these fish in the
past, and my cats were nice enough to knock one over and break it
into a bunch of pieces. This fish had a similar fall at some point,
and someone tried to repair it. He was only 50 cents though, and I
didn't even notice the repair until I took it out of the car. It's
marked 1970.
This Glasbake mug came home with
me, even though I originally thought it was Fire King. It's such a
pretty color though that I couldn't resist.
The nut grinder probably should
have stayed behind. Even though it was only $2, it looks like someone
used it to grind something nasty. There's some kind of yellowish or
brownish discoloration and stickiness inside.
I'm not sure who made this bowl,
but I love the color and it was only 50 cents.
I somehow missed taking a separate
picture of it, but I also got a black melamine ashtray. It was $2,
which was a little pricey for an ashtray, but I loved the boomerang
style.
This cookbook will go nicely with
an old Esquire bartending book I picked up at a book sale years ago.
"For the pioneering male with a taste for fine food, and for the
woman who wants to be the perfect hostess." I'm not sure how
good of a hostess I am, but maybe this book will make me a little
better!
Though completely not exciting, one
of the reasons I went back to the sale was specifically for these
coasters. My ex-boyfriend left a set behind that we use for drinks,
but the moisture seeps right down into the bottom and all over your
drink. These have tiny holes that push the moisture into a pad hidden
in the bottom. Plus, I have a hard time resisting any type of vintage
Tupperware, even if it is from the 80s.
This giant (GIANT) poodle ashtray
caught my eye as soon as we started up the driveway. This has to be
the biggest ashtray that I currently own, but the poodle was so
kitschy and I'm pretty sure it begged to come home.
I hope the poodle doesn't mind
having a set of cats nearby. The colors on these practically scream
70s, and I love how well behaved the kittens are. So much better than
my own cats!
Lastly, remember how I said I don't
need anymore dishes? I'll gladly make an exception for Blue Heaven.
Made by Royal Sebring, which was right here in Ohio, these dishes
made me do a happy dance. I got six of the large soup bowls and one
of the small berry bowls, which will go nicely with the matching cake
plate I got the day before. He charged me $1 per piece for the bowls,
$4 for the poodle ashtray, $1 for the cookbook, $2 for the cats, and
$3 for the coasters.
All in all, I spent about $40 on
Friday and another $20 or so on Thursday. My only regret is that he
only has this sale once a year!
