freshvintage

The family that eBays together...

The mermaid glasses that I talked about here are now for sale on eBay!

And, if you are in the market for a funky retro martini set (or just want a laugh), take a look at my Father-in-Law's latest eBay listing. Yes, I am his only daughter-in-law.

As I have mentioned previously on this blog, my in-laws are antiques dealers in Washington state. My father-in-law, Jim, recently started selling antiques on eBay. This created such an excess of fodder for my blog that I don't even know where to begin. He seems to use the titles of his auctions as a contest to see how FEW words he can use to describe the object he is selling. He had an auction for a beautiful green Moorcroft Pottery covered bowl with hibiscus flowers on it. The auction title can be up to 55 characters long. What does my father-in-law put in the title? "Moorcroft bowl".  Nothing about the flowers or the lid or the fact that it was in mint condition. But then he sold it for $94, so I guess I can't mock him too much.

A few months ago, Jim had an auction for an antique miner's candlestick, known as a "sticking tommy". The next day, another seller put up five of the same style of antique candlesticks for sale. 

So, my no-nonsense father-in-law saw that the "sticking tommy" market was now flooded, and proceeded to go to an auction of the other seller and click the "Ask this seller a question" link. He sent the seller a message that read, "You idiot! Haven't you ever heard of supply and demand?"

While I would have never sent another seller a message like that, I can see his frustration. For anyone who sells on eBay frequently, you would know that it isn't too smart to put on several items of the same style at the same time. Potential buyers assume that there are a lot of that item in the market, so they won't bid as high. That seller was essentially screwing himself out of higher bids.

And the seller's response was exactly what I would have predicted: "Who the F*CK do you think you are? You can't tell me what to sell!"

The Freaky Yard-Saling Neighbor

I hope I didn't accidentally sell my soul to the devil after those three four five glasses of wine with my neighbors last weekend. The past week of junking has been stupendous. Between the huge old basket, the robin's egg blue rocking chair, the quilts and the paint-by-numbers, I'm a little worried that, in a drunken stupor, I may have promised some sexual favors to satan in exchange for cheap antiques. It is all so blurry.

I actually bought more than the $100 worth of stuff that I photographed for this post, but my neighbors came over while I was taking pictures, and I was embarrassed to bring out the other stuff. They all think I'm a yard-saling/blogging freak, so I didn't want to make myself look any worse.

Hiding behind that aqua shelf in the lower right hand corner is this homemade navy blue wooden toolbox with a leather handle.  It has two lift-out compartments. I love the look of it, but I realized today that it smells like poop. Yeah, that's what I said. Poop. What could someone have possibly used this for that would make it smell so awful? Maybe the previous owner whittled small animals from dried feces, and kept his carving tools in this box? Who the hell knows. Anyone have any other guesses?

Here's a Louis Sherry candy tin, a set of painted Hazel Atlas jars, a round grater and an old panda planter.

I bought so much at one lady's yard sale that she threw in the pink chamber pot free of charge! She had about five of those old chamber pots. She should have busted out the Sharpies and made a sign that read, "Spend $20, get a free shitter!"

As my dog-loving and -wanting husband will attest, I am not much of a dog person. But these were too hard to resist. And so much easier to take care of than the real thing.

I bought this quilt during a lunch-time trip to the fancy-schmancy thrift store that I talked about here.  The tag said "$12.50  - As is".  I opened it up and expected to see a giant hole in the middle, or maybe a big disgusting blood stain. Nope. It is just a little worn here and there, but it is otherwise in beautiful condition.

I bought the yo-yo quilt top at a different thrift store. The woman who rang me up was maybe - oh, jeez, I'll take a wild guess - 117 years old.  She thought it was from the 1930s.

Everything in the first photo is sitting on top of this huge metal under-bed storage box. It is a little bent, but I've never seen anything like it. It has an embossed rose on the top. 

I spotted this box filled with junk at a yard sale. It originally had a big ugly lamp in it, too. The homeowner told me he would take $2 for the whole box. He looked a little annoyed when I told him that I didn't want the lamp.  'Well, it still costs two dollars!"  Whatever, sucker.

Most of the silver was made by Colonial Silver Company. It is quadruple-plated, which apparently doesn't mean that it was plated four times. But I don't understand it enough to explain it here, so I'll let Abe do the talking.

Can you see the monogram? F-S-Mac-F. Hmmm...Fergal Seamus MacFarland?

The copper pan ALONE is worth at least $25 on eBay.  It is by Philippe La France.

Alas, my neighbor spotted it while I was taking pictures, and I gave it to her. She's been thinking about buying a set of copper cookware and was shocked at how expensive they are. Who's the yard-saling freak now, byatch?!

Sparkle, Shine & Boobies

I snagged a great deal on a shoebox filled with chandelier prisms at an estate sale. The homeowner said she had collected them over many years. There are a few older ones that appear to be "sun-purpled", since the color is not uniform throughout the crystal. Some glass made between 1860 and 1915 was manufactured using manganese, which caused the glass to turn purple from prolonged exposure to the sun. Apparently, some rabble-rousers have been artificially purpling glass dishes & serving pieces to make buyers think that they are old. This has caused quite a shit storm over here.

Should I make a mobile out of all of my shiny, sparkly things? I can hang it right next to my grater mobile.

Can you see the seaside hotel on the fork in the next photo?  Anyone have any idea how I can find out what hotel it is?

These knives are made by Landers, Frary & Clark.  I'm still trying to figure out if the handles are bone, ivory, celluloid or bakelite.  They have light-colored streaks in them, if that helps anyone narrow it down.

Tin reflectors for Christmas tree lights:

No, this big old copper colander is not from Dehillerin in Paris.

Damn.

I found this pair of tall mermaid tumblers at a thrift store. I don't really know anything about vintage glasses, but I had a feeling they were worth more than I paid for them.

I couldn't find them on eBay, so I did a search on PriceMiner.com. PriceMiner is a paid antiques research service. Usually, I just do a search for completed auctions on eBay, but it only gives you results of auctions that ended in the past  two weeks. I signed up for PriceMiner, since it gives you results from more websites over a longer period of time. Anyway, I found a set of four mermaid glasses that sold for $50 on eBay last year. Yeah!!

The mark on the bottom is an "F" inside a shield. This is the symbol for Federal Glass Company, which was founded in 1900. Federal Glass is most well known for the depression glass that it manufactured from the 1920's to the 1940's.

And now it is known for boobies.

Crazed

I told myself that I wouldn't buy any more train cases. But, I rarely find them in black, so I was obligated to buy it. It is from the American Tourister "Tiara" line. Oh - and if you really want to see someone with a train case obsession, check out these photos on flickr.

The label on this hanging light says "Hotspot Electric Co. Phila, PA". I think I'll make a fabric cover for the cord and hang it over the desk in my studio (aka "the spare bedroom").

"

The plastic bags at the bottom of the first photo contain a bunch of dollhouse furniture. I think that some of them are by Marx, the company that made tin dollhouses (like this one that I bought a few years ago).

Wait - who is that? Right there...next to the toilet?

Oh. That's just an undead pink zombie girl. She came back from the dead because she needs plastic surgery - someone chewed off her nose.

Also included in the bag of dollhouse stuff were a set of little plastic dolls with sleep eyes.  This one has a crazed look on his face.

A look that screams, "I just chewed off my sister's limbs. And I loved every minute of it."

Whoops! She's back up. I guess she was just playing dead.

They are just so precious. I wonder if they socialize with The Doll Family.