freshvintage

Playing with My Bird

Yes, I love flea markets. Especially the ones in Adamstown, PA. Chris and I took the kids to Black Angus, Renninger's and Shupp's Grove last Sunday.

Chris and I had lots of fun. I can't say the same for the kids. There weren't many dealers at the markets, so we told them to play tag in the empty spaces. That lasted about 15 minutes. Then they managed to wander into the woods and find two dangerously sharp sticks. Daggers, really. A sword fight ensued. I debated whether I should just leave them alone because we finally had some peace. But then I imagined myself chasing one of their eyeballs as it rolled the dirt, so I made them lose the daggers. When we finished shopping, we erased all of their bad flea market thoughts by taking them to an awesome miniature golf place in Lancaster. 

Amid all of the whining and bribing, we did manage to find some cool stuff. We spent $115 for everything here. Most of our finds were from the flea markets, except for the burlap sacks that Chris bought at an auction last week, the hunting signs (estate sale), and the typewriter, which he scored at a local thrift store.

Isn't she beautiful!? It is a 1926 Underwood portable typewriter with a red faux bois (fake wood grain) finish. Here's a photo of one in great condition that sold for $350 on Etsy. They sold this typewriter in several finishes, including mahogany and green.

These metal hunting signs are so hot on eBay - I found similar signs ranging from $45 to $125. I love to imagine some big, burly hunter ripping the No Hunting sign off a tree as a trophy. Kind of a big "Eff You" to the Parks Service.

Here are a couple of vintage cameras: a Kodak Midget and a Baby Brownie. And a set of small brass stencils that slide together. They are sitting atop a red safe deposit box with painted gold trim.

Each one of the burlap sacks in this pile is different - most of them have great graphics and colors. Chris paid three dollars for all of them at a Lancaster County auction. Some were a little moldy, so we hosed them off and dried them in the sun. No more mold. But they still have that typical burlap smell. Is it possible to get rid of that? Anyone?

I've been wanting one of these potato chip stands for a while. I have the kind that you hang, but not a standing rack. I've seen lots of reproductions around, but I think this one is an oldie. I'm going to use it for displaying postcards or little bags of game pieces and whatnot.

I bought a few "Modern Kitchen" catalogs at Black Angus. These two feature the steel cabinets made by American and Morgan. I've become a little obsessed with those cabinets lately - especially after reading about all of the 1950s kitchens on Retro Renovation. This green & aqua kitchen might be my favorite.

This was our most expensive find: a Victorian-era birdcage on a stand that is a shorter than the ones I normally see. It isn't adjustable, either. Maybe it is chair-height so you could enjoy your canaries while drinking tea or playing cards.

But, more likely, it was a privy birdcage, so people could play with their bird while they did their dirty business. Yes - that sounds right. I'm going with that. 

Jam, Eggs, Majorettes and Hillbillies

I am so far behind in sharing my finds. I've been rolling around in the $260 of virtual paypal money that I scored from those Batman Legos on eBay. It was less than my original estimate, but you will not hear me complaining. Instead of buying Finn a new set of (cheaper) Legos or a Nintendo DS game, we agreed that a subscription to the Lego Brickmasters club would be an excellent idea. For $39.99 plus shipping, he gets a new "exclusive" Lego set every two months for a year. Now we are all happy! (And a little richer.)

Anyway, here are some finds from a few weeks ago. My big bargain that day was the 4 antique yellow egg baskets that I practically stole for two dollars.

The little blue book is a reader called Terry and Billy. It has the sweetest illustrations in it - particularly of the furniture. I mean, c'mon...kids are cute, but black painted chairs and matching twin beds are waaaay cuter.

Here is one of a birthday party in the dining room:

And one of the children's bedroom:

This wooden shelf was a store display for M. Polaner Jellies & Preserves, which was just a small-ish family business before it was bought out by a big company in the 80s. What a cool way to show off a little collection.

I found another one of these orange McCoy pitchers. I already have the same exact one on a shelf in my kitchen (you can see it in one of the photos in this post). And this is my favorite: a jadite scalloped flower pot by Fire King.

It is filled with mini ornaments, with some shapes that I've never seen before.

Everything in the first photo is sitting atop this chippy white bench, which is now occupying my front porch.

If you have a wonderful mother-in-law like I do, then you would be used to receiving random packages of vintage goodies in the mail. Like a big envelope filled with vintage dress forms from the 1940s & 1950s. Including a majorette pattern.

I know...adorable!

 

I found this 1890 ironstone platter at a very scary garage sale for a buck. Picture the 175-year-old stone house from Marley & Me filled with hillbillies selling an inordinate amount of bedside commodes. Do you have that image in your head? Good. Now add a pit bull.

When I walked into the garage, I repeatedly looked behind me to make sure that no one was sneaking up with a sharpened hedge clipper.

P.S. The house used in Marley & Me is ten minutes from the scary yard sale house.

 

Momomatic Jewelry on Etsy. And Batman Legos.

Every once in a while, I check out the Etsy store of my new friend, Lotta, who I met at BlogHer. Her store is called Momomatic and she makes jewelry out of vintage buttons, beads and other nifty parts.

I ordered a necklace from her. It arrived in this pretty little package, complete with a black scottie dog tied to the purple string:

Upon closer inspection, I noticed the words Scrotum, Glans and Urethra on the wrapping paper.

And then I remembered that she bought one of my sex books at the BlogHer Swap Meet in July: Picture Stories of the Sex Life of Man and Woman. This was one of the pages from that book. Surprisingly, I just found the same exact book at an antiques store in Lancaster, PA yesterday. That sex book is a like one of those cats that gets lost, and finds its way home after two years and 500 miles.

Anyway, beneath the ball sack was my necklace:

Isn't it gorgeous? Lotta warned me that it was missing one of the rhinestones, but I didn't care. I receive so many compliments when I wear it (which seems like every day). It is one-of-a-kind, but she has many other fabulous jewelry pieces for sale, and frequently updates her shop with new items. Thanks, Lotta!

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Do you remember my Lego craziness a few years back? When I found five Lego sets at a thrift store for $12 and sold them for over $500 on eBay? Well, the insanity has returned with a vengeance. 

I was at a yard sale last week with my sister, Heather, and I spotted the Batman Batcave Lego set, one of those enormous sets that sells for around $100 in the stores. I tried to hide my excitement, but I'm not very good at that. I literally "called dibs" on it to the homeowner and went in search of any other Legos. Heather hid behind an old fridge in embarrassment. I ended up buying the Batcave set and three Indiana Jones sets for $15.

When I arrived home, I made the grave mistake of giving the Batman set to my seven-year-old son who is obsessed with Legos. I know - what the hell was I thinking? I did this once before with a $100 Harry Potter Lego set and I ended up regretting it.

Finn immediately ripped the top of the Batcave box off. Unlike most moms who wouldn't care if their kid ripped a box, I yelled at him, "You just slashed the resale price by ripping that box!".

Fortunately, he started playing with one of the Indiana Jones sets and didn't start bonding with the Batcave. A few hours later, I checked eBay to see how much the Batcave sells for on eBay.

$300!

That's when I had to have a 30-minute-long conversation with Finn about selling the set on eBay. There was some yelling. And tears. Then I told him about his 15% commission. It is hard for a seven-year-old to understand percentages and commissions. But he understood perfectly when I said he could pick out any toy that he wanted, including a game or two for the new Nintendo DS he got for his birthday a few weeks ago. No more tears.

And so began the four-hour process of checking that all 1075 pieces were in the box. I printed 20 pages worth of inventory listings from Peeron. Maeve helped me sort by color:

The set was missing nine pieces. The ripped box and the missing pieces will bring down the value, but not by much. I am guessing that we will get around $275 for the set. You can follow along with the auction here: 7783 Batcave: The Penguin and Mr. Freezes Invasion Lego.

And here's the bonus: inside the Batcave set was this little boat from an other Batman set, the Hunt for Killer Croc. That set also includes Batman's Batboat, but we only had the Killer Croc's boat.

It recently sold on eBay for fifty bucks! The little crocodile man alone sells for $20.

To recap, your lesson for the day is: If you find boxes of Legos at a yard sale or thrift store, BUY THEM. Also, if you find a big disorganized bin of Legos at a yard sale, dig through them and see if there are any minifigs (those are the little Lego people). They are worth big bucks on eBay!

And don't forget about my 15% commission.

I like you even though you're dumb

I bought this Valentine decoration last year at the same estate sale where Chris found the tin picnic basket for me.

I didn't think he could ever top the picnic basket, but he did. My totally awesome husband gave me a pair of tickets to the Kings of Leon concert in April. That's the music I used in this video. I guess I have to ask him to come with me, right? Or that would be rude.

Last week, I let each of the kids pick out a box of Valentines to give to their friends. Finn picked Kung Fu Panda, and Maeve picked a box that had a cute bunny on the front. If I was a good mother, I would have looked on the back of the box and realized that these are the most obnoxious Valentines ever. Especially for a four-year-old.

 

Of course, I love them.

We only let her give them to our neighbors who are too young to read. And whose parents have a sense of humor.

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I'd love to give a big wet Valentine's Day kiss to the lovely lady who won my auction for the 1950s vintage dress patterns. I refreshed the auction about 20 times during the last minute, and it was creeping up from $150 to $165. And then - BAM! In the last three seconds, it jumped to $275. I love you, pattern lady!!

Amelia, Martha & eBay

February in Pennsylvania does not bring much in the way of yard sales, so I don't have much to share. But - I hit a couple of thrift stores where I found these Amelia Earhart suitcases and children's blocks:

The inside of the large suitcase is beautiful burgundy satin. And I'm not normally a big fan of burgundy satin. It even has the (original?) portable hangers.

I have a ton of children's blocks, but no one ever buys them when we have a sale. Am I the only one who loves these?

The set on the right caught my eye because they are unusually small:

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Guess what?! I'm going to be on the Martha Stewart Show! Okay - so I'll be in the audience, but it's all the same. Audience. Stage. What's the difference?

I'll be attending the taping on February 26th in NYC, but I'm not sure when the show will air. My sister Erin, and our friends Laura & Ellen will be joining me. We all went to a taping of The View a few years ago. The guests were Geraldo Rivera and a man who had over 30 plastic surgeries. (And, yes, they were two different men). Let's hope that Martha's guests are a bit better.

Have you been in the audience at Martha or any other talk show?

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I'm unloading some things on eBay to make room (and money) for springtime vintage finds. Take a look:

Return of the Legos

Last Saturday morning, my husband and kids joined me on my yard-saling trip. Usually, I only bring Maeve with me, or I sneak out by myself before anyone wakes up. Before we left, I gave each of the kids a buck. We hit a few yard sales before they were both able to find something that they really liked.  And what does Finn find?  An unopened box of Harry Potter legos. I immediately had dollar signs in my eyes. Dammit. This is exactly why I don't like to bring the kids. I know...I sound like a mean, horrible mommy. But, believe me, my house is already FILLED with lego pieces. We have enough friggin' Spongebob legos to build a life-sized Krusty Krab.

I knew that this box was worth some dough from my previous Lego experience. And it was only two dollars! Finn wanted to buy it, but the evil side of me reminded him that he only had one dollar. I told him that he could buy it if he could successfully convince Maeve to give up her dollar. Oh - too late. She had already found something girly that she wanted to buy. And so the good side of me gave him another dollar and let him buy the Legos.

As soon as we got home, I looked it up on eBay. The same unopened Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Lego set recently sold for $105. By the time I looked up the price, Finn already had the box open and started to build. By the end of the day, he finished putting together the entire set. That's okay, though. The opened box sells for $50-$60 on eBay. (I'm not selling it anytime soon. I'm not that evil.) 

Luckily, I found some things for me, although they probably aren't worth half as much as the damn Legos.  Here are my fifteen dollars worth of finds...

I love this whitewashed bushel basket with the floral lining. The homeowner said it was from the 1950's. I also found a box of old sheet music for two bucks.

Read it and weep...FREE! The homeowner told me that I could have this box of old sewing notions.

With one stipulation...

Her grandmother had lost a sentimental treasure in her sewing stuff.

If I happened to find a tooth, could I please return it to the house?

Um, yeah sure.

Thankfully, I never did find one.

UPDATED TO ADD: About the Legos...I'd love to hear what you would have done. Let him keep the Legos? Or trade it for something else?  Let me know in the comments. 

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 Results Are In!!

The Pommes Anna Pan went for $138.50! By the end of the auction, there were 81 watchers and 28 bids.

Congratulations to Nina and Amanda, who walk away with $69.25 each!

Stay tuned, everyone...I'll have another giveaway this week!

Auction Update, Finds & Vintage Home News

Here are the current stats on the Pommes Anna Pan auction:

Current bid: $71.02
Number of bids: 24
Number of watchers: 74

(Here's the original post about the pan.)

And now, on to my $54 worth of finds from this weekend...

Orange apron with green rick-rack and four wooden hangers:

Set of aqua Royal Traveller suitcases. They are pretty dirty, so I am going to give them a once-over with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser:

Vintage Cosco office chair with aqua vinyl seat. About an hour after I bought this, Erin called me from the Vintage Home Annex and told me that a customer bought the black one that I found last month. The same person also bought some suitcases from us. Eerie.

I got the next piece from an estate sale run by Sales by Helen. The last day of her sales are usually half-price, so I scrambled to the sale early this morning and swiped this up for a painfully low price. I had spotted a photo of it on her website last week, but I didn't think it would still be there on Sunday. Thank God for the snowstorm on Friday! This cabinet is mahogany and needs a little work. It is missing a few knobs and needs a new coat of paint.  If I was really adventurous, I would strip it. But I am entirely too lazy for that.

In other exciting news, Vintage Home has been featured on the Country Living website in editor-at-large Jane Dagmi's blog! Jane stopped by the store a few weeks ago and snapped some photos of the store. I'm so happy for Margie, Gloria and Leslie...it was so nice to see them get some recognition for all of their hard work. Unfortunately, Jane didn't get a chance to visit our space at the Vintage Home Annex (just a few doors down), but maybe she will be able to stop by when she is in the area again.

And in related news, the Annex is actually changing hands next week. It will no longer be run by the ladies from Vintage Home. Kristen, the former owner of Chaumiere in West Chester, PA is taking over the shop and bringing in her lovely antiques to sell on the first floor. We were so happy to hear that she is letting Erin and I keep our little space on the second floor. Thanks, Kristen! We're really grateful to Margie & Gloria from Vintage Home for taking a gamble with Erin and me (and for putting in a good word with Kristen). They taught us a lot about running a shop and selling antiques, and we will always appreciate their honest and friendly attitudes. Of course, they'll still be right down the street at Vintage Home, so we will keep in touch. We're sad to see Margie & Gloria go, but we are excited about this change...the Annex was only open on Sundays, but the new shop will be open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. That means we have to BUY MORE STUFF! I know, it is hard to believe that I would ever run out of stuff to sell. 

By the way, if you ever stop by the store, please let us know if you read the blog. Erin and I only work there a couple of Sundays a month, but we love to hear when someone reads the blog. Erin worked today and a few people mentioned that they read the WWJB post. Thankfully, they also mentioned that they laughed when they read it.

I have it on good authority that you will not go to hell if you laugh at that post. Go in peace.

Auction Update & WWJB

Here are the current stats on the Pommes Anna Pan auction:

Current bid: $50.01
Number of bids: 20
Number of watchers: 53

Have you ever heard of eBay Pulse?  For each category of items sold on eBay, you can view a list of the most popular searches and the most watched items in that category. Well, our little auction is on the Most Watched list for the Cookware & Bakeware category! I think we can attribute that to you, the freshvintage blog readers, who have added the auction to your own watch list. My personal record for watchers was 50, when I sold my nun doll on eBay a few years ago.

Now on to my finds for the week...

Yes, another metal card drawer. I know that a few of you were asking about the red drawer, but I think I'm keeping that one. Sorry. I also bought a hexagon Haeger planter and a metal cash box.

It's definitely not from the colonial era, but this sampler would look cute in a nursery:

 

In honor of Lent, I picked up the Last Supper print. Actually, it was the old frame that caught my eye. And the tablecloth.

That is one cute tablecloth. Rumor has it that Jesus scored it at a wicked estate sale in Jerusalem. When he got home and unloaded all of the junk from his donkey's back, he busted out his red thread and embroidered the apostles' names along the bottom edge, in lieu of placecards. 

Henceforth and heretoforthwith, I've answered the age-old question: What Would Jesus Buy?

I had sixteen years of Catholic school. I'm allowed to say stuff like that.