posted on June 9, 2006 09:54:08 PM
It's a little bit of summer doldrums, some of us may not be selling as much, but yard sales & other local venues abound for finding future "gems", or just something wonderful for yourself ~ so share some of your exciting finds with us.
For me, the weekend started earlier than usual, with a local library used book sale this morning.
Turned out to be a good one even though small. My best score was a 5-volume book set titled 'From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow', which I bought for $5.00, and which will definitely sell in the fall for $250.00 or more.
Next to that was a 70 volume set of books (yikes, heavy boxes), in a series titled 'Something About the Author'. Great books, these are illustrated A-Z reference books, the subject is 'Facts and Pictures About Authors and Illustrators of Books for Young People', very interesting contents. Great condition, the original library acquisition cost was around $64.00 to $70.00 PER VOLUME, bought all of them for $4.00, expect them to do well too if I don't hang on to them myself.
Then there were the videos! Not for eBay, just for me the summer movie junkie! Fifty cents each for vhs movies, some of the titles I scored are:
D. W. Griffith's Intolerance
The Eddy Duchin Story (Kim Novak)
Captain Blood (Errol Flynn)
Disraeli
Fargo
Blonde Venus (Marlene Deitrich)
Fellini's The White Sheik
The Illustrated Man
Dashiell Hammett's The Glass Key (Veronica Lake)
Clint Eastwood, The Beguiled
Jefferson in Paris
...and about 40 other greats.
Nice start to the weekend!
posted on June 9, 2006 10:27:37 PM
I had a nasty experience today. I stopped at a yard sale, found a box of postcards. Another buyer started grabbing fistfuls of postcards from the box as I was perusing them. I politely asked him to wait until I was done searching the box (standard postcard behavior) and he refused. The cards smelled like mildew and I suspect they were from a group I had already culled the best from. I didn't buy any of them. It still irks me - I was ready to offer an amount for the box- maybe it's for the best...
posted on June 9, 2006 10:41:41 PM
Pixiamom...Maybe he'll store them away in a closet when he gets them home. With hot weather here, and any amount of humidity, those mildew spores will have a field day with his clothes.
If Murphy's law is correct, everything East of the San Andreas Fault will slide into the Atlantic
That's true, but then the mildew growth would probably end up looking like the Virgin Mary or something, and he'd auction his jacket on eBay for $242,000.00 ~ this is why you should just kick these yard sale predators in the shins and take back what you had your fingers on first.
posted on June 10, 2006 09:43:48 AM
Pixiamom I did NOT do you. LOL using my name in vane again. LOL
Last year at a storage building sell I had an arm full of books and a lady went around to everyone who had books and told them to put them back she had bought all of them. I felt like telling her tough crap. I kept most what I had in my arms and told her I had picked them up long before she arrived on the scene, that put her in her place but she was really mad. It was the way she was acting that really p*$$ed me off the most. If a chicken with its head cut off acts like that then they deserve to be fried. LOL
Todays finds were slim, got 2 wooden train sets brio I think for 3$ and a new large jar candle 25 cents for the wife, she is crazy for candles.
**************
I married my wife for her looks...but not the
ones she's been giving me lately!
posted on June 10, 2006 10:06:25 AM
I picked up 2 pieces of EAPG ...fruit bowl and candy dish (I think) for 25 cent each , 5 old fishing reels @ 2 dollars each and a large mesh zippy bag full of scuba gear for 20.00 (hubby has already highjacked it)he mumbled something about I'm not getting the tekna knife back lol.... Not to bad.
posted on June 10, 2006 10:54:01 AM
Heh. If I find someone acting obnoxiously possessive over a huge pile of stuff and it looks like they'll be done soon, I'll wait. But if they're going through it v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y, I'll ask the seller if I can look through it too. Usually that nets me a dirty look from the browser, but sorry folks, you don't own it until you pay for it. I've seen people at estate sales starting out by reserving dozens of books, then a half-hour later buying just one. Not good for the seller who only has a small window of opportunity to dispose of things.
Sometimes if I don't want to take the time to go through a pile, I just cut a deal to take everything.
Last weekend just down the street from here an elderly man had brought some silver items of his late wife's to his son's garage sale. It was all indiscriminately priced; he didn't know the difference between silverplate and sterling. I picked up a fabulous unmonogrammed Gorham sterling dresser set, plus a great Gorham sterling silver bowl (over 18 ounces) for $110 total. The bowl alone should get $275.
posted on June 10, 2006 10:57:44 AM
Just wanted to add: We saw VHS tapes *everywhere* we went last weekend. Going prices were 50 to 75 cents. I was sorely tempted since I'm a movie junkie too, but I reminded myself that I can rent this stuff from Netflix and not have it lying around for the next 10 years.
I'm going to sell most of my DVDs and just Netflix 'em when I want to see them.
posted on June 10, 2006 01:04:44 PM
A little luck yesterday, Royal Doulton Cissie figurine and a Coalport Cat for $5.50 total. This morning I started out with the best intentions, and ended up buying a dehumidifier and a tree trimmer dohickey for myself.
posted on June 10, 2006 04:21:03 PM
Rusty old 5 gallon bottle of propane, FULL of gas . $5.00! That'll save me $10.00 at the pump. #6 Griswold skillet. A cast iron dutch oven lid. And an American Burial Flag, $15.00 sell for $40.00.
My Mission was to get a kitchen sink faucet, usually TONS of them, NOT today. ONE.. and he wanted $12.00...wholesale NEW (swapmeet is $25.00, in a REAL store, $45.00)the $5.00 WILL show up....
Heading to the ROSEBOWL Swapmeet in Pasadena at 4 a.m. Good luck to me The truck is FULL of Junk to sell.....
posted on June 10, 2006 07:09:37 PM
Today I came home with a beautiful guilloche necklace, a rhinestone studded compact, a nice large Lady Remington swan pin and some other vintage jewelry items. I paid $1.00 or less for the items (each). Here's the guilloche. I'm going to have a hard time parting with it:
Compact
I passed up a rather large art nouveau vase for $28! I'm kicking myself now. Should have bought it.
It was a local flea market sale to benefit the cancer society.
posted on June 10, 2006 08:11:56 PM
Where is my digital camera when I need it? My ten-year-old used his money to buy an American Legion hat. He's been wearing it around the house all day (I won't let him out of the house with it) and it's VERY BECOMING!
posted on June 10, 2006 09:03:23 PM
Basically just video games regular Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis. Bought most of them for $1.00 a piece. The one with boxes and instructions were $3.00 each. I think I bought 50 games. It's a filler for my E-Bay store. I know what you mean about videos,they are everywhere. No wonder they don't bring anything on E-Bay.
**********************************
Two men sit behind bars,one sees mud the other sees stars.
posted on June 11, 2006 03:17:02 AM
I thought this weekend was going to be a bust as I wasn't coming across much jewelry which is my main seller. However, just as I was about to give up and go home I spotted a little sale way back in a cul de sac and decided what the he** I'll take a look. They had a small box of old jewelry that I purchased for $5.00 without even looking at the contents just because I didn't want to go home empty handed after the time I put in.
Well guess what?!!! I took the pieces out of the box and most were not worth anymore than a few dollars but at the bottom of the box I pull out a 3 piece JULIANNA demi - brooch, earrings and a choker.
All 3 in perfect condition.
Just goes to show you should not throw in the towel. The treasure might be just around the corner.
posted on June 11, 2006 06:32:57 AM
Hi Cheryl,
Great Find!! Is the necklace chocker style? I would love to bid on it when you list it you can let me know.
I didn't go out looking as I pinched a nerve in my back which made walking very painful. Hopefully next weekend.
mama
posted on June 11, 2006 08:36:55 AM
Thanks, all. The necklace was listed this morning.
Diana - I do erase the background. First, I take the picture in a great light tent that Ken got me for Christmas and I take it on white. Then, I open it in either MicroSoft PhotoDraw or Paint Shop Pro depending on what needs to be done. If it's simple, I can "cut out" the back ground in PhotoDraw. If it's not, I can erase it in PSP. Sometimes (like in the compact photo), I just leave the shadows be. In the necklace, I managed to photograph with very little shadow. I was able to erase what was there and add a shadow with PhotoDraw.
Edited to add: Someone somewhere down the line added an extention to the necklace. It can be removed and the necklace can be put back to original, which is a short length (about 15".
Cheryl
[ edited by cblev65252 on Jun 11, 2006 08:38 AM ]
[ edited by irked on Jun 10, 2006 09:45 AM ]
. $5.00! That'll save me $10.00 at the pump. #6 Griswold skillet. A cast iron dutch oven lid. And an American Burial Flag, $15.00 sell for $40.00.
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