Weekend Finds

[Vinca]

I found a bunch of 1930's hotel luggage labels, a King George coronation program, assorted books and an interesting, 19th century watercolor portrait of a woman. It was the kind done by itinerant artists since there were no photographs at the time. It's very well done, so now the hunt begins to try to identify the artist.

[zabet]

1. Only one

but a good one -- dirt cheap too!
:woohoo::woohoo:

Just unloaded it off of the truck.

[Vinca]

2. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's spectacular! Great find. nt

[zabet]

4. Thanks! I cannot wait

to see how it will look cleaned up and oiled.
It was in an elderly man's barn. You can see
the dirt dauber nest in the curve of the scroll
work on the top.
It was in an old pack house. (barn of sorts)

[grasswire]

3. good for both of you!

Excellent hunting! And the research is so much fun to do!

I didn't go hunting this weekend. Too busy chasing teenagers with their busy schedule of cross country meets and trying to keep them fed and free from pneumonia.

There was an 80 year estate just ten blocks away from me. I should have tried harder to be there Friday morning. Bah!

[zabet]

5. Big estate sales...

I LOVE them but, if it is advertised much
at all, there is stiff bidding competition
around here.

[grasswire]

6. most of them here are not auctions...

....just sales run by professionals. About fifty people will show up early to sign up on a waiting list to get in at a good sale. Most of those are dealers or re-sellers. Prices are pretty good, but I get crazy wanting to see everything before others do! LOL. The tips are these, for newbies:

1. Carry a basket into which you can put things as you find them in the first rush. You can sort out before checkout to see if you want to put anything back.

2. I've seen people carry their own sticky "SOLD" tags for furniture and other big items. They walk in, stick their sticker on the pieces they intend to buy.

3. Listen to people chattering in the waiting line. Ask staff quietly what room the postcards or linens or whatever are in so you know what direction to go in the house.

Anyone else got hints for estate sales?

[zabet]

7. I have only attended

one estate sale in our area that was set
up like this. Heh heh, I was #2 in line.

[demgrrrll]

8. Get there early. Find out if the sale is managed and if the manager

is selling to dealer friends before the sale starts. That is a HUGE problem here. You can go through the ads with a pen and x out all the sales where there has been a pre sale or the "helpers" are dealers. There are plenty of family run sales though and I do better at a family run sale. Very few managed sales here are not presold to a contingent of about 50 dealers. I am not in with the in crowd and I do not drop thousands of dollars so I am not going to be invited.

[grasswire]

9. I don't think there are pre-sales going on in this town...

...to dealers, or at least not to a great degree. I say that because in the early people who wait in line, one learns that many of them are dealers. So if skimming was going on, they wouldn't be waiting in line in the morning. One thing that's bad for re-salers is that the estate sale management companies are selling some of the best stuff from the estates on eBay. So the top items are not available locally.

And yes, I do like family run sales. Whee!

Another trend I just spotted this summer was a few estate sales managed by someone working for a realtor who is flipping the house ASAP after the owner's death. A woman in my neighborhood passed on, and two weeks later there was an unadvertised (except Craigslist) one day sale, and the next day EVERYTHING was carried out of the house and put out for free. Lots of really good stuff there! I went home and got my radio flyer and made several trips. As people were taking stuff, the realtor's agent and some workers were hanging new windows, planting some bright flowers, cleaning the gutters, etc., because the house was going on the market the NEXT DAY. It was kind of like a weird wake, with neighbors taking the stuff and reminiscing about old Betty.....

[demgrrrll]

12. Probably not in your area, our area was like that until a woman came

in and took over well bullied over all the sales, actually there are two of them who do everything in their power either by "helping" the manager or arranging pre sales with their friends as the other buyers. Good way to control the sales and control who goes in first with you. I just let it go, it bugged me for years and then I realized I had no control over the sales and that there were plenty of good sales around for me too. I think we have more pre sales than ebay pre sales, but when you think about it it is just about the same thing isn't it.

Craigslist is a great resource here for family run sales. I love this forum!

[Vinca]

10. Sticky "sold" stickers - why didn't I think of that? LOL. nt

[grasswire]

11. I first saw that used at a very desirable estate sale.

The house is located on a street called Peacock Lane, with little tudor cottages all on a three block street which are (during the holidays) all decked out with holiday lights and decor. To the hilt. Most of the people living on this street are long-timers, but the houses are beginning to turn over.

So I bopped over for an estate sale on Peacock Lane a couple of years ago. It was a fabulous sale. Nearly everything in the house was peacock blue! Highly collectible right now, of course. Painted furniture, retro stuff from the 50s, it was a time capsule in that color. I grabbed everything I could. Dealers were there with vans, hauling out all the cool furniture. And that's where I saw the sticky SOLD notes. A couple of dealers had a wad of them and affixed them to items on their first trip through the house. Pure genius.

By the way, I found one of my favorite finds at that sale -- a handwritten cookbook in a spiral notebook. I still have it -- I was so fascinated with this 1950s woman's little blue domestic heaven that I kept this little bit of her history.

Picture gallery of Peacock Lane:

http://www.peacocklane.net/gallery.html

[Vinca]

13. Peacock Lane reminds me of the subdivision I grew up in only

with better houses. At Christmas everyone decorated from top to bottom with lights. My dad used to put this tacky aluminum Christmas tree in the front bay window and put a light on it that rotated colors. Come to think of it, I bet I could sell that now as "mid-century modern." LOL

[Frustratedlady]

14. You mean like this one?

http://www.rubylane.com/shops/annasantiques/item/4588