Featured Finds Thread

Silver ring in the center of the first photo is hard to see, but is that an early 20th c agate in sterling with gold bows on the sides? I have this one and it looks similar...

 

Rarely. I find garage sales too hit or miss and estate sales overpriced. Besides, I am not a morning person. I'd much rather plan on going out around 2:00-4:00 PM as the second round of goodies is being put out at the thrifts. There is less competition than when the doors first open. I am sure I miss a lot but count on the fact that I am buying different than most customers. Seems the thrift store crowd's emphasis is designer this and designer that. A lot of old stuff just gets passed by.

 

Brad, it's like you're me! I hate getting up early and I've seen too many yard sales that only had modern stuff anyway. We go out Sat for a nice lunch date, then hit up the thrifts around 2pm until 6, and I always find interesting things. I try not to think about what I'm missing because hey! I won't know about it anyway and what I find is enough for my small space haaa. I'd be interested in trying an estate sale but haven't worked up the nerve yet....and y'all are scaring me with the cut-throated-ness at sun-up!

 

I like the more relaxed approach,after all-this is supposed to be fun !
Haven't been to an Estate Sale for 20 years but may give it another shot.Some resellers always go the second 1/2 off day.
What I'd like to explore more of are Rummage & Church Sales-just not that many around here but tons of garage sales.

 

I was at two estate sales on Friday and a church sale today. I'm nuts! The church sales offer the best deals, and sometimes you get a WHAT THe WHAT deal. I saw a lady get a 14k bracelet today, that I missed, for about $3. Probably $400 in gold. Meanwhile, the dude running the second sale wanted $40 for $25 worth of silver.

 

I agree w/ Ruth 100%-church sales over estate.Many estate sales now are run by local companies who do their homework & price accordingly.There's private parties who don't want to pay 30-40% to a company,but those have gotten rare around here.
Many of the donors & pricers at church sales seem less concerned w/ profit,they're volunteers & simply want to do 'good works' for their congregation.More community minded than bottom line.
PS-Church sales are just super rare around here-it's all garage & estate stuff.

 

They've gotten rarer here too. The good sales locally were killed off by Covid; the casualty rate of sales was higher than that of people. The one I went to today was further afield than I normally go. Brutally so on a physical level.

Unfortunately, some estate sale companies and even private individuals have started pricing for the end buyer instead of the people who actually show up. One of the two I went to yesterday was family-run, but one of the family thought he was an "expert" and priced the nice stuff according to what it would get at a good estate sale instead of a glorified yard sale with a dumpster in the driveway.

 

When a new non-corporate 'charity' (church,hospice,food pantry) opens,I figure I might have a month to grab some deals,after that there's a good chance it'll turn into business as usual.
How many volunteers can watch folks studying the pics on their phones before...'sorry,but what is that program ?'.
PS-That's why Rachel (possibly ?) finding a string of 18K gold prayer beads at a charity is a 1st class miracle !

 

Give me a good auction over any kind of tag sale. Unfortunately, you sometimes have to wait a long time for the items you want. On the other hand, a lot of them are in the evening so no problem with my night owl ways.

 

We went to one small town auction on a rainy day 40 years ago-it was pretty thrilling waiting for our lot to come up.I think the rain scared some bidders off,which worked fine for us.
A very memorable day-loading an oak barrister bookcase w/ a drop-front desk section into our VW Rabbit.I'm glad they're made in sections.

 

I've hit good stuff in those small stores fairly often. Sometimes the know what they've got and sometimes not. One really good one often knows, but really doesn't care. They want patons to get a good deal so they can turn around and help someone else out later.

 

Volunteers who aren't under the corporate gun & don't need the minimum wage pay,can get to like you and appreciate the steady clientele.Who knows-maybe they were thinking about their golf game or grandkids colic when they were pricing the jewelry ?

 

The good ones are all volunteers - no paychecks to worry about and no big corp-rats. They also can't see bitty marks. I can usually smell them.

 

That's a great point Ruth,if their senior eyesight's as bad as mine-good luck !

 

The corp rats don't even sell jewelry any more. The Sally does, but I haven't found anything worth buying in there in a decade. Even walked out of the grand opening with zilch.

 

Salvation Army closed all 4 of it's Portland locations 3 years ago. The single St. Vincent De Paul & The Discovery Shops also closed in the last 3 or 4 years.Portland might not have the economic base to support that many charity shops ?
Here's the S.Army's press release-
'PORTLAND, Oregon (July 21, 2021) – "The Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center Command will close four Portland Metro Area thrift stores effective Aug. 27".
"The decision to close a store is based on fiscal responsibility. If a store is not profitable, it takes funding away from our services," -Major Henry Graciani, Commander for The Salvation Army USA Western Territory.

 

It's cherry amber, Victorian or Edwardian, and not bakelite cherry amber. Google it, Bosk, cool to learn about and expensive. I did recover after two weeks...had a bit of a relapse house cleaning too much. I couldn't beat the peacock chair for $5 and the MCM rattan chair for $2.50. I may give my neighbor the peacock chair for her porch.
For reference only, not my auction:
https://www.google.com/search?q=che...id:18158863976330756098,pvt:a&oshop=apv&pvs=0

 

I will post a better picture today along with some of the better jewelry I found.

 

That was my church sale- they missed so much gold or sold it cheap and marked up the silver. They told me some pieces were sterling, but they weren't, I wasn't going to argue and have them start looping my pile.

 

I grab anything with tiny marks, and run my fingernail over them.