Featured Cups & spoons yard sale finds

Here are some Silver I picked up at a yard sale for 20 bucks, 3 cups and 3 spoons. All in all 7 1/4 oz total weight, all marked sterling. One of the spoons is a "johnson city Tenn" collector type, One is a childs size with engraving on the handle ( looks like LEON ) and the last sadly would have been the best but is broken at the end of the handle and is engraved " The little pig went to market " with the pig riding a cart pulled by a horse.
So ends a long dry spell!
ps sorry about the pic quality, was doing it in a rush

 

Ugh ! Dont make me start haunting yard sales again ! I gave those up years ago,but the thrifts are barren now so I may have to start again .

 

Nice finds!

 

Even the church sales aren't what they used to be, provided you can find one. Covid killed off a lot of them.

 

The sales, or the people that ran them, or the people that donated to them? Or one after the other, til all three?

 

Great score for $20! I’m jealous. Silvers back up over $25 too!

I haven’t found any wild silver in a while. A couple weeks ago I had a mega exciting find and eventual mega let down. I’ve been visiting a house on trash day once per week for the last month or so. They are emptying the entire homes contents into the trash a curb full at a time. Recently there was a huge pile of silver hollowware. Hidden behind a headboard so I was pretty sure no other trash pickers had seen it. I knew it wasn’t a wealthy home but I knew they were somewhat prosperous for at least a couple generations. I figured in the big pile I was going to score at least one sterling piece. Waited until I got home and had sorted everything else to check it. Turns out there wasn’t a single piece! I did pull a small piece of Herend porcelain out of a trash bag though that week.

I did catch an auction “mistake” somewhat recently though. They were selling a lot of silverplate with one piece of sterling in it. It was advertised as such but the silver piece was mentioned at the end of the title and they didn’t use the word “sterling”. Anyone who read it quickly would just see “plated” and move on. For the silver buyers that entered the search term “sterling” it didn’t show up. It was no mega score but $250 melt value hammered at $75 and came with some silver plated items. Had they cataloged it properly it would have probably hammered at $175 at least.

 

Thanks all for the comments, sales in my area have been abysmal to put it mildly and for the last couple years there's been little in the way of stellar finds. That said I will keep hunting because its the thrill of finding a treasure among the krap.

 

What was it? I can't believe someone would just toss that in the trash. Well, actually I guess I can.

 

A real stew of all of the above probably. Old main line churches tend to be attended by old people, who die of old age. Covid ended some sales because the regular sellers got too old to handle them, the congregations moved South, or whole church closed down.

Some of the sales are back, but three of my usuals are all on the same weekend - this one! Meanwhile the neighborhood tag sale has thankfully been pushed to next weekend.

 

A tiny vase. Nothing special but I’m sure an easy $50-$100. It was legit in the bottom of a trash bag laying on the sidewalk. I am shocked it didn’t shatter. They tossed literally most things in the home I’m assuming. I took everything of value I could. I’ve sold a bunch for small sums already. Lots of stuff in the $20-$50 range. This past trash night there was nothing so the gravy train might be over. I’m kinda sad, as much as I don’t love digging through the trash I do love digging through stuff. It was like a free trip to a semi, half way decent estate sale every week for over a month. I had made a commitment to myself to stop buying anything other than small smalls until I clear some stuff. I never made a commitment to myself I that wouldn’t take valuable free stuff if presented with it though. I found a loop hole in my own plans to try and declutter. I better set more rigid standards on my commitments next time I try something like that. I’m too sneaky for my own rules, I just side skirted them.

 

Like when you’re at a music festival and the two bands you want to see most are playing on different stages simultaneously. The worst!

 

Nice finds, @coreya and @J Dagger !

That's happened to me at conventions and conferences, too -- When the two speakers I want most to see are both speaking at the same time. Or a performer and a speaker. Oh well!