Thrifting in Los Angeles

Last week we went to California to visit some friends and family who live out there now. They don’t understand why I don’t want to live where the weather is perfect all the time. I guess I like thunderstorms, leaves changing color, snow days and spring. Anyway of course while I was there my husband alerted me to a Goodwill where I picked up some goodies.

This first item is a vintage beauty school supply case. It has some damage, especially to the corners. I’m not sure of the age but it may be from the 70’s or 80’s. The school is now closed. There is an ID tag included which I think is neat. I wasn’t going to get it because I didn’t think I could get it back home but my husband suggested that I pack clothes inside and around it and we fit it into my suitcase!

I picked up this Tory Burch note pad set. It’s not very valuable (maybe $10) but it was only marked 99 cents and I new I could get it home.

The last item I picked up there was this Anthropologie Dachshund mug. Dachshunds are one of my favorite breeds so it caught my eye and when I researched it they seem to go for about $20.

Before I left I had a few pickups from my local thrift store including this Calico Critters car. I had the rabbit family and I am putting them with the car in hopes of selling it for more.

I also picked up two plush toys including this American Girl doll pet cat and a Jellycat dog.

That’s all for now. Summer is winding down. Time to get ready for cooler days – at least if you live in New England!

Vintage Toys, Wooden Objects and some Designer Finds!

There was only one church sale for me this weekend. Other than that I just went to a bunch of good old tag sales. I went to about 15 on saturday but I only bought items at about 5 of them. That’s usually how it goes for me at tag sales.

Late in the day, when I usually don’t find things anymore, I stopped at a sale that was pretty close to my house. I picked up this set of vintage Tomy dollhouse furniture. I love the mid century modern style of it and how you can move the pieces of the couch around to make different designs.

More surprising to find late in the day was a bag of littlest pet shop pets. These are usually snatched up early but don’t think that many people had attended this sale. There were 26 pets in this group plus a bunch of accessories. I am hoping to get $30 for the lot. I was charged $7 for the pets and the furniture.

Another sale I went to had a big tarp where everything on it was free! I picked up a Barney school house playset and two stuffed animals. I am going to save the Barney house until I find a few more figures for it. One of the stuffed animals I got there was this mouse who is Tutter from the Bear in the Big Blue House. My daughter used to watch that show when she was young. I think I might get $10 for him.

Keeping with the toy theme, I picked up 6 Lego baseplates at another sale. Depending on which kind they are, these can go for about $10 each.

I found two wooden items this weekend at the church sale. I was excited at first to find this Dansk ice bucket for only $3. Then I saw the big chip it has on the lid. I am still hoping to get $20 for it. I also found this photo/scrapbook album. It has a wooden front and back cover with metal hinges and painted ducks. I think this would be great for that cabin decor that some people like.

At the same sale I found an eyeglass case with the Chanel logo on it. I think it’s authentic because I found the same one online. It’s not worth too much but for 50 cents I couldn’t leave it behind. I don’t find many Chanel items. For $1 I picked up a pink striped Swatch watch that came with its case.

I will end with two tin boxes I found. At the church sale was this sweet bunny tin from England and last weekend I picked up this picnic basket tin at a thrift store while I was traveling.

It was fun going around to all the different tag sales. It was a beautiful cool day for July around here. There is such an assortment of homes, items and people!

Caps, Shirts and an American Girl Mystery Box

There were not many tag sales for me this weekend due to a family wedding. These are finds from last week that I haven’t mentioned yet. One sale that I attended actually started on a Wednesday. I wasn’t finding much so I starting looking through the piles of clothing that were on tables. I picked up two XL rock band T shirts. One is a Buffalo Springfield shirt and the other is a Ray Davies of the Kinks Come Dancing shirt. I remember that song from the 80’s! I hear that rock band shirts can do well and this is my first try with them.

 

I also picked up two West Point caps. One is also Nike and new with tags. As you can see I was out of my comfort zone here, trying new things.

 

While we were in upstate NY for a family wedding I did visit a few tag sales while no one was looking. I found one item which was this Phantom of the Opera tote bag. It was marked 75 cents.

One of the best finds I had last weekend was at a community tag sale that had a toy tent. It was very crowded and they were only letting in 20 people at a time and I wasn’t in the first group. When I got in I noticed a girl carrying two American Girl dolls. I missed those and wasn’t finding much else. It was kind of a rainy damp day. I saw a box tucked under one of the tables and when I bent down to look at it I saw that it was marked American Girl clothes. I got excited but as I looked through it I saw a lot of home made doll blankets and clothes. I did spy a few clothes with American Girl doll labels. The box was wet and dirty on the bottom. I really didn’t know what I was getting – or how much they were going to ask for this mystery box. I gathered the box and a few other items. They charged me $20 for all of it.

It was fun getting home and digging through it. I was surprised at the amount of stuff that was in this box. About half of it turned out to be American Girl doll clothes. After much sorting and researching I was able to put together about about 20 different outfits. So that was super fun.

 

Hoping to find some sales to hit this weekend!

Vintage, Mid Century Modern and Pop Culture

There were a variety of sales and a variety of items this weekend. At one community sale I went to I had a box that I was putting stuff in. There were a lot of volunteers who kept asking me if I wanted to put my box in the hold area. I don’t trust the hold area. Two years ago I had a very bad experience with the hold area and a chess set. I also know that where there is confusion things in the hold area sometimes end up back in the selling area. I know everyone has good intentions but I just like to hold my stuff. I ending up saying that “No thank you. I’m trying to see how much I can carry.” I found a couple of Betty Crocker pie cover Cookbooks and a large heavy mid century sculpture. My box was quite heavy. The sculpture reminded me of one I found last summer except this one is smaller. It was marked $10.

The hard covered books were $1. I have sold this cookbook before and found 2 this time. Unfortunately they don’t have the chapter dividers but they still should sell. I am hoping for $25.

I love to find vintage pin cushions. Last year I found a half doll pin cushion. I think this bluebird and nest pin cushion is very sweet.

The last two vintage mohair Teddy Bears I found sold for $19 each and I found two more this weekend! These are small bears that measure about 8″.

Another vintage plush I picked up was this Minnie Mouse. She is marked Walt Disney Productions. She is also small at about 6″.

Keeping with the vintage theme, I spotted a pan on a table that looked like Pyrex but I didn’t recognize the pattern. I flipped it over and saw that it was in fact marked Pyrex. Many Pyrex pieces don’t sell for much and this one had dark staining on the handles so I left it. After shopping for a while I walked back and saw that the piece was still there so I looked up “Pyrex Black Rooster” and it turns out to be a hard to find pattern.

The last vintage item I’m going to share is this wooden pull string soldier who actually bangs on his drum when you pull him along. He is made to look older then he is and is marked 1983.

I also bought some pop culture items this weekend. These Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures from the 80’s came in a ziploc marked $2.

This is a Pokemon Pikachu virtual pet. I grabbed it because it was $1 and new in the package, not knowing if it had any value. I later realized that it had good value, especially in a pristine package. Maybe if I had known that I would not have put it in a place in the trunk of my car where the front of the package got damaged. I succeeding in decreasing it’s value by about half. Yay me.

I also picked up a Game Boy which unfortunately is missing the battery cover and a Pokemon game. These items cost $2. I hardly ever find things like this anymore because there are so many people looking for vintage video game items. I think the reason I got these was because I was at a tag sale in a very quiet rural area. This was in the afternoon on the second day of the sale too.

Those are the finds for this mid July weekend. I wish summer could last forever!

Festival of Finds from Tag Sales

Last week I wrote about how hard it was for me to find items to resell at tag sales and this week most of my finds are from tag sales. I went to one church sale that was in a parking lot and was pretty bad but I found one item. It is this vintage game called Park and Shop by Milton Bradley from 1960. Years ago I purchased this game but it was in bad shape with many missing pieces but I learned about it. What I learned was that, in good condition, this game can do well. This one seems to be complete, down to the booklet that shows the Milton Bradley games available to the customer in 1960!

After that sale I hit a bunch of yard sales where I found some items. This New York City water globe features the Twin Towers as well as other iconic NYC buildings. When you wind it up it plays “New York, New York” and the subway train goes around. I believe this was made before 9/11.

I picked up this toy replica wrestling belt. I heard that they can sell well and this one is still in the package.

At this same sale I saw a pair of Tory Burch shoes marked $1. I didn’t know if they were real but for $1 I took a chance and they appear to be authentic. I don’t buy shoes too often unless I recognize the name and they usually take a while to sell for me.

By coincidence I found another Tory Burch item at another sale. I have never purchased anything Tory Burch before and this weekend I bought two! This is a bag and I am still researching to try to figure out if it is authentic.

The last item that I found at tag sales this weekend is this Cookie Carousel cookie jar. It was on a free table but you had to buy another item to get something off of the free table. The lady was surprised that I only wanted an item from the free table but she sold it to me for $3. I think it is from the 1950s and it is very sweet!

I had a good pick up at the thrift store this week which was this Dansk pepper mill. I have sold several different styles of these. It has a cool mid century modern design.

Sales have been pretty consistent lately. Here are some sales of recently posted items:

Lot of 10 Christmas plush figures: $49.99.

Longaberger game basket: $34.99

Tiffany cat box: $29.99

Clown bear: $19.99

Little Einstein figures: $19.99

Alice from Twilight Barbie doll: $59.99 (with free shipping)

Jane from Twilight Barbie doll: $32.99 (with free shipping)

Tatty worn out bear: $19.99

Plush Aristocats cats: $18.99

Hoping for some good sales to go to next week! Have a good week everyone!!

Giant Tinker Toys and Misfit Toys!

Happy Fourth of July everyone. Too bad that means hardly any sales for me to go to. I just went to a few tag sales on Saturday. They were all the kind of tag sales where I can’t find items for resale. Some of them I call the “Home Goods” tag sales. Its when someone has decorated their house all in items from Target, Walmart or Home Goods and is now selling all that stuff. The other kind is when the person is a retired antiques dealer and is selling their stuff still with the price tags from their antique store and the prices are the same as years ago before Ebay when everything was more valuable. This man had a Pepper doll. I think you can get about $10 for them on a good day. He had it priced at $50. He said it was negotiable. Oy.

I made one purchase at the first sale I went to. I bought ten Rudolp the Red Nosed Reindeer plush. Many of these characters are from the Island of Misfit Toys. Unfortunately none of these have their original tags which greatly affects their value. I only paid $3 so hopefully I can still make a good profit. Maybe I have to wait until it is closer to the holiday season.

At the thrift store I picked up 2 yards of patriotic fabric for $3. It’s too bad that I didn’t find this before the fourth of July. It is marked Old Glory Tablecloth so I imagine it would easily be made into a tablecloth. A few weeks ago at a rummage sale I found another fabric which features old fashioned pastoral scenes. I am putting each listing up for $20.

Another item that I bought several weeks ago but didn’t photograph until now is this set of giant Tinker Toys. They are from the 1970s and are about 4x as big as the normal Tinker Toys. I wasn’t going to get them because of all the headaches that are going to be involved with shipping these but the guy only wanted $5 for them. They seem to sell pretty well but I have to figure out the shipping cost. This set is very heavy!!

Since I didn’t find a lot of new items this weekend I have been trying to list items that I have been avoiding and those are what I have been sharing with you. I hope that everyone in the US has a happy Fourth of July and that everyone else is enjoying some good weather!

Vintage Teddy Bears, Tupperware and Tiffany!

I attended several community sales this weekend and found a variety of items. I don’t usually pick up Tupperware but I was at a church sale where I wasn’t finding much. This set had the lines on the covers which I believe indicate that it is the Servalier style of Tupperware. What sold me though were the retro colors!

I was looking through a box of plush and found this tatty looking little bear. He looks like mohair to me. He has no tags but looks quite old. Some people like these old bears. He has a sweet face.

I found another cute bear in much better condition which also appeared to be mohair. He is dated 1989 and marked Sue Foskey “Wee Three Clowns”. He is only about 8″ tall and is wearing a clown hat and collar. I put him up for $19 and he sold in a few hours. He was $1.

I was surprised that this pair of 6″ plush cats from Disney’s Aristocats sold quickly for $18. They are Thomas O’Malley and Duchess. Some Aristocats items can do well. When I looked these two up they individually didn’t seem to sell very well so I put them together and it seemed to help.

To continue the toy theme, I picked up some Sonic the Hedgehog items and some Little Einstein figures.

This small Kokeshi doll is only about 2 1/2″ tall and is part of the Kimmidoll collection. She is made of hard plastic and people collect the various figures in this group. This one is Sachi. She was 50 cents.

I like this Smokey the Bear baseball cap and also picked up a stamped cross stitch kit for a tablecloth. I didn’t realize until I brought it home that the tablecloth had already been started. People say that they can still sell like this so we’ll see.

These last two items from a church sale were my best items for the weekend. The first is a white ceramic cat trinket box marked Tiffany 1977. The second is a Longaberger game basket that includes tic tac toe and solitaire pieces that look like golf tees. Both items were marked $1.

I almost had a third great item but it was not meant to be. Here is the story. There was a seasonal holiday section where they had “fill a bag for $5.” For me, $5 at a sale is a lot of money and most of the stuff was just contemporary holiday decorations. I spotted a Royal Doulton Beatrix Potter figure which I have sold before. I picked it up and asked if I could just buy this piece for a price instead of doing the whole bag thing. Then I get the old “Can I see that? Oh no. This is Royal Doulton! We have to get our professional pricer and put this in the boutique area.” Sigh. I should have just filled up a bag, thrown that in and paid $5. She was not the only mean lady at this sale. I also got yelled at for putting some plush on the floor. There was a plush box piled high. As I was looking through I put some on the floor so I could see the ones underneath. So this woman comes over as says to me “Are you making this mess?”. Sigh again.

Those are the exciting highlights of this weekends shopping! I hope you all are having fun and finding wonderful treasures!!