This Week’s Vintage Finds #66

Hi everyone! I had so much fun this past Friday–I shopped three estate sales and found some great vintage goods. If it weren’t the middle of February, I would have said the “season” had begun, but I’m pretty sure it was serendipitous–three sales, located near each other, on a frigid Friday morning. Not likely to happen again until April or May. I’ll just have to be satisfied with this special treat.

My absolute favorite buy is this basket. It’s a quality piece, and I sense from handling it that it has some age, but I’m not sure how much. It’s in good very good condition over-all, with some staining on the right side that looks to be water damage. I want to conduct some research, but at this point, I’d price it at about $85.00

I’ve had good success selling vintage cookbooks with red and white covers. I’ll list this one for about $25-30. The honey jars were free, so I grabbed a few. I’m doing some organizing in a couple of rooms, and I thought they might come in handy.

I think this bread board is my second favorite buy of the day. It’s a nice large size (2′ x 2′) and it cleaned up nicely. I used Shaklee’s At Ease to remove some of the oily spots, and then gave it a nice rubdown with some mineral oil.

Don’t you just love the green around the edges? And, as you can see, it’s a nice chunky board, about 1 1/2″ thick. I will list it for approximately $35.00.

I found two flags at the same sale and I scooped them right up. Both are nicely aged–perfect for decorating, and one has appliqued stars (only 48 of them!), the other’s stars are embroidered. I’ve done well in the past selling flags, and these two are among the nicer one’s I’ve had to sell. I will list the 48-er for $65.00 and the other for $35-ish.

I found another old grater that I’ll hang on to until I find one more. I like to put some lower valued items together in small collections; they often seem to sell better that way. These graters are only worth about $6-8.00 if sold separately.

I don’t buy many toys, but I thought this Breyer, black stallion (model #401) was just too handsome to pass up. Made sometime between 1981-88, he’s in perfect condition and probably worth about $30-35.00. I need to do a bit more research on him.

Speaking of not buying toys…one of the sales had boat loads of dolls. I spent a few minutes poking around those with lower prices. Vintage Mickey always does well and the Mint in Package (MIP) baby seemed like it might be worth a try. It would make a super cute gift for a mother-to-be who likes vintage. Don’t you think?

I pretty much buy any jar with a ground lid, if priced low enough. Same with cake stands, and this one is silver plated, so it really caught my attention. And you know I’m going to buy the flower frog, right? The small Royal Albert tidbit on the right came without a handle, but since I have a small collection of handles, I knew I’d find one to fit. And I did.

I have an almost endless supply of cake stands, but none are silver, so this purchase is completely justified.

I don’t have a clue who manufactured it, but the “E” and “P” at the end of the list of letters indicates that it’s electroplated silver, meaning it’s silver plate, rather than sterling. (If it were sterling, it would be marked sterling.)

In case you didn’t know what I meant by “ground stopper,” here’s a shot of the one I just bought. The edges of the lid and the inner lip of the jar have been roughed up a bit and look frosted rather than transparent.

This is the first metal, cage-type flower frog that I’ve found in a while. I don’t think it’s terribly old, but it’s worth about $12 or so, nonetheless.

This small greenhouse has so much potential. And I really needed another DYI project. She said with a straight face.

As I pulled everything out from the bags I brought home, I realized I had several office collectibles. The scissors with the leather case are marked “Stainless Steel,” nothing else.  I picked up the Mike Hoblock ruler (for free) to give to a good friend who collects political memorabilia. The green thingy that looks a bit like a stapler, is actually a hole punch, marked “Tatum.” I’ve never seen one like it. I’ll list the scissors sheathed in leather for $15.00, keep the smaller pair, and save the hole punch to list with a collection of other, similar office supplies.

I bought thermos #4 and #5 on Friday’s shopping adventure (the two on the left). The thermos on the right (don’t you love the design?) came home with me late last fall. Obviously when I found its match, I had to introduce them to each other. The squatty blue one is just plain sweet, and so functional. Perfect for sending hot foods to school or work.

Aladdin manufactured both of them, so I guess it makes sense that the colors match. Aren’t they perfect together? Poppa and Momma Thermos. Okay, it’s officially time for bed(!). (FYI: I spent $35.00 on all my purchases this week.)