Saturday, April 9, 2016

An Auction + $50.00 = A Whole Lotta Junk

 As you smart people probably gathered from my title, I went to the auction today, and I spent $50.00 (actually $49.06 if we're being technical) Today was Saturday so it is a general auction, little bit of everything. They do a general auction every Saturday and an antique & collectible auction every other Wednesday. Both fun for different reasons. The general auction is usually cheaper and both outdoors and indoors. The outdoor stuff is mostly box lots so you can sorta see what box your bidding on but a lot is wrapped up or buried at the bottom so you always have surprises, fun!! I bought 6 boxes today. Warning: This post is long and picture heavy. 

Box one was BIG (so big that I had to break it down into several smaller boxes so I could lug it to my truck)
Made up of several smaller boxes. All full of these...
New (but vintage)  latch hook rug making kits.
There were 12 different rug kits. Complete with instructions. They didnt show a picture of the completed rug which was a bummer but still an awesome find. Total for the whole shebang was $3.00. When I looked them up on eBay I was shocked at what they sell for. I have them listed at $100 each and I had watchers within 5 minutes, score!!

Box two was also HUGE and was full of mostly new vintage Christmas items. Yes, mostly new vintage Christmas! Whoot!
. Yeah. A crap ton of stuff. Here are a couple highlights
Plastic (realistic) deer
Elves riding deer
Flocked, googly eyed, scary a$$ deer, (and some Santa's)

See what I mean? 

A pile of wooden new in package ornaments (75 of them, cuz of course I counted)

These birds were charming 

Also fond of the snowmen ones

Lots of these Woolworth faux stained glass ornaments (totally had these as a kid)

Lights. Not terribly old but they do have the little plastic petal reflectors on them


This was my favorite find in the box. A complete nativity set in original box marked Made in Italy. They are like chalk ware but heavier. (Plaster perhaps?)  Also stamped on the bottom Italy.  Love that green straw they are packed in. 

One box of Shiny Brites

And one box of these older ornaments. They are marked Austria and 5 were broken. So sad :(
Plus lots of random thing, tree toppers, wooden rocking horses, etc. Some will go to goodwill, most will go to eBay, and I am keeping ONLY the nativity set. Ok, maybe a random snowman. And the Shiny Brites. But that's it! 

Box three was called the Glass Box, and you guessed it, it was full of breakables. Not my favorite thing to sell and ship but I saw some promising items sticking out
Here's all of it unpacked. Most had antique store tags so my guess is someone closed their booth down and took the leftovers to the auction (I can relate) 
My favorite was the green Lusterware creamer and sugar. 

Vases and bowls and some fugly pumpkins 
Figurines, a Capodimonte bell, Stangl pottery handle tray, and white candle holder. 

I'm keeping two items out of the glass box lot. Can you guess which two? 
This super cute little pink pottery vase. 


And this. I didn't know what it was but luckily there was a sticker price tag on it that said what it was. Do you know?
It's an inkwell! Love it :)

Ok box 4 was Random box of crap. Truly, it was just full of oddball junk. I bid on it because a) it was only $3.00 and b) it had this inside...
A cute doll made out of vintage chenille pipe cleaners! Her muff is out of place. Must move muff, moving on...

Here is the rest of the "random crap" box .a few sellable items 
Marble base toothbrush holder. I think? 

Fitz & Floyd coffee cup
These weird little decorated boxes. Had no idea what they were. Turns out they are...
Matchboxes! S'cute :)

Also keeping these Holt Howard teeny tiny plates
Which are actually for butter pats! Who knew butter needed its own tiny plate? The things ya learn!
The rest of the box was mostly junk or stuff I didn't need but still usable so it's headed to Goodwill. 

Box 5 (are ya still with me?) was my priciest box. I was bidding against  another lady for it and it went up to $17.00 before she finally backed out and bowed down to my master bidding skillz. 
(Probably she just thought I was dumb for paying $17.00)

A whole box of those beaded ornament making kits. I got about 25 of them and they sell well so I'll easily make my money plus a nice little profit. So take that lady who bid me up. 

My last box was The Man Box. Some rando tools, rope, screws, nails, other stupid stuff. I'm sure there was a reason I bid on it but I can't recall why. Whatever, it was $2.00 and you can never have enough nails and screws right? I'll spare you pics. 

So that was my big adventure today. If you've never been to an auction and bid on a box of randomness, give it a try. It's sure fun finding out what ya got! But bring a guy with you, because the lugging boxes to your truck by yourself while many dudes look on but do not offer to help you is not fun.