Hey, flea-market and yard-sale shoppers: let's start a "My Greatest Find" thread!

[Richard Steele]

You know what I mean- like that time you found a 14k diamond
necklace in the "everything 25¢" pile of costume jewellery?

I'll start; here are a few of my all-time "best finds".

I have a 100% cashmere overcoat I got at a local thrift store for
$25.

(My Sweetie's dad has a similar one he paid $750 for, and it's
not quite as nice as mine. He's said so himself.)



My little Starrett 0-1" micrometer was $10 at an antique store;
The model is still in production and currently lists at over $120.

Can't measure tiny stuff accurately without one of those!




We found one of these at an antique store for $300; we just wanted
a "cool looking" vintage record player that had stereo jacks to
connect to the rest of our system:


I was VERY surprised when we got it home and I looked it up
online! I thought we had paid too much for a piece of space-agey
1970s plastic kitsch; Turns out, the Weltron model 2005 is a rare
and collectible item that generally sells for QUITE a bit
more than $300, if you can even find one.




And just the other week, we found a pair of these for $50 apiece:



Old Motorola™ power-supply cabinets from the NC State Police HQ;
I'm guessing they powered the main radio-room, way back when the
car radios were huge boxes filled with vacuum tubes. They're empty
now, but I'll soon build shelves for them to hold our music
collection and probably some of our living-room electronics.


So, that's my favorite four "finds". There are many others.
What great and wonderful things have you guys found
at ridiculously cheap prices here and there?

[Stinky The Clown]

1. Noritake 'The Metz' service for 12, complete except for the coffee cups .....

.... for $40 at auction. The pattern dates to 1912. The set was in exceptional condition and includes many serving and specialty accessories.



We have a house full of antiques so its hard to say what our killer finds were. There have been a few.

Sparkly got a very special book on music theory by a very collectible author, but this one has very, **very** special illustrations by a hugely collectible illustrator. She paid a few bucks for it and they sell for scads more.

I got a pen just like this 1932 or 33 Parker Duofold Streamline in Lapis Blue for $1.00 at an antiques shop. It cost me another $1.50 in parts to restore it. I have no idea what the current value is, but in the heydays of pen collecting it was well in excess of $1,000.



We have some furniture that fits the criteria but I have no pictures of it. Its mostly high quality Depression era stuff.

[grasswire]

2. I love the turntable.

Wow. I've never seen one like that. I've been looking for an old console stereo -- the piece of good furniture type. No luck yet. Maybe I'll look for one of these puppies.

[Vinca]

3. Sorry I don't have pictures because I've sold the greatest finds

to pay the bills. I found a North Dakota School of Mines decorated vase for 50 cents (sold for $750), a Saturday Evening Girls Calendar Stand and Inkwell for $4.00 (sold for $2,150), a miniature Oscar that was used as a table decoration at the Academy Awards in the 1930s for $150 (sold for $5,000) and a few other things. It broke my heart to sell the pottery and I held onto it as long as I could afford to, but that's life. This year's "greatest find" has been a Viking sewing machine, which I needed because the old one died. I paid $18 plus $100 for a cleaning for a nearly new machine that would have cost about $1,000. By the way. How do you put a photo in a posting? I sort of understood how to do it if you put your photo on a server, but can you put them directly from your computer?

[Longhorn]

4. No, you have to upload your photos to another site first.

I use www.photobucket.com. It's free.

You obviously know what you're doing to pick up those items and sell for such a tremendous profit! :hi:

[Vinca]

5. Thanks for the info.

I started doing this in the late 1990's after putting my first find on ebay. It was an old dancing school trophy from "Miss Frisbee's Dancing School" and I remember being dumbstruck when my quarter find sold for about $70. Right after that I put a sheet of old paper dolls on that I had found at the dump and it sold for almost $200. I was hooked. Sadly, ebay isn't what it used to be, but I bet you'd look long and hard for a "Miss Frisbee" trophy.:rofl: (Today I'm in tag sale withdrawal meltdown because it's pouring rain. AAARRRGGGHHH!)

[Richard Steele]

6. It's always been sad when I've had to sell neat stuff to pay the bills.

Sounds like you're much better at it than I, though;
those are some pretty impressive returns on your investments!

[Vinca]

7. It's absolute luck and nothing more and the past year hasn't been

very lucky. It seems like everybody and their brother (mother, aunt, grandma, uncle, sister) is selling on ebay. Going to yard sales is a nightmare and you're taking your life in your hands at a church bazaar. LOL. It's probably the lousy economy that's got everyone "picking." I try to learn about obscure things other people won't notice and sometimes that pans out.

[grasswire]

8. this is what I love about this "pedlar" trade...

...there is always something to learn and research, every single day! What the heck is "Saturday Evening Girls"?

And I can't stress enough for newbies the value of research. Examples where observation/research has paid off for me:

I bought an autograph book from the 1850s. I looked carefully at every name signed in that book. I found the name of a famous religious leader there. The location matched up with the known locale of the religious leader. I included the info in the listing and sold the book for lots more than otherwise.

In a box of very old books, I found a beat-up theological book several centuries old. It had come disbound, and everything was jumbled and out of order. I happened to see that inside the front cover the owner had signed the name "C. Wesley." I listed it on eBay with the caveat that I had no way of authenticating the signature as that of Charles Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church. A specialist in religious antiquarian books bought it from me for a nice price, and did authenticate the signature. That was cool. It might have otherwise gone in the junk bin if I hadn't been careful in observation.

Research and observation -- tools that will bring a seller much more money.

[demgrrrll]

9. SEG is Arts and Crafts pottery. Boston I think.

[zabet]

10. Good finds by me...

Quarter sawn oak bow front china cabinet, Empire style, all original for $213.00 at
an Estate Auction. The lamp is a brass Bradley and Hubbard slag glass floor lamp with
cigar box holder and ashtray. Original except for brass ring that holds the shade in
place, replacement is solid brass. All for $25.00 at another local bi-monthly auction.


Matching pair of Northwood Glass Company, Amethyst carnival glass, vases in the
tree trunk pattern, early 1900's, immaculate condition. I actually lucked up on these
on ebay, they were improperly listed...got both of them for $32.00.

I have lots of good finds, still waiting on a great one. :)

[Richard Steele]

12. That's a REALLY nice cabinet.!

Your pic is a bit blurry, but I can see the nice big "flake" pattern in that oak.
That's some first-rate wood right there!

Plus, it looks like that still has the original tiny roller-feet.
EVERYONE threw those feet away, back in the day. Originals are
worth their weight in...well, not quite "gold", but way more than silver!

[grasswire]

14. so what replaced the rollers?

I can imagine those rollers were hell on hardwood floors.

[Richard Steele]

15. Usually, NOTHING. They threw the wheels away and forgot about them.

By the post-WWII era, when that "Arts and Crafts" furniture was old enough
that people started refinishing/restoring it, the "Greatest Generation"
was scratching its collective head wondering why all their Grandma's
old fumed-oak furniture had those little 1/4" holes drilled straight up through
the feet.

And YES, they were hell on the varnished hardwood. (and they didn't "roll"
worth a damn on carpet, either.)
That's probably one of the biggest reasons that EVERYONE removed them
and threw them away so quickly.

Some folks have argued that they were INTENDED to be a TEMPORARY convenience;
that the fellows who DELIVERED new furniture would roll it into place and then
remove the rollers and hand them to the purchaser, to set aside until
they needed to move the piece again.

I've never seen any conclusive PROOF of that, but I can see how it might
be a valid hypothesis. So much of that stuff was INCREDIBLY well-designed,
but the rollers so often look like an afterthought, IMHO. As if the
designer had paid no more thought to them than the packing case the piece
might be shipped in, knowhutImean?

[zabet]

17. They are hard on hard wood floors but,

I really do not roll it around much. :)
the 10 piece dining room set I have has the same wheels
but the wheels are wooden. I also have period vaseline
glass furniture coasters under the wheels. Just have
not got enough to do all my pieces with yet. :)

If you ever find a good piece missing the wheels, they still sell
the replacements (with brass or teflon wheels) at Lowes. They can
be 'aged' with a solution purchased at a crafts store if you want
them dark.

[zabet]

16. Thanks!

Yes it does have the little wheels on it, I also have a
table with a tri-fold mirror on top that matches it - with
the wheels.
I really suck with this latest digital camera I purchased.
When I purchased my first digital, it used a floppy disc,
I liked it and could take pics pretty good with it. Alas,
a 3.5 floppy is obsolete. This is my 2nd camera and it looks
like I just cannot be still enough without a tripod to snap
a clear photo.

[Love Bug]

11. A carved jade pendant for $10

I found a carved jade pendant in one dealer's "broken jewelry and single earring shoe box" at a flea market. It's green and lavender jade, about 2.5" long by 2" wide, carved on both sides and with a 14KT bail. I wasn't sure it was jade -- it could have been dyed onyx -- but the dealer only wanted $10 for it and I liked it, so I bought it. A couple of months ago I showed it to a jade dealer at a bead and jem show and he offered me $200 for it on the spot. I'm sure he would have marked it up by at least double to resell, so I think it's probably really worth $500-600.

I also once got a one-gross box of 10mm round rose swarovski beads for $30. That's $.21 each for beads that sell for at least $1 in a bead shop.

[Richard Steele]

13. Sounds like you've got a gift for finding jewellery!

I don't have that knack myself, but I once had an SO who did.

Every time (not exaggerating- EVERY SINGLE TIME!) we went to
a flea market or spent a Saturday morning hitting yard sales,
she came across some real "find".

She paid a quarter for a small gold chain that she resold for $25
to a scrap-gold buyer. Just an average day for her.

On a visit back to my hometown, we hit the indoor flea market that
every dealer within 100 miles had picked over 100 times...and she
paid $10 for a big ugly tarnished chain that ended in a flat grey stone
the size of my palm, with some dull red crystals in it.

The chain was 1/2 pound of sterling, and the pendant was a bunch of
semi-precious ruby crystals left uncut in their matrix stone. She
turned down an offer of $300 from a high-end "retro-kitsch" dealer,
just because she liked wearing it.

She had some special jewellery- magic for that kind of thing, ItellyaWhut!

Me, I once found a 10k class-ring with my metal detector;
took me 18 months and $45 worth of AA batteries to do it! :rofl:

[zabet]

18. I noticed

your mention of stereo equipment. I have an old reel to reel
tape player in excellent condition if you are interested in it.
It is heavy and well made, I am tired of trying to find a home
for it. It would be so expensive to ship is why I have not tried
to ebay it.

[Love Bug]

19. I guess so!

I recall now buying some crystal pendants for cheap in a junk shop that ended up being ones made by a designer that usually go for $60-$120 each.