2014 Urban Safari Hunting Hauls (Garage Sale, Thrift Stores, Craigs, Rummage...)

[justzeg18]

Nice. I saw a loose 6mdm yesterday at value village but it was in a display case so I didn't bother to inquire about it. Usually being in their displayer's is a sigh of something being unreasonably marked up. Were you in Ontario?

I was very surprised that this was just on a shelf mixed in with all the other toys. The few times I find vintage boxed toys that slip through the cracks, they are normally mixed in w/ the board games and puzzles. I guess fast paced sorters just tossed them all together.

Nope, not in Ontario. My finds are 99% of the time in good ol' Flint Michigan.

[justzeg18]

Nice pickup. I usually don't find anything at Goodwill. You can even save the box with the duct tape on it. Hair dryer on low heat will loosen the glue. Should come off after it is loosened up. Then goo gone the glue residue off and you will have a nice box afterwards.

I was curious about the old duct tape as I always use heat to remove stickers and packing tape. When I tried a small section upon getting him home, the residue was SO gooey I wasn't sure if it would come off without a real hassle. I just let it sit as is for a bit.

[shazam7208]

Nice pick up and sure can't beat that price! Congrats!!!

[mikeMc6]

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Got these from a local hoarder house, definitely worth the two hours of digging in an unkempt cat infested house with forty years of no kitty litter boxes! (I wore a mask and gloves)
It's been a while since I found action figure cases with figs and weapons in them, wow! Palitoy Death Star cardboard is neat too. No blockbuster finds but well worth the $33 dropped on these items.
I'm gonna help the owner sell his higher end collectibles and in return he gave me deals on the "junk toys." Nice! (Not pictured includes a Big Jim, bag of loose 80s Joes, other random fantasy figs and a chewie plush doll) And yes both myself and the Bionic woman are mortified by Steve Austins wandering bionic eye...that was unintentional!

Oh yeah, the stack of oversized art photography books I got at a local garage sale, pm me if your a high end collector of these (that Edward Weston book is rare)...these books are gonna pay for me new laptop I need, ha!

[drquest]

Found these all in the same flea market shop.

Mego CHIPS, Big Jim clothes and accessories and a small container of vintage Joe stuff.



Also found this.... Who can tell me why it is an interesting thing to buy?

[SentientApe]

Also found this.... Who can tell me why it is an interesting thing to buy?

Not unless you also have a DeLorean...

[drquest]

Not unless you also have a DeLorean...

Why yes a Delorean would be very helpful with Mr. Fusion

[MegoSteve]

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This morning's flea market haul. I went back to this guy's table three times... had to hit a cash machine between visits 2 and 3.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I went to "Kentucky's Largest Flea Market" last weekend. The most interesting thing they had was a loose 60s parachute Batman figure, which I already own. The rest of the mall seemed to be filled with nothing but Asian market knock-off toys. Ugh.

Chris

[MegoSteve]

It's weird, but I rarely see knockoff figures in my neck of the woods. I wouldn't mind running across some weird Superman bootlegs.

[SentientApe]

A garage sale yesterday, an auction today and a flea market tomorrow. I need to catch up with posting in this thread...

[Splitty]

Puppet. Clown. $3.
Nightmares = Free




...I found alot more things, but they are requiring ALOT more cleaning and fixing before photo time.

Meanwhile, ENJOY!

[SentientApe]

Still catching up...

I must acknowledge that "blogging" these antiquing adventures in this Thread has been rather helpful. As can clearly be seen, my wife and I do a LOT of antiquing, flea marketing and auctioning, but we continually rue our lack of journal-keeping which would help us remember WHICH store we visited and WHAT sorts of treasures/junk are contained within. We did better in on our almost-monthly excursions along Illinois' Route 55 over the past several years, but those habits did not translate to our searches elsewhere. However, my interest in sharing these finds has prompted me to take more photographs as well as keep more organized notes.

Back to the ongoing adventures...

The four-day Independence Day weekend held a lot of activities for us. On Thursday, my wife and I decided to again hit the antiques-rich area around South Beloit, IL. The first place we visited was "Boberosa Barnworks" in Capron. We had previously known about this place, but always ran out of time before going there -- we learned that this had been a mistake, as it turned out to be well worth a stand-alone trip.

You MUST admit.... this looks promising --



In front of the warehouse-sized building, there is a "Bargain Barn." Also: promising. Yes, that is the hood of a car acting as an awning...



"Here honey.... let me get your photo!"



I still need that ever-elusive telephone booth for my collection, but I realize that it is completely impractical. However, now I know where to purchase one...



We picked up a few small items from Boberosa Barnworks (an enamelware Bell jar funnel for one), but the BIG purchase was an old barn door; I need the wood to replace the decorative door on our shed. Here's a photo of the purchased barn door just before disassembly --



I must say that the merchandise was very well displayed at Boberosa Barnworks, which always makes shopping a pleasure. The other thing I took away from this location is an ingenious idea for displaying some of my own antique telephones. You can expect to see my own version of this photo in the future --




Our second stop was "Rags to Vintage," a store we had visited once before. Again, who can resist THIS?



I must question these Abraham Lincoln salt/pepper shakers... is it just me, or does something seem inherently wrong about flavoring your food with stuff sprinkled FROM THE HOLES IN THE BACK OF LINCOLN'S HEAD? Wow, almost 150 years and, somehow, this still seems too soon...



My wife picked up a couple metal Buddy-L trucks (of course) and a child-sized metal chair (which now adorns our garden -- of course). I purchased a set of Cyrillic (Estonian) spice tins --



... but I was thrilled to obtain this South American chess set, whose pieces are Conquistadors vs. Aztecs --



Our third stop of the day is one of our favorites in the area: "Angelas Attic" in South Beloit. This is a HUGE antique mall, and I know I have mentioned it in an earlier post. From this trip, I picked up an enraged Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man...



...a rifle-wielding paratrooping ape...



... and possibly the most useful item: a post-war Soviet gas mask and bag. the hose and filter are PERFECT for using with my WWII reenacting gear (this style of filter, similar to the wartime pattern, is very hard to find at a reasonable price). The bag has become my go-to "man bag"; the external pocket perfectly fits my cell phone case, and the bag will actually accommodate the large-format paperback of any of the "Game of Thrones" titles released to date.



But, with all of you in mind, I snapped some extra photos of items that I did NOT purchase, including: a 1:9 scale Breyer Appaloosa --



... a boxed Talking G.I. Joe --



... a "Gotham Happy Day Outing Kit just for Boys and Girls." Perhaps this is the perfect thing to give your gay children when they finally Come Out?



... a set of "Jarts," the inherently lethal metal lawn-dart game (actually, this photo was to win a Facebook Group argument where several members keep insisting that these dangerous things cannot be found for less than $100) --



Another example of a PERFECT display case to showcase antique telephones --



...and a wartime "Hitler is a stinker" heavy metal paperweight/doorstop --




Out last stop for the day -- specifically because it was staying open an hour after all the other places were closed -- was the "Bargain Barn". Do not let the name or the facade fool you -- this is a large warehouse full of junk. However, if you look hard, or you have seriously lowered your inhibitions and/or expectations, you can actually find some stuff --



My wife purchased only one thing: a Santa mug; I am surprised she found anything at all. I picked up a loose-strung naked 1970s [B]Gabriel "Butch Cavendish" Lone Ranger action figure[B], one of those 1960s "Weird-Ohs," and -- certainly one of the most unlikely items ever -- a FULL bottle of "Sea & Ski" suntan lotion. Yes: that is SPF 4 -- just about the same thing as using nothing at all.

[SentientApe]

The day after Independence Day (that's July 5, for those not from the U.S.) was again the monthly Kane County Flea Market. As might be expected, my purchases were random and eclectic. They included...

... an Asian Coin Sword --



... a Mego Batman in surprisingly good condition and what is either an antique eyewash cup or, perhaps, Batman's incredibly awesome oversized Pimp Cup?



...a "Porky Pine" Pogo figure (I am amassing another set of these as a Christmas gift for a friend) --



...a MIB 6" Ghostbusters "Rookie" figure



... a 1928 $2 bill --





... and, of course, yet another Cricket bat because, apparently, I don't already have more than enough of them --




En route home after the flea market, we had to finish up some planned birthday shopping at a local gardening supply center. I picked up a quaint little "Fairy garden" decoration, which later proved to be a useful terrarium accessory for my baby toad rescue program --

[SentientApe]

The third Wednesday in July was again that weekly evening auction that I mentioned previously. THIS one, however, is the auction about which many regulars are still talking, because THIS was when that sizeable collection of large-scale Halloween decorations came up for sale. Before we get to the oft-discussed highlight of the auction, I need to first share some of the other items we acquired...

I picked up my choice of a couple more beer tap pulls --



I won a mixed lot of random brass/copperware, which included several oil cans and other interesting items --



...one of the items in that lot requires further research. It is a (formerly) silver-lined drinking mug, with various stamp marks, including "1891" and "VR" (Queen Victoria) --



My wife lost out on her favorite of the various flats of miniature oil lamps, a type of collectible which first came to our attention earlier this year when visiting the oil-lamp-rich Amish area of Ohio. However, she approached the winning bidder and offered him $5 for the one that she liked the most, and was able to make a sweet deal --



I won a heavy jar filled with WWII-dated US coins; most of these were pennies (both copper and 1943 steel ones), but there were also several silver dimes and other valuable ones --



Ever since I was a kid, I have always likes those stupid bronze-coated cheap pencil sharpeners (don't judge me!!) and used to always pick one up as a souvenir on our family vacations. I don't know what happened to the ones I owned, but I always look at them when I see them in antique stores or flea markets. So, naturally, I could not resist bidding on (and winning) this lot of them when they came up for auction.



I picked up a lot of die-cast metal models and plastic model parts --





Specifically for decorating one of our bedrooms, my wife picked up an attractive framed canvas print...



...as well as an interesting lamp...



She also scored a mysterious large (oil?) can--



...as well as a quaint children's picnic basket --



While it turned out to be a nightmare for the two of us to transport, we also scored an extremely large and useable cabinet --



Possibly one of the best values I have ever found at an auction is the "choice" pair of pocket watches I picked after my winning bid of $8 each. One of these had a $100 price tag on the back, but I think that was a pipe dream of the former owner. A quick trip to Walgreens for a replacement battery, and the "$100" watch is now my everyday timepiece.



With the evil intent of making this into the perfect too-big-to-be-good wrapped gift for our family's Christmas "Yankee Swap" tradition, I bid on a large velvet painting of a Doberman pinscher. I am unsure whether I am happy or sad that I dropped out of the bidding... but my family members can breathe a sigh of relief. Or perhaps not, as now I have a goal...



But... without any doubt, the biggest attraction of the night were the dozens of up for auction. Among the life-sized items were a witch and the torso (just from the waist-up) of a horned demon. EVERYTHING was impressive -- but when the bidding started, the crowd became rowdy, mischievous and silly. The auction was by "choice," which meant that the high bidder got his/her pick of any of the items, as many as they wanted, at that price per item. The item handlers started getting goofy running around with the "ghosts" and severed limbs, and the audience would shout out their opinions of which items the winning bidder should select. Sometimes these multiple-hour auctions gets tiresome, but this one was ironically infused with life while fighting over icons of death.

I was only able to get two winning bids. For the higher "choice," I picked both the full-body battery-powered crawling zombie...



...and spooky [B]spook[B]. This following photo was taken after I stored the spook in the rear of my garage. This means that when I back my car into my garage space, THIS is what I see in my rear-view mirror. Every night.--



When the bids got lower, I was again able to jump in, and picked up this worm-riddled skull with juicy rubber brain --



Later, one of the winners was trying to divest himself of some of the unwanted items he had acquired within a large box won during the Hallowe'en decoration bonanza. I accepted from him the gift of a small winged demon --