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

[SentientApe]

This might be easier if I post my various 2014 finds in reverse order... starting with today.

My wife and I hit the local "Wolff's Flea Market" this morning, held in the spacious parking lot of the Allstate Arena (formely Rosemont Horizon). She found NOTHING (but it was a beautiful day, so no loss). I was looking for nothing particularly special, but I found a few good items.



I was able to get the Davy Crockett, broken-leg naked Superman and Lion Rock figure all from one dealer for $11. The Berghoff's beer tap pull is for my son, who collects these.

After the Flea Market, we hit a nearby antique store where I found the wrestling belt and Captain America shield (buried in a large bowl of "G.I. Joe Items = $3 each"), as well as the Mego Dorothy (which had been there the last time we went, but this time I snagged it for a specific project). At the antique store, my wife picked up a vintage black dress (which fits her and in which she looks awesome!) and a decorative windmill-bird for the garden. I also picked up a copy of Walt Kelly's "Pogo Peek-A-Book", which will be saved for a Christmas gift (it's never too early to start holiday shopping!).

[TomStrong]

Here is the rest of my haul from last weekend

Pete Maravich program from 1972, paid $14, sold for $180


Pete Maravich last home game with LSU, paid $14, sold for $225


LSU piggy bank, paid $5, sold for $50


Stroh's neon sign, paid $5, sold for $50


1929 Holton Saxaophone, paid $4, its up to $80 on eBay (may bring $200)


This license plate and 3 other Maravich programs, paid $40, sold for $300


(2) Mississippi State game used footballs, paid $20 for the pair, value unknown, one has a $25 bid on it


1969 Final Four Basketball program (featuring Lew Alcindor, aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). Paid $5, value ~$100

This mint Tom's Peanuts candy box, paid $1, not sure of value (no bids yet)

Cool score on the football. Mississippi State is my alma mater! Lot of blood, sweat and tears for the M.A.

[SentientApe]

Last weekend, my wife and I finally participated in a local "Barn Sale" to try and unload some of the items we have picked up over the years. Unfortunately, the event simply did not draw the crowds that were expected at this semi-annual event; while we did well, we did not sell off as much as we had hoped. While my wife sold items steadily through the two-day event, I only sold TWO items (and gave away one) -- one was a Barbie horse, but the other was an antique bicycle which made the whole weekend worthwhile.

Here's the Huffy Eldorado bicycle I unloaded, which makes room for the OTHER 1960s Huffy I purchased just a couple weekend earlier --



The event organizers were very pleased with the quality of items we brought; some of the other vendors had mostly "Garage Sale Junk", a few were professional vendors of commercial products. We ended up leaving a few of our items at the venue to be sold on commission.

A couple shots of our "booth" (that is me eating my breakfast in the first photo) --






But... this thread is about the items we found, right? In the spirit of the original topic, I made TWO purchases from two other vendors on the second day of the sale: an antique wall phone (yes, another phone for my collection) and a Parris cap gun --

[SentientApe]

Three weeks ago, over Father's Day Weekend, was the annual "More on 34" event. This is roughly 100 miles of flea markets, garage sales, yard sales -- combined with local fairs, festivals and fests -- along Highway 34 in Illinois. This is the second year my wife and I shopped during this event -- this time, we drove quite early in the morning to start in a distant town and spent the day shopping back along the route towards home.

We ended up stopping to browse, pick and shop at a few dozen locations during the day -- we drove slowly past countless others that did not appeal to us from the road. Some of these are junk/treasure-filled garages-turned-stores that are only opened up for perusal/picking/sale during this annual event. As usual, I only took photographs of the items I purchased; my wife's acquisitions (including a pair of Christmas yard decor reindeers) easily filled half of the car.

The following random items include: antique bicycle wrench; pair of military puttees; Boss Hogg and 007 cars; doll stand ideally suited for 8" figures -- only 25 cents!; military belt (which is already on hold for trade for a replica Maltese Falcon!); broken-knee Mego Bo Duke (only a quarter!); toy bear needed for a custom project; and a pair of toy horses -- one purchased solely for its saddle (the horse has since been given away), the other will be used as a Mego mount.



More random toys include a lot of Rankin-Bass "Rudolph" figures, a bag of Green Lantern (movie) figures, and some food-container erasers (purchased for use as props in photo dioramas). Also found were a 1920 German 50 pfennig, a pair of 1960s key ring license-plates, and an unusual Reader's Digest contest token.



Unarguably, my two greatest finds/deals of the day are:

-- a men's jean jacket (which actually fits me!!) for only $5 (this may not sound like a big deal to you, but I will getting almost-daily enjoyment from this one purchase for most of the remainder of 2014!) --



-- my largest and FINAL purchase of the day was an antique (circa 1960s) Huffy bicycle in absolutely cherry condition. The bicycle's previous owner had purchased a pair of bikes for himself and his wife, but they only ever sat unused in their garage for thew past few decades -- I was able to purchase this one (I didn't need the other) for his orginal purchase price, which is a fraction of its appreciated value.




Next year, we are considering making a late-night drive to the farthest point of the route and stay overnight at a hotel to get the other half of the places we have been unable to reach thus far.

[SentientApe]

As I continue to turn back the clock... each month on "the first Sunday and preceding Saturday" is held the extremely interesting and treasure-filled Kane County Flea Market. Hundreds of vendors offer just about anything you could possibly hope to expect at this monthly flea market. Hitting the event early on Saturday gives you the best opportunity to pick early and snap up the bargains, but attending on Sunday means you can often get a great deal from a vendor who just doesn't want to go through the bother of packing up the stuff that didn't sell.

I picked up only a few items, but all at great prices (IMHO). These included: two 1:9 scale Breyer horses; a pair of "Soakies" (Bugs Bunny and Sylvester); two Bill & Ted action figures; a handful of 1960s President figures; a MIB 9" Lt. Commander Data as Sherlock Holmes; a loose Mego Montgomery Scott; and -- my high-ticket item of the day -- Famous Monsters #80 with "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" cover story.

[SentientApe]

THAT ISSSS soooooo COoL...WEiRd ohs and NUTTY MADS rulE!

Then keep watching! I have a few recent finds coming up...

[mikeMc6]

1404152050169.jpg
These were grabbe1404152050169.jpggrabbed from two consecutive Sunday flea markets
The boxed aj was a nice surprise for $16, funny thing now I'm known as the toy show guy, its getting harder to haggle, ha
But I'm stuck at flea !markets for now as the baby is not into driving to thirty garage sales on Fridays...

[SentientApe]

Five Day Treasure Hunt through Ohio (Part One)

For roughly fifteen years, circumstances (mostly time conflicts) and geographical distance has prevented me from visiting the side of my family that lives in Ohio. The last time I went, my children were children, my youngest was not much more than a toddler; now the eldest has served a couple tours of duty, two are living on their own and my youngest is in college. For the entirety of our marriage, my wife has listened to me talk on and on about the wonderful antiquing treasures -- not to mention barn-picking opportunities -- we are likely to find there. Promises, promises, promises.

And it finally happened this year. With less than 2 weeks of actual planning, we cleared our respective schedules and set ourselves for a 5-day road trip to Ohio and back over an extended Memorial Day weekend. Taking neither a van nor a trailer, we absolutely filled my car; we actually needed to completely unload it and repack it (on my Aunt's and Uncle's front lawn) before our final day just to give ourselves some space for more stuff.

Our itinerary, as planned ahead of time and modified as the weekend progressed, was to leave on Thursday evening, stay in a hotel at the half-way point (Ft. Wayne, IN) and head back out early on Friday to arrive in Ohio and pick through my uncle's barn, before hitting additional antique stores/malls before stores closed that evening. Saturday would be dedicated to driving through scenic Amish country, which contained a large number of antique stores; later that evening, we even joined an auction halfway through the proceedings. We were able to hit two antique stores early on Sunday morning before a quick visit to an old family cemetery; the remainder of the day was dedicated to visiting with family, who had scheduled a barbecue in honor of us out-of-towners. Monday (Memorial Day) was to be our drive back, so we started the day with a five-ring(!) auction, hit a couple more Amish-area antique stores (the Amish do not recognize Memorial Day), and then a couple other places along the long drive back home.

Enough story! Let's get to the loot!

My uncle is planning on tearing down one of the barns on his property; he offered us free reign to pick through and take anything we found -- including the barn wood itself, if we cared to tear it down for him(!). My wife has long admired farm cultivators (typically two long plow handles, a plow blade and wheel), and there was a rare two-wheeled one in the barn!



...She also grabbed a partial picket fence from out of the barn. These considerably large items pretty much dictated the size and number of things we were able to grab for the remainder of the trip.




I also took from the barn a primitive wood plane, part of a block-and tackle and a few other small odds and ends. I passed up the old wheelchair, three bicycles, several old crocks and innumerable small items.




Additional items found during the entirety of our Picking Trip through Ohio include the following assortment of action figures. I was surprised to find the MIB 9" Star Trek figures in an Amish Antique Mall --



Red Sleeves was purchased together with a horse and the 1974 Gabriel "Prairie Wagon" (still no photo?); after returning home and upon sorting through everything, Red Sleeves revealed a hidden revolver that had been stashed down his trousers.



I also snagged a small collection of comic books, which were excellent late-night reading at our B&B --



Most of the choice items had already been sold at the Saturday night auction by the time we arrived. However, I was still able to snag a lot of model kits and a Hot Wheels case full of cars --






The Monday morning auction was a rewarding experience. We were literally running from one end of the event to the other to be sure we didn't miss anything in any of the auction's five rings. Among the items we purchased were the coffee grinder in the first photo (above), a lot of antique books, and a toy "Spelling and Counting Board"-- an item for which we had been searching/shopping for years. We also secured a few other boxed lots that we desired for only two or three things that were worth our winning bid, and we ended up sorting out many of the unwanted items and leaving them behind. One of those sorted-though boxes still sits in the garage, awaiting my attention.










There is so much more to this story, that I am going to have to leave this as: To Be Continued...

[SentientApe]

Five Day Treasure Hunt through Ohio (Part Two)

I need to clarify that I did not take photos of many of the items we brought back from Ohio... as I post these photos, I am reminded of the myriad small items that I simply slipped into my pockets, or tucked behind/under a car seat (there may be some still in there?), or unpacked by my wife before I could get to them. So this remains an overvierview of the highlights -- or the lowlights, depending on your point of view.

For the life of me, I cannot remember where/when she picked this up, but during our trip through Ohio my wife found a Buddy L truck in truly desireable condition --





The most expensive item we picked up was this absolutely beautiful antique Post Office clerk's window. The back of this has been wired to serve as a wall hanging, and we are still trying to decide on the perfect space for this extremely impressive piece --



The antique store in which we found the Post Office window was filled with an amazing collection of primitive items and other extremely old antiques -- a far better selection that we have encountered almost anywhere else through the years we have engaged in antique hunting. One of the items we had to pass up, but still deserved capturing in a photo, was this incredible antique bicycle --



Speaking of bicycles, our first-day acquisition of the Cultivator (see Part One, above) truly affected my decision to pass on the dozens of beautiful bicycles we encountered for sale at most of the locations we visited. Next time we travel to Ohio, I think I am going to save room for at least one --




Continuing on the topic of two-wheeled vehicles... the Memorial Day auction also had two motor-driven cycles. I had to capture them in a photo, but was glad to leave before they came up on the Block. I don't even want to know the winning bids these fetched --





However, the most incredible find (in terms of value, if nothing else) the entire weekend must be the WWII German Torn. E. b radio (regenerative TRF receiver) that I found buried in plain sight in an Amish Antique Mall - of all places! I prefer to not publicly divulge the price I paid, but I will say: it had a lower price tag than I typically see on single Mego figures. This is an EXTREMELY collectible item that I could not afford to pass up. While I collect WWII field communications equipment, I am presently looking to flip this to someone else in the hobby who will be willing to pay a fair market value -- this is worth between $750 - $1000 to the right person; now I just need to find that guy.



Perhaps no trip through Amish country is complete without picking up some preserves or baked goods or any of the other farm-prepared taste treats. We brought back a few items (some of which we polished off during the drive home), but I was could not pass up getting one jar of Old Fashioned FROG Jam. Jealous? I can just hear all of you licking your lips, saying: "Mmmm... frog!" --



... and it's even better than it sounds. MUCH better, if you think it's made from amphibians. The acronym F.R.O.G. stands for the main ingredients: Fig, Raspberry, Orange peel and Ginger. There was a similar Jam available: Hopping FROG Jam, which includes jalapenos in the recipe.


So... just a couple more stories here...

One of the places on our itinerary was a stop so my wife could peruse the 12-month-long 'Tis The Season Christmas store. Christmas is her absolutely favorite holiday, and she always spends extra-long whenever we find a seller of new or old Christmas ornaments and decorations. This store is a converted barn; the central (round) room is encircled with at least a score of fully-decorated Christmas trees. I captured this shot of her as she walked into the center of that room, displaying honest, overwhelming enthusiasm. She was literally shaking with excitement and, yes, those are tears in her eyes. Best husband ever?



And now I must confess what might possibly be the most embarrassing thing ever. One week earlier, we had attended a flea market. The day before we left for Ohio, I spent over an hour removing the several items that remained in the car in preparation for the treasure trove we hoped to find in Ohio. Every spare inch of space was needed -- there was no telling what we might find, and we still had to pack some snacks and beverages for the trip as well as our carefully-calculated overnight bags. It was only when we arrived in Ohio, and were preparing to pack the items we grabbed at the Barn Pick (see previous post) that I discovered - to my absolute horror -- that I never saw (and thus, brought with us) the overly-large and extremely tacky Payphone Lamp from the previous weekend. It had remained unseen wrapped in one of the tarps, and became a constant White Elephant through the remainder of the trip as we had to move it back and forth in our continual attempts to pack more items into the car.




Okay... This was probably more detail than anyone needed to hear, but I hope at least some of it was interesting. Anyone interested in searching for treasures in/around Wayne, Ashland and Homes counties in Ohio, please feel free to ask me for the names of some of the places we visited. There ARE treasures out there.

[Werewolf]

Five Day Treasure Hunt through Ohio (Part One)

Large size Jawa! Nice catch. I always thought that figure was kinda cute.

[SentientApe]

"Pec-Thing"

One of the largest and most rewarding flea markets in the Chicagoland area is the "Pec-Thing", held only a couple times each year in Pecatonica (a town adjacent to Rockford, IL). Hundreds of vendors are there and -- unfortunately -- the place is usually swamped with buyers. But it is well-worth the time. We try to attend this flea market each time and, on May 17 of this year, these are among the items I picked up...

A variety of items, including two Rambo Weapons Kits (my wife immediately asked me: "Are those accessories for your dolls?" and I merely replied: "Yes."); Pogo Beauregard Hound figure; a bag of random rubber cats (I have my reasons); Classics Illustrated #42: Swiss Family Robinson; a Potato Gun; and an enormous collection of Star Wars CommTech Chips and a Chip Reader. I have been collecting CommTech Chips for quite some time, and this set contained the remaining FIVE that were missing from my collection.



And, as a public service, here is the chart of weapons (and the not-so-accurate list of weapon origins) that are included in the Mego-scale Rambo Weapons Kit --



I had recently begun seeking out 1:9 scale horses upon which to mount some of my Planet of the Apes (and other) Mego figures. My continued search has slowly increased my practical knowledge regarding models, prices, etc., and I was able to add three Breyer horses to my herd at a total price that was less than for what ONE will normally sell. These have minor surface imperfections (paint wear) that will easily be corrected with fresh paint jobs. Bonus: I get to paint something!



All those hours spent in fruitless digs through boxes of loose toys at flea markets finally paid off when I found a Lion Rock figure for only twenty-five cents! He is missing a thumb, but at that price, who's complaining? --



My day's finds included several LJN S.W.A.T. figures, a reasonably decent Mego Robin, and two MOC Mego "Our Gang" figures. The Lion Rock dude makes a second appearance, stretching that 25c even further --



I even finally picked up an item that has long been on my wish list: a boxed Milton Bradley "Planet of the Apes" board game, which appears to have all its pieces! --



And you are not allowed to ask me why, but we could not pass up this lamp made from an old pay telephone. I canot explain the motivations behind the person who built this any better than I can explain our motivation to purchase it. But... how could we pass it up? This items is now extremely well-travelled -- if you read my earlier posts (above) you will see that this lamp-cum-phone was accidentally left in my car and ended up joining us -- and taking up valuable space -- on a lengthy road trip to Ohio.

[TomStrong]

That telephone is the coolest thing I've ever seen!

[Splitty]

This might be easier if I post my various 2014 finds in reverse order...

THANK YOU for sharing these photos!! They were endlessly delightful, and the stories were great!
I can just feel the excitement at the discovery of each one, and some were such unusual or rare finds! It looks like you guys have been having alot of fun. Excellent!

I may be speaking for everyone, but please feel free to post as much as you want in this thread. So's us grounded and quarantined to our home shoppers can live vicariously. And that goes for anybody else who thinks their hauls aren't that interesting or great. THEY ARE.

[mikeMc6]

THANK YOU for sharing these photos!! They were endlessly delightful, and the stories were great!
I can just feel the excitement at the discovery of each one, and some were such unusual or rare finds! It looks like you guys have been having alot of fun. Excellent!

I may be speaking for everyone, but please feel free to post as much as you want in this thread. So's us grounded and quarantined to our home shoppers can live vicariously. And that goes for anybody else who thinks their hauls aren't that interesting or great. THEY ARE.

Always my favorite thread, Splitty.
I did not know you were quarantined.
I feel quarantined too with a toddler, ha!
How much is a bus ticket to downtown Vancouver? I wanna put that ticket on my show costs for my next vintage toy show in september ...or whoever can give you a ride tell em I'm paying their gas.

[theantiquetiger]

Where was this bike found? The reason I ask, it looks purple and gold (LSU Tigers colors) and LSU has a high school on campus called UHS (University High School).



BTW, pretty wife!!!!