Monday, May 5, 2014

Hoarding 101-- I'm Buried


Well, I haven't fallen off the flat earth. In case anyone was wondering. I have been super busy getting my abode back to hoarding status. Seriously, I think that is what it looks like. Finished my taxes, celebrated our wedding anniversary, hosted the Princess Grand-daughters and life goes on.

I made my second trip to the GW outlet the first of April. I overheard several shoppers saying how they hadn't found much lately. They were saying this as they were pushing a full and overflowing cart to the scales. But I think they may be on to something. I didn't find as much on this second trip as the first. I did buy some electronics that I am now stressing about. Why did I buy this big thing? 10 lbs!!
A vintage Panasonic TV camera. The kind that was used by local TV stations way back. It is pretty complete. The lens looks great. There would have been a control box that all of the cables from the camera went to. There is a listing for one like this, with the control box for $2K on ebay now. I started mine a little more conservative. But again, Why? True, with all I bought that day it averaged out to 80c per item. So if you figure 80c for a vintage tv camera, that's not so bad.

I have hit a few estate sales and yard sales and thrift stores lately. But I have been really conservative (see camera above!!) in my trips and I am trying to buy better not buy more. I branched out while I was at the GW outlet and hit a few other stores in the area. Some are worth a return visit, some aren't.

Warning---lots of photos.

I recently found a few dolls.
My Twinn in original outfit. No eyelashes, but I have some left over from my porcelain doll days, so I am good to go. Kinda creepy. I also have two My Generation dolls at the
"hair salon" getting a Downy dip, trying to get some life back in the golden tresses.

Some estate sale things.
The vintage sheets, Garfield and b.kliban are from an estate sale and the PBK duvet cover from a thrift.

These are from the same estate sale as the vtg sheets. B. Kliban mug and creamer. Someone loved cats in the 80's.
A mug with some paint loss on his bow, will hurt price some, and a creamer with very light paint loss on the red tail bow. There isn't a creamer listed now on ebay so I have no idea how to price. Haven't checked Worthpoint yet.

This huge box of Halloween stuff didn't have as many treasures as I thought, but still some good costumes and masks. A great Werewolf rubber mask.The bottom was filled with trick or treat buckets. Note to self: always check all the way to the bottom of the box!!
The three boxes of Kenmore attachments are complete. The New Balance box is empty, shipping.

Picked this up this week. Yuyu purse shaped cookie jar. Knick Knacks were half off. I could see spending $5 on this cookie jar, but not $10.



Of course a whole $1 for this machine pieced and hand quilted quilt is probably not a bad price. Love the teal.
And another $1 for this one wasn't a bad price either. Machine pieced and machine quilted on one of those big quilt machines. The only problem with the quilts was that they were in the outside bins and it rained this week (boy did it ever!!) and these got some stains on them from the wet wood. I had to wash them to get the nasty smell out and hopefully get the stains out too. No luck on the stains so I had them out in the sunshine today with lemon juice. Lightened a lot, but I will need to do again tomorrow.

Picked this box up this weekend.

A full box of Thomas Train tracks, cars, engines. I counted 38 cars, engines and the like. 60 pieces of track. I hope the complete set of the abandoned mine is there. I looks like it is all there but need to check piece by piece. That Thomas box is sitting on another box. A Rowenta pro classic garment steamer, NIB!, and also a True 2 Light make up mirror, triptych !!.

Also, don't overlook the little things. I picked up a shoe box full of ephemera at an estate sale several weeks ago. The box had vintage photos from the late 40's and a bunch of vintage military ephemera. The photos and negatives may sell, but they are nothing special. A family vacation to Chimney Rock, near Charlotte NC. But included in the box was a bunch of what turned out to be bar cards from Hong Kong in the late 60's early 70's. Vietnam era soldiers R&R towns. I listed them this morning and have already sold 4 listings to the same guy, and he wants more.
Here is what one listing looked like


In my research I found the Pussycat card and the Rainbow card. Both were pristine and sold for $9.99. These are approximately business card size. I priced mine much less since they had wear and had been stapled together. Still made out like a bandit. Paid $5 for the entire box and have already recouped my investment almost 5 times over. Look out for these little bits of gold. These were passed out to soldiers on shore leave for a "free drink on your second order".

And on that note of the little things being valuable, I picked a ziplock sandwich bag full of Barbie stuff for $1. After checking the selling prices of some of these little things, I really do like the little things.


Check the completed prices for Barbie size cell phones, food, and, silverware. It will blow your mind. $5 for a tiny plastic cell phone?

OK, enough. I have to go clean some more, take more photos, hauls stuff from here to there, (several times) and all the normal daily things.

Can someone add a couple more hours to the day?

26 or 28 would be good, 30 would be better.





4 comments:

  1. Wow. Great finds. I'm always on the lookout for Kliban. I sold a Kliban book once for good money.

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  2. I was fourth on the sign up sheet and I made a bee line to the kitchen and just as I was putting them in my bag a guy I had been talking to on the porch, #8 in line, came around the corner. "You're good" he whispered as he went by. Didn't have the heart to tell him I found the sheets in a basket of Beenie Babies upstairs.

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  3. Great finds- especially that tv camera! :)

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    Replies
    1. I'm just afraid I'll have it forever. It is awfully big and heavy.

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