<p>Someone on another thread mentioned estate sales.</p>
<p>H and I used to go to LOTS of these as we shared the hobby of refinishing antique furniture. Now, I don’t care so much about the hobby (but unfortunately our walk up attic is FILLED with old chairs, dressers, tables,blah, blah, blah)</p>
<p>ANYWAY…</p>
<p>Share your best estate sale/garage sale find! Or, (as comes to mind for me) the thing you let get away and wished you WOULD HAVE bought. </p>
<p>Best buy: 3 Longaberger Baskets for $1 each (I used to collect them, hence my CC name) 2 Solid Oak dressers w/original hardware for $2 each. (they had to be refinished)</p>
<p>The think that got away: H will never let me forget the time I bypassed an original, pristine condition oak Hoosier cabinet for $50. By the time I got home and asked him and he frantically drove back there, it was gone. Yikes. </p>
<p>Fun Find: A Krispy Kreme neon sign in perfect working condition for $5. One of the best original gifts for my son who loves Krispy Kremes!!!</p>
<p>Best buys:
–Vintage grandma type handbag, 25 cents. Never failed to draw compliments and I carried it until it fell apart.
–Vintage cashmere shawl, also 25 cents.
–William Faulkner first edition, under a dollar. Sold it to a used book store for 300 bucks, I’m sure they saw me coming and it was worth more. Can’t remember which novel it was. The box of books also had a Hemingway first edition, Farewell to Arms, but it appeared to have been run over by a car, and the bookstore didn’t want that one.</p>
<p>This wasn’t my find (wish it was) but that of an acquaintance whose hobby it is to explore estates sales, flea markets and swap meets.
He found a badly framed landscape painting he was drawn to. On the back there was some Russian writing.
After he bought it, intrigued, he photographed both sides and emailed an art expert he knew of in NY. He received a reply very quickly, not by email but by phone.
Turns out this was a long lost painting by some Russian artist (I forget the name), and he was advised to consign it to Bonham’s Russian art auction scheduled for some months ahead in London.
It sold for $92,000! He paid $24 for it.</p>
<p>Best thing I found was a small antique Japanese Satsuma (signed Kinkozan )vase for $11. I was thrilled since I collect Japanese porcelain and knew the value. I really like it and it’s in a cabinet among other stuff.</p>
<p>As an aside, I love watching Antique Roadshow…</p>
<p>I don’t know whether this counts, but I made a great score on Ebay a few years ago. I was looking for cast aluminum patio furniture, and I wanted specific pieces (2 chaises, small table, dining table with 6 chairs, umbrella). I happened to find a really beautiful used Cast Classics set on Ebay with exactly those pieces, plus a rolling cart. Better yet, they were much more beautiful than what was available new at the time, and they were in a lovely custom verdigris finish. And they were in NJ, within 40 minutes. </p>
<p>I bought them, and lined up our landscaping guys to follow me over there for the pickup. They came from a very fancy home in the hills. The owners had just re-done the grounds and pool, and they needed quite a few more pieces and couldn’t add to what they had - no longer available. They’d already bought the furniture in a current pattern.</p>
<p>I love the furniture. The chairs are so comfortable that you don’t even need a cushion. We use them a lot. The price was much less than a new set would have been, and I like them more.</p>
<p>Got an entire bedroom set for my daughter (bed, dresser, mirror, desk, nightstand) for $50.</p>
<p>I like Antiques Roadshow, too. The best bargain I saw was someone who had bought a small table at a garage sale for $25, and it turned out to be worth $200,000.</p>
<p>outdoor basketball backboard and hoop - free off sidewalk - after not being sold at yard sale - the cost was lugging it home while walking the dog.</p>
<p>I seem to buy things with hidden extras. I took a “shortcut” on a trip through Ohio one day, got lost, and stopped at a yard sale to get directions. The people were very nice and I spotted some nice ski pants and a matching jacket for $10. When I got home, I unzipped the pockets and found $87! </p>
<p>Another day, I stopped at a big antique show on a Sunday afternoon and bought a heavy carved buffet that the dealer didn’t want to lug back home…a steal at $30. Once I got it home and unloaded I found it came with three small rugs inside and a silverware box with a few pieces of sterling…sold the contents to another dealer for $250.</p>
<p>Back when I was a young teenager, I visited a plastic surgeon near Hartford Hospital for a consultation on wart removal. After leaving the doctor, my mother and I stopped at the Hartford Hospital thrift shop. In the back, in the mens shoe department, we found a pair of custom made riding boots from Abercrombie and Fitch (!) … in my unusual size … that fit both my foot and my calf. For $12. I wore those boots for 20 years … to my USPC B and A rating exams, when I competed in intercollegiate horse shows, to job interviews teaching riding, foxhunting, showing, eventing – everywhere! I did grow up a little eventually and my legs developed a little and I had to have the legs stretched and gussetted – but at the price I could afford it!</p>
<p>I almost never go to garage sales, but the non-profit I work for has a huge rummage sale twice a year. The best item anyone ever donated to us was a lovely art book … with $260 in an envelope tucked inside! There was no way for us to trace the donor - no name in the book, no writing on the envelope, and so many people donate tons of stuff for us to sell that we had no idea whose book it might have been. And we didn’t want to announce that we’d found a book with cash in it, since we didn’t think ownership could be proven.</p>
<p>If someone had called and told us they’d lost money in a donated book, we’d have returned it. No one did - we held onto it for a year in case someone realized what they’d done, then deposited it as a donation. Moral: look through books at rummage sales for potentially valuable envelopes. :)</p>
<p>we have a beach house and furnished it primarily from thrift stores. We bought a solid wood dining room set w 6 chairs for $200. When we turned it over to load, we saw the Ethan Allen logos. It’s solid cherry and each chair would easily be $350/400 new, so the set would be $3000+ new.</p>
<p>Found a large new Tumi Suitcase (with all the internal fixings) with a broken zipper for $20 at a big lot type store. Tumi has a lifetime warranty. Sent it into Tumi, they put a new zipper on it and sent it back. Good as new.</p>
<p>Best garage sale buys:
– Coleman camp stoves $2-4. At one point, we had 5 Coleman stoves. When our neighborhood lost electricity for a week following a hurricane several years ago, we outfitted the neighbors with gas stoves.
– changing table $15. Went through my two boys before I passed it on.
– Turkish kilim purse $3. (they retail for >$100)
– black leather jacket $25. I wear it all the time.
– new 5x7 Mashwani oriental rug. It makes me happy every time I look at it.
– cross-country skis $5.
– antique manure shovel $5. Best. Snow. Shovel. Ever.</p>
<p>My scientist neighbor/friend would go to yard sales & buy outdoor equipment (hiking boots, backpacks, rain jackets, coolers, etc.) which he would take on his field research to the Galapagos Islands. He didn’t worry about shredding a pair of hiking boots in the lava fields when they only cost $5.</p>
<p>Craigslist purchases:
– teak patio set: table, 4 chairs + bench $200. DH sanded & refinished it - it is gorgeous! I saw a similar set at an antique store for $1,200.
– wrought iron baker’s rack $50.</p>
<p>My favorites: an old Pyrex clear glass double boiler, infinitely better than any double boiler I could buy today at any price, and a Pyrex glass stovetop percolator just like the one my grandma had.</p>
<p>Hmmm…there have been many. I think the real Louis Vuitton bag for $7.00 was probably the most fun. We sold it for $275.00 at a purse and jewelry sale we had later that year. It was very fun sale and I think we sold all but one or two of the bags. Coach, Gucci, Brahmin, Fendi, Prada, Micheal Kors. It was a great summer for bags. I don’t thing we paid over $10.00 per bag.</p>
<p>Well, it’s not a deal where I made money, but I bought a didgeridoo at an estate sale a few years ago. The person collected musical instruments. I held out to the end of the sale and picked it up for $25. I gave it to my son for Christmas that year, and he has proclaimed it as the best gift ever! Now that’s worth more than money!</p>
<p>I agree ^ I do a great deal of my shopping at garage and estate sales. I don’t get the “junk” but I do find some wonderful unique items for some of the folks on my list. My business partner and I only get each other gifts from garage sales and estate sales. We have a lot of fun with it. Sometimes we come up with fabulous things and we know that the other only paid a few dollars.</p>
<p>Ebay buys: A vase that was advertised as French milk glass with a metal rim, antique from the 30s. I paid $21.00 for it: Turns out to be Lalique with a sterling silver handmade rime…from the 30s.</p>