American Pickers Got Nothin' on Me

Of course I love watching American Pickers.  They do what I do.  Except I don't travel all over the country, just the tri-state area.  And I don't climb in barns because NWA doesn't really have a lot of barns.  And I don't have a Danielle. I am Frank, Mike AND Danielle in my operation.  But do I find cool stuff?  Yes, Ma'am, I do.

The other day, I was going through old files and found a stash of photos I had saved of some of my favorite scores of all time.

1.  The 1950s dress.  I confess I don't remember much about where I found this dress.  But I do remember that it was patterned after Jackie Kennedy Onassis'  wedding dress and that it sold for well over $200.  I paid...$2.

2. This is a designer dress, created in 1980s...see the shoulder pads?  I found it on the floor at an estate sale and thought it looked interesting.  It sold for over $80.   I paid.....25 cents.

3.  At the beginning of the vintage camera craze, this Polaroid something model B was prized for it's special lens.  I found it at a grungy mechanic garage with two sad little tables out beside it full of even more grungy junk.  This looked like it had been fished out of a dumpster. It sold for over $75.  I paid....50 cents.

4.  It was one of those piping hot Arkansas summer days when a neighbor in our old neighborhood had a garage sale a block and a half away from me.  This copper pitcher spoke to me out of the pile of stuff on a trailer the guy had brought out from his dad's place.  It was purchased by a museum in Delaware for 40 some dollars.  I paid...50 cents.

5.  This is an Atomic Lamp from the early 1960s.  I found it at the Salvation Army in Fayetteville early one Saturday morning.  Can't even imagine why I was there early on a Saturday morning, but I was.  I spotted the exact same lamp in the movie "The Devil Wears Prada" (which was a horrible movie, btw.)   I paid a whopping 10 dollars for this lamp...much more than I normally spend.  I sold it for $300.

6. This is a signed piece of Higgins glass, a mid-century maker from Michigan.  I found it at a garage sale where they didn't even have tables...just a bunch of trinkets set on top of plastic storage bins...which usually keeps me from stopping.  I was in between sales, however, and hadn't seen one for a while, so I stopped.  In a sea of novelty salt and pepper shakers, this stood out to me.  One recently sold on Ebay for $75. I recall that I got about that much.  I paid...75 cents.

7. Oh the mid-century lounge chair. I've had many of you in the past 10 years. But this one was just one of four with a matching settee that my friend alerted me about on the curb in Michigan.  The settee remains the single largest item I have shipped...from Lansing to Cincinnati via Greyhound bus.   Wasn't until about the 3rd one that I sold that I realized this fine model could be disassembled by removing just four screws, resulting in a lovely, flat package that met USPS limits.  You can see the Danish symbol in the front right corner...a mark that still makes my heart flutter a little.  You already know they were free...I sold them for $200 - $375. 

8. This is a piece of Edwardian net lace with copper embroidery.  I found it at an Arkansas estate sale run by a certain dealer who doesn't often let goods slip through his fingers.  He sold me this with a pile of silk scarves for less than a dollar.   I sold it for $119. 

9. This is a dogwood plate made of Majolica, c. 1890s.  I was on my way home from  dropping Sara Christenson (then Williams) off at the airport when we still lived in Bentonville when I saw a sign for this garage sale, being held in a storage unit.  I had taken a quarter off the kitchen counter on my way out the door and it was all I had on me. (It was probably all we had in the world at that time!)  The man was asking 50 cents but it was after noon on a Saturday and he was clearly tired of trying to sell this old lady's stuff and he took my quarter. Imagine my delight when it sold for over $400.   

10.  And finally, the mac-daddy of them all.  This was when we still had just one car and Robb was working at Family Christian Store.  I could go out for an hour or two if I got up early to hit a few sales before he had to go to work.  I found this at an estate sale in Johnson in a neighborhood I'm not even sure is safe in the dark.  I paid two dollars for this pictorial map of Nantucket by Ruth Haviland Sutton.  It sold for over $700.


And huh....I just realized I forgot to tell you about the diamond I found for a dime....