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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Race Horse Halter

It's amazing to think how long we've been in this business and yet we still miss things right in front of our eyes. I bought a box of riding tack. One item inside was a leather halter. I stuck $5.99 on it and put it back in the box. At the last show a woman brought it up to us and showed us a brass plaque along the side of it. It had the horse's name plus his sire and dam! She recognized the name as a descendant of a race horse. Unbelievable! Obviously I raised the price! It was very nice of her to tell us. We were at the Grayslake Show last week-end. Another dealer was being filmed for some kind of t.v. spot and asked me to act out a small skit with him. Fun! Hopefully it will get on the air and I'll be able to see it.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Estate Sale Choices

I subscribe to a website, "estatesales.net". They e-mail you with estate sales being held in your area every week. It's very handy in that you don't have to buy three area newspapers and check out the ads every week-end. The listings also list and picture some of the items being sold and give the hours and directions to the houses. The problem we have though is sometimes (like this week-end) there are lots of sales! How do you know which ones to go to first? We have a show we're selling at on Saturday and Sunday so that rules some of them out. There are still quite a few on Thursday and Friday though. We try to get to an estate sale an hour before it opens so that we get in with the first group of shoppers. So, we have to decide which sale looks the most promising. Sometimes we first go to the sale being given by a company we know whose prices are reasonable, sometimes we just go to the closest one to our home and sometimes we go by what's for sale. We'll go from the first sale on to the next ones but you always wonder what you missed not being at the other sales right away. It's a crap shoot. The picture I show is not anything for sale. We saw this in a backyard. It's actually a gazebo with a, 'sand castle' built on top but out of cement and stone. Really cool!.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

No Show Sunday

I don't think I mentioned that we didn't do the car show in Sandwich, Il. this past week-end. I just couldn't face 95 degrees! Inside fine but we would have been outside in the sun. Instead, we went to the Wilmot, Wi. Flea Market and shopped. It was miserably hot there too but we were just there for two hours compared to 8 - 10 hours at the car show. We found a few things but nothing huge. Then we stopped at a couple garage sales and a couple of antique shops. Again, nothing huge. The Wilmot Flea Market is open every Sunday through the warm months. We've set up there a couple of times but it's not a big show for us. Shopping there sometimes pays off though. My picture is of the 2009 limited edition Lincoln pennies. The government came out with four different ones to highlight different times in Lincoln's life. This set has the four from two different U.S. mints. There are lots of coin collectors out there! P.S. If you would like to follow my blog (PLEASE!) just click on, "Invite Your Friends" above and to the left. Many thanks!

Monday, May 28, 2012

Memorial Day

It's Memorial Day. I saw on the Internet a speech being read at a national ceremony today. It was written by a fallen Marine, only 23 years old. Killed on his fourth tour to Afghanistan. It was so eloquent and patriotic and made me think about the terrible waste. The world is a sadder place without this young man and the other men and women like him. My picture is of a 1920's price card for gas pumps. This would slide into the slot on a sign that was affixed to the front of the gas pump. Sometimes I'm amazed at what's still out there! If you'd like to follow me (PLEASE!!) Just click on, " Invite Your Friends" top left of my blog. Thanks!!

Friday, May 25, 2012

Museum Items

This picture is of a collection box from a church somewhere in Greece. It dates from the early 1800's. Really beautiful, wood with gold leaf. A friend is an art historian from Greece and she translated the writing on it for us. Something about Archangel Michael. Anyway, we sold it to a museum in Greece so it's going home. I like it when our items find their way to museums. We've sold a mini printing press to a Wright Bros. Museum (apparently one of the bros. used a full-sized one like ours), an antique fire dept. whistle to a fire museum and a doorknob from Al Capone's headquarters in Chicago (The Lexington Hotel) to a mob museum in Las Vegas. Someday we're going to have to visit all these places.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Garage Sale Finds

Went to a garage sale while out running errands today. Didn't look like they had much from the street but I ended up spending over $40.00. I bought a stack of, "The Hardy Boys" books. I already sell, "Nancy Drew" so we'll see how her male counterparts do on eBay. Also bought some beautiful coffee table books to sell (after I look through them). Then I stopped at Goodwill and looked around. Sometimes I find bargains there. Nothing for me today though. I'm not looking forward to this coming Sunday. We're selling outside at a car show in Sandwich, Il. and the weather is supposed to be 97 degrees and humid. Whew! At least it's only one day. The picture I show is of a U.S. 45 star flag. These were the official flags from 1896 to 1908. This is over 100 years old. I love flags!

Monday, May 21, 2012

That Pec Thing

Wow! We did the Pecatonica Flea Market, "That Pec Thing", and did spectacular! For those of you who enjoy flea markets this is definitely one you should visit. It's just twice a year, May and October, and has over 3,000 dealers. So many of the markets nowadays have lost antiques dealers to t-shirt sellers and country merchandise. This is one notable exception. QUALITY MERCHANDISE! We sold some large ticket items, which has been hard to do in this economy lately, including a totem pole! Last one of three we had. Now we have to scout out another one. This show is also great for finding items to sell. I bought a western saddle on a rack and sold both to separate customers. The man who bought the saddle bought spurs to match it at the dealer across the aisle from us. He paid us $100.00 and the spur people $85.00 and said he was going to make $700.00 - $800.00. Unbelievable!