Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Estate sale scores

Sorry for the delay there.  The girlfriend just arrived back in town and we've been dealing with a few more house issues. 

So here's all the goodies that I picked up at the estate sale 2 weekends ago with Mr. Modtomic.  They had a decent selection of MCM stuff, but prices were a bit too high for my liking.  The estate sale companies seem to be catching on to the whole retro-modern trend and adjusting their prices accordingly (some more so than others).  There's also pretty stiff competition from dealers.  Mr. Mod, his girlfriend, my friend Jon, and I showed up pretty darn early but our team was 4-7th in line.

I was really lucky to get anything at all, because the organizers made me move my car AS THEY OPENED THE SALE!  Oh c'mon.  I'd been waiting there all morning.  Why make me move it now?  Couldn't it wait 2 minutes?

I guess the real competition was over the American of Martinsville dining set, because I was like 25th into the place and all of these smalls were still sitting with their tags in the corner.  Sweet!


I'd actually lost out on an Ebay auction for one of these brass candelabras a few months ago.  I was a couple minutes from winning for a few dollars and the seller took it down to "correct the international shipping rates" and then relisted it with a $50 reserve price.  Well, who needs him/her!  Now I've snagged my very own for a small fraction of that reserve.






I'd also been looking all over for some West German pottery.  This green and orange piece, with its texture and bright colors, is my personal favorite.  It almost looks like a Brutalist sculpture.



These mugs were kinda an impulse purchase, but at 50 cents, who really cares?  Now I can sip in style.

Overall, things turned out better than expected after the car fiasco.  I've spent most of my time/money going after large pieces of furniture and haven't really focused on smalls, so this will really help to fill the place out.

See you all in another couple days.  Good luck and good thrifting!






4 comments:

  1. Some cool finds on some great pottery!

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    1. Thanks! For some reason West German potters has been pretty difficult to find here. Like most other mid-mod, it seems to stick to the coasts and the big cities.

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  2. Love the pottery - especially the red and black piece. I passed up one of those candle holders a few years ago for super cheap (when I had just started getting into mid century) and I've regretted it ever since! Hopefully I'll run across another one some day.

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  3. Awesome, Awesome finds Nick...i just gave up my expandable candlestand as part of my downsizing...:)..beautiful pottery...i have been missing from the blogscene for a while...need to catch up on your posts :)

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