Teeth in the basement
We went out the weekend before last, but it was so grim it wasn’t even worth blogging about. It was cold and rainy and the few sales we did hit were just bad. By 9:45 we were pretty much ready to get breakfast and call it a day.
So I wasn’t sure what to expect last weekend. Would it be any better? There did seem to be more sales listed, so I put together a short list and met up with Meghan and Karl shortly before 9AM. At least the weather was clear and dry this time around, and it was sure to be entertaining if nothing else — five minutes after getting into the car we were already cracking up over some dumb thing or another. The hilarity continued throughout the day as we talked smack and made jokes about everything from ex-friends with bad hair, to unfortunate sexting incidents, to the number of record nerds it takes to screw in a lightbulb. (It’s a really obscure number, you’ve probably never heard of it.)
The first sale I wanted to hit had mentioned lots of vintage stuff. They were still setting up when we arrived. It seemed promising until I saw a plate marked at $10 … some doll for $28 … then Meghan asked about a vintage vanity set with hairbrush, mirror, etc. and it was $125. Seriously?
Not a great start, but after that it seemed like we managed to find stuff at just about every sale. I don’t know what was in the air, but it seemed like even the sales that sounded terrible ended up having something. At one of them I scored a handful of cool books and a gorgeous ’40s dress priced at $3 — the other seller there looked pained when she found out that was all its former owner had charged me. They also had these bags of pins, in case you and about twenty-five of your closest friends needed to feel loved.
Even the sales where we found nothing were at least entertaining. At one of them we spotted these two books, with spectacularly goofy cover art.
At another Meghan unearthed this pair of “Zena Antique Denim” jeans. Someone really thought this was a good label?
We decided to cross town to hit an estate sale that had advertised “69 years of accumulation.” Right when we walked in one of the guys working the sale said “Hey — aren’t you those Estate Sale Bloodbath girls?” I guess we’re a little more recognizable after making that video.
I looked around the main floor, then went down to the basement, where I was greeted by this whacked-out black velvet Snoopy.
There was also an amazing built-in bar. Some guy was standing behind it looking at stuff. I asked him for a whiskey sour, but all the bottles were empty.
A pal of ours turned out to be working at the sale. He made sure we saw the scary box of dentistry supplies!
All kinds of weird molding supplies and mouthpieces, bottles of weirdly thick pink fluids … and a little grey box with a mailing label and the word “TEETH” scrawled on it. We opened it up, with more than a little trepidation. This is what we found.
At this point all the other shoppers were gathered around to see what we were screaming about. Some of them even whipped out their cameras to get a shot for themselves.
I went back upstairs to make another pass through the stuff on display, like this fab hairdryer.
Meanwhile, Meghan kept trying to get a price on some vintage Yves St. Laurent fur. The sellers kept asking her to make an offer, and she kept telling them to figure out what they wanted. I guess it had originally been purchased for something like $10,000 — they knew it wasn’t going to be sold for anything near that, but the family was having a hard time coming to terms with the reality of vintage fur prices. She ended up just leaving them her number in case it was left over and they wanted to get real.
We got in line to check out, and opened up two little square boxes while we waited. Yikes, more teeth!
I don’t know what the deal is with that mangled looking piece, but those half-circle things are shade guides, for matching a replacement tooth to the color of the person’s remaining teeth. I thought the wheel-like design was so crazy, like half a tiny demented starburst clock. Meghan ended up buying the two boxed ones.
By this time the trunk was already packed, and we were all amazed at what a good day it had turned out to be. We decided to hit just a few more sales in the area before heading back. At one, we were excited to find this.
Seems like it would be good, right? But it was all baby stuff.
Next we hit this moving sale. 55 years!
There were a few boxes and things in the driveway, but not all that much, so we headed into the house. Nothing was priced, and there weren’t any boxes … all of a sudden we all figured out that inside probably wasn’t part of the sale! We hurried out quickly, kind of stunned that we just accidentally walked into someone’s home. Meanwhile, Karl was dying because he’d seen one of his holy grails inside, some kind of high-end speakers that make music nerds swoon. He desperately wanted them, but he didn’t want to say “Uh, I was just in your house. Wanna sell your speakers?” Instead, he asked them about music stuff in general, but sadly they said they weren’t selling anything like that.
We saw signs for one more sale that hadn’t been listed. It was in a beautiful neighborhood with a lovely view. Sadly, it was almost all kid stuff. And I spotted one of my least favorite items to see at a sale: the used breast pump. I know they are expensive, but … ew. Later we joked that next time we see one, Karl should walk up and act creepily interested in buying it, just to freak the sellers out.
We probably should have just quit after the teeth sale … but really, who’s complaining? It was a gorgeous day and we all came home with good scores.
