Resale Therapy

The snow pack is starting to disappear, we have robins in the yard and birdsong at dawn, and the bugs are beginning their yearly home invasion.  Spring is rushing toward us with the speed of thought.  What else could I do but spend my Saturday shopping?

I went to an outdoor flea market about forty miles from here, one of my favorites in the summer.  I knew from  friendly vendors that someone's usually there on weekends even in the dead of winter, but my hot flashes weren't strong enough this year to test it.  Saturday wasn't a warm day here but it was nice.  Unfortunately, it was colder there (much colder) so only the hard-core guys had set up.  Who cares?  It was sunny, beautiful, and drive time with the Big Lug - he went to his pipe store, I trolled the tables, spent $1.50 on three corporate pins and was more than ready when he came back to get me.

Then I went to an antique show.

Let's pause for a moment to explore the levels of bargains out here.  First and best is yard sales - lots of driving, lots of sifting, but most of the I-can't-believe-it! finds are here for me.  This flea market, since it's out in the boonies (comparatively), frequently has that kind of thrill.  Despite the distance (and the gas), this plus the two acres of people in one place makes it a very close second (and sometimes winner) to yard sales.  Third is rummage sales (churches) and thrift stores - at least one of the latter has the wow factor I love, too (interesting things like that Tiffany pin).  I'm more inclined to pay more in both places, since it's charity, which pretty much cancels out the stunning cheapies (like the 18K star pin).  And, of course, fourth is estate sales and antique malls and shows.

You can get some stellar deals in these places but they are few and far between - most are filled to the brim with pros who have much better testing equipment than I have.  I go anyway, in part because I love to see what's out there and what it's selling for (not just priced as), in part because I have found stunner deals, and in part because ... well, it's the only place I can actually get my hands on a pair of (Czar and Czarina) milk glass bottles ($1100 after he'd discounted them) and a platinum-and-diamond Art Deco necklace (close to $20,000) and a red (or blue?) Carnival glass Big Fish bowl (can't remember price ... brain numb by that point).  This show was no exception to the bargain rule, but, luckily, service pins tend to be the black sheep of the jewelry world.

They weren't cheap (not country-flea-market cheap, anyway) so I focused on the strange and the rare, the sterling and the plated, and the gold or the possible gold.  Eight more pins and $60 later (including entry fee) I left the show with a smile on my face.  No pics - still researching - and so far no screamers, but not a bad haul.  Best deals?  Under $14 for a 10K New York Telephone pin with a natural ruby (worth more in scrap right now) and two - count 'em two - inexpensive unmarked pins that tested 8K and 10K.  I'm totally psyched!

By the way, I know there's also Craigslist, eBay, auctions, and storage-jumper buys, but they're the wildcards for my future.  For now, I'll stick to the safe bets.

Because ... squeal! ... the season is just beginning.  And I've just begun to find.