Grab Bag

Slow week.  Too close to the SATs, Memorial Day weekend clear-out in town, all that sort of thing.  Still ...

I really thought this would be all this week - things found in thrift shops, all (sterling earrings, gold ring and bracelet) and not yard sale prices (the bracelet almost drained my payday allowance).  But I did something else this week, something I've never done before:  I bought a grab bag.

We have lots and lots of charity shops in the area.  The one in question isn't one I usually find much in.  It's also the only one I've seen that has big Ziplocs full of jewelry, mostly aimed at beaders.  Priced at $10 a bag, it's not something I've usually taken seriously, especially since what I can see is ... well, "crap" is being nice.  This week, however, in a fit of desperation (and since the whole shop was 50% off) I took a look.

In one bag I caught a glimpse of a 14K clutchback on an earring.  In another, a gold clasp on an onyx necklace.  There were two more bags, kind of light - though they'd been stapled in addition to zipped, all four had been partially opened and obviously looked-through (one more than others).  I bought the other three.  What the hell, right?  Why not a real hunt?

See what I mean?  (That's a serving bowl, not a cereal, and pretty heavy filled.)  As I sorted, I saw tons of single earrings, a flash here and there, and more honest-to-heaven junk than I've ever seen in one place.  Beads skittered across the table.  Tangled necklaces had to be separated.  My fingers were blackened by dirt and tarnish and who-knows-what.

And yet ...

Okay, costume first, the things I think are good enough to donate (yes, even the kid thing).  My favorite is the fan, upper right.  It's gold plated, and folds up just like a real one, even has a pretty, damask-like pattern on it.  Pairs of earrings and dangles, a couple of things that might make good pendants, even some fairly nice vintage rhinestone pieces.

These are all stones, shell, whatever.  Two favorites - the box is a music box, broken beyond my capacity for repair but I know someone who might like to tinker with it; and the square thing in the middle is a very pretty, carved piece of jade, pierced as if it had something bolted in as well.  No idea what I'll do with them, but I have a box full of various real stones ... saved for the day when I turn to jewelry design, or turn into a dragon.

But wait, there's more!

Sterling, with turquoise, crystal, and amber.  The intricate earring in the bottom center has British markings for sterling.  I really wish I had the other because it's gorgeous in person.  FYI, this pile alone would pay for two of the three bags.

This definitely will pay for the other (those are gold beads, too).  But there was more to come.

All 14K, marked pieces on the right and tested on the left (with stones out in two, more for the dragon-bag).

Oh, and one last, small thing ...

I almost put this into the costume, to-be-donated pile, if only because it looked so cheesy - and I mean that literally, for though I couldn't capture the color, it's almost Cheetos-orange.  Even the markings on the back made me think "plated," or maybe patent number.  But it wasn't magnetic, it hefted okay, and since I had some time on my hands without the usual weekend hunt, I decided to test it anyway.  See if you can figure out why my eyes bugged out when I did so.

Do you see it, buried in the middle?  Hard to, because I still didn't believe the tester, so I used a pink eraser to rough it up, a needle to scratch it, and even bent it to make the plating crack (first with my fingers, then with a pliers - which pulled it like taffy, smooth, instead).

Still don't see it?  Tap on the picture and make it bigger.  Look harder.  Harder.

"22CT."

Yeah, it's about like that.

It's not a big pendant (about a pennyweight) but it's definitely a first for me.  And though I tossed about a pound of unfixable, broken metal in my recycles, and I still have about a cupful of beads to deal with (Ziploc and donate, marked "beads"), this little piece made certain that this won't be my last grab bag.

I LOVE treasure hunting!

Needles in a ... Pile of Needles, Part 1

Finding a needle in a haystack is easy:  a big magnet or a really big butt will find the little metal pricker in record time.  Finding a specific needle in a pile of other needles, well, that's the tough part.

We don't see certain things because we see them all the time.  That sounds almost Lewis Carrol-ish but it's true - when you see a million angel lapel pins, you don't look at them any more.  Yet when I went north a couple of weeks ago, I found an angel lapel pin that looked exactly like all the millions I see all the time ... except for the "14K" mark on the back.  I didn't have a camera or my phone (and it's an hour and a half away) so I don't have a picture, and it was $54 so I didn't buy it, but I can guarantee it existed.  As did a slightly different version, a tiny, 14K Cupid, that I did buy (for $1) just before Valentine's Day (and got rid of within the week).

This is about things that hide in plain sight.

Take the lowly tie tack.

How many of these have you seen recently?  A hundred?  Like lapel pins (even service pins) most people ignore them, either because they see too many or because they're too small.  I paid $1 to $10 for each, yet I have (left to right) 18K with opal (marked on back "K18"), 18K solid (unmarked), 14K and heavy (marked on post), and 14K with diamond (unmarked, sold as silver).

Keep your eyes open this weekend as you hunt the Memorial Day fleas, for even the smallest of things can turn out to be a fantastic treasure.

Next week, some lookalikes I actually do have pictures of!

Report

Pretty good week, even though it looks lean.  Left Field Trip was in from Alaska all week, so mostly I just spent time with my boy.  Yes, I made him stand patiently in a few thrifts, but it's his own fault!  He wanted to see something new, after all!

Okay, so here it is ... an none of it from the Day He Stood.

Yep, even the tray counts - it's a cheeseboard ... with a sterling silver mouse!  First time I've ever had a seller argue me down from my starting offer (to $3).  As for the rest of it, the flower is the only thing I got during the week (plus a Fossil saddlebag purse and a Vera Bradley computer case) so all the rest of it came from yard sales.  The way I work is if something is $3 or less I don't look very closely at hallmarks, but if someone wants more I look away.  On the left are some of the regrets (HGE ring, things that stick to magnets), then, crossing right, things with no marks but will likely turn out to be silver of some percent or another, and then the sterling (with gold above).  Only three things were over my $3 mark, and they were all consignment (flower pin, flower necklace, and WG earrings), but none were too much above that mark.  Overall, for the price of a tank of gas, I really cleaned up.

And I'm talking country gas, not city gas.

I don't know if my favorite find is the cheeseboard (the mouse is on a swivel, see?) or those gold hoops (18K, quite a shock when I got home and looked closely).  I also love the flower, sterling and 14K, and the WG earrings that were priced the same as two other pair that obviously came in at the same time from the same consigner - and all, someone thought, the same base white metal.  The ring is also kind of cool, because it looks so much like a giant threw a tantrum and stomped it flat that no one noticed there are six small diamonds in it (and it was 50 cents).

Today is Dead Monday.  The son is gone.  The yard, which has not only been pelted by rain (with more to come) but ignored by the Bunny with the Bad Back, is in desperate need of attention.  I need to pull weeds.

And maybe, just maybe, pull out my metal detector.

Who knows, right?

Running Late

It rained over the weekend, yet though the pickings were slim, they were pretty good.

These were from two places - a thrift shop I go into all the time but rarely buy jewelry in (they look closely, price to 40% of retail instead of weight) and a rummage sale I hadn't planned to go to but for the rain washing out most of the neighborhood yard sales.  The earrings slipped through the cracks; so vigilant is the crew in that store I doubted the "14K" marks when I first saw them, but I grabbed the things before anyone could look again and change the prices.  At the church sale on Saturday, the locket was at the fringes of the jewelry table, which is where I was because I hadn't been first in line.  While the feeding frenzy focused on the boxed stuff in the middle, I caught sight of this beauty hanging on a rack with all the "other" costume stuff.  Truthfully, I just saw the chain; the locket was so orange (and most sellers are so aware) that I thought it was costume, too, but that they'd simply missed the chain (which I could tell by feel was almost certainly gold).  Since I've made it a habit not to check with my loupe unless it's priced higher (and I have to make sure it's worth it) or once I'm simply home with my loot (so I don't jinx the rest of the hunt) I didn't even look at the heart until much later.  It's not costume (and that's not glass in the middle).  I'm so glad I got the message (last week) not to ignore small things, and definitely not to snivel about being relegated to the edge of the fray!

And, yes, I bought things that didn't pan out.  But I re-looked at last week's blog and decided to focus on the very cool instead of the overall.  Shorter blogs.  Better pictures.  I do plan to confess the incredibly stupid buys I've made, however, so stay tuned.

This weekend was all about milk glass, anyway.

The bowl in the back is Panelled Grape from Westmoreland, a huge and shallow bowl I've never even seen outside books.  I have about 200 pieces of this, so it's a great addition.  The eagle is a pretty good buy, too - "The American Hen."  Not uncommon, but this particular one has a few interesting distinctions I'm going to research.  The rest are, to some degree, unknown at this moment, but I didn't spend much on any of it (and that cat was $1!).

Oh, and I finally spent my birthday money.

Yes, it was a splurge.  I probably spent what they're worth, in fact, judging by eBay.  But I don't care.  In the absence of Tiffany Chrysanthemum, I'll take Gorham Repousse any day.  Two of these have 1894 & 1895 marks.  The other two have what I think is 1950's marks but I found an auction site that said they, too, were turn of the century.  The research continues.

These, too.

One is Unger Brothers (but really, really beat up and falling apart ... which I didn't notice when I bought it).  The other is W. B. Braitsch & Co.  Both are late 19th century.  Thrift shops are cool, aren't they?

I'm going to the movies this morning with my son, who flew in from Alaska over the weekend.  The weather report now says this Saturday will be clear and sunny.  I can't wait!

Happy Hunting!

Keeping Up

I promised, so here I am ... with pictures.  It was a fun week.

Overall, not bad.  Segregated (left to right and into the middle of the spiral) we have leather and silk purses, sterling, gold, silverplate, costume, and ... wait, above the costume is "to be tested."  Hm.  I need a better system.

Time for the closeups.

I really, really love the ring.  Clannad, Irish hallmarks, was a bargain for 9K gold, but cleaned up turned out to be 14K.  The pearls are broken but worth restringing.  I'm kinda psyched.

What is it with me and hearts?  This one is sterling and 14K, made in Israel.  I'm researching the artist.  I love it.

I found this later in a church rummage sale.  No one reads the backs of vintage screwbacks any more - it's sterling by Art.  Rhinestones and silver are knockout.

This is my favorite overall, just for pure, offbeat coolness.  Base metal, clipons, still amazing. Can you read the box?  And inside is a card that says the pieces are made with something called "mummy beads."  No idea what that means, but if it's quirky, it's mine forever.

This is dated 1992.  The lady I bought it from said she got it at Bill Clinton's inauguration.  Silver plated bookmarks from Tiffany = sweet party favor, yeah?

Did I mention the table itself is one of the treasures this week?  Needs some love, but it's in great shape for a thrift shop find - even came with the glass that protects the leather.  No idea what kind of wood, though the stripey bits seem to be actual inlay, maybe boxwood ... or do I watch too much Antiques Roadshow UK?

Another week down.  Some from thrifts and consignments, but the lion's share is from yard sales.  I hope the rain stays away from us this weekend - I'm already seeing signs for mad amounts of neighborhood and church stuff!

Happy hunting!

April Showers Bring ... April Loot!

A couple of weeks ago, our yard sale season started.  Not a lot of sales, but enough to get me psyched.  The last one I went to was three houses down from me: my neighbor and an unknown-to-me friend had pooled a huge amount of kid and household stuff.  I saw a soft-spoken woman there who was a familiar face at jewelry tables everywhere I go, and we exchanged smiles (real ones) as we looked around.  I asked my neighbor if she had any jewelry, and she said "no" but she'd check with her friend - who had just answered the same question for the lady, and had decided to call her daughter to bring a bag of things she'd forgotten over.

That, I think, was the moment that defined the Season.

Why?  Well, the bag came and the friend gave it to the lady to pick through.  I waited patiently on the side.  The friend saw this and suggested it be dumped to give us both access.  I found an earring and realized the lady had the other, so I showed her and smiled that secret smile to show we'd both scored - yes, it was heavy, and though I hadn't seen a mark, I was willing to take a chance.  And when I saw the lady grip hers a bit tighter, I looked a bit closer, and found an illegible smoosh.  Promising, right?  The usual, right?  No.  When the friend started calculating the lady's diggings, I heard her ask "what good is a single earring?"  I waited for the lady to say "I have one just like it," or the honest "it might be gold and I'm willing to take the chance," or even, if she had a mark she could read, "it's gold, but I can't tell how much, so I'll take a chance and offer you" whatever.

Instead, this really nice, pleasantly refined lady told her that I had the other one, and since she'd asked for the jewelry first she should have both.

Welcome to the new paradigm.  With gold closing in on $1600, everyone is hunting for the good stuff.  That doesn't bother me - my superpower, according to the Big Lug, is to find things other people miss - but what does bother me is the way people are going about it.  My daughter got a call within 15 minutes of her yard sale posting on CraigsList, looking for jewelry.  I got to places 30 min early last weekend and found empty boxes and baskets all over the place, with tales of the shark-after-chum-like fights that broke out (yet still found great things, by the way).  One neighbor told me someone was knocking on her door at 4am!  I know I'm losing out at yard sales by not showing up before sunrise or by haunting shops still - or by looking accidentally at a hallmark (and so pay more thanks to Mama Angel).  I don't care.  There are still plenty of bargains out there, mark-spying or not.

Case in point.

Yellow gold, white gold, or sterling-and-gold all.  Malachite, rose quartz, jade, pearls, and diamonds (lots of those), too.  Nearly one troy ounce found this month (counting stones and sterling, not counting the watch, which I won't disconnect from the plated band since I wear it).  Did I pay more for this than I did last year?  Yes - the gold watch was all of $25 at a church sale.  But there's not a single piece I couldn't profit from, and well, if I decided to sell or scrap it.  Most were under $10, many under $2, and the single (disk-shaped) earring was even free (at an antique mall, yet)!  These were mostly not yard sales, though.  I'm not desperate enough to beat the piranhas to the feeding tank.

Then there's this:

Sterling.  Lots of it.  303g of it (along with lapis, black pearls, garnets, malachite, and diamonds).  Funny about that, by the way - people seem to be pricing the necklaces exactly the same as rings or charms (coupla bucks).  Weird, since most of the chains you see weigh a half-ounce and up.  Seriously.

Admittedly, the big pendant is about the same weight.  But those bracelets?  Wow!  (The top one, by the way, has Swedish import marks.  I'm doing the research to find out who made it.  Oh, and it's 835, not 925 ... forgot until just now.  And those fish on the pin?  Norway.  Not a top artist, but not unknown.)

Unknown pieces, to be tested, were all around, too.

Okay, the one thing is beads of hematite, and that gorgeous tribal set is partially magnetic (I'll wear it for belly dancing ... shut up).  Oh, funny story about that pin - it was black when I saw it, and my first thought was that it was G.T. Marsh.  I forgot I had a magnet in my pocket.  The only time when a sticking magnet is a good thing.

And lest you think I am just that good (even though I am), here's a tiny bit of the absolute crap I bought.

There's more, but I put it in a bag to go to a thrift shop (or tossed it ... some things should never see the light of day again).  And purses and good but not rare glass.  And the practical stuff, too.  All that I didn't feel like dragging out to photograph.  Some of these I bought on purpose, by the way, even knowing it was crap - that "malachite" bracelet is plastic, but it was on a card at a yard sale with a necklace ("Malachite Set, $6") that had a silver charm and a 14K white gold chain (in the first picture).  And those two circle pins will show up in some future blogs all about things I find because of my superpower.  Oh, and the one pin is actually amber beads with Russian marks.  Not gold, but really pretty.

I'm in the process of pulling a whole lot of stuff from my Great Purge, my Internet Yard Sale, to scrap instead - almost all silver.  Even though an ounce of silver is about the same as a pennyweight of 14K gold, I have a buttload of it.  And, yes, I will write that blog very soon - I actually cut up one of a pair of weighted candlesticks to find out just how much is really silver.  Very cool pictures.  I will also try to be better about weekly updates, in between writing our second mystery novel and tutoring SAT and ACT students (not to mention still hitting the thrifts, consignments, and junk shops).  It's a full life!

And that lady with the earring?  As the friend pondered her proposal/demand, the friend turned just so ... and I mouthed the word "gold."  She decided to keep them.  Turned out she was a recent widow whose husband's sudden death had not only left her hurting badly for money, but the roomers she had been forced to take in last year had stolen most of the jewelry her mother-in-law had left the family.  These were the remnants of that.  The jewelry lady took the friend's phone number to see if she changes her mind later (instead of leaving hers and waiting for her target to call).  I offered, instead, to educate the friend, without any offers or agendas at all, and even gave her my scrap guy's number.

Okay, the last action might have been because of just a twinge of guilt.  I informed her of the earring's content only mostly out of fairness and justice ... since I really couldn't see a hallmark ...

Hey, even I'm tempted sometimes.