Sunday, June 13, 2010

I Spent Three Dollars and Twenty-Five Cents at an estate sale...

...and came home with all this!


Not really.  My $3.25 purchased a mapp gas torch, 6 hacksaw blades, and a good drop light.  I was proud.

On Friday, as The Mrs. and I headed out to The WalMart, I noticed a sign that said Estate Sale.  So, since I was in no hurry to get to The WalMart, we followed the signs to a house just a few blocks over.  Sure enough, some 91 year old lady had croaked, and had a house jammed full of junk.  I mean JAMMED FULL!


She had some beautiful old furniture, and a queen size brass bed w/an excellent mattress and box spring, and at least 4 sets of china.  We had no need for the furniture, or the bed...or really anything.  But, one set of china caught the eye of The Mrs.  She fell in love of it!

We spent a good bit of time looking at stuff, and the lady running the estate sale told us that Saturday morning, everything would go to 25% off.  And, that after noon on Saturday everything would go to half price.  Well, The Mrs. was in love with this pretty set of china.  It was a full set of 8 dinner plates, salad plates, cups, saucers, the sugar & creamer, a large serving bowl, and a platter.

Now, we have china.  We have about a million pieces of china we received as gifts when we married in 1979.  And, even though we do not entertain often, it has seen a fair amount of use.  But, The Mrs. just loved this china.  I did a little bit of research on it.  It is the Sheraton Rose pattern, made by Polloks at the WAWEL Company.  


I can not seem to find information about how old it might be.  The pieces are numbered, but so far I haven't found a resource for figuring out the marks on them.  But, it don't matter.  I don't think it's a very old, or valuable set.  Similar sets go for from $200 to $350 on the net...replacement pieces run from $10 to $20 each...plus shipping, of course.  But, it is pretty, and there is ZERO damage to any of the pieces.  I figure the old lady didn't use it much...her being real old and all.  Just sayin'...

This is not a real good picture of the markings, but I'm gonna show y'all anyway.



You can see the pattern a little mo' better here.  It's got pretty gold trim around everything.  It's real pretty.


See, it's pretty...like gals like things!


Anyway, they were asking $175 for the set on Friday.  So, The Mrs. talked to the lady and was informed that she could leave a bid, and that if no one topped her bid by noon on Saturday she would call us to come pick it up.  So, The Mrs. bid $100 (American).  Sure enough about 12:05 pm the phone rang, and The Mrs. became the proud owner of a new set of pollock china.


See, The Mrs. put it all up in the china cabinet.  It does look pretty up there.  Now we have two sets of china, which is good.  Because we will soon have two daughter-in-laws to which we will give them to when we croak, or go to the home.



But that's not all The Mrs. bought.  No sirreeeee...  She also bought an enameled dish pan (she loves that stuff) that is in mint condition.  Usually when you find that stuff it's got at least one or two rust spots.  This one is perfect.  She paid $10.


But I think perhaps my favorite purchase she made is these:


Dang right!  'Bama jelly jar glasses!  Growing up, I can not remember ever drinking from anything other than a 'Bama jelly jar glass.  We had some ourselves over the years that have mysteriously disappeared, or been broken, etc.  We were down to 1 single 'Bama jelly jar glass.  The Mrs. scooped up all 7 that they had at the sale.  Now we are back up to a full 8 piece set!  They were 50% off of 25 cents each...I do not know how much that is...wait a minute...they were 87 cents total.


Now, that is a deal...


10 comments:

  1. It looks a lot like my Haviland china! Very pretty!

    The Mrs. has good taste.

    I LOVE estate sales! Some of my finest treasures have come from estate sales. I've been known to make sudden turns off busy highways from three lanes over when I seen an Estate Sale sign.

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  2. Andy, that's some purty stuff.

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  3. Looks like Mrs. Andy has right good taste. That is a fine collection of china you have.

    There's a place up the highway that is always holding estate sales. Maybe I need to start dropping in.

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  4. That is a really pretty pattern.

    My mom had an enameled pan like that shell snapped beans in.

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  5. Yeah... what the others said in the "pretty" Dept.!

    I had my own version of an estate sale a lil over ten years ago. I called it my "goin' out o' bidniz" sale and I hired an estate sale company to run it. I got WAY less than ten cents on the dollar, but that was expected. Some folks in Rochester NY got some REALLY good deals on stuff/junk that were former treasures.


    Re: "pollack china." Deep-Sea Division, one assumes? I knew they tasted good, but who knew they had good taste? Oops. Sorry, Charlie.

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  6. Did I misspell "pollock?" Heck, spell check sucks.

    Thanks to all y'all for reading my foolishness. The Mrs. does have extremely good taste.

    In china.

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  7. Very pretty -- and what a deal!!

    Plus, she'll need the enameled dish pan -- no dishwashers for that china! Enjoy them in good health.

    Lucky DsIL!

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  8. Did I misspell "pollock?" Heck, spell check sucks.

    Well, yes... if'n you're talkin' bout folks of Polish extraction, in which case it's "Polack." But if the subject is fish... you got it right. It's not for nuthin' I'm known as "the resident pedant" in certain parts of these inner-nets. :-)

    And I LOVES me some krab. Just sayin'.

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  9. Well Buck...See, that's why I blog. Because I always learn something new every day.

    I honestly did not know how to spell "Polack." We don't have many down here, and I always thought it was "Pollock."

    I certainly know about pollack, being a fishaterian. But, I didn't think I spelled it "pollack." Of course, if I did, spell check would not catch that anyway.

    What was I saying? Oh yeah...I will never misspell "Polack" wrong again (I know that don't make sense, so no need to correct me). Hey...there's a little red line under "Polack." Sigh...

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  10. Just don't invite any Greeks over to your house for a meal. They'll eat your food, and behave very well, but if they really like your wifes cookin' they'll start to wreck the joint.

    You have to trust me on this one.

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Don't cuss nobody out, okay?