Estate sales are something that I always read advertisements and listings for, but never really bothered to check out. I don't have an exact reason why, it just never crossed my mind that an estate sale is like a flea market/antique shop/thrift store all wrapped up in one convenient location. A few months ago, there was an estate sale in my town so I figured that I would finally go check out this form of sale and see what I had been depriving myself of for all of these years.
There are different forms of estate sales. Some sales are conducted in the actual home, other seclude the sale to a garage or outside building, and at others the items are removed from the original home and sold at an auction house.One needs to go to an estate sale fully prepared for a variety of reasons. 9 times out of 10, there will be a great listing of photographs of items that are going to be sold on the listing's website. Checking out the photos beforehand ensures that you will be attending a sale where there are items that you are potentially interested in. Also, some sales have a number system where those that arrive first prior to the sale are given numbers for admittance. If there is an item that you must! have, then get there early enough to secure a number and make sure you are one of the first in.
I wasn't fully prepared for this estate sale. Not so much prepared as in I didn't look at the pictures of the items for sale listed online before the sale or made sure to get there as soon as the home was open for business. Prepared as in I didn't realize that I would have the liberty to open kitchen cabinets, sift through bedroom dresser drawers, open up closets, and meander through the home like I was visiting family...
The home was built probably in the 1920s/1930s. I had arrived at the house around two hours after the start of the sale, so I was able to walk right in. The previous owner left the home in the style of the 1970s, with the mustard yellow furniture and rugs that were a lovely shade of split pea soup green.The estate sale employees encouraged all visitors to look throughout the entirety of the home, open up drawers, sift through cabinets. I was shocked and somewhat uncertain about this... I almost felt like I was invading the personal space of a family, that I was breaking into the home of an elderly couple and ransacking their house. It was awkward.
A mass of people were in the small living room dismantling an old entertainment center, complete with a record player and 8track system. This odd looking man was talking to a woman, either his business partner or girlfriend, about how much money they could get for the furniture. The lady replied that the style of furniture was "hot" right now and she was sure they could sell it. Later on, after I had made my purchases and was leaving, I saw them loading the furniture into their van... loaded down with an assortment of furniture pieces, artwork, etc. No doubt they were pickers and dealers.
I briefly looked through the dining area. 2 chairs and a table filled with jewelry and watches. I do purchase/wear vintage necklaces, but did not see anything that caught my eye when I looked at the table. Onto the kitchen where cabinets were filled with coffee mugs, crock pots, dish towels, and silverware. An old calendar was still pinned to the wall and a bottle of dish soap remained near the sink. I turned to look at the items displayed on the kitchen table and my eye immediately fell on a nesting hen.
This company started making the nesting hen in the 1930s. The earlier birds do not have beading on the top portion of the nest, while the later more current birds do. The company continued to produce the nesting hen up through the 1990s.
The hen that I found at the estate sale was of the early variety, with no beading. The sticker price on the hen was $4 - a complete steal! I had seen this type of nesting hen at flea markets and antique stores, all priced well above the estate sale sticker price. Listings on Ebay and other Internet sites have going prices anywhere between $12 to $20. The $4 was a price that I wouldn't find again.
I ventured outside to a small garage that was used basically to store tools and gardening equipment... and a large model of a circus. Yes, a handmade model of a big top circus. I'm not talking some little tent with a few plastic lions thrown in. What was in this garage was amazing and heartbreaking at the same time. On a board, probably at least 8ft in length, maybe 5ft wide, was a big top model circus. Three tents, complete with the red and white stripes and lights. Surrounding the tents were an assortment of everything you would picture at a circus - clowns, carnies, the old-fashion animal cages on wheels, elephants, tigers, monkeys, trapeze artists, cotton candy vendors, balloons, a water station... everything that a circus would need.
I wish I would have taken a picture because my words do not do this piece justice. The men that were in the garage looking at the tools all at one point made their way over to the circus to admire the work. It must have taken months, perhaps years, for the person who made this to have it complete. I envisioned an old man spending hours outside in this garage, carving the tigers, painting the lines on the circus tents, and assembling this work of art. It broke my heart when I saw the price tag of $50 on it. I thought to myself that someone in this person's family must have wanted this - why wouldn't they?? I wondered what would happen to it if no one bought it that day. I didn't want to think that it would end up as rubble in a garbage can. I made sure to look at the intricate details and admire this labor of love. It wasn't in my budget to purchase it, though the $50 was such a low price for all of this work. Also, I had no place to store the circus and no need for it, besides wanting to save it from being thrown away.
That's what was the hardest part about the estate sale. I was going through someones home. I was looking in their cabinets and shuffling around their silverware drawer. The people that had owned this home most likely were deceased, maybe for a few months, maybe for years.The family had gone through and taken what they wanted and needed to get rid of the rest. Or, there was no close relative left and so all of the contents of the home were up for sale. Regardless, this form of picking is unlike a flea market setting or an antique store.
At the flea or store, you are removed somewhat from the original owner of the item. You can always wonder where the item came from, what the owner was like... at an estate sale, there's no need to wonder about the owner because you are in the owner's home. You see what they collected, see their magnet collection on the refrigerator, know what kind of clothes they wore. It's a totally different experience...
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