The Quest

Can it really be three years since I gave up my booth in the antiques arcade?

Of course, my booth was never as cool as I wanted it to be.  First of all, I never had the money to invest in the kind of stock I wanted to sell.  And there's no guarantee if I had better stock that I would have had better sales.  (Many of my co-op neighbors had the kind of stock I wanted to sell, and they weren't doing any better than me.)

I bought most of my stock from garage/tag sales.  I used to start shopping for stuff I could resell in early April, going to any and every garage sale.  With the price of gas, I haven't been to many sales this year.  But this weekend, we did make the rounds.

It's painful not to be able to buy the stuff I normally would.  I saw so many vintage orange juice glasses in mint condition for a quarter (which were guaranteed to sell for $2.99 each...eventually), and jewelry, and dishware, and Pyrex and....

These days I "shop" for other things.  My family puts in requests and I go find them.  My mother collects hankies with crocheted edges.  Got two of them for her on Friday.  Mr. Ivy wanted a meat tenderizer.  Got one of them.  For myself, I'm looking for blue plates.  (I'm decorating a bedroom and have chosen blue and white plates.)  Found a really old one for a quarter and, even better, a bag of plate hangers (at least 15--they're a bit tangled) for $2.

A portion of my booth was devoted to used books.  I can't stop looking at all the titles when I walk into a sale, and Saturday I found something I've been looking for for about a year:  a beautiful hardcover edition of A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (illustrated by Tasha Tudor) for fifty cents.  (I've already read half of it.  I'd seen two movie versions of the story, but never read the book.)

And then the holy grail of my searches:  1950s "Made In Japan" Christmas figurines.  First up, a Santa & Mrs. Claus sitting on a see-saw music box; wind it up and it plays "Jingle Bells" while the Santa and Mrs. bop up and down (for $2).  And then at the North Rose Ladies Auxilery sale at the fire hall, a duplicate of what started my collection about 15 years ago:  a Santa and reindeer "candelabra" that spells out NOEL.  Now, do I really need a second one?  Of course not, but it was only a buck.  In mint condition--IN THE ORIGINAL BOX!!!!!!

In all, I spent less than $10, but boy, what cheap entertainment.

What are you looking for at tag sales and flea markets?