Auction Saturday

I headed out to an auction this morning and came away with some really neato finds! I stuck solely to box lots as they tend to go cheaper than when they sell one thing at a time. A box lot is basically a cardboard box filled with stuff. I love rooting around in boxes to find treasures. Can you find me in the picture below? (Yes, even with a parasol, I still turned into lobster girl!) For the most part, that's pretty much what an estate auction held at someone's house looks like around here. These are my favorite kinds of auctions to attend. Look at all those boxes full of treasures! Two things you need at auctions like this: good eyes and patience. Below are some of the things I picked up off the box lots table.

The box lot below was full of old pictures! I love old pictures! There was about 4 small photo albums full of various family pictures from late 30's and 40's. When I come across family pictures like this at an auction, I always find it hard to believe that people don't find value in holding onto these pictures to share with future generations.

What great family pictures they are! I'm so curious to know who the people are in these photos! Everyone is so well dressed and in one of the pictures you can see that a gal is wearing a bakelite acorn pin on her jacket! I however did not run across the pin at auction. :(

Along with the box of old photo albums, I also got a box lot of travel post cards and pictures. From what I understand, the family traveled a heck of a lot! They even have pictures from Japan mixed in that box.

My favorites are the colorful souvenir folder postcards of the places they visited. Obviously they kept these to remind themselves of their trip because none of them were used and they're all in great condition! I got both of these boxes for $3 which I thought was one sweet deal.

3 more box lots below. This time full of sewing and craft things. The wife was a crafty gal throughout her life and had lots of materials, thread, sewing patterns...etc. She kept EVERYTHING! In one box I ran across complete, mint sewing patterns from the 20's. That box sold for $100! Which was probably a bargain for what was in the box. Some other boxes full of vintage clothing Victorian- 1940's also went rather high in my opinion, trust me I looked and I wouldn't have paid more then $5 a box, went $45-75 a box. People hear and see vintage clothing and prices can sometimes go crazy (it all depends on who shows up). Trust me, I don't mind paying for a bunch of vintage clothes at an auction, but there better damn well be something in there that knocks my socks off! See here. I spent $8 bucks for the box lots below. Yup, I'm cheap and most boxes went out of my $5 or under price range! hahaha

Here's a close up of what I found in the boxes. That cool old red Velvet can had a bunch of bakelite buttons in it! I love buttons and I think adding them to a dress can really make a plain dress pretty amazing.

Another box had a bunch of bakelite belt buckles, purse handles, and more buttons in it. I also like old tins too. I love that people reused what they had for other purposes. Very unlike our throw away generation today.

The Sgt spotted and picked up the box that was full of embroidery transfer patterns for me! He saw metal zippers and sewing stuffs and thought it was a good box for me. Good going Sgt! I'm training him well :)

And last but not least I had to buy a big box of blankets just so I could get this very cute turquoise afghan that she made. I mean look it's an awesome turquoise color, how can I not pay a whole $1 for that!

The Sgt and I had lots of fun and also picked up an old ice cream maker, some galvanized wash tubs, old records, an old wooden advertising box, and a pair of binoculars. I'm planning on using my galvanized metal buckets to try to make a cool water feature like the one we ran across a few weeks ago at an antique shop. Pretty cool huh!? Now I just gotta keep my eyes open down the road for an old well hand pump!

Anybody else come across some cheap, fun finds this weekend? Hope everyone is having a fun weekend!

Cheers,
MaryDeluxe