Wednesday, October 1, 2014

The box of sadness

Last weekend a near by town was holding their own version of "Antiques Roadshow" in a church as a charity fundraiser. The charge was $5 per item to be appraised. I figured, hey, it's going to be a bit of a crappy weekend, and I have $15 to spare, lets see what I can find to get appraised! :)


I brought in 3 items...one was an old painting that my husband had passed down to him from his great aunt. There has always been talk about the painting amongst the family, that she had paid a large amount of money for it in the 50's, and that she even spent a great deal getting it restored after it had survived a fire. Appraisal? Worthless!

Turns out Auntie got swindled back in the 50's by an antique dealer. The art dealer that looked at the painting says it was done about the 1860's, and likely a local artist (no signature) that copied the scene from another picture as practice. He showed me the back of the painting and said it was very rough and that the person likely used a burlap type sack as the canvas. He said if it was a real artist who had made it, the supplies used would have been a better quality. So the only value to it is sentimental value.

The next item I brought was my Christmas poster that I had found in the garbage. I had looked it up on Ebay and found similar posters, but not the exact one I had. I thought maybe I had something rare and valuable since mine is in great shape and since the ones I saw on Ebay were going for anywhere between $150-$300. However the appraiser didn't look impressed, shrugged his shoulders and gave me a value of $65 on it. Hmmm....

Next up was another garbage item...an old Dutch Military/World War II item with a naughty side to it . I still haven't figured out what it is exactly. The appraiser laughed and thought it was the greatest thing he had ever seen...said he has never seen anything like it before, and also didn't really know what it could have been used for. He guessed an ashtray, but I said there weren't any of those dented areas around the edge to hold the cigarette in, so then he guessed it was just a hanging decoration. I had only found one similar one listed online for $80 that really didn't give any info on the item, so again, I thought it may have been a rare collectable. His appraisal? $25.

It was a fun and interesting experience, but I'm not sure I'm going to put much faith in those appraisals. I'm not looking to sell those items or make any money off of them anyways, but maybe one day they will increase in value and my kids will get a nice little amount of spending money when it's passed down to them :P

On to the curb finds! There wasn't much this week as I ended up sick as a dog. I had no voice for about 3 days which my kids and husband found très amusing. I skipped a few days to recuperate, but still managed so get some stuff.

This bin was at a big pile that was a move out, the blatant clue was the realtor's sign which they threw out as well. Can they do that? Wouldn't the realtor want their sign back? I'd assume it would be pretty expensive to have those things made and printed.



On the left in the bin you'll see 3 folded twin sized mattress protecting sheets. I threw those right into the washer even though they looked clean. One of the plastic bags contained a bunch of sheets that curiously had these long round oblong circles cut into them. Very strange and unfortunately, not donate-able. Another bag contained a large orange piece of sheer crinkly material. I ended up using it in my living room draped around one of my windows.

The next bag contained a bunch of nice men's shirts. I had scribbled down some of the brand names on a piece of paper, but now I can't find it. I remember one of them was Hunt's Club. Some of the black shirts look the same, but they all have different embroidered detailing on them.








At the bottom of the bin I found the following: A pair of slip on boot ice grippers still in the package, a package of 2 black pillow cases, a red faux suede body pillow case still in the package (both of which went right into the wash because they got wet), and an audio cassette still wrapped up. That black electrical thing says DVE switching power supply and has a traditional electric plug and a car lighter plug on it. I have no idea what it is for, but I'm sure someone perusing the second hand store's electrical department will know, and will be able to use it.


Also at the bottom, a bunch of cassette tapes. I know people don't really use these anymore, but I have seen them at the second hand store and someone does buy them, so someone out there still wants old cassettes!



I also managed to pick the following out of the pile...

An over the door storage/shoe holder for a kids room


Inside on of the pockets was a red kid's hat that they probably forgot was in there...


 These ski boots and rubber boots were also in good enough condition to donate



On another night I had only come across one pile that was worth a look. Indeed, it looked like another move out pile. When sorting through all the stuff, I came across a bunch of papers and diary inserts. Reading some of it left me sad... this person had a bit of a hard life, there was talk of cancer, alcoholism, and infidelity. I'm not sure now if this was a move out, or if they had died. :( In any case, I sorted through it all and am going to make sure this person's stuff goes to the second hand store so that someone else can get some happiness from it.



Once sorted, I found a small file folder, 2 plastic mousepads, a black faux rose, a burgundy umbrella, a small hand painted vase with a summer cottage scene on one side and a winter cottage scene on the other, a hanger, a cordless phone, 3 photo frames, on magnetic fridge photo holder, large wide clothing elastic, some sticky tack for hanging posters, a blue pen, some kind of mp3 player (I'm not sure how it works, but I turned it on and heard music, so it works!), 2 excercise DVDs, a Nintendo 64 gaming cartridge and a Playstation 2 Teenage Mutatnt Ninja turtles game which I'll put in my pile for my comics/gamer guy, a head massager, a mirrored tray, and 6 cents



This photo frame isn't even used



Inside a manilla envelope I found an old photo. I took this picture of it with the glare so you can see the cool crackle effect that is on the paper.


 There were also a bunch of books


2 brass crane statues

A fluffy boa scarf, a pink dog sweater which I'll give to my friend for her Chihuahua, a doily, a santa hat, and a lone slipper. My cat tried to grab the slipper out of the box, so since it looked practically new, I decided to cut off the trim and make it into a toy for her.



Here is Harriet enjoying her new garbage toy :)







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