Tiffany

I wasn't holding my breath on finding much good stuff on this run as it had been sprinkling rain throughout the night and into morning. A lot of stuff out there was getting wrecked and I'd probably have to deal with loading up soggy wet boxes or bags which could also potentially get wet and ruin any stuff that I already had in the car, and getting myself all soggy and wet in the process. I wasn't looking forward to it and I wasn't hopeful that I'd find anything good.

I did manage to pick up a few good things, like this huge storage case. It almost seems like a musicians carrying case. The inside is clean and lined, but the outside does have some cosmetic cracking on the plastic of one side. The plastic covers solid wood which isn't damaged at all, and it's rather lightweight. It's a really nice solid piece that is now being used to store all our Christmas stuff. We used to have it all stored in about 5 different cardboard boxes, but this makes it much easier to keep together and organized.

 

I also picked up this cute froggy humidifier and the plastic storage tower it's sitting on. I find a lot of these towers, this one had 2 broken holes where the optional wheels pop into. It's still perfectly fine otherwise. I was also considering getting a humidifier for my son's room because the dry winter air had been giving him nosebleeds. This little froggy is perfect because not only did I find it just when I needed it, but it gives off a cool mist so I don't have to worry about him burning himself on it.

And at another pile, I grabbed a few toys that went to the second hand store, and this huge bag of Lego pieces which I ended up selling online for $15

At this point I still hadn't found that much stuff when I came across a huge pile. It was mostly covered by some kind of big tarp which looked like a pool cover or something. The tarp thing thankfully helped keep the rain off much of the stuff. I saw a kids play table peeking out from underneath which is what made me stop to check it all out. I don't have a picture of the table because when I got home my husband and I hid it right away from our son. We wanted to decide if we should give it to him for his birthday or not. It's still hidden, but I looked it up online, and you'll just have to trust me that it looks just like this:

 

Also from that pile I pulled out a bunch of kids games, all complete

 DVDs

and a bunch of music CDs

Almost all of those ended up going to the second hand store before Christmas, so I'm hoping they made a lot of kids happy on Christmas morning. :) 

I also grabbed this toy garage that makes all kinds of garage and car noises which my son freaked out for. Here is Marvin the garbage cat showing it off.

I also grabbed 2 boxes that I quickly peeked into and saw dishes. I usually never really grab dishes unless they are unique, or if they are already in a box/bag with other stuff, because the second hand store has a whole wall full of dishes and they don't seem to move out that quickly. 

I have no idea what compelled me to grab the 2 rain soaked soggy boxes, but I did, and it paid off for me big time.

I opened up one box to check out what was inside and found a set of 8 Royal Doulton tea cups and plates.

The second box had a bunch of crystal plates in it. 8 small cake plates and one big serving platter.

I was wiping them down and not paying much attention, when I noticed what looked like a smear on one of the plates that wasn't coming off. I held it up to take a closer look and try to scrape whatever it was off with my thumbnail, when I saw that the smear was actually an etching...

Yup. Authentic Tiffany & Co dishes. Are you kidding me? Here they are on the Tiffany website...
 

As mentioned in one my last posts, I sold them to a collector right on New Years day for a cool $185

At this point my car was completely stuffed, so I started heading back home. I went through a street I hadn't checked out yet, and at a house with a "sold" sign on the lawn, I spotted a huge old floor radio hidden underneath a bunch of kitchen cabinet doors at the curb. I stopped to check it out and because the doors were stacked on top of it, the rain hadn't really gotten on it. Unfortunately, there was absolutely no way I could fit it into my car.

I decided to get back home as quick as I could, unload my car, and then pray that the garbage truck hadn't come before I could get back. It takes me 20 minutes to get home from this town, I spent another 15-ish minutes unloading, and then I had another 20 minute drive back. At this point it was almost 10:30, so it would be an hour before I got back ,and I had no idea what time the truck showed up in this section of town.

On the way back through the side streets I noticed piles that still weren't picked up so I kept telling myself that it was a good sign. I pulled around the corner, looked down the road and still saw the pile of kitchen doors at the end of the driveway! Now, was the radio still there underneath them, or did someone else grab it? 

It was!

Isn't she a beauty? She's a little rough, but still amazing and definitely not garbage!

 

I didn't want to try to fix her up too much because I don't really know much about restoring the finish on the wood, but I was able to remove the speaker and replace the old torn cloth. I found some nice black material at the second hand store for $1 and went to work.

Much better now :)

I listed it online and sold it with a few days for $100.

Once again it was proven that even though the weather made me think that I wasn't going to succeed in finding anything, there are still treasures out there to be found almost every time.

So even on the crappiest days, keep looking out for treasures, and happy picking!