Thrift Share Monday- July 16

Don't you love buying an item at a thrift store, estate, or garage sale, and later find it's mate, or what makes your item complete?  I've come to the conclusion that when it comes to thrifting don't not buy something because it's not a complete item, or set, or just one wouldn't work for you.  I've had done this plenty of times and days, weeks or months later bump into it's set or mate, then regret that I didn't buy the other item I saw previously. 

I'll get back to the mate(s) I found later in this post,  I want to jump right in to the other items I scored this weekend.

Garage and estate sales filled my Friday morning and afternoon, and I got

A single vintage sheet,

Vintage fabric,


A bird cage,

and a slew of Vintage Avon perfume/cologne.

At this garage sale it was marketed as being a collection of items from a former Avon rep.  Now, I haven't got into collecting Avon or haven't done  the buying and selling of vintage cologne, yet, but you know what curiosity does.  Right?

Well, yeah aside from curiosity killing the cat, it also gets you into buying items you normally don't buy.  When I stopped by this sale they were in the process of emptying out boxes still, so I grabbed a few items and went back later with my mom, since they said they had 47 banker boxes they still had to unload. 

So.... I've learned the hard way....and obviously haven't learned throughly that bringing my mom with me to estate/garage sales can be dangerous.  Many times I see things and pass them by, or pass them by because I didn't see them, and my mom brings them to my attention and talks them up and becomes a huge enabler talks me into buying stuff I may have otherwise left behind.  This was one of those classic cases.  As I'm going through the Avon stuff I grab a few things, and head to pay.  "What you're done?  I'm still looking.  Look this is really cute, and this, and this and this."  All of course "cute" meaning for me to buy, not for herself.  So 14 Avon bottles later, on top of what I bought earlier, I'm paying for my loot.



These are all vintage Avon products.  From what I can tell, so far most are from the 70s. Combining my two purchases I have a total of 20 items, with 16 out of 20 being still full and in it's original box.  Now,  I wouldn't recommend these vintage scents to be used or smelled, but try convincing a 12 year old out of wanting to smell all of them, which my daughter did.  Which translates to them being shoved under my noise for me to smell as well.  Ew!

What was interesting to see was what came in one of the jars.  I've bought and sold these aqua Avon jars twice.  Last weekend when I sold one my mom asked me, confused, if I was sure it was an Avon jar.  "Well yeah Avon was embossed on the glass".  She then asked what would have been in it.  "Um, I have no idea."  And what do you know we find one filled with peach shape soaps (that were stinky...you know how old soap smells.) in it's original box.  Well, that answers that mystery (we can now sleep well at night).

Ok, onward.  We headed out to two estate sales, and I grabbed a few items.

Got these vintage mugs with tree stand, new in box,

I've seen these mugs sprawled out all over here and there, but the Japan mark usually steers me away since I have no way to date it aside from them "looking" vintage (yeah I know, search Ebay and Etsy).  Don't get me wrong I have bought and sold Japan marked ceramic mugs before, but I like to have some sort of info for the items I sell.  Now I have documentation for use on these mug (and others in the future) since these were still in their box.  Awesome!  These cups were made in Japan for Kmart, and if I'm reading their code right they are from 1978.

 
Now at this same sale I saw three milk glass vases that I already have.  I made a point to give my mom a little tidbit of info on these vases.  The ones I have were all purchased at different locations, and I spent $2 for each.  At this sale they were marked $8 each, I left those behind.  Onto the next estate sale I see one of these vases, and ask my mom to reiterate the info I gave her at the previous sale.  She remember I paid $2, and this vase was $2, so I bought it. This purchase was one of my mate/set purchases.  When I bought my first vase, yes I liked it, but thought a pair would be nice, and when I had two, I thought three would be even better.  Now I have four.  Let's see how out of hand this gets. 



I got this red plastic bread box.

and a Jadite mug.


Here is my super match/mate find.  A few months ago I scored this very nice red utility cart, at a steal of a price, $5 (I contributed that price to it missing a wheel).  Well, I wasn't gonna let that deter me from buying it, especially when I see these carts go for $20-$60.

Once I got the cart home I pulled off one of its wheels and threw it in my purse.   The waiting game then started.  I wanted the wheel in my purse for the pure fact of you never know.  You never know what you're gonna find at a sale and you might as well take the guess work out of things and have the wheel available for comparison, and that's happened at the second estate sale Friday.

The backyard had tables of bins filled with nails, nut, bolts, odd and end.  Once we stepped into the backyard I jokingly tell my mom that she was officially put on a mission to find my 4th wheel (I think she blew me off).  We went in and out of the house several times.  My third time around the backyard I dig through the bins some more and find three wheels almost identical to the one I had, they are missing a widening/fitting piece, but I think this will be the closest I'll get and at 25 cents each I bought all three. 

Left wheel is the original, the right one is one of the finds.

I did get a strange look and comment as to why I would only want three wheels.  Oh and I also "jokingly" scolded my mom for being put on a mission to find the wheel and failed her mission.  But seriously, would you have thought you'd find a lone wheel for a vintage cart that was missing its wheel?

Just remember you never know what you're going to find... so look with the thought in mind that you WILL find "it".