Our First Estate Sale
Today Prince E and I ventured to an estate sale in the suburb of Glencoe. It took place in an enormous house in a very rich neighborhood. Neither of us had ever been to an estate sale, so we thought we would give it a try. I had dreams of finding a Picasso behind a painting of a duck or a treasure map in the lining of a suitcase.
When we arrived at the house, it was not yet time for the sale to start. There were about 15 people standing on the front porch waiting for it to begin. We were given numbers 22 and 23. There were, apparently, some people waiting in their cars because it was a little chilly. It seemed like all of the people knew each other. I think there is some estate-sale-going community that we don't know about.
At 10:00 a.m. on the dot, the man running the estate sale opened the door and called for the first 10 people. Then he decided that everyone could just come in. There was some pushing and shoving, but we managed to get indoors. Prince E and I went upstairs first, because it looked like everyone else was staying on the main floor.
The other people definitely had specific things that they were looking for. One woman came up to where we were and called the whole sale a bust, telling her friend that she was leaving, and it wasn't even a quarter after 10. A lot of the people were also very rude, I thought, and did not seem to like the fact that Prince E and I were talking to one another. Is there a no-talking rule at estate sales? Is it like a library?
I really enjoyed looking at all of items. The family had lived there at least since the 1970s, so it was like stepping into the wayback machine. A lot of the toys that they had were the same toys from my childhood. One of the bedroom doors was covered with stickers. I wish I had been able to do that I when I was a kid. Someone in the family was a doctor, so there were a lot of medical reference books and even some stethoscopes. Someone apparently suffered from depression because there were a lot of books on the subject and I stumbled upon a prescription bottle for an antidepressant. (It was in a bag of stuff in the garage. I was not going through the medicine cabinet or anything).
I was surprised that no one in the family had gone through and weeded out the personal items, like the prescription bottles and some adult films on VHS. Would you want complete strangers to know that your loved one owned a copy of "The Devil in Ms. Jones"? Then I wondered if maybe there was not any family left, or not any that cared enough to come back to the house and get rid of the porn stash. That made me sad.
There was so much stuff in the house that it made me wonder why it is that we save so many things. There are things that were meant to be kept as mementos, I suppose, but most of the things were just collecting dust in the garage or in the basement. When was the last time anyone in that house used the exercise bicycle from the early 1980s or flipped through the unauthorized biography of Nancy Reagan? It made me want to go home and throw out a lot of things, although, to be honest, most of my really old stuff is still stashed in the attic at my parents' house. (sorry mom!)
We did make some good finds. Pictured below are all of our purchases. The cashier wanted $10 for all of the items. The website for the sale had advertised that they accepted credit cards, but when we arrived we learned that it was only for purchases over $50. Prince E had $8 and I had about $.95. We managed to convince the cashier to let us have all of the stuff for that much. I think she got frustrated when I dumped out my coin purse full of pennies onto the counter.
The camera is a Kodak Brownie Holiday Flash, manufactured from 1953-1957. Prince E had actually been eyeing similar cameras on eBay, so he was happy to find this. It was $2. The Swarovski crystal owl was in its original box. Prince E spotted it on a shelf on the second floor of the garage, next to an old coffee grinder and a box of nails. A quick check online shows that it retails at $35. Finally, the chess board, which we found inside the house, was priced for $3. The complete set of chess pieces, which were on the second floor of the garage, did not have a price. The cashier let us have the board and pieces for $3. We appreciated her generosity.
It was definitely a fun experience, going through a big old house, especially because this particular home seemed like a time capsule. We are already planning our next estate sale visit. Maybe the next time I will find that treasure map.
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