My Weekly Score: Austin Statue

Now this was a beautiful find.

It’s a gorgeous Alice Heath statue by Austin Productions. This one is titled “Memories” and features a woman sitting on a rock with her legs crossed, looking outward as if she’s remembering pieces of her past.

This is a ceramic/plaster sculpture made to look like bronze. Her dress is a beautiful pearly silver color. “Alice Heath” is carved into the top edge of the stone on the back.

And although this was made not that long ago, in 1990, it’s no longer being produced. Statues from Austin Productions are highly collectible anyway, and we were lucky enough to come across one that was in perfect condition! The little art geek in me was doing a jig because I thought she was so beautiful.

We bought her for $23.52 and ended up selling her for $74.99. There are other statues in the same line, with the same girl in different poses, that sell for much more. If you ever see one of these hanging around somewhere, snatch it up! Not only is it a good sell, but it might just be the perfect addition to your garden. 😉

Ever hear of Austin Productions before? Have you ever picked up something to sell and decided you’d like to keep it instead?

My Weekly Score: Goldwash Flatware

For $28 we picked up this 134 piece set of goldwash flatware. It can’t get much better than that.

It didn’t have a pattern name of any maker’s marks, so I’m actually not sure where it came from. They all had wooden handles and the set came in its own wooden carrying case (with bright pink velvet lining, no less!).

This was roughly a setting for 12, and it also included some specialty serving pieces.

Something like this would be great to have on the table during Christmastime or during a fancy dinner. Imagine eating with gold forks!

We sold this set for $75.00.

Have you ever seen a set like this before? What kind of dinnerware/flatware do you put out during the holidays?

My Weekly Score: Bride’s Basket

To get a little Word of the Week on you, a bride’s basket (or bride’s bowl) is simply a bowl, usually with a fluted edge, that sits inside a carrier (the best of which are made of silver). These were often given as wedding presents and were – I believe – mostly decorative.

Here’s the one that we recently sold:

It was a beautiful pink and white cased bowl, hand blown (there was a pommel mark on the bottom), sitting inside a silver colored (but unfortunately not an actual silver) base.

This one had been sitting around for a while and I had mostly given up on it. It was a large investment on our part ($75), but it was such a beautiful piece and definitely one for a collector. No damage or anything.

In the end we sold it for $125. Not a huge profit, but one that was good enough. It’s now off our shelves and in a good home. There’s nothing more we could ask for. 🙂

Have you ever come across one of these before? Did you know what it was called?

My Weekly Score: Noritake ‘Tree in the Meadow’ Waffle Set

Here’s a beautiful find for this week. It’s a berry creamer (which I assume is just a small pitcher to hold your fruit sauce) and a sugar shaker set, used for waffles or pancakes. This was made by Noritake and is in the pattern called “Tree in the Meadow.”

These are absolutely gorgeous. It comes in a beautiful array or oranges and yellows, and depicts a house near a tree that sits alongside a pond.

You can see the stamp below, which indicated that it was made in Japan and is also hand painted. The symbol in the center (the ‘M’ inside the wreath) stands for “Morimura” and is Noritake’s most common stamp.

We bought this set for $17.50 and were able to sell it for $55.00!

Have you ever come across a waffle set before? What about any more pieces in this pattern? I looked it up on Replacements and the set is just stunning. I hope we come across some more of it soon!

My Weekly Score: Feathers

Back in May, I told you all about how you can make some serious money from just selling stuff. Things you find around your house, or junk that you didn’t think had any worth. One of the things I mentioned was feathers. And now I’m here to prove to you that I wasn’t just blowing smoke.

This is a GIGANTIC lot of feathers. There was over three pounds here. The first part came from our own birds – we have a Sun Conure, a Goffin Cockatoo, an Umbrella Cockatoo, a Blue Front Amazon, a Cockatiel, and an African Grey. In the listing I wrote, “All of our birds are happy, healthy, and full of the Devil. :)”

(Please see the above linked article for information about what must be said in your listing in order to be able to sell it on eBay.)

The other half of the lot came from an estate sale. There were some more exotic feathers in here, to the point where I only recognized peacock, quail, and turkey out of the whole box! There were also some hackles and skins that came with this group, some of which were absolutely gorgeous.

It seems as though this lot had already been used for fly tying purposes previously, so we marketed it that way. We bought this lot for $32.50 and ended up selling it for $80.00!!

My Weekly Score: Sunflower Hanging Lamp

We’re pretty big fans of antique hanging lamps around here. They’re often unique, hand painted, and quite beautiful. The biggest complaint is that they’re pretty hard to ship and ensure that they’ve made it to the buyer in one piece. That’s usually a risk worth taking though, as they often bring in a pretty solid profit. I also love carrying on the legacy of these original kerosene lamps that haven’t been converted to electric. I think they make awesome additions to any room in a house.

This one has been one of my favorites. Although it was converted into an electric hanging lamp, the beauty of the shade is unsurpassed. The hand painted sunflower theme was subtle and detailed – plus I just really love the color green.

The rest of the lamp was brass and it had a group of prisms hanging off the edges. There were just a handful of them, which was nice. Sometimes prisms can be a little overwhelming – especially when you think about taking them on and off to try to clean them all!

This particular lamp cost us $168, which is a pretty good deal considering it was in excellent condition. We were able to sell it for $300 to a nice home in New Mexico.

My Weekly Score: Mansfield Model 500 8mm Projector

We’ve come across a few vintage movie projectors in the last year or so and I always enjoy finding them. Usually they look super retro and cool, and I just like the idea that they’ve held all those old films.

This latest one was pretty neat as well. It was a Mansfield model 500 8mm film projector. It was made of cast aluminum, so it was pretty hefty!

The projector still worked and only had a few minor physical blemishes. The light was burnt out, but I just took a picture of it so buyers would know what they had to replace. It all worked out in the end!

I can’t remember how much we paid for this, but I know it wasn’t a lot (maybe $5?). In the end we sold it for $65.00 to someone in Australia, which means that we didn’t have to pay for the shipping either. Whoo hoo!

Have you ever come across one of these?

My Weekly Score: Paintball Gun Set

We usually sell antique and vintage items, but every once in a while we come across something new (or newish) that we just have to pick up!

This was a nice find at a yard sale. It’s a paintball set that includes two guns (with barrels), a mask, a hopper, a bottle of CO2, a pack with holders for the paintballs, and a small bottle of Gold Cup Lubricant.

The blue gun was a Spyder Pilot and the red one was a Cybrid. These were used, but still in pretty good condition.

This is a perfect thing to sell right now because paintballing is still huge! Especially because it’s summertime. Plus, these are usually pretty expensive to begin with, so people are always looking for used ones.

We scored this set for $30 and turned it around for $102.53. Whoo hoo! I hope someone has lots of fun with these for years to come. 🙂

My Weekly Score: Ship Sconce

This was a neat find right from the get-go. It’s a brass sconce that holds a candlestick. But the cool thing about it is that it was meant for a ship. We know this because the candle holder is set up to swing back and forth as the ship would pitch from the waves. Cool, right!?

It could be hung on a wall or set on a table.

This cost us less than a couple of dollars to pick up, and we ended up selling it for $30! It’ll make a really neat addition to a nautical themed house or room.

 

My Weekly Score: Gold Locket Ring

We love costume jewelry around here, if you haven’t noticed yet. It sells well, but even more importantly, it’s fun to see what different pieces pass through our doors. We’ve sold hundreds of necklaces, brooches, rings, and bracelets – maybe even thousands. And yet I’ve only come across identical pieces a handful of times. It’s always exciting to open a new box of jewelry when it arrives because you know that you’re going to find something totally different.

Enter this cool and unique ring:

I called it a locket ring, for lack of a better word. But if anyone knows its real name, we’d love to find out! It was gold in color, with a beautiful and ornate pattern. The top popped open much like a little medicine box would. This was reminiscent of those rings you see in movies where the woman pours some sort of powder into the hero’s drink while his back is turned. Except you can see in the picture that it doesn’t have a solid bottom, so I’m sure its history wasn’t quite as interesting as that. 😉

That makes me wonder, though – what was its purpose? Why was it designed this way? My best guess was that it might have once held a tiny note or a lock of hair. Do you have any ideas?

We picked this up in a lot, which means that we got it for probably less than $1. The winning bid was $21.50 and the bragging rights to this distinct ring.

What’s the weirdest piece of jewelry you’ve ever come across?