Goodies Found Hither and Yon

Finally, cooler days (and nights) that make me sigh with relief. Even with less daylight, I love fall. Don’t you? 

These days I’m spending more time adding things to my store (for the upcoming holiday season) but I haven’t completely stopped sourcing!! I’ve found a few goodies over the last three days that I’m quite pleased with.

Neighborhood Goodwill Finds

This mod brass Hanukkah menorah practically leapt in my basket. I’m not Jewish but do appreciate these symbols of hope and the miraculous.

I also bought a bag of silverware. Goodwill tapes up bags so you can’t get a good look at the contents, but I managed to decipher the markings on a knife that read “Italy.” Hmmm. Even though the bag was almost $15, I decided to take a gamble on it.

Turns out it was filled with Eme Italian flatware in the Napoleon pattern. The pretty pearlized handles are resin. They are not old and the pattern is still in production and sold everywhere from Neiman Marcus to Walmart. A set of five like mine above sells for $36 or so. My bag had 20 pieces…four complete sets of five in barely used condition. Yeah!! Both my twenty-something daughters want me to keep this for our own use, but I gotta sell these. I’ll be listing the 20-piece set for $85 or so.

I also found a Coach Soho purse, which is usually considered a slam-dunk even at $19, but I must have pondered this purse for five minutes in the store. It’s an adorable shoulder bag in soft, heavy pebbled leather. The front looks pretty good other than a little edge wear on the pockets, but the back has a few light brown smudges/rubs. I hesitated (and hesitated) and finally tossed the purse in my basket.

At home the first thing I did was verify that it was a real Coach purse and not a knock-off. And mine, thankfully is the real deal.

The second thing I did was take a damp cloth and wipe over the back of the purse to see if any of the smudges could be removed. They didn’t lessen noticeably.

So I turned to the internet to search on ways to “restore pebbled leather.” And so far I haven’t found anything useful that is inexpensive. (There are companies who restore even the most hideously stained purses for $95.)

Honestly I’m just not sure what I’m going to do with this purse. It’s cute and usable, but the minor condition issues may make it difficult to sell and make any profit. Potentially I could just keep it for myself, though I typically use cross-body purses. This may end up being one I bring back to the store for exchange. What would you do??

Craigslist Find 

I don’t source much from Craigslist, but every once in a while I find something that I want to buy that is not too expensive. This time it was a set of 10 vintage cardboard children’s puzzles with charming images for $25. I contacted the seller and she said she wouldn’t be available till early evening, but offered to leave the puzzles on her porch if I wanted to drop by during the day. If I liked them, I could drop the payment in her locked mail box and take them. Wow! I was amazed at her trusting nature!!! It’s rather unheard of in the Craigslist world. I wanted to say, “Donna, you realize that’s NOT how you do Craigslist transactions.” But I’m glad she did because traffic at evening commute time in Silicon Valley is pretty much a nightmare. And in the end in it all worked out beautifully.

Here are two of the puzzles…

This one has a few minor condition issues, including mouse nibbles, but still is sweet.

St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store

This store is a few towns away and I don’t go there often because the few vintage things I’ve spotted there in the past have been too darn pricey. But it was fun to go again after all these months. I roamed around for a while, but nothing was going in my basket…until I spotted this crazed poodle figurine.

Hmmm might be a piece of old Staffordshire. When I flipped it over I got super excited. It showed that this piece had been created by hand pressing clay bats into a press mold. This was a technique favored during Victorian times.

If nothing else, it showed that this figurine was likely made in the 1800s. Dang, this one I had to buy! (Price $9.)

At home I contacted a Staffordshire expert in the UK for her opinion and she got back to me ASAP saying she doesn’t have knowledge about Victorian-era pieces. Poop!I have found similar ones for sale (in the $60-$80 range) that purport to be Staffordshire circa 1850. Before I list mine I want to see if I can get more definitive information.

Overall I am happy with my finds and certainly had fun finding them.

As always wishing you happy hunting!