To Flea Or Not to Flea!

This Saturday is our little monthly flea market. I haven’t gone for the last three months and honestly I don’t need to go this month. I have tons of inventory to wade through and process. But I have missed it. And I’ve missed some of the delightful little interactions with sellers. The fun conversations. I’ve missed walking around and seeing tables full of goodies. The last few times I did go were not successful for me monetarily, still, I enjoyed it. And over the years I’ve made amazing scores. But I’m on the fence whether I’ll go or not.

In the same vein tomorrow is also the first day of our monthly local library book sale. It’s a popular one and some folks travel a distance to attend. I used to go regularly. Then I stopped. I did go a few months ago for the heck of it and focused on both the bargain room and the specialist higher-end vintage area. My favorite find on that visit was a set of five vintage UK illustrated anatomy textbooks. Medical stuff sells for me.

Once a month they turn the bargain rooms into free rooms just to get rid of the excess and I’ve found some surprisingly good things the few times I’ve gone to that. Mind you, this is tough picking. These are things that have been passed up by hundreds of other shoppers. Still. It can be worth going. My best find was this MCM set of Charles Eames “Giant House of Cards” by Tigrett Enterprises. Not in perfect condition, but still they sold for $175.

The problem is if I go to either of these events/sales I will inevitably buy something. I know I will find a few good things that I can’t resist and I will add them to growing mound of stuff to deal with and the clutter that is driving me crazy!

Perhaps the better choice is to stay home and focus things at hand. Knuckle down. Give it the old college try to get caught up.

Well, I haven’t firmly decided if I will go to either of these sales, but I am knuckling down today!

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One of the items I chose at the “big private pick” was this pretty little bottle with a bit of cork stuck in it. My friend didn’t think much of it, but the glass was like nothing I’d seen before. I knew the cork wasn’t original and that it was missing something because the opening was rough and felt unfinished.

I had discovered early on in my research that it was Venetian aventurine glass, but after poking around more and found several listings with the same-sized hexagonal bottles with similar glass credited to Pietro Bigaglia in the mid-1800s. Bingo! Coupled with the fact that there are many items from Italy in this haul and several from the 1800s, I feel confident (okay 90% confident) that my little bottle is a Bigaglia.

These bottles, when complete with metal top and chatelaine chain, can command prices from $400 up to $2000.

But how do I price a piece when the top is missing? This is the conundrum! Would real collectors even want this? Still even AS IS I believe it has value. Hmmm. Must ponder this. What do you think?

Another item from the haul, a silver-plated trophy cup from two venerable San Francisco institutions–Shreve & Co and the private, oh-so-exclusive Olympic Club. (The Club formed in the 1800s only started allowing women in 1990 after a discrimination lawsuit.) Throw in that the trophy is for a golf tournament held on St. Patrick’s Day and I think this should appeal to a few folks. (Listed for $148.)

And I picked up these old small flags. Did a Google image search and learned they are flannel tobacco flags made between 1910 and 1915. Gosh, who knew? These are about 10.6″ by 8.5″ but I have smaller ones too.

I found a web page which gave more info. They stated that dirty ones have no value and a drop of water can make them valueless because the dyes run. Well I’ve been soaking two in cold water to see if the dirt would seep out and so far no dye leakage! Honestly though, most of the ones I have are faded and dirty and likely not worth a tuppence. But more research is needed.

So not everything I took in my two hauls from this private pick are “home runs” in terms on money, but I’ve been learning tons and that has its own value.

Still not sure about my weekend plans, but hoping yours are grand,

Karen