Antique Secrets

Today was actually a pretty day, and I found an ESTATE SALE I wanted to go to. I like to get toward the front of the line, not only because it’s better to get in first, but to stand close the the hard core pickers and dealers waiting to get inside. The pros are always bragging and shooting their mouths off about sales they went to, fantastic finds, etc. Sometimes you can get great information just listening. I learned a couple of sales back more about gold and silver finds, and actually used it for good, and found a smashed 1930’s school ring, 14KT, at a sale later that day. The ring was bad, but the gold was fine.
Anyway, I found myself number 26 in line when I counted, and then a couple of people went closer, as someone was “saving a spot” for them. As the door opened at 10AM, and everyone rushed in, I counted. I was there probably 15 minutes to 1/2 hour later than many in front of me, but in counting the seconds until I got through the door, it was 31 seconds. so big deal. Besides this house was so crazy, no walls were square in the whole house, it took a long time to see it all.
Things I found today were: a 1980’s Digital Rainbow 100 Personal Computer with cables, software floppys, and a monitor, for $5.00, two 1963 wooden plaques, with a heavy metal casting of the Organ in the Salt Lake Tabernacle with a plate giving thanks for service in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Broadcast, and KSL Radio. $7.00 each. I got a 1.5 ft diameter fan of Black Coral mounted on a stand, for $10.00. A Hasbro plastic adding machine (way pre-calculator) for a couple bucks. A book for my sweetheart wife on gardening for $2.00. and 3 Jethro Tull record albums for my son who is a Jethro Tull “nut” for a buck a piece. Oh, and a small but heavy brass set of 3 monkeys “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” for a buck. It was a fun sale.

I have been a picker for most of my life. I discovered dumpster diving way before it was a fad, or to some, a lifestyle. I have had my own personal “college education”, and several advanced engineering “degrees” from the piles of stuff I have taken apart, figured out, reversed engineered, and even sometimes fixed. I love technology, electronics, science, art, and natural sciences. My hobbies have included, reading, optics and holography, mineralogy, antique radios, and many other types of antiques, both technical, and beautiful, and now, glass, (hot, warm, and cold). I have found that people throw away, give away, trade, sell off, auction and donate more boxes, piles, truckloads, and pallets of the stuff that fascinates me! There is not enough room to store it. I cannot, by myself evens sell it fast enough to make room for more.

What we are going to do here is share stories, secrets, tips, ideas, and see if we can make sense of all the world has to offer to those who like to find and collect and study… things!