A Mixed Day Haunting The Estate Sales

[LisaN]

Ahhh- the one good thing about being marginally employed is having the ability to go to Friday estate sales. You, your fellow under-employed, the Stepford wives, and the bridge club, stalking around basements and attics.

 

First house: Nothing Nothing NOTHING! Just room after room filled with: baskets. OK, there was a celluloid vanity set but I am not into that kind of stuff.

 

Second house: Books. Good hardcovers for a buck. And the woman had thousands. I think if she had read them all, her brain must have exploded. Hence the estate sale. Then, in a corner of the basement... a virgin 25cent bottle of skrip 22, unopened, in the box- you know, the bottle with the ink well in it. I snatched it up (and paid 50 cents for it!!!!!) and turned over the house... WHERE ARE THE PENS??? Asked the son- nope- no pens. I want a desk set now! (I want an oompa loompa now!)

 

Well, along with the ink I did get some nice books and a Rack-O game.

 

Lisa

[SarahS]

Lisa,

 

Your one day of browsing has bested my many visits to flea markets and our so-called antiques shops. I did find a $3 dip pen holder once...

 

Congrats, and enjoy your free Fridays.

[weissa]

You did better than I did today. I stopped on my way to work at a really big estate sale - 15-17,000 books (no kidding), 2 cars, a big honkin' snow blower and a baby grand piano, among other things, but not one freakin' fountain pen or bottle of ink. So I bought two books for my wife and called it a day.

[majorworks]

Great post! Fun read.

 

Imagine... all that perfectly good celluloid wasted on a vanity set.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I only got some 3,000 books now (some 100 I've not read).

If the book is any good, I keep it, if not I get rid of it.

I have given away 1,000 ea SF books to two friends; that had the nerve to move; so I couldn't borrow books back. Trimmed out four doubled filled book cases when I moved into a smaller apartment and my den shrank.

 

Had I lived in the same place instead of moving more than half of my life, I'd of had that many....mostly junk books but, that's what I read.

 

It's not hard to do, if you only read two books a week, that's 100 a year. TV is often boring, to me. Four books a week, is two hundred. There will be times when you gobble up 2 or 3 a day, if you are lucky, and read quick.

 

I read fast, in 7th grade I was tested at 400 words a minute, at 420 the flowing line in the machine, fuzzed out. If I'm loafing, it's a page a minute or 350 words a minute.

 

 

Other folks spend what I spent on books on records, and had thousands...did their ears fall off?

[gyasko]

I had a similar experience at an estate sale this spring. Promising house, lots of books -- apparently the woman was a school teacher -- but only a 12-pack of Skrip cartridges. I asked, but no pens.

 

The estate sale i went to Wednesday was rumoured to be great, but it was 70% salt and pepper shakers, 20% glassware & 10% detritus of everyday life. Can you imagine a basement and 3 rooms full of salt and pepper shakers? All collecting is perhaps somewhat pathological, but this was on another level. Worse still, the naughty salt and pepper shakers that i would have been interested in were not there!

[LisaN]

...

It's not hard to do, if you only read two books a week, that's 100 a year. TV is often boring, to me. Four books a week, is two hundred. There will be times when you gobble up 2 or 3 a day, if you are lucky, and read quick.

 

I read fast, in 7th grade I was tested at 400 words a minute, at 420 the flowing line in the machine, fuzzed out. If I'm loafing, it's a page a minute or 350 words a minute.

 

I understand- but seriously it was a library collection worthy of... a small city library.

And ten of those books came home with me.

I'm reading trollope right now, so it's slightly longer than 3 days per book for me.

Other folks spend what I spent on books on records, and had thousands...did their ears fall off?

Actually, probably yes.

[Tommy]

For a couple of years, I went to a ton of estate sales and garage sales. Even after screening out the sales that did not seem likely to have fountain pens, I probably had to go to 10 sales to find one with any pens. If they advertise baby clothes or NASCAR collectibles, don't expect to find any fountain pens.

 

Plus, some of the estate sales were pre-sold to dealers who picked things over before the public was let in.

 

That being said, I've still managed to pick up quite a few really nice pens. It just takes a lot of time.

[AltecGreen]

Get to know the people running the estate sales for the sellers. These professional often have 'special clients' and they set aside items their clients will certainly buy prior to the estate sale. You won't even see these items appear on the list of items for sale. It helps to have the mindset of buying whole collections.

[bluerose]

Get to know the people running the estate sales for the sellers. These professional often have 'special clients' and they set aside items their clients will certainly buy prior to the estate sale. You won't even see these items appear on the list of items for sale. It helps to have the mindset of buying whole collections.

 

Hi.I am new here and I am loving my first pen. I live in San Antonio (just moved) how would I find out about estate sales and other places where I might find fine pens, inks, or paper? So far I have not had any luck.

 

Thank you for any help. (I thought my pen addiction would be cheaper than my shoe addiction... wrong again.)

[sotto2]

A couple weeks ago on a Saturday, I went up to Malibu to the "estate sale" of a very very very rich and famous Academy Award winning actress who had passed on and left the house and contents to her somewhat famous actor son and his wife, and they were also now leaving the house to move on to smaller digs. I heard that a big auction house had been there in previous days and removed essentially all of the valuable furniture, art work, etc etc, and the son was just disposing of what remained at this sale. So I look around, not seeing anything that even half interested me, until I finally wandered into what appeared to be an upstairs office and espied a shoebox filled with miscellaneous pencils, ballpoints, roller balls and....you already know where this is leading, don't you?? ;-)

 

Well, I see this middle-aged looking cleaning-lady type person (sorry, don't mean to stereotype but that's just what popped into my mind at the time) and her 20-ish daughter with 3 little kids-in-tow already looking through this pen box. I scampered over there and dug in as soon as I could manage it, but just as I started the older woman held up two fountain pens to me, one a completely gold old Mont Blanc, and said, "I think I've seen this white star on pens before, does that mean it's a good one?" Well, several things shot through my mind all at once, as you can imagine, and I finally was able to come up with, "Well, I don't know much about pens so frankly I couldn't tell you" in the most discouraging and negative tone of voice that a card-carrying fountain pen-aholic could muster under the same circumstances. I was thinking, "Well, maybe that's enough to make her just put that pen back down and forget all about it." (I know, so maybe I'm a creep, but, but.....it was an OLD GOLD MONT BLANC FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!!)

 

Well, the end of the story is that she took that pen and the other one (I can't even remember what it was I was so distracted by the gold one) and off she went with them, her 20 something daughter and the 3 little kids-in-tow following along behind. DOH!!!!!! Maybe that's poetic justice for you.

 

I bet you anything those 3 little kids have taken that pen apart, used it for a dart, stuck it 10 foot high up in a tree trunk somewhere, and one of them had to go to the doctor to get their finger unstuck from the cap.

 

Sorry, I'm just jealous and needed to finally get that whole experience off my chest....

Edited July 10, 2010 by sotto2

[mhwombat]

Hi.I am new here and I am loving my first pen.

Welcome, bluerose. And I hope it's your first fountain pen, not your first pen of any kind. Unless, you know, you're seven and you've been writing with pencils and crayons until now. http://nualeargais.ie/pictiuir/emoticons/wombatSmilie.gif

 

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I had this image of someone who has been been trying to write with charred sticks on papyrus, and has just been handed a Bic.

[gyasko]

Get to know the people running the estate sales for the sellers. These professional often have 'special clients' and they set aside items their clients will certainly buy prior to the estate sale. You won't even see these items appear on the list of items for sale. It helps to have the mindset of buying whole collections.

 

Around here there are estate sale folks like that, and there are estate sale operators like the church ladies who will not sell early under any circumstances.

 

I usually don't bother with sales run by the first type.

[sotto2]

Generally, around here, whoever is running the estate sale has been watching too much "Antiques Road Show" and has priced everything sky high. Usually, at the end of the day, they still have most of the junk they were hired to sell off.

[Ladynib302]

A couple weeks ago on a Saturday, I went up to Malibu to the "estate sale" of a very very very rich and famous Academy Award winning actress who had passed on and left the house and contents to her somewhat famous actor son and his wife, and they were also now leaving the house to move on to smaller digs. I heard that a big auction house had been there in previous days and removed essentially all of the valuable furniture, art work, etc etc, and the son was just disposing of what remained at this sale. So I look around, not seeing anything that even half interested me, until I finally wandered into what appeared to be an upstairs office and espied a shoebox filled with miscellaneous pencils, ballpoints, roller balls and....you already know where this is leading, don't you?? ;-)

 

Well, I see this middle-aged looking cleaning-lady type person (sorry, don't mean to stereotype but that's just what popped into my mind at the time) and her 20-ish daughter with 3 little kids-in-tow already looking through this pen box. I scampered over there and dug in as soon as I could manage it, but just as I started the older woman held up two fountain pens to me, one a completely gold old Mont Blanc, and said, "I think I've seen this white star on pens before, does that mean it's a good one?" Well, several things shot through my mind all at once, as you can imagine, and I finally was able to come up with, "Well, I don't know much about pens so frankly I couldn't tell you" in the most discouraging and negative tone of voice that a card-carrying fountain pen-aholic could muster under the same circumstances. I was thinking, "Well, maybe that's enough to make her just put that pen back down and forget all about it." (I know, so maybe I'm a creep, but, but.....it was an OLD GOLD MONT BLANC FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!!)

 

Well, the end of the story is that she took that pen and the other one (I can't even remember what it was I was so distracted by the gold one) and off she went with them, her 20 something daughter and the 3 little kids-in-tow following along behind. DOH!!!!!! Maybe that's poetic justice for you.

 

I bet you anything those 3 little kids have taken that pen apart, used it for a dart, stuck it 10 foot high up in a tree trunk somewhere, and one of them had to go to the doctor to get their finger unstuck from the cap.

 

Sorry, I'm just jealous and needed to finally get that whole experience off my chest....

 

 

Sotto2: Empathy for you all the way!! Grieving process is so difficult! Thanks for sharing with your "support group". Many of us have "been there".

[watch_art]

a $3 dip nib holder??? my antique store can beat that. there are two wooden nib holders, one for $35 and the other for $55. it's the 'rare' red version. ugh...

 

there are never any good sales like this around here. our estate sales are like yard sales but run by nazis who don't let you dig through any of the boxes out in the front yard.

 

laaaaammee.

[rosey]

I went to some sales this morning and at first I thought the whole day was going to be a bust with some really ratty yard sales. As I was on the way home, I ran across a sale that at first glance looked as if it was going to be as trashy as all the others I had attended. But, much to my delight, at closer inspection this one was indeed very clean with some nice things. A bit of a jumble to go through, but I always enjoy the good hunt if it's a hunt through clean tables and boxes.

 

As I was on my way out and scanning for one last time I spied a Shaeffer calligraphy pen sitting in a vase with a bunch of wood pencils wrapped with a rubber band. After picking that up I noticed a calligraphy dip pen and nibs sitting close by. When I asked the lady running the sale how much for the pens and nibs she said she had another Shaeffer pen and handed it to me. My friend was digging in a box and came up with a Pelikan Script pen. I then dug through that box to discover another Pelikan Script, Pelikan cartridges and a calligraphy marker type pen. My grand total for all these lovely treasures was a whopping $1.75! She then reached on one of the tables and handed me a bottle of embossing powder for free.

 

Now, mind you I do not do calligraphy, however, I do enjoy writing with the pens. I filled one of the Pelikan script pens with BSB(I won't put it in anything I highly value) and wrote with it in my journal. It's a very nice writer. I haven't been successful at all this yard sale season finding anything even remotely related to fountain pens. So,when I saw this post I had to share my finds!

 

Thanks for sharing about your ink find. Sorry, you didn't have success with finding any pens. Maybe next time you will find that desired desk set to go with your ink! Happy haunting!

[rosey]

A couple weeks ago on a Saturday, I went up to Malibu to the "estate sale" of a very very very rich and famous Academy Award winning actress who had passed on and left the house and contents to her somewhat famous actor son and his wife, and they were also now leaving the house to move on to smaller digs. I heard that a big auction house had been there in previous days and removed essentially all of the valuable furniture, art work, etc etc, and the son was just disposing of what remained at this sale. So I look around, not seeing anything that even half interested me, until I finally wandered into what appeared to be an upstairs office and espied a shoebox filled with miscellaneous pencils, ballpoints, roller balls and....you already know where this is leading, don't you?? ;-)

 

Well, I see this middle-aged looking cleaning-lady type person (sorry, don't mean to stereotype but that's just what popped into my mind at the time) and her 20-ish daughter with 3 little kids-in-tow already looking through this pen box. I scampered over there and dug in as soon as I could manage it, but just as I started the older woman held up two fountain pens to me, one a completely gold old Mont Blanc, and said, "I think I've seen this white star on pens before, does that mean it's a good one?" Well, several things shot through my mind all at once, as you can imagine, and I finally was able to come up with, "Well, I don't know much about pens so frankly I couldn't tell you" in the most discouraging and negative tone of voice that a card-carrying fountain pen-aholic could muster under the same circumstances. I was thinking, "Well, maybe that's enough to make her just put that pen back down and forget all about it." (I know, so maybe I'm a creep, but, but.....it was an OLD GOLD MONT BLANC FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!!)

 

Well, the end of the story is that she took that pen and the other one (I can't even remember what it was I was so distracted by the gold one) and off she went with them, her 20 something daughter and the 3 little kids-in-tow following along behind. DOH!!!!!! Maybe that's poetic justice for you.

 

I bet you anything those 3 little kids have taken that pen apart, used it for a dart, stuck it 10 foot high up in a tree trunk somewhere, and one of them had to go to the doctor to get their finger unstuck from the cap.

 

Sorry, I'm just jealous and needed to finally get that whole experience off my chest....

I just can't help adding that I read this and now I am very heart sick and sick to my stomach! My sympathy is with you. I'm glad you shared with your fellow pen addicts this heartbreaking story so maybe you can heal from it and move on!

[sotto2]

Thank you Ladynib302 and Rosey. FPN is so cathartic. I guess maybe I've snagged a pen or two away from somebody else, too. But it was a GOLD........gah, I gotta learn to let go. ;-)

Edited July 11, 2010 by sotto2

[stine4115]

I went to the local monthly flea market this morning. Mostly its just "old coots" selling old dusty junk. But I had a look-see - just in case. There was a glass topped box full of "stuff" and a few chipped and cracked mechanical pencils AND two inexpensive fountain pens. One was a Sheaffer(clear) with a silver cap and one was a Wearever (turquoise) with a frosty silver cap and the underside of the nib is clear. They were both in need of a bath. I asked the "old coot" how much. He raised one finger. I paid one finger's worth ($1) for both of them. Took them home, gave them a soak, gave them a new cartridge and they work a treat. It was a good day at the flea market - eventhough they were only inexpensive pens. But it was fun and better than no find at all.