I am a treasure hunter. Lost relics and pieces of history intrigue me, especially if I get a good deal. This past Saturday, I decided to trudge 45 minutes from my house to an estate sale. I would not normally go that far for an Arizona estate sale, but I had seen a picture on the Internet and decided it might be worth the drive. In New Hampshire, it was a favorite Saturday activity of mine to go for a drive and stop at estate sales and a choice few antique stores. Here in Arizona, most yard sales or estate sales are newer items, mostly worthless junk and worn out clothes.
Saturday was sunny and gorgeous, with very little traffic on the road. We arrived to find mounds of boxes piled in the driveway of this old ranch style house now surrounded by housing developments and drive through pharmacies. It brought to mind clips of TV shows about hoarders. Some of the stuff was pure junk, coated in layers of dirt and an unknown grime I labeled asbestos dust. Most of the boxes were still unopened and hadn't been touched in over 20 years. It was fun to kind of pick through the boxes and see what I could find. A few boxes looked like they belong to some nightmare show about headless dolls, while others were filled with lace. Bags and bags of lace. None of that really was interesting, but I did finally find a box at the back that had a bunch of bottles. Some are curvy shaped and others are cut glass with toppers.
(Ok, let's be honest, they are booze bottles mostly. Some held Bourbon and one has the definitive look of a moonshine bottle, but they are so cool. Tony is not certain it's a good idea to have empty liquor bottles in our house. He thinks people will assume we are closet drunks. I don't really care what they assume, and anyway I will probably end up selling them at some point.)
I was hoping that I could talk the lady into no more than $10 for the box of 9, but I was sly and let her offer what she thought was a fair price. She let me get away with the lot for $2.50. Crazy! Now, many of you may think they are just a box of dirty grimy empty bottles, but old bottles like this sale at antique stores for quite a bit. I am still working on cleaning them, but I feel quite satisfied to have found a treasure.
I am encouraged to maybe attend a few more estate sales here.
2 comments:
will you post a picture? I like old bottles and have been known to buy a few here and there. :)and I'm with you on the old liquer bottles hanging around the house. no harm. if they think you are closet drinkers, at least they will think you like the 'aged' stuff. :) (does that really count with the hard stuff?)
That's really cool Stacey! I agree, I want to see pictures!
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