Weekly update: estate sale score!

 There was a three-day estate sale in town about a half-mile from home.  I have driven past the house numerous times over the years but I don't recall ever meeting the woman who lived there (she passed away in September).   I returned to the sale three times as prices got progressively lower.  I'm always on the lookout for materials to add to the library's local history collection and I got three Zion elementary-school yearbooks (1949, 50, and 51) and two high school reunion memory books (the Zion-Benton Township H.S. class of 1957's 45th and 50th) -- just fifty cents each. [I took them to the library before I took photos.]  

I "rescued" this packet of letters.  They were  from a German penpal in the early 1950's. The photos are of the girl, her mother, and a scene from her town in southern Germany.  ($3.75)

 These are early 20th-century embroidered postcards.  I actually plan to use them as greeting cards . . . some day.   (.25 each)

 These are contemporary paper-crafted cards. Nine for $3.75 is a good deal.

I bought a stack of Ideals magazines (.50 each). These will be the topic of my next Zion-Benton News column. (Writing it is on my to-do list this week.)










I confess that I have Corningware and I use it. I've had the large pan (on the left) for 30+ years and it's pretty scratched-up.  Estate-sale purchase on the right -- just $3.75 (reduced from $15). With lid.

This was the great deal!  My mother had  Pyrex bowls like these.  They were well-used and I let them go in our estate sale. At the time I didn't have an inch of extra storage space.  Ever since I've been on the lookout for the set in good condition at a reasonable price. (The exterior paint doesn't hold up in the dishwasher and the white interiors get  metal-marks from hard use.)   This set was priced at $50 -- and I got it the last day for $12.50.  (No, I won't use them.  I have other Pyrex bowls (I blogged about 'em but it will take an hour to find the post).)

P.S.  As I was checking out my first purchases Mrs. S, the estate sale company owner, was on the phone with one of the heirs explaining patiently but firmly that the contract clearly stated that prices would be reduced each day of the sale.  By the third day when items were actually 75% off Mrs. S said that it took the persuasion of a friend of the heirs to come to that agreement -- that and realizing how much stuff would be left over that the heirs would pay Mrs. S to have hauled away.   Mrs. S chuckled at one purchase:  a 1990's-era Toyota for $500.  The guy who bought it drove it away (after jump-starting it). He rolled down the window and the envelope with the signed title blew out and was lost.  The heirs were not happy knowing they had to go to the DMV to get a replacement title.