A Down & Dirty Picker Pictorial

Ok, unlike my usual posts, this one is going to be long......

Um, ok, yes, I know some......well, ok, ok, ok...I stand corrected......MANY of my posts ARE long...but this one isn't going to be long in a wordy sort of way....

This one is full of photos....action shots, if you will.

I tend to get pretty dirty, cobweb covered, dust coated, etc, etc in many places I pick, and I do search through quite a few "sketchy" places, as far as their overall condition goes.......Yep, I tend to get Down 'n' Dirty.....

And here we go!

This barn looks relatively safe and intact, right?

  

Ok, maybe not!

  This wall waved back and forth when a breeze started....

  Yes, I walked around on this...that is the LOFT, by the way...it is a good story and a half up. I do not recommend you do something similar, tho! I do have over 20 years of this sort of thing under my belt!

 

To say that the structure of this place was not the best was an understatement.....beams were cracked and breaking, etc. All the time I was working here I kept my ears wide open for creaking, cracking, etc!

I have an affinity for old cellars...Why? Curiosity! That is where I always think the GOOD STUFF IS.....! I admit, that is not always the case, but I like to check everything out thoroughly. 

Unfortunately, there was no way to find the trap door to access this house's cellar...too many leaves, debris, etc....access wasn't through the normal trap door...The cast iron cook stove, gravity and mother nature co-operated to create access to this one.

This was a picking a building that was quite clean, and in use...but the crawlspace had not been used since the 1950s...and the access to is was moved to a part of the building that only had a 2 foot space between the floor joists and the ground...then you back crawled/shimmied under the floor, and within a couple feet dropped down into the deeper portion of the cellar. It is an all dirt floor...quite dry, but that also means quite dusty..Each movement you make on the floor, or shifting something created a cloud of dust.

Respirator time!

 REALLY dark! No lights in here!

I feel far more grungy than I look....

Sorry for the dark photo....per usual, there was no electricity in this building. What you see here is an estate that was stored in a barn for about 15+ years.  This was a hog barn...and became infested with rats, mice raccoons, and who knows what else. Roof also leaked.  I saw this stuff 15 or so years prior, but the family that owned the stuff was still hemming and hawing about what to do with it. At that time, I saw that there was about a few thousand dollars worth of stuff.  When I obtained the opportunity to sort through it, many years later, this is what the pile looked like (above & below)

After diggin' through the pile a couple hours.

Some items rescued....most of the furniture was destroyed by rot, mice, and rats....in the end, the grand total realized from this mess was under $400!   There were a few pieces of furniture here that WERE $500- $1500 pieces when I looked at them years back...and they were reduced to nothing more than glorified FIREWOOD...and not even that, with some of the parts so rotten that you could squeeze water out of them. THAT is what happens to items when they are left in uncontrolled conditions.

That is enough grunge, dirt, and dust for today....will post more photos of some of the stuff I have encountered soon!

COUNTRY AUCTION - PART 3 - There are no such things as "friends" at an auction!

They say there is no such thing as a "friend" at an auction. We all know what we will bid, what we want to pay, what we need to pay, the values, retail, wholesale, whatever.

However, that said, sometimes it is a good idea to make sure that if there are people at the sale you know well and are good friends, you may want to sit near enough to them to chat a bit.

A buddy and picker friend of mine just started back into the picking game after a bit of a hiatus.  He's hitting the road, auctions, yard sales, flea markets, cold calls, etc, and hitting them fairly hard, hoping to make it a full time living. He has picked for years prior to his hiatus, as a collector who was tired of not being able to find very many objects of his desire at antique shops and shows.  Apparently, my shop was one of the few stores where he always seemed to find something fresh for his collection.

I was always adding fresh picks to my  inventory, and my tastes were in line with his, where as many of the traditional, older dealers inventory tended to grow stagnant and/or was overflowing with glass, china, and what was then "traditional" fare.

Anyway, we have reconnected after several years, and he's back at it, and hoping to make it a living.  He is a guy with an advantage over most of the "newbies", as he is not "new" to picking....but he is new to making a living in the junk biz.  I hope it works out for him, I really do.  His horizons are expanding, the blinders are now almost off, and his focus has broadened, interests are widening in scope, and his brain is absorbing all it can.

Being in  Manitoba, it is not going to be easy, which I think he is well aware of. He's seen all sorts of folks come and go in this biz, and only a handful who are still at it after many years.  I guess my pickin' life could be one of those inspirations, tho my career could be a cautionary take on this, too!

 If you never make mistakes you are not learning a damn thing, in my opinion.  He may (and will) make some of the same mistakes I have made, and some uniquely his own. Being a friend, I am doing my best to steer him clear of many of the ones I made. Someone else might as well benefit!

Anyway, one mistake I made at the auction was sitting where my wife wanted to sit.

She likes the front row. I prefer the middle, back or standing at the sides, wandering around if I get bored, or need to get out of the line of sight of those folks who decide that just because a (knowledgeable) dealer is bidding, that they should bid, too.  If you are one of those folks, a word of caution...that really is a bad idea...which I've discussed in one of my previous posts.

Anyway, I sat with her, but did get that wandering itch, and did cruise around the hall a bit, re-examining things, looking deeper, taking a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th look at items I had only casually examined initially.

Bidding was strong, prices were going far higher than normal.  Thus, buying items that weren't quite what they appeared to be, were damaged, missing pieces, repaired, faked, etc, could have a negative effect on my finances that I'd regret.

Had I sat near my buddy, we'd both have saved some money.

One of the lots of note was 2 1950s prints....bad, bad, bad 1950s prints.  Both were those textured cardboard prints popular in the 50s,60s,70s, 80s, and even to date, of famous master's works. It is the sort of stuff that is sold for "cheap" prices to the masses by stores of the Woolworth's/Woolco/K-Mart/Wal-Mart  ilk.


The one I was after was a copy of one of a series of Van Gogh's Sunflowers.

Why the heck would I want one of those???

I know, you are thinking: "Surely it HAD to be temporary insanity!"

Nope.

A sharp eye, knowledge and experience made me want it.

Or, rather, what was HIDDEN in it!

You see, when I flipped it over, I could see a surface tear on the cardboard backing.

In the shape of the mark that an "easel back" piece had been fastened.

And I could see that the cardboard had some writing on the other side, via a spot where I could lift it ever so slightly.  But, if I got looking TOO close, or even yanking out some of the fasteners, and pulling it right out of the frame would make my observation and discovery too obvious....and potentially incur the wrath of a consignor, auctioneer, etc.

 Plus, old cardboard can be less than flexible...sometimes even so brittle it will crumble upon being lifted with any sort of strain on it.

So, I had to decide if I was going to gamble on it.

For $2 or $4, it is what I call a "lottery ticket"....a "sort of" a gamble....though, the odds are better due to the knowledge I have of its potential contents.  About all I could make out was some blue lettering, and what I recognized right away as the winged boot logo Goodyear uses.

I also had a strong feeling it had been trimmed, however, which will make the value plummet, if not eliminate it from being any more than a chunk of worthless cardboard. Upon close inspection, I recognized that one edge was not 100% straight, and had a few stray strands of cardboard on its edge, like small tails...tell-tale tails...of a not 100% steady hand, with a razor knife in it.

But, these sorts of pictures sell for next to nothing at auctions...shouldn't have to pay more than $5, TOPS.

The auctioneer, well aware of the fact they sell for little, put two pictures together as a lot. Both were as worthless as the other for what they were. One had a fancy "carved" frame that was semi-attractive, in an old, faux antique-ish sort of way.

Bidding started at $2...and ended with me owning them at $20.00.

Hmmm.....Seems that I lost control of my mind...maybe it WAS temporary insanity.

 Well,  not really...I let my curiosity overtake intelligence, knowledge, experience and gut. A rookie mistake, but one which long time vets will still make from time to time. Usually 4 beats 1, but curiosity is powerful.

Frankly, when it is under control, it is a good thing when picking...but sometimes it can be a bad thing at auctions.

Only one other bidder was bidding.....and I quickly figured out it may have been my buddy sitting in the back with his family.

Damn!

I couldn't figure out why he would bid...the odds were against it 1000 to 1....

I went right over with the 2 pieces, and as it turned out his wife wanted the Van Gogh print. What she wants she will get, which, being married, also, I understand. Good to keep the wife happy, especially after sitting in a hall of people, partly bored, and with a small baby to tend for. If she isn't kept happy, odds are he won't be attending many more auctions, with or without her!

Twenty bucks is a small price to pay for that....but I outbid him....unfortunately.

We made a deal to split the cost, and I would keep the cardboard backing of the Van Gogh and the other picture, which I really did not want. He'd get the Van Gogh and his wife would be happy.

I took it apart there, and he gained some knowledge that may serve him well in the future.

I gained a cut, and thus worthless, chunk of 1950s cardboard, that used to be a collectible, vintage sign. I gifted it back to him on the spot, as it was worth more as backing for that picture. It saved him the hassle of cutting a new piece.

 

I  took my other ugly, cheap print and tossed it on my pile of purchases, only having lost $10 for my curiosity getting out of control.

Let that be a lesson to you......actually, TWO lessons!  One will save you money the other will make you money.

Plus, I am going to toss in a THIRD lesson...but you will have to read the next post for that one.

Country Auction - Part DEUX.

I thought I better finish telling you about the auction, as some of you are expecting a grand finale...but this is not it. This is only part deux.....I mean, TWO.

Usually, if there is some decent stuff in the auction, and nothing else to drag me away to greener pastures, I will stick around until the very last item is sold.

This was the case with this sale.  I stuck around only because it was the first sale of the year I had attended, and there were some interesting bits I wanted to get, or at least chase.

The sale was jammed with tables and tables of smalls, maybe 40, 8 foot long banquet tables....and there was a fair bit under many of the tables as well.

Usually that means a LONG day with these particular auctioneers, and some fantastic bargains to be had in the last hour of the sale.  Crowd will start really thinning out, prices will drop, groups of items being offered by the auctioneer will be made much larger, hammer comes down faster, etc. The scenario of getting a whole table of items for a dollar, including many you would have bought individually for double and triple digit figures, becomes very feasible.

Today was not to be one of those sale, however.

Spring and late winter sales in this neck of the woods, especially when accompanied by clear, sunny weather, and good driving conditions, tend to do quite well.  Winter on the Canadian prairies tends to narrow down the number of country auctions being held to maybe a couple a month.. I have seen  many winters with zero sales being held on some months, especially December, January, and February.

Those are the months that I used to suffer with the shakes... from auction withdrawal!  When I lived in the city, the 3 permanent flea markets and thrift stores, house calls and the occasional country picking trip, had to suffice in slaking my thirst for that "score".

Sale prices were high overall, with lots that would normally sell for a couple bucks hitting $10, $20, $30 and even a few topping out at $65+. A pre-teen girl locked her eyes and emptied her pocket book of $65+ for two home ceramics class figurines, one being a moose (or was it a bison?) that she was going to own no matter what.  Apparently it was her first foray into the bidding world.  The determination in her eyes was cool to see, but I shuddered to think that she paid that much for what I considered near valueless items....but, she was happy, and that is all that counts, I guess. She will hopefully enjoy the pieces...maybe a new collector has been born!  Or, perhaps she knew something no one else in the crowd did.

Frankly, that is how I get my bargains at these sorts of sales.

Just because prices are going high on many things, does not mean EVERY good item you see will go high.

Why? Well, because the good items YOU see are not necessarily the same "good" items everyone else sees.

I bought a nice piece at that sale, and when another bidder started bidding, I expected I would not get it at all. Amazingly, I did buy it....and it is pictured below.

Measures over a foot high, and stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the jumble of more "man-ish" type stuff that it was surrounded by....tools, boxes of hardware, that sort of stuff.

I had looked it over fairly casually, and had not noted any chips or cracks.  Plus, there were no makers marks or stickers, either.

I had overvalued it in my mind, though hadn't planned to bid more than $40 - $50, despite my feeling it was a $200 - $250 piece. I stray away from heavily chasing some breakable items when cash is low...one false move and your investment is GONE.

SO, bidding started..and, oddly, started quite low, at the $10 mark, I think.  I let the auctioneer drop to $2 before putting my bid in.

Then another bidder upped it to a whole $4.00....and in the tone of the rest of the sale, watching pretty much every previous lot starting at a $2 bid turn into double and triple digits, I thought:

 "Damn, this is going to get chased up to way past what I wanted to pay."

But I was not surprised, so I went with the bidding, might as well make the other bidder pay something for it.

And at $2 increments it went...$4....$6....$8...

and at that it oddly stalled....I was positive a more knowledgeable bidder would jump in...

In a couple seconds, to my surprise, it was mine.

The thought of :"I MUST have missed seeing/hearing a huge crack in it....or it is a repro I had never heard about....got to be something wrong with it......" went through my head.

Got it, checked it close, and it was still intact, no cracks, no chips. I can;t call it mint, as it had wear on the bottom....but that is a GOOD thing...honest wear on the bottom of a glass piece means the odds are very high that it certainly been around for quite some time.

After research at home, I discovered my on-site valuation was high. Made by Consolidated Lamp & Glass, the value was actually bout $125.  I have it tagged it at $110, with room for negotiation.

Not bad. It is those "scores" that make up for the things you paid dear for, too much for, or should not have bought in the first place...which I managed to do at the same sale...but those are later blog postings.