This Week In Finds #5

There were three really great estate sales in my town this past weekend and, despite my battles with a mustachioed hipster weeny boy, I managed to score some decent loot!

A couple more Dream Pets for my recent collection. I was pretty thrilled to find the St. Bernard with his cool hat and barrel collar. The other guy is both a Dream pet knock-off and an apparent Snoopy Knock-off. I don't recall Snoopy ever wearing thick-rimmed glasses and a plaid bow....I also need to find him a nose!

I've been wanting to get some more 45 cases lately, but didn't feel like paying $20 (and sometimes more!) for one on Ebay. Luckily I found a couple of great ones for El Cheapo. The jean Platter Pak is my new fave, the other I'll stick on the 'bay and get myself a little piece o' the action!

A couple jugs for my mini-jug/hillbilly collection.

I found oodles of great mags and comics too. There is tons of cool junk hidin' inside these babies, plenty to share here later!!!

A few neato buttons. "Cavalier Power" is a 70's pin from my old high school in Corunna, MI. The "Patriots" pin has moving eyeballs! I'm not sure if "Pepper Power' is referring to Dr. Pepper or not, but just plain peppers are cool too.

A friend of my mom's hooked me up with these happenin' shades!

A devil dragster by Hot Wheels, a Jaguar D-type by Tootsietoy, a Capn' Crunch Whistle and a Mattel major Matt Mason helmet. I snagged three of these helmets, which fetch between $20-30 on Ebay! I guess kids always lost 'em! 

The whistle has a pretty funny story: This guy John Draper, a Vietnam Vet, used the whistle to hack phone lines in the early 70's and make free long distance calls! The whistle produces a 2600 hertz tone used by the phone companies in them days to open lines for long distance calls to go through. Draper later developed "blue boxes" which could produce many different tones to fool the phone lines.

Some Andy Capp books. I was surprised to find out that this dude has been around since 1917! Damn, I love them Cheddar Fries too....

This 70's custom van model was my coolest find of the weekend, and at $6, my most expensive. Not bad really, seeings how it's still sealed in plastic. Unfortunately, I have no talent or patience for building models, but it will look cool on a shelf!

This Week In Finds #4

I haven't had one of these updates in a while mostly because I really haven't been buying much lately. Now that my tax wealth is spent, I guess i have to be a little more selective, and stay the heck off Ebay! I did pick up some cool stuff at some estate sales recently though. It was the month of Dream Pets!

I don't know what you call these dudes, but they were worth a buck a piece I guess. They did need some HEAVY grooming, hahaha! I need to paint in the eyeballs on the green fella too.

 Here are some Holiday friends. I think the Valentines girl might have been holding a big heart or something. I think she looks uncannily like Carol Channing! My mom found the funny lil leprechaun in a pile of junk on St. Patrick's day!

 I dug this old phone out of a dumpster, still needs some cleaning up, but it looks cool. I really dig the avocado color.

 This pink poodle appears to be a knock-off Dream Pet. She is made of Naugahyde like material, rather than velveteen like the real ones. I also picked up these cool 60's joke books.

 This skunk is a genuine Dream Pet. He needed a little TLC, but is lookin' gooood now!

I'm gonna have tons of new junk to display this Christmas, including a new knee-hugger, this Dream Pet reindeer, and these awesome Christmas 45's from the 50's! My, how the Chipmunks have changed...

This Week (and last week) in Finds #3

Most of this weeks purchases were Ebay goodies, I did find a couple cool things at the thrifties and a weird sale that I may share later too.

This nifty hillbilly guy is by Norcrest, but is exactly like a hillbilly made by Kreiss for their "Psycho Ceramics" line. Is it a knockoff or the original? I kinda wanna get a nicer feather for him too, but I guess a mountain man would have a grungy feather, eh?

This lazy bum is a no name "Made in Japan" dealio. I am working on a collection of bums, hobos, winos and tramps too!

This is about 6" tall. It matches my similar "Hang Loose" hand!

Oddly enough, this is the wrong finger!

I had to get this dirty hippie! My great Aunt had the same one when I was a kid. She used to get me down a box of cool 60's toys to play with every Thanksgiving. He also has a parachute, but looks cooler without it on.

This naughty minx is an A.M. radio! Unfortunately it doesn't work, but it was a steal for $13 (I just saw one go for over $100 on Ebay!) She's about a foot tall.

Her "thingies" are the radio knobs!

My folks picked me up this far out fiber optic lamp. It spins around and changes colors! Psycho-delic!

Here's a video of this baby (and my Fantasia lamp) in action!

Estate Sale Finds Jan 28

Thursday I went to a very cool estate sale with my folks and found a couple nice items but not much. I guess I feel kind of overwhelmed at these sales sometimes and miss out on great stuff that requires a little more searchin' and diggin'. So, I almost always go back later when the crowds have died down and I have a clearer focus....and for the most part, I usually find the best things on my return visit. Here is some of what I found:

 A bunch of 60's-70's Down Beat Magazines. These cover Jazz, Blues and even Rock music. They are a very cool read and have great pictures and ads for vintage music gear. I will be sharing more from these later on.

A big leather wallet. I mean REALLY big at almost 6" long! I have been needing a better wallet anyways and I like these big "pass case" styled ones. 

 A Hot Wheels Trantula Dragster from the 60's. It's a shame that its busted up and missing some parts, but I couldn't pass it up for next to nothin'.

 A couple vintage Gillette razors. The one in back is adjustable. Not sure if these are for sellin' or keepin' yet.

The elusive two-headed Troll doll. Most likely from the 60's or 70's. I've seen a lot of Trolls but never a two-header. Weird! Buried at the bottom of a box of clothes in the attic, I rescued this dude so he could tell his story.

A very psychedelic piece of Beatles sheet music. Oddly enough "And I Love Her" is a very un-psychedelic song from the groups earlier days.

I found a pile of these business cards for the Billy Lewis Quartet. The deceased (Floyd Mooreland of Flint MI) was a sax player (and one hell of a player at that) and played with many groups. I heard that he even played with some of the greats when they rolled through town. I really don't know if the sax player in the pic is him or not though. That leads me to the best of my finds...

A box of 1/4 inch Reel to Reel tapes containing one of a kind live recordings of a group called the Four Gents recorded in 1970 and 1976. These are really great sounding (most likely soundboard) recordings of the group playing jazz, soul, r&b and more. Really an enjoyable listen and hours of it too. One of the best performances I listened to so far was a really smooth jazz interpretation of the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby. There were also literally hundreds of cassettes of live recordings too from later years. I hope that they will get into the right hands and not be lost forever. I'm so glad I went back to the sale!