I swear I’m not a shop-aholic, but I’ll admit that sometimes I just need to buy something so I can justify a long drive or even a long driveway. I have also been prone to purchasing just because I took up 30 minutes of a seller’s time, and to walk out empty-handed didn’t seem right.
Here’s a tip — whenever you end up at a sale that is being held for charity — buy something. You’ll give pickers and diggers everywhere a good name if you make a donation by purchasing, even though you might have cringed when you saw it wasn’t a true dig.
When there is no attic to crouch in or basement to crawl through, I can be perfectly happy with the challenge of trying to find something, even when the items all have a contemporary look. At a Danbury sale this weekend I, at first, thought I was wasting my time at a tiny home in a lake community, but eventually I came up with several gems.
This home was so small that people were buying items just so they could fit in the rooms. I tried looking in each room and was just not getting a good sense of success, until I saw a table full of office supplies. When items are piled or cluttered together it is best to look and examine everything as though you find it all interesting.
It turns out that my first purchase was a wireless laptop mouse ($1) and then I found a magnifying book light ($1) that could come in handy during a darkened dig. I hadn’t seen it during the first pass but after turning over these newer things I saw a silver box (image).
Maybe it was the box, or the tarnish, or the $5 price tag, but I knew it was something worth investigating. Is it silver or silver plate? There are no marks on it (except for the manufacturer on the bottom — see image). Seeing the razor inside, I only paused a second before buying it.
It wasn’t just any razor, but The “Valet Auto Strop” razor, to be exact. The reason why I paused before claiming it was that I have a beard and never do much more than trim it. In fact, I have been known to refer to my beard as a simple monument to the hatred of shaving; however, there I was, buying a razor. Take a look at the images and the ad and you’ll see why it’s hard to walk away from a sale empty-handed.
I have a mystery. These found photos of Victorian-era women are related, but who they are and where they were taken, must be hidden in the image. Can you share your photo-forensic skills and tell me more about them?
Greg Van Antwerp is a Brookfield resident and blogger, who can be found on the weekends in search of a good “dig” or a good story. You can read more about his adventures by visiting his blog.