Show us your Thrift and/or yard sale finds

[Loweboy461]

it almost broke my heart that some one would sell that so cheap. but then i remembered i could buy it so i did and now its mine

 

[AtomicEraTom]

That's a steal on that Zenith! Good pick!

My newest finds.

Got george for 75 dollars. he is life size

she is 2 foot tall. i got both of these at an estate sale. she was 10 dollars!!!!!! i got them so cheap becuase they were priced so high no one would buy them then at the end of the sale they were still there so she sold them to me just to get rid of them

1948 Zenith for 29 dollars

BOGIE for 50 cents!!!

 

[Loweboy461]

it is missing the handle that opens the front and some one decided to take all the tubes out. i have them all and all the litarture they got when it was bought new but its still a hassle. but for 29 dollars who can complain??

 

[Quigley Brown]

Caught a whopper today! Don't ask me why I bought this at a yard sale today. It measures a sizeable 26" x 16" and weighs a few pounds. I was on my bike and somehow figured a way to fit this in my backpack....with the tail fin protruding a ways....

 

[LocktownDog]

Now that would complement the top of a bar nicely. Time to pour the rum after reeling that baby in.

 

[Warbaby]

I found this little Singer 99K yesterday at the Salvation Army thrift for $20. The case is water stained but the machine itself is in beautiful condition and works perfectly. I've heard that these are tough little machines and can be used for sewing leather and other heavy materials.

 

[Shangas]

You could use that machine to stitch together sheets of iron, lady. They're incredibly tough and hardwearing. My grandmother used one for over fifty years. We still have it somewhere around the house...

 

[tonyb]

This is how it looked yesterday, when I bought it at my favorite junk peddler's and dragged it home ...

And this is how it looks this evening.

I considered reusing the fabric -- patch it up, maybe, and call it good -- but I had to acknowledge, once I had it off the chair frame, that it was really too far gone. And there's a specialty fabric place here in town that sells this kind of stuff. So I bought enough to do three chairs like this (I kinda had to, unless I could live with the stripes running horizontally, which I couldn't), so I'm on the prowl for others.

In between my other chores and recreating today the wood frame got the quick-and-dirty steel wool and oil finish treatment. I cut and sewed a couple of hems in the fabric and tacked it to the dowels top and bottom. The hardest part was freeing up that lower dowel, to get the old fabric off and the new fabric on. It had been nailed in position, so it wouldn't rotate. Pulling those old nails was a challenge. I put it back together with screws, which oughta make redoing this (should that ever happen) easier.

 

[Warbaby]

Very nice Q&D restoration! There's something really satisfying about bringing home some piece of junk and immediately turning it into a functional and beautiful object.

 

[tonyb]

Thanks.

Yeah, I suppose not everybody can see the potential in such things. I have but a few bucks and two or three hours (tops) into this thing. And I now have the piece from which I fully expect a set (of sorts) to spring. I just know there's lots of derelict wood-frame, cloth-seat lawn furniture out there with my name on it.

That sewing machine of yours is quite the score, although it isn't as astounding a value as it really ought to be. People who know sewing machines have often told me that the old babes, with the metal gears and all, are much better built than the newer "consumer grade" machines. I got a pair of '60s-vintage machines myself, nearly identical models, with more attachments than I'll ever use. Got one of 'em for free.

I suspect that prices will rise once people realize that there isn't an infinite supply of old sewing machines, and that the people who have them (and know what they have) won't be letting 'em go for a song anymore. Still, though, it seems most every home had at least one such machine back 50 and more years ago, so I'd think there's gotta be a fairly sizable supply to be tapped.

Perhaps it's that most modern people don't appreciate what a simple little sewing machine can do for them. I'm not talking anything so ambitious as fabricating one's own clothing (although lots and lots of people still do that, of course), but simple things like mending a ripped seam or hemming a pair of pants or, as I did today, sewing a couple of hems up the sides of some fabric with which I was reupholstering an old piece of lawn furniture.

 

[tonyb]

I scored another ('50s vintage?) lawn chair to go with the one I bought last week. (Seek and ye shall find, sometimes.)

Here's what it looked like yesterday ...

And here it is today ...

And here it is with the other one ...

The seating system on this one is considerably more elaborate than the simple sling on the one I got last week, so it took a lot more time and effort to redo it. And a dowel was cracked clean through, so I replaced that as well. I'm diggin' the foot rest (which works with either chair), but I'm not all that crazy about its overall look. The plain sling is more elegant, but I'm thinking this one will look better once it's had some use and those layers of fabric stretch and conform a bit. It is quite comfortable, though, and I'm confident it'll last close enough to forever for my purposes.

 

[Mark D]

I've managed to furnish my home almost exclusively from the swap shop at the local transfer station, a.k.a the dump. But, this is one of the best finds that I've had in a while. This set included and nightstand and a mismatched armoire [likely from the 1960's]. I've only taken pictures of the two dressers.

I picked these things up for $200 and they are in immaculate condition. Even the glass tops are undamaged. They were manufactured by the Thomasville Chair Company and look to be a laminated mahogany or similar tight grained wood. I can't find any dates but judging by the blend of Deco and Modern styling I'm going to guess that they are early 1940's.

These are my first Art Deco flavored pieces and I'm going to use them as the foundation for creating an Deco flavored bedroom.

If anyone has any information about these pieces of furniture I'd love to hear it. If you have any suggestions for the room, [particularly color palette, window treatments or rugs] I'd love to hear them too. I'm strictly pre-war in decor but all with a country feel. I've never tried anything Deco.

 

[tonyb]

That's great stuff, Mark. You could make that work with a wide range of looks (good design is good design no matter its period, after all), but I'm thinking that it might fight with "busy" stuff. But then, you don't know for sure until you see it, right? An elaborate rug might "anchor" the room and let the visual lightness of the furniture shine through. But then, maybe it wouldn't. (I know, I know, I'm not much help here.)

How'd they come your way? I dare not let my wife see this, or she'll be on me to find something similar. The master bedroom here, where we've lived for a year and a half now, has yet to see the sort of attention the rest of the house has gotten.

 

[Mark D]

Thanks Tony. I get all my stuff the same way you get your chairs I think...the local junk peddler. In the town where I live we have to take our trash every week to the dump as there is no pick up service. So the dump is highly trafficked [spl?] Over time a swap/junk shop sprung up. When folks in the town are tossing furniture, household items, etc...they give it to the guy at the swap shop who sells it to other residents for small $ and splits the profit with the town. This is an old New England Town and people throw out cool old stuff.

The guy who runs the swap shop also goes around town and takes peoples junk when they want to, say, clean out their barn or garage. That's where this bedroom set came from. It was an estate and the surviving relative hired the town's junk guy to go in and clean out the house.

I'm not kidding when I say that I've furnished a 3 bedroom house this way. I posted some pictures in the "Show Us Your Vintage Home" section back around Christmas. Absolutely everything in there is from my junk guy. You just have to be patient and wait for something good to come along and then snatch it up.

 

[Shangas]

Bought these today for a pittance. All I know is that they're cotton, they're white (doesn't show very well in the photo) they fit well and they're made by Dents, an English glovemaker. Are they men's or women's gloves? To me, the style says male, but my dad reckons they're too small for men's (but I have small hands) and that they're women's instead (I've never seen women's gloves that go this short).

 

[Guttersnipe]

Mark D, that bedroom set is really quite nice. I actually just saw an almost set in a high-end vintage furniture store here in San Francisco. I think your age estimate is about right. The set I saw was made about 1937-1939 by a well know designer whos name I forget. The fact that you got the set for $200 is the best part!

 

[Gregg Axley]

I agree Mark, wonderful set. I'm jealous!

 

[Lucky Strike]

I actually just saw an almost set in a high-end vintage furniture store here in San Francisco. I think your age estimate is about right. The set I saw was made about 1937-1939 by a well know designer whos name I forget.

Robsjohn-Gibbings? At least, that's what they remind me of. Very, very nice, and they seem very well-made.

Edit: Donald Deskey made some designs for Thomasville, so he would be a good bet. In that case, congrats!

 

[Alex]

Showed up on a Saturday afternoon. No one was there. Went to check their hours and..

 

[Shangas]

Hahahahahaha! Sounds like a small antiques shop that I know. Closed all the time except for on weekends...