A New Past Time I don t need a new past time.in my defense, this past time takes very little time. I m doing it partly as a way to learn but partly just a past time. So what is it? Trolling Facebook Market Place for sewing machines. It s kind of fun. I often have that five to ten minute time frame when it s too late in the night to start something but to early to go to bed. I find myself on Facebook Market Place. I type in Sewing Machine at the top and oh, I treasure trove of machines shows up. The machines are all ages, all makes, all models from old Singer Sewing Machines to new Berninas. Me, I m looking at the old machines. At times I find myself laughing and laughing. Here is an old Singer. This is the description: Early 1900 s sewing machine. Very good shape. Must appreciate to purchase. I looked at it. Of course, there is one picture and you re seeing it. No close up No other images no words mentioning if there are attachments. Nothing else except the price. $500!! Now I understand the must appreciate to purchase phrase. I d say yes, before I spend $500 on a machine I will appreciate before spending that!!
Look at this poor girl. Someone painted the cabinet.
Inside was a pretty girl though. This description: Will entertain offers. Needs a new belt, can get on Amazon. $150 Oh why did someone paint the cabinet?? Here s one that will make you laugh!! Description: sewing machine made in 1900- $81 Singer
I m betting this machine will NEVER sew another stitch. my.$81. No thank you. Oh
There are all sorts of brands. Free White. Phoenix (I d not heard of that before)
and Minnesota to name a few. Me, if I didn t get a Singer, I d get a Minnesota. I was born in Minnesota and have a little attachment to Minnesota. Why not a Minnesota machine?? (because I have not more room!!!) Oh but it s fun to look.
Another Minnesota girl This description: Old Minnesota brand sewing machine (prior to the company being renamed Sears Roebuck)! Beautiful intricate drawers that could use some TLC or display as is. There are also a handful of notions in the drawers. Pick up only as I can t load and haul by myself! Hmm I didn t know Minnesota became Sears Roebuck. Some people take excellent pictures (Minus the shoe on the upper left)
This lady had about 6 pictures. I feel I could have bought that machine in confidence that the owner was being completely honest with what they knew. Sometimes I see a picture like this what model it is. Then I start guessing Right away I guessed a 99.
Yep. I was right. The description on this was only In great condition, works. $250 That price I thought was a little steep. I only paid $50 for mine in a cabinet. Then I see this and say oh that has to be a 15-91 like my Julie.Aw, poor girl is missing a plate.
Then I scroll through the pictures. Wait. Isn t that her place in the drawer?? Oh people, put her place on if you re trying to sell her. She s $100. That makes mine a steal at $15 but wait, I didn t get all the great accessories with mine. I sure wish I would have!!
Then I see a machine like this and want to scream take that pin keep off the the machine. That was a terrible trend that really scuffed up otherwise wonderful machine. Proof check this next machine out. I m positive this had a pin keep on it. Look at all the scuff
marks neat the letting I in Singer. I adore the machine above. Just think how much prettier she d be had she not had a pin keep on her. Another pin keep problem Oh but her parlor cabinet was pretty. She s $150.
I get such a kick out of some sellers.this is the only pictures and only description is Antique sewing machine. Western- $90 this picture? need to buy it. Hmmm. I need more if I m parting with $90.and I can t show this to Hubby and convinence him I
Then there is the interesting. hand crank on it. Hmm. $200. This 15 series machine has a Then there is the out right laughable. At least I laughed. $800 for this Featherweight. Here s the description on this, 1950 s Singer sewing machine in its case with all of its accessories. It comes with a small foldable table too. It runs well. It is pristine. It was valued at $1000 16 years ago when it was purchased. We are selling it because my mom wanted it, but it has been sitting in a closet, therefore unappreciated, for too long! It needs to be in a home where someone will love it. Let me just say this.very few Featherweights will cost this. Yes there are some rare ones but I m doubtful that this is one.
A bigger laugh. They want $950 for this one. Antique sewing machine. SINGER featherweight Centennial 221-1 electric, portable with carry case, attachments and instruction booklet If anyone is dying to have a Featherweight honestly somewhere around $400 or less is a good price. They can be found on ebay for that price.
Then there are cabinets to admire. and then I look at the clock. Darn. It s way past my bedtime now. Oh well.that was fun. Wasn t it? I love checking out machines (and cabinets) on Facebook Marketplace!!
Stock Certificate Continued. Story Do you remember last week I told you about the stock certificate that I found in the cigar box? This one..
I have to admit I was pretty excited when I found it. Imagine. $38,000 for a cigar box that I didn t even pay a dollar for. AH Could it be?
I talked to a few friends. No one really knew what to do with it. After some talking Hubby and I decided to talk to the lawyer who was working with the estate. We didn t know who it was but after a couple phone calls, we figured it out. From there the lawyer said there was no way she could help us as the name on the certificate was not the name of the person who owned the estate. She recommended that we call a person who was on the board. We did and started getting a bit of a run around. The person was vague said it wasn t worth anything Then I said that I would need proof in writing before I was satisfied. I told the stock number, the name on the stock and that is was issued in 1926. The man told me that there is no way that the stock is good as the company went through changes in 1953. He was sure this stock was nothing. Again, I told him that was okay but I did feel as I had the right to see it in writing. He told me he would check. He called back 20 minutes later and told me he didn t have the records at his home where he was calling from and I would need to talk to him the next day when he was in the office. It is so hard with childcare kiddos to call anywhere. Kalissa happened to stop over and I put her in charge of the kids and started making calls. I passed along the info. After a back and forth of texts and phone calls we came to this conclusion. The stock in my possesion was bought by J.H. Pieper in October of 1926. He paid $35 for it.
After some research the guy found this.. It says the original certificate was lost or misplaced. A new copy was issued in 1953 when the company went through some restructuring. This all means my stock is worth a sum total of nothing (well actually, two good blog posts). It was fun and interesting. planned in my mind how I was plan was to send a roll of quilters. Bummer. Looks like and I m no going to get to pay was fun while it lasted. I have to say, I had already going to spend the money. My batting to all the charity you aren t going to get batting down my house note. Oh well it
Auction Day!! Saturday was auction day. There were so many auctions around Three all at places I typically go. There was also a big estate sale so which one do I choose to go to?? with QUILTS of course. The one This is one side of the rack. This is the other. You d have stayed at this auction too,
right?? There were all sorts of quilts. Check out the top picture see the one on the upper right? NOT HOMEMADE. See some of the beauties below? hand quilted!! Homemade, hand stitched and
There was SO MUCH STUFF!! evident as the sale went on. Too much really. That became
There were sewing goodies and fabric. sale. Yep, this was to be my
Kalissa came with this guy The sale started at 9am and was done-ish at 5pm. Carver stuck it out the whole time. It was challenging but for a two year old, he did great. One of the things he was watching for was a box of tractors. We had shown them to him early on and used that as a draw to get him to watch. When it came to sell them, they put the tractors and implements on the table to sell choice. I decided I would buy one for him.
It I was going to bid, I would hold up his hand. We got the bid at $10. I took him up so he could pick his choice. I was hoping he d pick the skid-loader he did, but he also wanted the tractor. Spoiled kid, I let him get both. to like auctions. I do want him
Later Kalissa bought a stroller I bought the rocker. He played.he got fussy near the end but it was also one of the first days he d ever gone without a nap!
Mid auction I decided to go and look through the quilts. I said, there were in all sort of different shape. to be able to pick quickly should I get the bid. This one faded on the left of of Like I wanted photo.
This one cute border idea. Oh I liked this one. It was frayed in the center though. It would be a great cutter quilt. Hmm.
I was looking thinking of all of you. When I ve sold quilts in the past, so many of you have said you don t have access or don t usually find quilts. This is an interesting layout for a bow tie quilt.
I did buy fabric. I spent lots of money on one box.it had
fabric for quilt backings. There were two other ladies (plus more) that were interested in fabric. We told each other what we were interested in and kind of made a pact to help each other out. I bought the first box for $40. I knew there was backing fabric for at least THREE quilts in the box so thought that a reasonable price. Then I didn t bid. One of the ladies wanted two boxes. They both got chosen by someone else. The other lady bid twice and got two boxes. One of her boxes had a piece of fabric that matched a different piece of fabric that was in my box so I offered to pay her $5 for that one piece. She said yes and I got it. The nice thing about this fabric was it was all bigger chunks. Four yards was the minimum for most of it. At the end I decided to just buy the last four boxes and give
the ladies some of the fabric (remember my goal to be a Fabric Fairy?) I kept some that I m hoping to get to Ronda (one of the charity quilters here). I know backing fabric is always a challenge for her. I found out one of the ladies makes sanitary napkins as a charity project for women in African countries. She was looking for floral fabric that was sturdy but soft. I gave her what I could find in the boxes. I did get quite a lot of stuff. The truck was full of stuff actually. At 3:30pm-ish, Kelli got off work and came to help with Carver and loading. What a help she was!! I did buy some of the quilts and will have them on the blog for auction one day in the near future. Check out my button jar lamp. $12.50. I love it. I got about 11 flats of stuff for the antique booth. the quilts sold the crowd dwindled. It dwindled a lot. After
I ended up getting WHOLE FLATS of salt and pepper shakers for $2 per flat. Holy Mackerel!! I couldn t believe it. The salt and pepper shakers are so fun too. Here s a pair of fish. There is every kind of every kind of shaker. my they will be fun to sort through. Oh I don t price my things super high priced at the antique booth. These will likely be priced at $4.00. Selling that single pair will more than pay for the whole flat. I ve been to some sales and seen the same type of flat sell for $40. The crowd was so slim by then.
The auctioneer decided to not even sell and whole section of things. There wasn t the crowd or even the energy. Once home I dragged my stuff into the living room and started sorting.
First the fabric then the linens. I got FOUR boxes of linens and so many of them are nice, complete, beautiful sets. can t wait to have them for sale at the antique booth. I
There s so much more I bought seriously the truck was full. I feel so much better going into the winter months that I ll be able to keep the antique booth stocked. What a fun auction and fun day. Keep watching the blog. I ll have those quilts for sale sometime this month yet. We ve Been Picked!! You might remember a bit ago Hubby and I were on date and picked up this big old cabinet. We had originally thought he d fix it up and use it the garage but the piece was a monster and MUCH bigger than we thought we could deal with. It s about the heaviest thing we ve ever moved. We unloaded it and there it sat. I told Hubby what we did with it was up to him. It wasn t coming in the house was my only in put. He decided we should sell it. So we put it on a couple for sale groups with no
biters. We finally ended up contacting a couple that has an antique shop in LaPorte City, IA. The name of their shop is Hoppy s Primitive and Proper. We asked it they would be interested. I sent them a couple pictures of a few other pieces we had too. They said they were interested and would pick our garage when they came if that was okay with us. They came and decided to take the big gray. We had to call Craig to help with the heavy lifting.
They bought quite a few things so the big gray had to stand for the trip.
Oh, she s a heavy thing.
Then they picked a few more pieces. one from my spooky drive? Remember? Remember this piece? The
Even Carver got in on the picking.
We chatted with them for quite awhile. They have a lot of people who pick for them.but they are picked by others.
If you re ever watching Fixer Uppers and Joanna Gaines has gone antiquing you might remember that she goes to Round Top. Well a lady who shows at Round Top buys pieces from Hoppy s and takes them there. I doubt any of our pieces would ever end up there but it s fun to wonder where they might go and who might love them. So it s all a whole racket the pickers buy and they get picked and they get picked and they get picked.and eventually the price goes sky high and finally it gets so someone s home. This explains why sometimes things are so high priced in some antique stores. We don t get premium money for things by selling this way but it is nice to be able to off a piece like the big gray. We did make money from it but not big money and that s okay. We aren t doing our scavenging to make money we re doing it to as a hobby. I keep telling Hubby I just want to make enough money on a piece so we can go out to eat!!