Antique Photo of a Young Adonis Man Posing Shirtless

This one was bought in an antique shop for $5. Found this in a big box of antique photo in a booth of a Montreal antique mall. I knew right away this one was going to be a killer, despite the condition that was far from perfect. I was right.

 This Vintage Gay Interest Photo of a Young Adonis Man Posing Shirtless sold for $57.44

Gay themed vintage ephemera sells well the market is strong. Picking vintage photography with this market in mind is working well for me.

The Ugly Spaghetti Lamp

I bought this vintage ugly lamp in a garage sale back in 2005. It was in Canada and I paid $5 CDN (that was about $4 US back then). It sold for $25. It's kitsch but it sold!

Yes not only is it brown, this spaghetti lamp is also orange!

Yesterday was bad, today was worst!

Woke up early, no rain, so I head to the yard sale. Walk 20 minutes. Then as soon as I get there, it started to rain. Then I realized that it was not the big sale I was expecting. Only one street, mainly antique dealers and with the rain, not much to see. Came back home and now I'm freezing! Coffee here I come!

I don't even have a picture for you because I didn't buy anything (hubby will be thrilled). Oh well, I'll get busy listing stuff from my previous hauls.

Still haven't decided if I am keeping my precious and beautiful owl

Poor Saturday Yard Sale Finds

Yep, it was a bad one. I mean there was a lot of stuff, but 90% were antique dealer types and the remaining were true mom/dad selling their stuff. And there was also the usual "biffins".

Biffins are pretty much waste pickers or junk traders. Biffins are part of Paris and its history Usually they are poor people trying to survive by selling on street corners what they found in recycle bins and trash. In Paris they are tolerated and they even have their own "market". What is not tolerated is for them to just hang on a street trying to sell their merchandise. This morning there were a lot of them. I am not sure if they had the proper authorization to be there, usually they just show up and hope they won't get kicked out by the police.

Biffins sometimes have lovely items, but not this time. It was either half emptied packages of used of beauty products,  shoes and some dirty clothes. But one of them had this lovely bronze owl statue and I bought it. It's quite heavy: 12 ounces. It's 3 1/2 inches tall. Lovely patina. I have no idea if it's old or not, it's not a signed piece. Might not be very old (or it might) but it's such  a beautiful decor piece.

If you visit Paris and want to see the Biffin market, go there: Marché des biffins de la porte montmartre Paris 18ème. It's open Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays

My bronze owl, cute isn't it?

Now let's hope tomorrow hold better treasures!

Two Huge yard Sales Coming This Weekend

I am excited, unfortunately weather might put an end to my projects. There will be many yard sales in Paris this weekend, but two of them looks rather promising. One on Saturday on Boulevard Richard Lenoir and on Sunday rue Brochant near Batignolle. I went to a yard sale last fall close to the Batignolle and it was huge, I do hope it's the same organisation. I prefer to hit the very large ones that covers many streets with hundreds of families instead of the smaller ones.

Unfortunately weather doesn't look too promising. I'll get up early and decide if it's worth the subway trip or not! Wish me luck!

Vintage Embroidery Patterns

Back in 2008 I bought a lot of 15 "Le journal des brodeuses". Le journal des brodeuses is a vintage French newspaper about embroidery and each issue includes a selection of nice patterns. Patterns often include monograms and lovely flowers and wreaths. See a few example below.

 Bought the stack for 5 euros (so it came out to less then 50 cents each) and sold each of them for $5 a piece.

Old french embroidery patterns usually sell well, not for crazy prices, but they do sell if you can source them for cheap.

Vintage Art Deco Enemal Snap Cufflinks

Among my good pickings were these little cufflinks. Art Deco period. these are snap cufflinks in enamel. I paid 3 euros each. They sold between 15$ and 30$ each. Maybe to collectors. Or who knows, maybe some dandy is wearing them at the moment.

So don't disregard old cufflinks, there are collectors out there. Just don't pay too much if you want to resell them. Not all will sell well. Some that have potential: Egyptian revival, silver or gold cufflinks, some signed piece, themed cufflinks (especially masonic lodge and fraternity).

Found a lot of 4 Old Powdered Milk Tin Cans

Back in 2009 I bought these on eBay France and sold them on eBay.com. The advantage of shopping on the French eBay is that I have access to sellers who don't ship worldwide and/or don't take Paypal. So I end up getting good deals on items that sells well in the US or elsewhere.

So I bought the 4 cans for 10 euros and with shipping the total cost was around 17 euros for all of them (less than $6 a piece!). I sold them separately for a total of $143.46

Vintage Hudson's Bay 3 points wool blanket

This simple yet collectible Hudson Bay blanket sold for in 2005. This is a three point blanket. The points are related to size and weight of the blanket. In the photo below, you can see the three points: the indigo color lines on the edge of the blanket.

So this vintage wool blanket sold for $56.25. Nothing beats the quality of a vintage wool blanket.

Littlest Pet Shop Exclusive Bone Shaped Tin Case

Paid 5 euros (around $7) at a garage sale last summer, sold for $38. It's the Target exclusive dog bone shaped tin box with 12 Littlest Pet Shop figurines. It was in excellent condition. 

At the time I had no idea what LPS were, but I figured that if it was worthless, my daughter could have them to play with. I soon realized that these are quite popular, and that particular set is hard to find. So it was a good buy. Sold to a Russian buyer.

I now look for LPS in yard sales, but I set a price limit of 50 cents each unless Ii am sure it's one of the rare figurines. But with thousands of them it's difficult to remember which ones are worthless and which one are the good ones, so setting a price limit is the best way to go.

Villeroy & Boch Acapulco dish

I bought this one last summer, and unfortunately I pass other pieces with the same design. So a big "I should have bought them" moment. Now I know better. I paid 3 euros (around $4.25) for this older Villeroy & Boch ACAPULCO open casserole dish and sold it for $25. The Acapulco design is just lovely and extremely popular. it's now on my "hunt for" list.

Biche de Bere Necklace

I have good success selling French designer Biche de Bere necklaces on eBay. Her jewelry is original and quite unique. Many of her pieces have a lovely modernist look.  I have been actively looking for Biche de bere necklaces, since my first find at a garage sale: 2 years ago I found 2 necklaces for 5 euros each and both sold for close to 40$ buy now very quickly.

This one was a delightful find. I didn't find it  at a yard sale but on the French equivalent of Craigslist. This Fab Modernist Atomic 50's Style Biche de Bere Necklace Silver Tone and Red cost me 25 euros (about $34) and I sold it for $70. 

 

Pullip Doll Oui'Vera

Found last fall. I paid 10 euros ($13.50 at the time) for her. It's a Pullip Doll Oui'Vera with original box and some accessories in good condition. The dress was not perfect (tears and holes on one of the sleeve) but the Pullips are popular so it was close to a perfectly safe buy. Sold for $43 to a German buyer.

Market is pretty strong for these collectible fashion dolls, especially for the limited edition. They are not often seen in yard sales and are usually price rather high. But keep an eye out for them, they will remain popular for quite some time.

Second yard Sale of 2014

Today was a HUGE yard sale organized by the city of Checy. Approximately 800 spots, meaning a lot of stuff to go through. I wasn't there as early as I should, but still manage to find a few things that might sell.

I end up buying a few Playmobil. A bunch of Littlest pet Shop (17 of them, most from the first 100). I bought a lovely antique ink stamp, very large and elaborated. 2 books for my son. Some vintage buttons, cute ones and a huge lot of antique silk and wool threads on card along with balls of cotton threads and a few lovely wool skeins.

My First 2014 Yard Sale

It was a smallish one, in Paris, but I was there early and found a few lovely things that I might sell later on. I usually stick to what I am pretty sure I can sell, but this year I plan to enlarge my inventory and test new items. The expertise I'll get, even with the fails, will be helpful.

So I end up picking up two lovely vintage lamps, including a lovely wall sconce with a pink glass shade and one candle-like wall lamp/ I'll be targeting buyers who are looking for French shabby chic decor pieces.

I picked two unsigned brooches. Unsigned usually don't sell as well as signed pieces, BUT I figured a poodle and a owl might appeal to buyers. We'll see.

Also two lovely and quite large bowls. Not very old, but they are lovely if you need large café au lot bowls. I might keep these for personal use. And lastly, I bought a shell necklace for myself (I spend a big 1 euro for it!!).