Are you seeing a noticeable increase in vintage goods for sale

[petek]

It kind of struck me a few months ago possibly while I was cleaning out moms house that there seems to be a somewhat noticeable increase in the amount of primo vintage appliances, furniture etc showing up at thrift stores and Habitat Restores etc.  60's and 70's stuff that was bought new and kept in good condition by the owners who are now in their 80's etc and downsizing into retirement/nursing homes or just plain passing away.  We have a fairly large Restore here, it was previously a furniture store,, even it's jammed now and they're moving to mall land into a vacated even larger furniture store.  On line as well like here there seems to be a lot more good vintage stuff showing up on CL and estate sales.  

Anyone else notice or is it just a figment of my imagination

 

[polkanut]

You're right Pete because I have too.  Just in the last 2 weeks I've been to 6 estate/moving/downsizing sales.  A couple of the sales were complete duds but, the others were virtual treasure troves of well kept goodies.  I found a nice leather desk chair (newer), a vintage Wear Ever loaf angel food pan, and several church cookbooks from the early 70's.  There are 3 more sales coming up this weekend here in town that sound quite interesting also.

  Who knows what goodies may soon be found?

 

[rp2813]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  We're witnessing the *cough* "climax" of boomer parental units vacating their homes and heading to senior communities, assisted living scenes, or nursing homes.  Offspring are unloading entire households, many of which contain well-maintained vintage appliancery and housewares.

 

Get it while you can, boys.  This bonanza isn't going to last forever.

 

[launderess]

Well There Is That And The Housing Market In Some Areas

Is rebounding so persons can sell/unload homes again.

Remember back in the day before all heck broke loose with the economy we'd see all sorts of vintage goodies on eBay, CL and elsewhere that owner's of new homes *found* there and wanted to get shot of quickly. There was and still is lots of gold in them dar basements, attics, garages and so forth.

 

[danemodsandy]

What Gets Me....

....Is that the kids who are disposing of Mom and Pop's stuff often seem to have NO IDEA what's good and what isn't.

I recently went to an estate sale run by a woman I know from work. She was selling off her mom's Process Patent Revere Ware (the good, pre-1965 stuff with the heavy copper bottoms, not the post-'65 stuff where the copper is a thin plating) and Corning Ware.

Her own kitchen? Cheap discount store non-stick pots and pans styled to look like Calphalon, but without the heft and quality.

The sale was also full of small appliances built with ten times the quality of anything you can get today.

I asked her why she was selling off such nice things, and she replied, "Oh, all that stuff is SO old. If anyone wants it, they're welcome to it."

I'm standing there thinking, "You don't have a clue, do you?"

 

[rp2813]

"You don't have a clue, do you?"

We love people like that!

 

[d-jones]

I’ve encountered people with this attitude all my life. I suppose it wouldn’t bother me so much except for the fact that people who think this way are responsible for trashing so many wonderful and useful old treasures under the mistaken idea that “nobody would want this”. What gets me though is the fact that there’s so often no middle ground. Folks either throw it out because it has no value as far as they’re concerned, or they want to charge an arm and a leg because it’s a priceless antique. Now granted, some things are priceless antiques and some things truly have little or no value, but what happened to common sense and the ability to discern the difference.

 

[tolivac]

Sadly,in my area its the other way 'round-older items are RARE!!!Yet at yard sales see LOTS of newer stuff-often broken.Thrift stores have closed here.Most housing areas here are very new-too new for older things.

 

[whirlcool]

A lot of the garage sales around here are nothing more than places filled with items that had "garage sale" written on them while they were still in the store!

If you do come across something nice, it'll likely be priced for near what it was new or even over. I asked a woman running a sale as to why she is selling a five year old KitchenAid mixer for $395. when you could buy it in the store for less.
Her response? "We're selling this stuff, not giving it away!".

 

[112561]

I watched a vintage Magnavox console ('61 to '64, approximate) almost hit the floor at our Fort Pierce Goodwill. A woman attendant immediately told the worker to remove it, a back leg was broken off. So he uncerimoniously trucked it sides up, sliders going askew, back to its fate to who knows where. It should have been delegated to the big Goodwill clearinghouse where the immigrants and few collectors haunt. One occasion they had a '71 Magnavox Etagere stereo with the glass shelves, and a giant campaign chest styled Magnavox Star System color set with the top line audio. Another day there was a Zenith tube console there. No goodies lately, maybe they hit shopgoodwill.com, such like shows up frequently, they're not all clueless. I can't stand the clueless mooks that think they're doing the organizations a favor by tossing all that old "trash" or maybe finding an unpacked small appliance from another era, which they promptly remove from the box and toss it onto the shelf, 'cause nobody wants all that packing stuff and papers.

 

[polkanut]

What really irks me is when you go to a sale and most everything there is so "used up" to the point of being trash but, the people have an outrageous price on the items, and won't budge on price because "it's an antique."  My wife collects Star of David glassware and has been quite successful as of late in finding some really nice pieces because of all the sales.  I've become friends with the owners of the 2 major estate sale companies here in town, and they've been very good about giving me a heads up when a quality sale is upcoming.  It pays to schmooze a little! 

 

[chuffle]

Sadly, here in the boonies...

...estate sales seem to be few and far between. I wish I knew where folks dispose of estate items here - Goodwill? Local Goodwill stores are loaded with clothing, but household items are usually pretty junky (and dirty - are there people who live such filthy lives? Oops, I forgot about the Hoarders programs on television). Yard sales here are primarily selling clothing - especially childrens' clothing - and toys.

Now, before I moved here, I lived in Pittsburgh for twenty years. The estate sales there were loads of fun. Over the years, I purchased many a great vintage item that I still have in my house today.

Joe

 

[petek]

Try estatesales.net

Antiques and antiquey furniture doesn't seem to sell well  now.   It used to be a nice old dining set or bedroom set would come in and  they'd be snapped up and gone by the time they hit the Restores floor, probably by antique dealers. Now the stuff sits there for days if not weeks and there's been some pretty classy looking sets

 

[danemodsandy]

David:

"Now granted, some things are priceless antiques and some things truly have little or no value, but what happened to common sense and the ability to discern the difference."

Occasionally, that can be almost funny.

One of our local thrifts has a manager who is absolutely convinced that Corelle is worth a lot of money. She even devotes a special area to it, where the pricing is at least double that asked for other dishes. So far as I can tell, no one has bought any since I found a few pieces of my Snowflake Blue there a few months ago.

But the regular dishes? Not a clue. I was recently able to pick up eight dessert/berry bowls in Royal China's "Blue Heaven" for fifty cents each and pass them on to a friend here locally who collects the stuff. I've found pieces of my "Currier & Ives" for the same money.

Just don't expect to get any of that precious Corelle at a bargain!

 

[polkanut]

Sandy,

Maybe I should come to your area for additional serving pieces to add to my Cunningham & Pickett "Norway Rose" set.  Also looking for serving pieces for my Fine China of Japan Rosemary #5555 set.  Around here when good china is up for sale it fetches big money, and the people gladly pay it too.

 

[danemodsandy]

Tim:

If you will post a photo of your patterns, I'll gladly keep an eye out.

For anyone who sees Corelle in the thrifts, here's the pattern I collect, called "Snowflake Blue." I started collecting this fairly recently, so I still can use almost anything that turns up, except cups:

 

[polkanut]

Here is a link to Replacements.com with my Norway Rose pattern.

http://www.replacements.com/webquote/CUPNOR.htm

 

[polkanut]

Here is another link with my Fine China of Japan Rosemary #5555 pattern.

http://www.replacements.com/webquote/FCJROSEM.htm

 

[danemodsandy]

Tim:

I will keep an eye out. The "Norway Rose" pattern is one I see very occasionally. The "Rosemary" pattern is one I'll have to train myself to spot; there were a lot of similar patterns offered by direct-sales and catalogue showroom companies.

 

[gansky1]

Corelle Snowflake Blue

<a name="start_41870.617223">"...I still can use almost anything that turns up, except cups: "</a>

 

LOL!  I know exactly how you feel!  I've saved 8 each of the saucers, teacups, coffee cups and coffee mugs from my Centura patterns and won't even look twice at a stack of them anymore.  I learned very quickly that most people like a larger mug, even for tea, so most of the cups and saucers that were extras went right out.  Saves a ton of space.

 

I see Corelle all the time so will keep an eye out for you, Sandy.  I've not seen either of the rose patterns, Tim, but that Norway Rose is very unique - I like the bold patterned china!

 

[launderess]

"You Don't Have A Clue Do You?"

Some of y'all need to make up your minds.

If persons price a *vintage* item for what they think it's worth there is great noise as to the high price. If the thing is too low they "don't have a clue".

Usually the market will sort these sort of questions out on it's own. We've seen estate sales listed here where goods didn't move (such as a vintage combo unit) because what interest there wasn't happy with the price. OTOH we've seen items move for prices that have left many gobsmacked.

 

[danemodsandy]

Greg:

Thanks on the Snowflake Blue!

It's one of the original four Corelle patterns (the others were Spring Blossom Green, Butterfly Gold and Winter Frost White) from 1970, and it holds the distinction of being the first Corelle pattern ever to be discontinued, in 1976. So, it's less plentiful than some of the others, particularly the dread Spring Blossom Green, which is everywhere, by the carload.

I said what I did about the cups because I only look for the hook-handle cups, which is a little hard to explain to people not familiar with early Corelle. Two hook-handle cups and saucers are actually on the shopping list; I already have six of each. I do not collect cups in Centura or Pyrex.

Launderess, I'm not trying to have it both ways. If people sell things dirt-cheap because they have no appreciation for the past and haven't done their homework, I certainly don't mind. That doesn't stop me from marveling at their lack of initiative; with Google, you're rarely more than a few clicks away from information about collectibles and their value.

 

[maytagbear]

We had

"Butterfly Gold" Corelle for almost 25 years. I got heartily, heartily sick of the stuff. I have one piece of it now, a luncheon plate, and that is more than enough.

Corelle will break, but it takes a lot of doing to achieve that.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[ken]

Orig Corelle patterns

I dont remember ever seeing the Snowflake design before. But then Im not a Corelle expert or follower. Are you sure it was one of the original designs?

As I understand the original patterns were Spring Blossom green, Butterfly gold, Old Towne blue and white. My mother bought the Spring Blossom and my sister the Butterfly which they still use to this day. I have a couple pieces of the Old Towne which were in my house when I bought it.

Was the Old Towne not one of the original designs and maybe introduced after the Snowflake was discontinued?

 

[danemodsandy]

Lawrence:

I don't think I could have taken Butterfly Gold for 25 days, let alone 25 years. It is, however, better than Spring Blossom Green, which makes me shudder when I think about actually eating off it.

Weirdly, there is a sudden epidemic of Woodland Brown popping up everywhere where I live, mostly cups. Woodland Brown was the pattern that replaced Snowflake Blue; it was a design of brown flowers drawn in outline. Very late 1970s - earthtones and all that - a perfect companion for a macrame place mat. I never saw it much until a few weeks ago, and now it's in every thrift I go to.

 

[danemodsandy]

Ken:

Nope, Snowflake Blue was one of the original four, made from 1970 to 1976. It was the least popular, which is why it was dropped.

Old Town Blue dates from 1972; it is the longest-running Corelle design that is actually patterned (Winter Frost White has been made longer, but is not patterned at all). Old Town Blue is officially discontinued, but short runs are still made for Corning Outlet Stores.

The reason I'm collecting Snowflake Blue is that it looks really good with Corning Ware Blue Cornflower. Old Town Blue clashes with Cornflower; it looks like you tried to match them and were really, really bad at it.

If you want a great Website for Corelle lore, I suggest Corelle Corner, which is a very well-researched site with trustworthy information:

http://www.corellecorner.com/home.html

 

[xraytech]

I absolutley LOVE the Butterfly Gold pattern, I've been around it all my life, my gram got it in the late 70s and mother got it for a wedding gift in 1984. I have a full service of it, plus drinking glasses, salt and pepper shakers, baking pans, and pyrex bowl set.

I also only accept the original hook handled cups

 

[danemodsandy]

There's A Story....

....Behind those hook-handled cups.

When Corelle was introduced in '70, the cups were all Centura, not the same Vitrelle glass the rest of the set was made of.

The reason was that Vitrelle begins as a flat sheet of glass, and it's hard to make a cup out of a flat sheet. Centura was used for the first two years of production, to give consumers a familiar-looking cup.

But the drawback to Centura is that it's not microwave-safe. That wasn't much of a problem in 1970, but it was starting to be one a couple of years later, and the situation got worse every year, as microwave sales boomed.

So, in 1972, Corning came up with the hook-handled cup, which WAS made of the same Vitrelle all the other Corelle place pieces were made of, and which was microwave-safe. The problem was, not everyone liked the hook-handled cup, even through Corning tried to market it as something designed with a handle that would not let you burn your fingers.

Over the years, Corning has also tried Pyrex cups, and current patterns often include cups made of regular stoneware from China.

But I'm with you - the hook-handled cup is the one that is really Corelle, and that's what I collect. They're a little hard to come by in Snowflake Blue, because they were introduced in '72, and Snowflake Blue was dropped in '76, meaning there were only four years of production.

In some patterns, like Old Town Blue, it's possible to find cups in Centura, in Pyrex, and hook-handled cups in Vitrelle. Pick whichever you like!

 

[tolivac]

Goodwill,Salvation Army places-and perhaps others---if you want to buy or donate there-look behind the store or place-if you see dumpsters and or a compactor-go elsewhere.sadly unwanted items go into the dumpsters or the compactor.After that they are no good to anyone.And they won't let you fish things from the dumpster.Things in the dumpster get compacted later on when the dumpster is emptied into the FL trash truck.It has a packer ram in it just like the stationary compactor.Hate to imagine the fate of that Magnavox Hi-fi console if no one wanted to buy it!And at these places-very nice appliances,clothes,toys go----to the dumpsters or compactors.Its like they get too much to sell-or they don't want to make the items into "saleable" condition.So they end up being "donated" to the landfill-or baled for the recycler without going to a wanting home.Toys and clothes often get "baled"Besides the compactor and dumpsters-some of those places may have balers behind them,too!

 

[vintagekitchen]

I suppose I may be partly to blame, lol..

I have noticed a major increase in vintage items for sale, mainly because as others have mentioned, a great deal of older people are passing away or going into retirement homes / downsizing. This means most of their goods tend to be sold at estate sales by their children and/or heirs, who have sorted through them, rescued what items they wish to keep, and are selling the rest.

While I often see items that I cannot beleive they are parting with, I can understand, as one cannot keep everything, and though they probably have modern style homes, who knows? Maybe they are selling Mom's Frigidaire Flair because they kept Gramma's Hotpoint. Maybe they are parting with Gramma's sewing machine because they kept Great Aunt Emma's. Or maybe their Mother-In-Law was so awful they wouldn't let a thing from her home enter theirs, (I actually was told this was the exact reason for a sale by the daughter in law a few years ago).

Either way, I try not to judge people for why they happen to be selling items. Especially since while I am shopping for myself, I usually manage to pick up at least a few vintage items, that although they are not things I collect, they can be re-sold on ebay to generate a bit of income for myself.

I look at it this way, from what auction agents have explained to me, (most local estate sales are auction type), items which do not sell are generally thrown out at the end of the day, as the heirs do not want them. Some actually have a truck waiting for just that reason. So by purchasing items which don't interest me or others, (I dont buy expensive items, as I cannot afford to be part of a bidding war), and re-selling them, I am sending them on to someone who does want them, rather than letting them go in a landfill. I don't expect to ever get rich this way, but doing so helps to offset the money I spend on the items I do collect.