Yard Sale, Thrift Store, Junk Heap Shopping (Part 3)

[Smithy]

This isn't from a yard sale, but it was a heck of a find.  I stopped at a favorite hardware/general store in Llano, Texas to see what they might have, and to pick up some small Charles Viancin silicone lids.  The store has been reorganized.  After some searching, the gentlemen said they thought they must be out.  I went wandering, disappointed that I couldn't get what I needed, but curious to see what they had at their bargain table.  What they had was all the lids they thought they'd cleared out.  I didn't clear them out, but I made a fine haul:

 

$17.  Yep, all this for seventeen bucks! 

 

Then I went around the corner to a favorite antiques mall/ junk store, and found this gem for $6.50:

 

I'm still trying to work out the best way to shell pecans, and this looked promising.  The nifty bag in the background is a routine lagniappe from this store.  It appears that the proprietor loves to sew, so she makes a variety of bags into which purchases go.  Since my last visit she's added a special label to each.

[rotuts]

@Smithy

 

 ' the best way to shell pecans '

 

my sister used to send me pecans from Tx

 

many gathered from the town square

 

i.e. very fresh

 

they should be cracked  from the ends

 

not the middle

 

their are piston like nut-crackers that do this well

 

 

i have one just like this

 

note the adjustment on the R for the size of the nut

Edited November 13, 2017 by rotuts (log)

[Anna N]

35 minutes ago, Smithy said:

$17.  Yep, all this for seventeen bucks! 

 That is a bargain. I think I spent $17 or more on each one of mine!  

[andiesenji]

Fantastic haul.  I love my Viancin lids.  

[Cronker]

I work in a thrift store, and can guarantee you that for every example of nice, interesting things, we get tonnes of dirty old junk that you wouldn't use to serve up your dog's food.

its expensive to take your junk to the dump, so people "donate" it to us, because our dumping fees are part of the business.

that being said, we get all kinds of treasures amongst it all - a lot of my own kitchen gadgets and presentation ware is vintage, retro or just surprisingly brand new and cost no more than a very few dollars to me.

 

for example, today I came across two pieces of antique Carlton Ware that were in perfect condition and upon research, last sold for $180 a piece.  You gotta know what you are looking at.

Edited November 18, 2017 by Cronker (log)

[Martin Fisher]

My mom bought a book at a thrift store.

When she got home she found $200 in it!!! 

Edited November 18, 2017 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[Anna N]

52 minutes ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

I mom bought a book at a thrift store.

When she got home she found $200 in it!!! 

Wow! I found some interesting things in books but never quite that interesting.

[Cronker]

Slightly uncomfortable today.

yesterday I picked up a KitchenAid fry pan and a vintage, cast iron Copco Dutch oven for, wait for it...$2

 

i did a little research on both, and the Copco goes for close to $150 and the KitchenAid fry pan is $50 new.

im going to go back in and donate another $50 to them.

[Cronker]

Just to be clear, I knew that the KitchenAid pan was a steal, but I wasn't aware of the value of the Copco until I googled it.

[Porthos]

Tuesday was a good day for thrift shopping.

 

 

My youger daughter and her husband have moved into their own home. They arleady have most of what they need but there are still holes. My DD likes to use glass pans for baking (I mostly dislike glass in the kitchen) and she needed more real PYREX pans. I found a shallow 8 x 8, a 7 x 11, and a 9 x 13, all for around $10.00.  A 10" non-stick saute' pan is my goto saute' pan and I have kept 2 hanging on my pot rack for years. I had to toss one recently. Since it is down to my DW and me, and because of her weight loss surgery fixing dinner is for 1 1/2 people, I was looking for one more small sauce pan. I really like my Vollrath PRO-HG cookware; it serves me well. I found an almost complete set of what I own in a Goodwill individually priced and was able to get the 10" saute' pan and the 2 qt sauce pan for $11.88. Not a steal, but very affordable.

 

I had already given her a knife block but she asked if I could find a larger block which would also include slots for steak knives. I found this for $4.49:

 

 

I  hope to find this one for her in the future but this style only shows up around once a year.

 

[Smithy]

What a very nice set of finds, Porthos!  Your daughter and her family are fortunate to have you looking out for them!

[Nyleve Baar]

 

$4.99 at Value Village yesterday. With my 30% Tuesday seniors discount it was under $4.00 including tax. This is one of the smaller ones - maybe 10" diameter. I also have a bigger yellow one that I picked up at our local dump for free several years ago.

 

[blue_dolphin]

Picked up 2 of these pretty pink glass soup/salad bowls at the local Goodwill yesterday for $0.99 each.  I think there were 8 of them so I may go back when they open this morning and get a couple more. 

They are 8.5" diameter at the widest point and every third swirl is frosted (actually a very light molded texture on the reverse.) They are marked Vereco  France, a company later purchased by Duralex.  I believe Duralex continues to make something very similar, but in other colors,  as the Beau Rivage pattern. I don't imagine they are particularly valuable but I think they'll look pretty for salads. 

I already had the pink plate.

 

Also picked up 2 of these cute oval plates and 2 Old Fashioned-sized glasses, also $0.99 each:

 

[Anna N]

Love that oval plate!

[Cronker]

2 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Picked up 2 of these pretty pink glass soup/salad bowls at the local Goodwill yesterday for $0.99 each.  I think there were 8 of them so I may go back when they open this morning and get a couple more. 

They are 8.5" diameter at the widest point and every third swirl is frosted (actually a very light molded texture on the reverse.) They are marked Vereco  France, a company later purchased by Duralex.  I believe Duralex continues to make something very similar, but in other colors,  as the Beau Rivage pattern. I don't imagine they are particularly valuable but I think they'll look pretty for salads. 

I already had the pink plate.

 

Also picked up 2 of these cute oval plates and 2 Old Fashioned-sized glasses, also $0.99 each:

 

In the world of thrift shops, I firmly believe that they should have bundled those pink bowls together-say, 8 for $5

my reasoning comes from working in a thrift store.

what often happens when you sell a set separately by piece is that someone buys two pieces and then someone buys one.  In this case, the shop is left with 5 pieces, so a customer looking for a set of six will move on, and a customer looking for a set of four will buy, leaving the store with a lonely piece which is unlikely to sell.

now, if you only wanted two of those bowls and didn't need the entire eight, fine - give them away to friends or whatever, but piecemeal selling is poor business for a thrift shop.

 

BTW - your haul is very nice!

[Anna N]

3 hours ago, Cronker said:

In the world of thrift shops, I firmly believe that they should have bundled those pink bowls together-say, 8 for $5

May I offer another view? I frequently see plates bowls etc. that I find quite attractive. But not only do I not need eight of them as I live alone, carrying eight of them would challenge my physical abilities!   I would like to see them priced such that if I only buy two of them I will pay more than if I buy four of them and my best bargain will be eight of them. I can certainly understand not selling a singleton. 

Edited January 13, 2018 by Anna N
Fix spelling (log)

[boilsover]

56 minutes ago, Anna N said:

May I offer another view? I frequently see plates bowls etc. that I find quite attractive. But not only do I not need eight of them as I live alone, carrying eight of them would challenge my physical abilities!   I would like to see them priced such that if I only buy two of them I will pay more than if I buy four of them and my best baegain will be eight of them. I can certainly understand not selling a singleton. 

I'm with Cronker on this one.  Considering how hard it is to find matching pieces of discontinued cookware, I think it's a shame to break up sets.  This happens all the time with vintage copper saucepan sets (and worse, their covers).  There are pieces/sizes I've been looking for for >10 years that I may never find.

[pastrygirl]

On 11/25/2017 at 6:41 PM, Cronker said:

Slightly uncomfortable today.

yesterday I picked up a KitchenAid fry pan and a vintage, cast iron Copco Dutch oven for, wait for it...$2

 

i did a little research on both, and the Copco goes for close to $150 and the KitchenAid fry pan is $50 new.

im going to go back in and donate another $50 to them.

 

That's really great of you, but remember, just because someone is asking $150 on eBay, doesn't mean they are selling for $150!

[andiesenji]

6 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

 

That's really great of you, but remember, just because someone is asking $150 on eBay, doesn't mean they are selling for $150!

Check the "sold" listings.

 

[Porthos]

This is a post about a fail.

 

(Table knife shown for scale)

 

I found this small Sabatier Santoku knife i my favorite thrift shop for finding knives: I paid $2.00 for it.  I figured to offer it to my younger DD after I put a new edge on it.

 

I pulled out my trusty EdgePro and had a new edge on it in less than 15 minutes. I do two things when I think I have the edge I want. First, I give it the paper-slicing test a' la the EdgePro video. Not perfect, but reasonable. My second test is slicing up a carrot. That is when I started rapping my knuckles on the cutting board.  On the edge to spine axis the handle is not far enough away from the blade edge. I can't chop or slice with it. Fail! I can't think of anyone who I know that could use it.

 

I am far from disconsolate. I have had way to many wins to let this be a deterrent.

[Kim Shook]

4 hours ago, Porthos said:

This is a post about a fail.

 

(Table knife shown for scale)

 

I found this small Sabatier Santoku knife i my favorite thrift shop for finding knives: I paid $2.00 for it.  I figured to offer it to my younger DD after I put a new edge on it.

 

I pulled out my trusty EdgePro and had a new edge on it in less than 15 minutes. I do two things when I think I have the edge I want. First, I give it the paper-slicing test a' la the EdgePro video. Not perfect, but reasonable. My second test is slicing up a carrot. That is when I started rapping my knuckles on the cutting board.  On the edge to spine axis the handle is not far enough away from the blade edge. I can't chop or slice with it. Fail! I can't think of anyone who I know that could use it.

 

I am far from disconsolate. I have had way to many wins to let this be a deterrent.

Damn.  I hate when my knuckles hit!  Mr. Kim deliberately uses knives that do that and it makes my teeth hurt.  I can't figure out how he can stand it.

[andiesenji]

4 hours ago, Porthos said:

This is a post about a fail.

 

(Table knife shown for scale)

 

I found this small Sabatier Santoku knife i my favorite thrift shop for finding knives: I paid $2.00 for it.  I figured to offer it to my younger DD after I put a new edge on it.

 

I pulled out my trusty EdgePro and had a new edge on it in less than 15 minutes. I do two things when I think I have the edge I want. First, I give it the paper-slicing test a' la the EdgePro video. Not perfect, but reasonable. My second test is slicing up a carrot. That is when I started rapping my knuckles on the cutting board.  On the edge to spine axis the handle is not far enough away from the blade edge. I can't chop or slice with it. Fail! I can't think of anyone who I know that could use it.

 

I am far from disconsolate. I have had way to many wins to let this be a deterrent.

I have a couple like that.  I don't wrap my fingers around the handle, I hold it like a wand with one finger on the back of the blade.  This Global "utility" knife is one such.

A real knuckle banger.

[boilsover]

9 hours ago, Porthos said:

This is a post about a fail.

 

(Table knife shown for scale)

 

I found this small Sabatier Santoku knife i my favorite thrift shop for finding knives: I paid $2.00 for it.  I figured to offer it to my younger DD after I put a new edge on it.

 

I pulled out my trusty EdgePro and had a new edge on it in less than 15 minutes. I do two things when I think I have the edge I want. First, I give it the paper-slicing test a' la the EdgePro video. Not perfect, but reasonable. My second test is slicing up a carrot. That is when I started rapping my knuckles on the cutting board.  On the edge to spine axis the handle is not far enough away from the blade edge. I can't chop or slice with it. Fail! I can't think of anyone who I know that could use it.

 

I am far from disconsolate. I have had way to many wins to let this be a deterrent.

Pinch grip and palm that thing.  A lot of bread knives and other slicers are like this or worse.  Just keep your handle off the board's edge.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

53 minutes ago, boilsover said:

Pinch grip and palm that thing.  A lot of bread knives and other slicers are like this or worse.  Just keep your handle off the board's edge.

 

Bread knives, yes, one reason why I just got my new 10 inch Henckels, which has a lot of clearance.  But for slicing you are not necessarily going down against a cutting board.

[boilsover]

42 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

But for slicing you are not necessarily going down against a cutting board.

 

Yes, of course.  But a lot of the time you are, even close to the heel.  Or am--today I thin-sliced some leftover NYE prime rib for French Dip sandwiches.  I have an ancient, thin, 14" Henckels slicer that would only contact the board at the extreme tip if I wasn't prepared to hang the handle over the edge.