Yesterday's Estate Sale!

[HodakaGA]

I saw an estate sale sign as I was running errands yesterday so I stopped by on my way back home. The street was full of cars and I almost went on home. Glad I found a parking spot and went to the garage in the backyard. I picked up between 2 and 3#'s of solder for $3. That's not bad and typical of my estate sale booty finds.

It looked too busy to get in the house but I saw an old co-worker holding a bunch of what looked like pewter goblets. I went over and asked her if I could look at them...real pewter! I told her I was looking for pewter and she said there was a bunch more inside. There were 5 more of the goblets for $12.50 plus 8-8" heavy plates and and 8-10" ones for $25 total. I didn't have enough cash to get everything so I got the plates.

When I got home I weighed myself twice on my digital bathroom scale holding them and twice without them. Net weight was 14 lbs., my best haul ever and at less than $2/lb. Not a bad deal all around!

[10 ga]

I think I saw your face and name on a "WANTED" poster. Congratulations, set for tin for a while now. 10

[HodakaGA]

I was nice and showed the plates to my wife since they were in excellent condition. I even offered them to her for herself but she nicely told me I could keep them for my needs. That's a good woman!

I won't need to be looking for much more, at 2% that will sweeten around 800 lbs. if I include the solder.

[Yodogsandman]

Whoa cowboy! Never show pewter to your wife until you've banged it, dented it and bent it all out of shape. Take a lighter and melt some edges. It needs to be disgusting, first! You might have had to look at those pretty pewter plates in a showcase for like ever!

Congratulations on a good haul!

[Beagle333]

Very nice find! Jealous here!

[Eddie Southgate]

Nice find on both the pewter and (especially) the wife . Mine would have taken the plates and asked me to go back and get the goblets .

Eddie

[lightman]

Yeah, jealous here too! Anything I find around here has an antique price on it.

[Leadmelter]

Estate sales give me the creeps. I went to one in the neighborhood and it appeared that whoever lived there never updated the house or clothes since 1960.
X-files material. I waited in the car for the wife and daughter.
Leadmelter
MI

[RogerDat]

You done good. My wife is very limited in what she takes from my pewter stash before it becomes a puddle so I offer it to her first, that said if it was really nice, and really heavy it might get to my car by being booted across the parking lot just to be safe.

Watch for stuff stamped "Zinn" which is German or Dutch for Tin. It is what they label pewter which they produce in good quanity, however some estate sales where "pewter" is priced through the roof, the Zinn stuff isn't because they don't recognize it as being the same. I have never had a whole lot of luck at estate sales. But then I don't go very often, live out in country so would have to go looking for them in the paper.

[kevin c]

Whoa cowboy! Never show pewter to your wife until you've banged it, dented it and bent it all out of shape. Take a lighter and melt some edges. It needs to be disgusting, first! You might have had to look at those pretty pewter plates in a showcase for like ever!

Congratulations on a good haul!

The beat up pewter gambit didn't pan out for me. My future daughter in law took a liking to the pieces in my stash that I graciously gave up to my wife. These were pristine pieces I scored in a big collection in an estate sale. Cannily, I offered her her choice from the rest of the melt down collection, all already beat up, scratched and dinged, all from Good Will or Salvation Army. Little did I know that she is really into the "distressed" and "vintage" look.

Ah well, The two of them still left me enough pewter in the raw, and had no interest in what was already turned into ingots. Lesson learned.

[kevin c]

RogerDat:

Yeah, my yield on estates sales is pretty low, maybe some solder, fishing weights or reasonably priced pewter, perhaps some useable tools and occasionally other useable stuff once every three sales. Same or lower at thrift stores (minus the lead and tools, which they don't sell). Being in an urban area makes hitting two or three on a free weekend day not too hard, and the entertainment factor is worth something at least some of the time, maybe more so when I retire.

[marek313]

I stopped doing this whole scavenger hunt lately for tin and pewter. I dont even bother going to the Goodwill store since they dont always have anything and when they do its small quantities anyway. Instead I go to my local recycling place and buy everything lead related for $0.85/lb. Whatever I can find in the bin its all the same price. So I end up picking up all wire solder and 50/50 solder bars and even lino pigs there. Once i pick out the good stuff I look for clean lead there too. One stop shop for me saving me on gas and money and once you break it down and count pounds of tin I get at the price $0.85/lb is not bad at all. I know I should consider myself lucky I guess since many recycle places dont sell it anymore.