EstateSales.NET Blog

The year is 1959, and you have just settled in to watch the latest episode of The Mickey Mouse Club . All of a sudden, a commercial comes on that unveils a toy that will change the world. This toy would go on not only to be the most popular but also one of the most valuable to collectors. This week we will take a look at Barbara Millicent Roberts, known better to the world as Barbie. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Melissa Ashe (@melissasdolls) on Apr 29, 2020 at 7:57pm PDT Using the EstateSales.NET Treasure Tracker or searching our Marketplace is a great way to find which sales feature these world-renowned toys. Love all things estate sales? Us, too! Head over to our blog to learn about all things vintage, DIY, and more! Searching For a Company Looking for a company to conduct your sale? Go to our Hire a Company page to find a company in your area. Find a Company Get Notified Sign up to receive free email notifications of estate sales in your area! Subscribe Now...

On Christmas morning in 1993, I received a gift that would change my life forever. The very last present I opened was Elvis: As Recorded at Madison Square Garden on vinyl , and I would never look at music the same again. That morning also marked another significant milestone; it was the first time my dad let me touch his beloved stereo. Fun Fact: I’m writing this article on June 18th, the 48th anniversary of the release date of Elvis: As Recorded At Madison Square Garden! View this post on Instagram A post shared by Joakim Jax (@jaxvinyl) on Jun 18, 2018 at 11:13am PDT There was something about dropping the needle on that record, hearing the crackle in the speakers as Elvis’ orchestra started playing Also Sprach Zarathrustra (Theme From 2001: Space Odyssey.) I knew at that exact moment music would never sound better than that. Over the years, I added vinyl records to my music library here and there but never became an avid collector...

Let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we? It was the summer of 1996, and in the small town that I grew up in, there wasn’t much to do. My friends and I would spend most of our time just riding our bikes around our neighborhood and spending all of our parents’ hard-earned money at a local mom and pop movie store called Movie Time. We would gather all of the change we could find and spend hours at the arcade there. While my friends were playing Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, I always gravitated towards the bank of pinball machines in the back. If I had a quarter for every time I played the Lethal Weapon 3 machine, I could probably afford to buy my own. We recently discovered that pinball was one of the top searches on EstateSales.NET, so I wanted to delve a little deeper into the topic. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Arcade Game Sales (@arcadegamesales) on Mar 31, 2020 at 10:08am PDT What pinball machine would you most like to add to your collection...

Did you know pool lounge chairs could be so beautifully designed that they become pieces of art? I didn’t, until about a year ago when I stumbled upon a yellow and blue pair of Fibrella lounge pool chairs. I was hooked and begged my wife to let me bring them home. This fascination with vintage fiberglass/plastic furniture inspired me to see what other unique pool loungers were waiting for me to discover them. Here are four pieces of vintage outdoor fiberglass furniture to keep your eyes out for when estate sale hunting (some a little easier to find than others)! Fibrella These were my first love, the Fibrella poolside furniture pieces by Le Barron Pool & Patio Furniture. Information about the history of Fibrella is limited, though, according to retrorenovation.com , Aquaslide 'N' Dive of El Monte, California may have had their hands in the manufacturing of these pieces through the 60s and 70s . View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kelly Golightly (@kellygolightly) on May 25, 2015 at 10:36pm PDT You are not limited to just the above four brands...

This week, we will take a deep dive into the comic book collection and take a look at a few of the comics that might be worth a small fortune. I’ll admit that I wasn’t into comic books very much as a kid, but I loved hanging out at my local hobby shop. There always seemed to be someone feverishly thumbing through the stacks and looking for that winning lottery ticket disguised as a comic book. Knowing what I know now, I would have been searching too. I’m going to start this by saying that there are a TON of comic books floating around out there. We are always seeing sales that feature not only single comics but oftentimes entire collections. If you’ve been to an estate sale or auction, you’ve seen a table full of comic books and just kept walking. Hopefully, this article will make you take a second look the next time you find yourself surrounded by a stack of comics. X-Men #1 (1963) In September of 1963, legendary comic writers Stan Lee and Jack Kirby gave us our first look at the mutant superhero team, the X-Men...

We’ve all imagined what it would be like to strap on a guitar and stand on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans, right? Well, maybe not all of us, but I know I have. I have been playing drums for over 20 years, but both of my grandfathers were guitar players and collectors. I have always had immense respect for anyone that can play. While I may not be an expert in vintage guitar collecting, I do know someone who is! I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Adam Hellman to talk about everything vintage guitars. He is an avid collector, a great guitar player, and just so happens to be my bandmate. Adam has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to guitar collecting, and he is going to guide you through what you should look for next time you come across one of these six-stringed beauties at a sale. How did you get into guitar collecting? “Like most collectors, I started as a player. You gravitate towards certain instruments because of the sound you want, or a player you admire used a particular model. And then inevitably you get carried away...

While my knowledge may be a touch limited when it comes to things like egg chairs and depression glass , if there’s one thing I know about, it’s bobbleheads! My goal for this article is to help you know what to look for the next time you’re lucky enough to find some of these at your next estate sale. The first bobbleheads were religious figures called temple nodders. They were produced in Asia in the early part of the 17th century. The bobbleheads that made their way to the United States were produced in Germany. These bobbleheads gained a lot of popularity in the 1950s. The first sports-related bobbles came about in the 1960s in the likeness of baseball greats like Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle. They were initially made out of painted papier-mache instead of the more modern porcelain, resin, and plastic. The baseball craze really started in 1999 when Candlestick Park was celebrating its 40th anniversary. Most sports bobbleheads are distributed as SGA (stadium giveaway) and are made to commemorate a special event or celebrate a particular player...

This week, I'd like to highlight America’s favorite food storage solution. That’s right, we’re talkin’ Tupperware ! I bring my grandmother up a lot in these articles because she seemed to always have the coolest collections of random stuff in her house. If there was one thing she loved, it was her huge assortment of Tupperware. A few years ago, I found a complete set of orange Tupperware canisters and I was instantly taken back to being five years old, helping her cook in her tiny kitchen. There was also a green juice glass that I was particularly fond of and always had to use when I was at her house. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Vintage Mary Bradshaw (@vintagemarybradshaw) on Mar 31, 2020 at 12:54pm PDT Estate sales are a great resource for finding complete sets of vintage Tupperware. If you’re lucky enough to find an estate sale of a former party host, you’re sure to find a treasure trove of classic Tupperware! Searching For a Company Looking for a company to conduct your sale...

Collectors are such an integral part of our business here at EstateSales.NET, and if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that there is a collector for pretty much everything out there. I was looking through Instagram the other day, and I came across something exciting. View this post on Instagram A post shared by @antiquewoodpencils on Mar 18, 2020 at 3:07pm PDT What are some of your favorites in your collection? Tye: “Some of my favorites... Eberhard Faber “Suffragist” “Votes for Women” pencil. Produced in 1913... 7 years before women officially gained the opportunity to vote. Rare because it was such a divisive topic and hard to imagine a store owner placing a display of them on the counter for all to see. 1888 Campaign Pencil: This one is unique as it wasn’t given away by the presidential candidate but instead was sold by the American Pencil Company to cash in on the election excitement. On one end of the pencil was a printed image of Benjamin Harrison and, on the other, his opposition Grover Cleveland...

When I was growing up, one of the fixtures of my grandparent’s house was a giant green bowl that sat on their coffee table filled with pecans or hard candy. Several years later, I learned that the bowl was depression glass , and they had a ton of it! The piece they had is very similar to the one below. View this post on Instagram A post shared by MintGreenDaisyVintage (@mintgreendaisyvintagegoods) on Mar 23, 2020 at 6:44pm PDT If you’ve been to an estate sale lately, chances are you have seen a piece of depression glass. Make sure to keep an eye on the EstateSales.NET Marketplace to find your own piece of history! Searching For a Company Looking for a company to conduct your sale? Go to our Hire a Company page to find a company in your area. Find a Company Get Notified Sign up to receive free email notifications of estate sales in your area! Subscribe Now...