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| Lake Elsinore, California |
My Score in Lake Elsinore!!!
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| B&G Royal Copenhagen |
Well not every estate sale story starts off exciting and
that was the case on my trip to Lake Elsinore, California. For once, the hubby
and I were not estate sale shopping on a Saturday as his car needed tires and
we ran into a bit of unexpected good fortune when the Walmart in Murrieta didn’t
have the tires my husband wanted for his little Kia. The location in Hemet did
have the right size so we made the 20-minute drive and while we waited for the
mechanic to put new tires on our car my husband located an “estate sale” in nearby
Lake Elsinore.
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| Damron's Glass Bell |
Lake Elsinore is a nice city about 15 miles north or
Murrieta and as the name indicates it has a large natural lake that was once
the playground for the Hollywood stars of the 1940s-60’s. The lake is still a very
popular attraction and home to many boats, watercraft and a large sky-diving
community. It also has the Lake Elsinore Storm, the single-A minor league affiliate
of the San Diego Padres as well as a beautiful baseball stadium.
The quote marks around estate sale are because the sale I’m
about to go to just barely qualifies as an estate sale on the surface. For me,
estate sales occur inside the home. Garage sales occur inside the garage and
that’s the main difference between the two types of sales (don’t get me started
on yard sales or moving sales). And although this sale was clearly advertised
as an estate sale, all the items are organized and displayed in the garage or
in the driveway. Not a big deal, we’re not really estate sale shopping today anyhow,
this is just something to do while they change the tires on my husband’s car.
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| Royal Ives Ceramic Bell |
As we approach the driveway I see a look on my husband’s
face I’ve seen a lot now with the intense stare and squinting his
eyes and at the same time getting very very quiet. He’s like a hungry prairie
dog and he see’s something that looks good … he’s even standing on his back
paws and his whiskers are twitching 8-)
Bright, shiny, silver in red boxes and as we get closer I can see that this
garage or estate sale, whatever it is has 3 brand new Lenox Metalware Servers
still in the original boxes … right in front of the driveway.
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| Lenox Metalware Bowl |
There must be
something wrong, cause it’s almost 3:00 and we can’t figure out how these
things are still sitting here, but our adventure was just about to start.
The gentleman running the estate sale (the broker) for his
neighbor friend was in fact a local pawn broker in the Temecula area. He was
running the estate sale as a favor for his friend and was really a friendly
type who was a fountain of knowledge to boot. Just like my favorite TV show
stars Rick, Corey, Chum-Lee, and The Old Man from Pawn Stars on the History
Channel.
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| Lenox Metalware Chip n Dip |
We all really hit it off and for the next 90 minutes my husband and I
gathered up just about every single collectible item at this place (all the while talking about Pawn Stars). And the sale
turned out to be absolutely LOADED.
First off, we got those three Lenox Metalware items. For those
who know these are absolutely brilliant metalware pieces created by Lenox for
those who like the shine, but don’t like the cleaning associated with sterling
and silverplated items. There is a platter and two large bowls that were
apparently part of some type of award package given to a gambler at the Pechanga
Casino. They still have the original boxes.
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| Lenox Serving Platter |
Once we got those items we were off
and rolling with our pawn broker. My husband unloaded an entire box of
collectible plates only to realize he wanted them all and had to put them back
in the box. I pulled out Gorham Crystal, Lenox, Delft as well as Fitz &
Floyd as I got into my estate sale groove. I was in such a zone I wasn’t really
paying attention as my husband and I pulled items out of the garage and set
them on small end tables at the front of the driveway.
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| Gorham Crystal Candy Dish |
We hadn’t bought
anything yet, but the pawn broker kept telling us he would give us a good deal.
My husband had just placed a crystal butter dish and cover on an end table that
has those little leaves that fold. I followed him carrying a small collection
of Delft collectibles I had found and set them down next to the crystal items
when all of a sudden …
CRASH!
Have you ever heard the noise of fine china and thick
crystal impacting with concrete at the same time a grown woman screams? I was
the only living thing within 20 feet of that table. The pawn broker, his
friends, and my husband all kind of flinched like when you hear a car backfire
or a gunshot and then slowly all eyes came to rest on … me. Even their little
dog was looking at me like “What did you do?” I swear to you all, I DID NOTHING! Evidence notwithstanding of course.
The pawn broker was very nice about it and did not ask us to pay for anything
even though there was glass and pretty blue china all over the driveway.
I
think the fact we had picked half the items at his sale may have had something
to do with that. Unfortunately shattering those items, I’ve never done that
before, broke the spell and neither my husband nor I were able to keep shopping
with the same enthusiasm. We already had over 50 items picked including the
Lenox items and a ton of Christmas items all of which are already up for sale
in my ebay store.
Well, that’s it, in all Lake Elsinore may have been the biggest
single estate sale score ever in terms of quantity for Cindy’s Collectibles and
I really enjoyed talking to my new friend the pawn broker.
The Links below will take you to the eBay listings for all the items in this blog.
Thank You
