Monday, July 8, 2013

On the Road with Cindy's Collectibles: Lake Elsinore, California





Lake Elsinore, California


My Score in Lake Elsinore!!!


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.


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.


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.
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.
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.

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.

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!


Avon Bubble Blowing Santa


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.

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