The evening went pretty much as planned. Arrived early enough to be there before any sane individual. Sat in the car until bored. Jumped out and pissed off the second person to arrive. Froze until morning.
arrive was none other than Illuminate (pictured above), a semi regular commenter
and fellow Starburst collector who I've had prior contact with via craigslist. I've
never sold her anything but I have helped her find items and with ideas here and
there. I'd never met her or seen a picture of her but realized who she was within 5
minutes of our first terse exchange (she was none too happy to discover she
was second in line!). As soon as we got to talkin' everything cleared up and we
realized we were old acquaintances.
and a half hours out there...after an 8 hour work day...and knowing I wasn't going
to get to sleep before work today. I get a free pass to gloat. The sale by Midas
Touch was great in that both Illuminate and I called before the sale and asked to
buy the set before the sale but Midas Touch said "Nope, no Presales!" That is
pretty rare these days. Good news for me and Illuminate. This is something to
keep in mind when deciding which estate sales to attend. You know there is a
better chance there will be some items left you'd like to get your hands on when
you finally get in the door!
above. I left the rest for the others. Even the Franciscan Desert Rose, which is
worth a lot as well. Illuminate got a lot more pieces than I did. Even though she
was second in line I felt that she should get a chunk of the good stuff. She needed
the regular stuff like the plates. I took all the "coup" (soup/cereal bowls?) so I let
her take the berry bowls, I have lots of serving bowls so I let her have the three at
the sale, I have a full set of tea cups and saucers...you get the idea. I didn't need
to be greedy. Now she's got a pretty fine startup set with some great showcase
pieces. With great power comes great responsibility. For real though, I just didn't
want Illuminate to start a blog and bad mouth me for being a Starburst hog.
Your generosity will come back to you :) Nice score on the Starburst and love that orange chair. Nice to hear Illuminate was able to pick up some pieces of Starburst, especially after waiting those long hours in the cold.
ReplyDeletei'm freezing just thinking about that long in a cold car! brrrr. i'm drooling over that pile of linens, i would of loved to go through those. :) sweet score, i hope it was worth it haha
ReplyDeleteI must admit that you scored some wonderful pieces, and if I were younger I'd probably do the same thing. But I'm old, so I just let you guys sit out in the cold, and then I buy things from you. :)
ReplyDeleteSeriously, great buy! Congratulations on all the good stuff.
That orange chair. Was that an Adrian Pearsall? It looks like it might be.
ReplyDeleteYaaaay! You got it! That's awesome and wow, very hardcore. LOVE Franciscan so I totally get the dedication. Well deserved Mr. Modtomic, well deserved.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone had to be first in line besides myself, I was happy it was Mr. Modtomic! I was SOO surprised that there was someone there crazier than I! He allowed me all the pieces that he already had and BOY did that help my pitiful collection. We sat in the cold and played angry birds, read and chatted up like old friends!
ReplyDeleteLet me know if you are interested in selling any of the Starburst. That sale in Arnold was actually my grandma's house. There was a misunderstanding with the Estate Sale lady. She wouldn't let my family pull anything else out of the sale after we signed the papers, so no one from our extended family was able to retrieve anything from the house. If you have any doubt, contact me. I can describe the entire inside of the house and all of it's contents.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Amy
K4M - I like to think about "Karma Points" especially when driving. Let this guy merge...fail to get a speeding ticket.
ReplyDeletestacey - I'm still shivering a little and glad to still have all my toes. Totally worth it both in scoring the Starburst and meeting Illuminate.
Dana - I'm not sure that I'd sit out all night in the sub freezing weather for anything I was going to sell! I might, but I don't think so.
B2R - It might be a Pearsall but I'm not counting on it. He had soooo many similar but slightly different designs that it's hard to say.
Rhan - Hardcore is right. I didn't know I still had this kinda stupid in me.
illy - "Angry Birds" is cool! "Cut the Rope" was fun to watch too. I wish I didn't have to have an iPad to play. I might have to get one just for the games! I'm glad someone packed sensibly.
Popchick / Amy - I hate to say it but the pieces I got at the sale aren't available. I do have a few dinner plates that I could part with, but they didn't come from the sale. If it is important to get the actual pieces from your Grandmothers house I can perhaps get Illuminate to trade a few dinner plates as I'm sure she wouldn't care where her plates came from. The good news is the pieces are in a very loving home where when they are being presented; their new story will surely be entertaining and memorable.
I'm glad to hear that. The whole situation was very sad. Once we signed the papers, she wouldn't let us remove anything else. She said that she already had people that follow her sales coming for the plates and a few other things. She didn't want to disappoint them since a few of them took off of work to be there. The sale was only 2 weeks after the death, so most family members never even got a chance to go to the house before she scheduled the sale.
ReplyDeleteAmy
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ReplyDeleteI saw these dishes on the Estatesales.net website for this sale and wanted to be there, as i would also love to have some! But, with work and living 3 hours away, that couldn't happen, but at least now i know who they went to.....
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ReplyDeleteEDIT Via Mr. Modtomic:
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
Re: POPCHICK
Read the title of your blog entry: "Let It Never Be Said That Mr. Modtomic is an Ungenerous Man."
Well that's pretty UNGENEROUS. We call this in the estate sale business, 'A .... MOVE'. Way to go nice guy.
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OK now, you can have an opinion, even an angry one. But No Cursing. Next time it just goes to the trash can.
So what exactly is your issue with me showing up first and getting first choice of items in the house, then deciding not to just take all the best stuff but letting second in line have some too? Please try to compose your answer intellegently.
The family has asked to BUY the stuff back. I'm sure they would pay for your time as well. You have called yourself a Generous Man. You have in other posts talked about how nice you are. And now you just tell this person, who has gone a long way to find you and ask for family posessions back, (and willing to pay for them) that the items are now in a good home? Just seems rude. But it's your blog.
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking a moment to better explain your point.
ReplyDeletePopchick seems to be Happy with the outcome. Read above, she says, "I'm glad to hear that."
I offered to try to get her some of the items.
My collection of Franciscan is not for sale.
She had as much of an opportunity to buy the items as anybody else. I didn't have any kind of reserve on them. She knew about the estate sale before I did. I wanted the set so much that I was willing to wait OUTSIDE in the SUB-FREEZING cold ALL NIGHT to buy this. I think I might want it more than just about anybody else. What's rude about trying to reassure Popchick that the items are in a home where they are going to be cherished? That they aren't just going to eBay?
And yes, it is my blog. Treat it with respect or I will delete your comments.
So glad to hear about all the enthusiastic Starburst collectors...My husband designed it and was very proud of it...He also did a great Contours Collection of art pottery designs for Franciscan in 1958.
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