Friendship Find!

There are certain Pyrex patterns that I just never see "in the wild". I have been seriously collecting Pyrex now for over two years and have never seen a single piece of Friendship in thrift stores or even local antique stores. I don't know if it just wasn't popular when it came out around here or if people seem to hold on to it and not donate it (more likely!), but I have never seen any of it. Until yesterday, that is!

I usually stop in to a certain thrift store on my way to work Monday afternoons, and yesterday was in a bit of a rush. I had only enough time to a) stop and get a cup of coffee or b) pop into the thrift store really quickly, but not both. I chose option b, and made the right decision. 

I walked in to the housewares section of the store (it is really small, so you only have to stand in one place and look around to see everything) and my "Pyrex radar" started going off. Anyone else have that happen? You know there is Pyrex there, but don't immediately see it- kind of weird but cool... anyway, there was one other person in there, a twenty-something guy who was looking intently at the electronics. I looked at all the dishes and places where normally you would expect to find Pyrex, but saw nothing except clear pieces. 

Finally, the guy moved, and there on the shelf was a giant red bowl. And inside were two more- I knew what it was, and I had found my Friendship at last!

The Cinderella set, minus the 441, and in great condition!

The only bad thing was the price- it didn't come cheap. I paid $20.50 for the three (why do they always add that extra .50?) which I know is high for a thrift store, but it is three bowls and this pattern is never cheap online either. It was a fair price, I suppose, and I certainly don't regret bringing them home. The red is so vibrant, and I love the yellow too. I can see why these are hard to come by in the thrifts!

Pink Pyrex!

Another set completed!

Yes, it's true- I've been on a Pyrex spree lately. Not only did I just complete my Butterpripnt fridgie set after at least 2 years of looking, I finally completed my pink fridgie set.

I've only been working on this one since last fall though. I found the first one, the 502, in an auction box lot for $1 or 2. Then I found the 503 on eBay for a good price- think it was 9.99 plus shipping. Last week I got the 2 501s on eBay to finish the set. They were a bit more ($28 BIN with free shipping) but still a fair price and included the lids. They are absolutely mint, and I'm glad I scooped them up. I know it's almost like cheating to buy them online, but I don't think I'll ever find the whole set in the wild!

Completing the set for less than $50 is a good deal, I think. Now I need to focus on completing my turquoise set. I thrifted the 503 last fall for $5, and I am going to really try to find the rest in the wild or at least through trades.

Finally, an estate sale worth writing about!

So, it's blisteringly hot around here. I can't remember the last day it was under 100. Perfect estate and yard sale weather! NOT!

But I had a real hankering to find a bargain, and lately the thrifts have been an unqualified bust. And yard sales haven't been much better. But I decided to head out anyway and I'm glad I did!

I found one estate sale advertised about 15 miles from me in an area I haven't been to much. And the ad mentioned Pyrex, so I was definitely going to check it out. As the thermometer reached into the high 90s by 10, I packed the kids into the car and hoped our A/C was working! (It was.)

It was a pleasant and easy drive, and when we got to the sale I was shocked to find that we were the only ones there. With the kids, I don't usually have the ability to get to estate sales early, and I definitely don't want to fight the crowds with them in tow, so I always wait until after the early rush. I'm not sure there was any rush at all with this sale- it seemed like we were the only folks who even knew about it, even though it was well-advertised. I guess the heat was a factor, but it didn't bother us.

First thing I headed for was the Pyrex! I bought the Golden Pine Space Saver, with lid and cradle for $10. I have a rule to just buy any Space Saver I see, especially if it has the lid, and this is a nice one. I can't wait to get out all my Christmas Pyrex and put this one on display! The Pink Daisy 043 is my favorite size Pyrex and I love using them, but this one is so nice I might never use it. The Butterprint 472 casserole is my first of the 470 series. Didn't I just mention in my last post that I needed that, and lo and behold... 

She also had the 471 and 473, but had them marked as a set for $25. That's too steep for me- why this one was priced at only $6 I don't understand, but it's mine. (I would hazard a guess that the lady was looking up prices on the internet and found turquoise Pyrex goes for more; apparently she didn't get to the part where the turq. on white Butterprint goes with the others...) I also left behind a Golden Tulip promo with lid and cradle for $20 and a set of primary bowls (minus the green) for $20. I didn't love the tulip and have an unnumbered primary set, so at those prices they're not a bargain for me.

The rest of the stuff was awesome and great prices: 

These HoJo motel glasses were 25 cents each. If my kids were older I would put these out in my bathroom as everyday drinking glasses ;)

This chalkware planter is huge and also only 25 cents. I know it will sell fast in my booth, and at almost 100% profit. Whooo doesn't love owls! (sorry!)

This quirky Christmas centerpiece was also only 25 cents. Not my style, but again, someone will love it.

These vintage Halloween treat bags were in the FREE pile! There are 25 of them- totally headed to Etsy.

My son took some of his own money and bought this souvenir desk set for $4. He is going to resell it in my Etsy store, so watch for it! He's got a great eye and is very motivated to make some money reselling- I might have some competition in a couple of years if I train him right! I love the Marlin graphics on the flip calendar and the tiny seashells- he picked a great piece.

Vintage wrapping paper for 25 cents a roll. Every time I find some it sells fast.

This lamp was so cool and only $5. The base is handmade but the shade is killer.

And this last find was pure serendipity. For the last few days I had been thinking I should have a mug tree to display some of my vintage mugs near my coffee maker. I hadn't even had time to go out and hunt for it or search Etsy, and one literally fell into my lap. When I asked the guy in the garage of the sale how much he wanted for it, he just gave it to me- said he already rescued it from the trash pile and just wanted someone to have it. It has great patina and I love the orange color. Perfect, and perfect price!

Sets Completed! Time for a Family Photo

Hello, Friends! Summer is half over, can you believe it? I have been busy on facebook lately, trading and talking about Pyrex. (Remember when I said I didn't want to collect the stuff? Well, we are way past that point now... :) 

I have been culling my collection a bit, and trading away those pieces that don't fit in my scope. I have traded some good pieces for other good pieces- if both parties are happy, that is a good thing. I finally got my Butterprint 443 (turquoise on white mixing bowl) to complete that Cinderella set on the left. I also got the last small 501 fridgie (with lid!) to complete the refrigerator dish set. All the rest of those pieces were thrifted and I have been working on completing them for almost 2 years. Finally finishing them is a good feeling, and so it was time for a family photo! 

I still need 2 more regular mixing bowls to complete the set on the right, as well as all the lidded casseroles in the Butterprint pattern and I will have them all. So far the only ebay purchase was the butter dish, but I'm glad I bought that. The tea towel is an Etsy item, and worth buying if you collect Pyrex! 

I also bought these Delphite items recently. I can't get enough of the blue milk glass and have never seen it in the wild, so they were ebay purchases. But I think I got a good deal on them, so I'm happy. The casserole is called "Gourmet" and is actually white glaze/gold leaf over blue glass. It didn't come with the lid or cradle/warming stand, but I think I can find those easily enough. I love the look of these, especially with my most recent thrifted vintage tablecloth ($5 at SA!)

Stay tuned, I have more Pyrex on the way!

SusieQT collects: Pyrex!

Due to a special request from Shannon after my last post on Fire King, I am going to show you (almost!) my entire Pyrex collection. If you have been a blog reader for a while, you may recall similar posts, but my collection keeps growing and there are many new pieces here. And yes, I did not realize how many pieces I really have until I got out the camera and started taking pictures. Some I have on display all the time, but a lot is tucked away either for special occasions or daily use.

For the most part I try to stick to pink, turquoise, and black patterns, along with primary and assorted holiday patterns/rareties. I have thrifted almost all of them, because I am so cheap. ;) I rarely buy on ebay and have made just two trades on facebook.

So, let the eye candy begin:

My fridgies, space savers (middle shelf on the left) and assorted bowls and bakeware. Most of these are for display only, although I do on occasion use the flamingo 933 lasagna pan, the lime square baker and the small fridgies. (Two of them are on the job right now in my fridge.) I have also used my starburst space saver, but as the value of that has skyrocketed, I think it will stay safely in the cabinet from now on.

Interestingly, that piece (for many, the holy grail of Pyrex) was my first ever piece of patterned Pyrex. I bought it for a couple of dollars at a thrift store about 10 years ago before I ever thought of collecting the stuff. I just bought it because it was "atomic" looking and was cool. Good thing I scooped it up way back then!

All of these are thrifted except the pink 503 large fridgie and charcoal snowflake space saver, which were ebay purchases.

Stay tuned, I'll break the bowls up on the lower right for their own photo in a sec.

The middle shelf holds my divided dishes (a little wonky- I need to brace them a bit!) and a snowflake 045 casserole and my lone piece of orange Butterprint. There are also a couple of Pyrex mugs on the bottom right- 4 Holiday, and one Federal Eagle. (Not pictured are a couple of Butterfly Gold & Spring Blossom mugs in the cabinet which I use for my coffee.) All thrifted except the turquoise on white snowflake divided dish which was a facebook trade.

These are the mixing bowls from the first picture. I have partial sets of the Cinderella Butterprint bowls (need only the white 443) and mixing bowls (need 404 and 401). The delphite Bluebelle bowls (401 and 402 only) were ebay buys, while everything else (including yellow New Dots) was thrifted. I'm working on completing the sets, but prefer to thrift or trade and not succumb to the ebay monster!

These are part of my holiday display right now- the red and blue Pixies (mini casseroles) and cheese dome are Pyrex. The triangular casserole is not Pyrex, but awesome nonetheless!

My butter dishes- trying to accumulate all of them, but its slow going. (The Butterprint at top was an ebay buy.)

Holiday Pyrex- Christmas promo and Autumn Harvest for fall. It was not until I dragged these out to photograph that I realized how similar the patterns are, even though they are 20+ years apart in manufacture date.

Some of the bakeware I don't have room to display and use more often- the yellow 043 casserole I believe to be part of the solid yellow set, and is extremely rare. The Spring Blossom 045 and flamingo 024 I use quite a bit.

And finally my mixing bowls. The primary set is un-numbered on the bottom and is what started me on my way to "officially" collecting Pyrex. The opal set (with a Spring Blosson 402 thrown in to complete it) is a fairly recent purchase and still has remnants of the gold band around the rim. 

Whew! that was more work that I anticipated- I have a lot of Pyrex! How about you? If you have a collection, post a link in the comments so we can all see!

Fire King Finds

As many of you know, I am really into collecting Pyrex these days. But you may not know that I love other types of milk glass as well, especially Fire King. I've actually been collecting Fire King longer than Pyrex, and while Pyrex has taken off in the collecting world of late, Fire King has been more of a steady presence. I don't know exactly why; perhaps it's because Fire King made more "sets" of dishes and items in the same pattern. It encourages those of us who like it to seek out all the pieces of a particular line, rather than to just acquire different patterns of the same item (Pyrex mixing bowls).

And while the mania for Pyrex has resulted in scarcity and high prices in the thrifts, lately I've been able to find some nice Fire King pieces. But, like my Pyrex hoard, I have to limit myself to only certain patterns and items, or I will never have room for it all. Mainly, I collect the hand painted "Peach Blossom" line (pink flowers), jadeite, the Kimberly line (diamond-textured and ombre-colored) and any and all mugs I can find.

The bowls on the left are plain red and the bowl and mug on the right are Kimberly. I happened on a yard sale the other week while I was out on a run and saw the Kimberly bowl. I never ran so fast back home to get my money! The yellow and green mug I have had for a while. I would love to have more, but I am not about to pay online prices for them, so will have to wait for the odd yard sale bargain.

Speaking of mugs, I found these awesome gas station promo mugs. I think it was Amoco that advertised a "tiger in your tank"? Anyway, they are my new favorite coffee mugs, and were only 50 cents each.

I have found a lot of Fire King at rummage sales- something about it must have appealed to church ladies. I found this Wheat pattern tea set recently- 8 saucers, 7 cups (whoops- will have to find a replacement sometime!) two condiment bowls and a cream and sugar set for $4. I have a soft spot for this pattern, because I inherited a matching casserole from my grandmother, but I don't think I have space to keep it. It may go over to my booth... or it may not... ;)

This bowl was hard to photograph, but it is molded in a basketweave pattern. I understand that these were included with a certain brand of cottage cheese as a grocery store giveaway. It was only 25 cents!

This is probably one of my better recent rummage sale finds. This is another one of Fire King's hand painted lines (called "Gay Fad", after the name of the art studio that did the painting) which feature painted fruit. I have found that there are different combinations of fruit out there and these happen to be peach and grapes. Some others have pears and cherries, and oranges and lemons. 

Those of you who collect Pyrex will be interested to know that Fire King also produced refrigerator dishes and made some really neat ones. The peach blossom set that I currently covet is actually two small round dishes on top of a larger oval. These are more traditionally shaped. 

I found the large dish with lid ($2!) on one table and then spied the two smaller dishes way across the room (50 cents each). I turned the place upside down but could not find the lids. Oh well, the hunt goes on!

What I'm Buying Now (more Secrets of the Hunt!)

Hi Gang- it's been a while, I know. With the school year winding down things have been kind of hectic, so this post has been a long time coming. I have tried to get together most of my recent finds and post about them, just so you know I'm still here! ;)

I'm sure I don't have to tell most of you that buying vintage is a game that is constantly changing. I won't chime in with the general consensus and cry about "how hard 'vintage' is to find in a thrift store anymore." Truth is, I feel like if you really know what you're doing, you can walk into any thrift and 95% of the time, find something worth buying. That said, what we consider to be "good" merchandise needs to constantly adapt to the trends. 

I have been buying vintage clothing for over 15 years and yes, at one time it was easier to find early stuff (1950s and before) and it was cheaper. But as a reseller, my market has changed as well, and there is more of a market for 1960s-80s vintage. And the prices for the earlier stuff have gone through the roof, so even if it is more expensive to buy, it is even more profitable to sell.

I do find early vintage on occaission. In the last few months I have found at least 3 nice 1930s/1940s dresses, but only because I took the time to look through the whole store. This little black number is a perfect example. The store employees had put it in with the regular merchandise (not in the special "vintage" section- and almost all the stores I go to have these sections anymore). Since it is black, it is a classic style and difficult to date unless you can spot the cold rayon and flip the hem over and look at the construction. That beautiful taped seam was a dead give-away for an early 1940s date. I paid $6.50 for it and originally planned to resell it, but, lucky me, it fits me perfectly, so it's a keeper for now!

So, the early stuff is out there, just sometimes hidden in plain sight. But this next dress is an example of the type of things I buy now, and things that also sell well. It's an amazing 60s/70s maxi dress. Dig that amazing print! And the faux wrap style! (What I don't dig is the reek of smoke attached to it- it's now at the cleaners- someone must have partied hard in this one.) So when I set the price for this one I need to take into account what I paid, plus the drycleaning bill, which means I'm already into this for close to $20. But I think it's an amazing dress and I'm sure someone else will think so too.

Pair that with the bowling bag purse I have at the top and you'd have yourself a pretty sweet psychedelic outfit. That bag is something that a lot of people would pass up, especially because it wasn't cheap (in thrift store world) at $8. But I know I can triple my money on that or better, so long as it's in great condition (which it is, thankfully). 

And condition is key. I have a hard time passing things up that are really cool, even if the condition isn't great. But I'm finding out that if I have to put a disclaimer in the listing (like "small hole" or "discolored spot") that item won't sell unless the price is really good. So it's probably not worth my time, and I need to walk away. (But it's still so hard, and I'm not always successful- more on that in a moment!)

I liked these two prints, and any time you find things in pairs (like art or lamps), that's a good thing. They're "big eye" prints from the 1960s which have that really kawaii look. They're fairly large (about 24" tall) so may go to my booth instead of the Etsy shop. But they'd probably sell better on Etsy...

I've been buying lots of planters lately- they're so useful. This fat lava flower pot is not marked, but I'm almost certain that it is German. I love German ceramics, so this is for my personal collection. I also am a sucker for orange, so it was a no-brainer at $3.50.

And you knew I couldn't do a post without Pyrex, now could you? The two Autumn Harvest bowls (402 and 403) on the left are my first of that pattern and it's one I have always liked. They're not mint condition, but are pretty good (not DWD!) and for $7.50 for both, not a bad deal. I will put them away for now and bring them out come fall.

The Spring Blossom 402 on the right is one of those "condition is everything" mistakes. Although, it's hard for me to call it a "mistake" because it is Pyrex, and a mixing bowl which I will use... Anyway, it was cheap (like $2) but really dirty. I knew I could get the dirt off, but it has been through the dishwasher and has a big chip on the bottom which I didn't see until I got it home. Oh well, I definitely can't resell it, but I can use it. Funny how almost all of the daily use Pyrex I have is Spring Blossom, a pattern which I don't "collect" but seem to buy with regularity. Oh well, it's still better than regular glass and way more fun!