Really, really GOOD estate sale! Picture heavy

Charmin · Apr 13, 2015

My sister and I went to an estate sale listed as "Garage-Estate Sale" last Saturday. I always love going to the garage part of the estate sales first!
The people having the sale were the daughters & sons-in-law of the man who passed away. They weren't very well organized----All the stuff was just piled inside the garage and when they opened the doors, everybody just started grabbing stuff and making piles. Nothing was priced---they had price tags laying around but didn't use them for some reason? And nothing was in the house---they had brought everything out to the garage.
I found so much neat stuff! The deceased man was a WWII veteran and a Purple Heart recipient. In the stuff that I bought was the box his Purple Heart medal came in, all his discharge papers(I can't understand why they would sell these!), Airborne patches and wings, a 3d Infantry Division Book from Korea, a neat badge from when he worked at the Dewey Portland Cement Company plus a program from the company when they had a 10-year Club Banquet. All of his military stuff and jewelry pieces were in the jewelry box in the first picture---the box with the bird dog on the lid.
There is also some handmade Southwest style silver rings and a tiger's eye ring, Cross pen/pencil set from his retirement at Lockheed Martin & some other Cross pens, belt buckles, old duck calls, watches, a machete(?) and an old knife, a Leatherman tool, various lapel/tie tacks, foreign money, Indian-head pennies, and a really neat Southern Cross of Honor medal.
We spent about $80 all together at the sale. We also bought a bunch of books, furniture pieces, glassware(Pyrex & Corningware) and other small stuff--not pictured.
This was the best sale we've been to in a long time!
Here's some pictures:

Discharge papers and knife & machete:

Silver rings:

Southern Cross of Honor:

Airborne patches and wings:

What is this pin? Infantry?

Foreign Coins? Anybody know from where?

What are these?

More pictures in the next reply!

Charmin · Apr 13, 2015

WWII Roosevelt Soldiers pocket Bible---metal cover:

Korea Book:

Duck and predator calls:

Soldier's pay record book:

Misc. items:

Dewey Portland Cement Company Employee Badge:

kingskid1611 · Apr 13, 2015

Those are P38 can openers. Thats some way cool stuff. Why would they sell all these things is way beyond me.

luvsdux · Apr 13, 2015

Very nice plunder. I guess I should start attending estate sales.
luvsdux

Charmin · Apr 13, 2015

kingskid1611 said:
Those are P38 can openers. Thats some way cool stuff. Why would they sell all these things is way beyond me.

I know! One of the daughters said they brought everything out of the house to sell. The papers were out in the open and piled on one of the tables. As was the Purple Heart box. I guess some people don't care anything about preserving their family history.
I missed out on a bunch of pocket knives---2 old men almost got into a fight over those!

One man had put them in his pile of stuff to buy and the other old man waited until he had his back turned and snatched them up. The man asked me what happened to his knives and was looking at my pile of stuff to see if I had taken them. I said, nope not me! That other old man picked them up out of your pile and paid for them. That guy was so mad---he went out to the other guys truck and made him give the knives back to him. I thought we were going to see a donnybrook...lol.

Charmin · Apr 13, 2015

luvsdux said:
Very nice plunder. I guess I should start attending estate sales.
luvsdux

Thanks! We usually try to go the the estate sales that aren't put on by Professionals. If it's just family members selling, we usually get the best deals. And in most cases, the bigger the pile of stuff we buy, the better the deal we get.

jochart · Apr 13, 2015

excellent buys, very nice stuff

Charmin · Apr 13, 2015

jochart said:
excellent buys, very nice stuff

Thanks jochart!

Baltimore · Apr 13, 2015

Great haul! It's definitely a little sad to see though, from the stuff you bought it seems like this guy was a real slice of american history, and to think that his kids just dumped it in a pile in the garage for strangers to pick through seems a little disrespectful on their part. The same will not be happening to my dad's stuff, I'll tell you that!

This post is not meant in an accusatory manner towards you at all, I would have been all over that stuff if I was there. Mostly just feel bad for the deceased gentleman. Maybe frame his discharge papers and hang them in a guest room or something, at least then someone will preserve his life for a little longer.

Charmin · Apr 13, 2015

Baltimore said:
Great haul! It's definitely a little sad to see though, from the stuff you bought it seems like this guy was a real slice of american history, and to think that his kids just dumped it in a pile in the garage for strangers to pick through seems a little disrespectful on their part. The same will not be happening to my dad's stuff, I'll tell you that!

This post is not meant in an accusatory manner towards you at all, I would have been all over that stuff if I was there. Mostly just feel bad for the deceased gentleman. Maybe frame his discharge papers and hang them in a guest room or something, at least then someone will preserve his life for a little longer.

I understand....I felt bad for him too! I just can't imagine throwing stuff like this into a garage sale. :dontknow:

randazzo1 · Apr 13, 2015

Baltimore said:
Great haul! It's definitely a little sad to see though, from the stuff you bought it seems like this guy was a real slice of american history, and to think that his kids just dumped it in a pile in the garage for strangers to pick through seems a little disrespectful on their part. The same will not be happening to my dad's stuff, I'll tell you that!

This post is not meant in an accusatory manner towards you at all, I would have been all over that stuff if I was there. Mostly just feel bad for the deceased gentleman. Maybe frame his discharge papers and hang them in a guest room or something, at least then someone will preserve his life for a little longer.

This post made me think that at the end of the day we'll all end up with a little box like this full of little things things that meant something at some point. Eeek it's kind of depressing.

Oregon Viking · Apr 13, 2015

Baltimore said:
Great haul! It's definitely a little sad to see though, from the stuff you bought it seems like this guy was a real slice of american history, and to think that his kids just dumped it in a pile in the garage for strangers to pick through seems a little disrespectful on their part. The same will not be happening to my dad's stuff, I'll tell you that!

This post is not meant in an accusatory manner towards you at all, I would have been all over that stuff if I was there. Mostly just feel bad for the deceased gentleman. Maybe frame his discharge papers and hang them in a guest room or something, at least then someone will preserve his life for a little longer.

It is possible that this Gentleman has other family, brothers, sisters, a niece or a nephew.
10 years ago I received my uncle's Korean war medals. I had never met him, but the medals are special to me.
Great finds though!! :icon_thumright:

Nickleanddime · Apr 13, 2015

Great scores, wish they had those around here

DGfinder · Apr 14, 2015

Last summer I bought a huge burial flag from a garage sale for $4 after I bought it she tells me it was from her dads funeral who does that?!

diggummup · Apr 14, 2015

This man served in WW2 and Korea I presume? You have a lot of nice stuff there. I'm sure you'll find out when you start researching. Right off the bat, I see one piece in your lot that will get you your $80 back (minimum), actually I see at least two, maybe more. Do you know which ones? 8-)

Can you let me know when you list the militaria, that's been one of my areas of interest that I have been focusing on these past couple years, WW2 in particular.

EDIT- yes the rifle pin is called a combat infantry badge (CIB). It was created during WW2 and was awarded to active ground troops that personally engaged in battle.

OldSowBreath · Apr 14, 2015

You'll make some good money off that Southern Cross Medal. It was given by the Daughters of the Confederacy after the Civil War to Civil War veterans. I've sold one before.

BIGSCOTT · Apr 14, 2015

My sister drives a school bus, she calls me and tells me when she see's good junk in the trash, one morning she calls me and tells me about some bambbo thing she wants
and where it is so when i get there it's whole pile of great stuff, i go get my nephew and his truck so we would have two,
while digging through we found a mans belongings including death certificate, burial flag, 21 shell casings and an arlinton monument marker,
using social media and other internet tools we found lots of family members, that didnt want it either, but finally found his mother and son living
in michigan and they wanted it, so we mailed it to them.

Charmin · Apr 14, 2015

diggummup said:
This man served in WW2 and Korea I presume? You have a lot of nice stuff there. I'm sure you'll find out when you start researching. Right off the bat, I see one piece in your lot that will get you your $80 back (minimum), actually I see at least two, maybe more. Do you know which ones? Can you let me know when you list the militaria, that's been one of my areas of interest that I have been focusing on these past couple years, WW2 in particular.

EDIT- yes the rifle pin is called a combat infantry badge (CIB). It was created during WW2 and was awarded to active ground troops that personally engaged in battle.

I think the pocket soldier's Bible will do really good as well as the Southern Cross medal.

There is a Curtin stop watch in this stuff that is Swiss made and still works and one of those sold recently for $23.50.

The Bird Dog jewelry box is made by Incolay and those are selling for $35 and up
.

I don't think this man served in Korea---he was discharged in Dec. 1945---he was wounded at the Battle of the Bulge(I looked up his obit online and it told all about his service.) So, I don't know where the Korea 3d Infantry Division book came in at? Maybe another family member gave it to him? That book should bring about $30 or $40
.

It also has an insert that gives the history of the Division.

And the Southwest silver rings should bring a few dollars---They aren't marked Sterling but they look handmade to me.

Can you help me on these things, diggum? I can't figure out if they are holed foreign coins? or just charms off a bracelet?

I think I'll list some of the items as a lot--the papers, Purple Heart Box, the Rifle Infantryman Pin, the knife & machete, some of the coins & paper money, the P38 can openers and the parachute wings pin.

Thanks for the comments and likes everyone! And diggummup, I'm getting ready to start listing this stuff.....I'll PM you with the links, okay?

diggummup · Apr 14, 2015

You may want to list the purple heart box by itself. I don't know what those coins/tokens/

things are, but they are intriguing. I can see the holes were made by someone after the fact as they are slightly off and they do show a lot of wear it appears.