Free is Good

On my last post, I suggested this blog was no longer limited to garage sale finds, but thrift store, estate sale, and other finds.  I need to add one more to the list: curbside finds.  I've blogged about curbside finds in the past.  These are items the previous owners have decided are no longer usable or wanted and have set out to the curb either for the trash man or people like me.

While out dropping off bags for Scouting for Food with my sons last November, my second oldest son spotted a pinball machine sitting at the curb.  This wasn't a full size commercial unit, but it was larger than the usual toy version.  As it turned out, it's a 3/4 scale pinball named Star Galaxy that is sold in the UK and Australia for home use.  It runs about £499 which currently is almost $800 USD.

The pinball was missing its power adapter.  I googled for a new one, but it has an odd requirement of 22v 3amps max.  I contacted the company for advice on finding a replacement adapter to which I received the response, "It wouldn't work because we have different voltage in Australia".

A friend at work offered some old laptop adaptors he had laying around.  I wasn't confident about them working, so they sat in a bag in my garage for the last couple months.  This weekend, I decided it was time to either get rid of the pinball taking up room in my garage or figure out if it worked.

I picked an adaptor out of the bag.  It was for a Compaq laptop and ran 18v 3.2 amps.  The connector actually fit pretty well so deciding I had nothing to lose, I plugged it in and turned it on.  It immediately came to life.

Like I said, it's not a full-size pinball, but the play is pretty good and it uses real bumpers and electric flippers.  The sound effects are fairly decent.    One of the sound effects is actually the sound of laser fire from a tie-fighter.  Don't tell George Lucas (or Disney).

The game worked great for a day, then the connection at the adapter started to get stubborn, shutting off in the middle of game play.  I ended up cutting off the adapter end and soldering the wires directly to the circuit board.  No more issues after that.

The kids have been having a great time playing it (Dad too).  There's a pretty good demonstration on Youtube that will give you an idea of what it's like.

Keep On Keep On Keep On Keep On Thriftin' All Through the Night

First, let me get something off my chest.  When I started this blog, I intended to blog solely about my garage sale finds, hence the name of the blog.  But garage sales tend to peter out around October here in St. Louis and don't start up again until sometime in May (with some exceptions of course).  I supplement my urges with estate sales, thrift stores and even antique malls.  So from here out, if I find an interesting item from anywhere at a garage sale price, it's fair game.  Hey, it's my blog!

Now, let me get something else off my chest.  I'm an unabashed Brady Bunch fan.  I watched them as a kid and I watch them as an adult.  My kids watch them.  We love the Brady Bunch.  So when I found this album at a thrift store for $1, there was no question.

Criminal Attraction

I have a confession to make that has haunted me for years.  I am a shoplifter.  Okay, I was 4 years old and it really hasn't haunted me for years. The devil made me do it.  Well, actually, it was Rocky.

I was at a Ben Franklin dime store with my sisters, my oldest sister being old enough to drive at the time.  At the cash register, they had spinning display racks of kitchen magnets featuring popular characters and phrases of the day.  Since they were beyond the cash register and not with the other items for sale, I assumed they were free, thinking anything beyond the register was fair game.  There was a Rocket J. Squirrel, of Bullwinkle fame, magnet that caught my eye and I plucked it off the display.  I walked out of the store and proudly showed it to my sisters in the parking lot.  I was shocked to learn I had just committed a crime.  In hindsight, they should have made me go back in and give it back, but hey, we were in the parking lot already and teenage embarrassment probably prohibited such a thing.  We proudly displayed my foray into crime on our kitchen refrigerator for years.  It disappeared at some point years ago.

Looking in a box at an estate sale on Friday brought that memory back.  Inside were dozens of vintage kitchen refrigerator magnets.  I picked out a few that caught my eye.  Yes, I paid for them this time.

We all know of the trucker craze of the mid to late '70's.  Did you know there were magnets to go with it?

Happy 1913! er...2013

One of the things I enjoy most finding at garage and estate sales is ephemera. If you aren't familar with the term, it refers to any transitory printed matter which wasn't intended to be kept.  Postcards, tickets, matchbooks etc. fall into this category. They generally aren't worth a lot of money, but I find them very interesting, particularly when they've been written upon by the previous owner.

While doing some inventory and clearance recently, I came across a small notebook/calendar I picked up somewhere, some time ago, to be less than specific. It spans the 1913/1914 year from July to June (I'm not sure why the odd range) and was sponsored by Bromo-Seltzer, an antacid that dates back to 1888.

The first pages were left blank and intended to be used as a notepad. Someone took advantage of that and wrote their Christmas list. The note is old, but I don't think it is comtemporary to the calendar's issuance based on the items requested.

 The best part of the book is the list of measures to take when an accident occurs.  I'm not sure what's worse: actually drowning or it's proposed remedy.

It also lists popular antidotes for poisons.  The cure for Opium overdose sounds a lot like the cure for a hangover.

 Apparently, you could order sheet music from the Bromo-Seltzer Pharmacy as well for the cost of postage.  Aside from "The Star Spangled Banner", "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Nearer My God to Thee", allegedly sung as the Titanic sunk only a year earlier.  "Flee as a Bird" is not to be confused with the John Lennon/Beatles release of the 1990's.

 The back of the cover features the Bromo-Seltzer clock tower in Baltimore, Maryland.

It still stands.

The hours are marked by the letters in Bromo-Seltzer:

Take it easy tonight, and if you do overindulge, remember Bromo-Seltzer.

Happy 2013!

A Christmas Light

With the downswing in smoking over the past couple decades, I've noticed there's also been a downswing in advertising matches given away by businesses.  These days, you're lucky if you see a bar giving them away.  Time was, it was the perfect advertising medium; your customer was reminded of you everytime he lit up a smoke. 

I found these Christmas-themed matchbooks among several lots I've picked up over the past year.  Most came from banks.

Red, Gold and Green...and Blue

A while back I wrote about going to an estate sale with a specific item in mind where I ended up with a lot more than what brought me there.  I didn't finish the story, but now the season is right, so I will.  I saw a vintage aluminum Christmas tree color wheel in the pictures for the sale.  Mind you I already had one for my tree, but can you have too many?  Plus, the one I have can be stubborn at times and is a little noisy.

 

Despite being 2nd in line and a friend being first, I couldn't find the color wheel.  Normally, something like that would be placed up front as these are typically high demand items.  I came across many other items which distracted me momentarily and having swept the house and garage twice was about to give up when my friend motioned me to the rear of the basement.  He had found a tiny walk-in closet and inside was the color wheel.  Priced at $22, it wasn't a steal, but I decided to get it.

 

It had the original box, but it was a bit moldy so I had to toss it.  The rest of it cleaned up nicely and it works great.  Here it is in all of its colorful variations:

Scroll up and down to simulate actual color wheel action.

Keeping the Faux Fires Burning

The home I grew up in had a wood burning fireplace and we took advantage of it on many Winter nights, adding glow and warmth to the holiday season and the long cold months that follow in St. Louis.  It also provided a place to hang our stockings in hopes that St. Nicholas would soon be there.  I always wondered what kids without fireplaces or chimneys did about Santa.  While looking through some of my wife's childhood photos, I found how some people resolved that dilemma.

My wife never had a fireplace and for Christmas, her family would assemble a cardboard replica.  It can be seen in the background in this picture from approximately 1972.  She's in the middle between her older brother and their dog.  Her younger sister is on the left.