Whenever we can, we visit Sheboygan, Wisconsin’s best hidden find for collectors — it bears no sign outside, except a “GARAGE SALE” sign posted at the corner of Union and Sauk Trail Road on nice days; other than that, it’s just known as Georgine’s…because that the proprietor’s name. The contents of Georgine’s warehouse are the castoffs from local estate sales, marked down below rummage-sale prices rather than tossing them at the dump. Because our time in Sheboygan is usually short and her hours are unpredictable, we call ahead to see if she’s open. Two weekends ago, it was nice enough out that she was open for business, so we stopped by.

Because this is all post-estate-sale, it’s been quite picked over. The collectors went over everything on the first day, the dealers got everything with a reasonable markup on half-price day, until finally it was put in a box and taken over to Georgine’s. We know we’re not going to find anything antique-shoppe quality; we know we’re not going to find anything resellable; we know that, really, we may not find anything of any worth whatsoever. However, what we get is the pure, unbridled pleasure of going through a packed unheated warehouse, tossing things into boxes and making a deal at the end of our adventure. Much of the fun happens when we get home and compare what each of us tossed in our boxes — it’s like Christmas meets dumpster-diving at Goodwill. Sure, there’s not going to be any treasures, but you’re guaranteed to find something fun. Here’s some of what we got:

Chipped Chalk Bookends: Large chunks of missing plaster and paint makes these, from a collecting standpoint, worthless. I couldn’t find a manufacturer’s label to even look for their worth if they were mint, not that it matters. However, the most-overlooked aspect of value here is the item themselves: they are bookends. While we may not collect cute Hummelesque chalkware, we do have collectible books in need of support. This pair of bookends will be put to good use, supporting books. It’s a far more appropriate place for these to go, than in a dumpster.

Box of Vintage and Antique Undergarments: Thrift shops usually toss these out, and estate sales are often reluctant to offer them, just because of the ‘ickiness’ of sharing underwear with a stranger. Me, I’m not a fan of used undergarments…but my wifey is. She likes frilly things, and the box does have some of those in there. Is everything worth keeping? Who knows! She packed the box with everything, without worrying about examining every little corner for a stain or tear. We use the tactic at rummage sales — “How much for the whole bunch?” — and here that’s expacted. When she gets a chance, Deanna will pull everything out of the box, sort good from bad, and go from there.

Apple II ProDOS Manuals: I was hoping that there would be some deeply-buried 5-1/2″ floppy disks in there, but instead I found only manuals, warranty cards, cheat-sheets, and other ephemeral miscellanea. Wait a second — I loves the ephemera! This was actually an OK find — I do have an Apple IIe in the basement, still in its original packaging, but is missing various manuals and instructions. Not only did I add to my collection, I got a bunch of Apple stickers! Score!

Funky blue vintage tapedeck: Hailing from the 1970s, this little retro tapedeck begged to be taken home, like a doe-eyed mutt at the Humane Society. I really don’t need a portable tape recorder, but this guy has more than standard features: style. Will I ever use it for any reason? Probably not. Will it live in the same general vicinity as my reel-to-reels, movie projectors, and Fisher Price record players? But, of course! While I don’t run a puppy rescue, I certainly to manage Vintage Media Rescue. I can’t let some horrible fate befall cute, quasifunctional electronic equipment. I’m not that cruel.

Strange wedding doll: This doll is almost entirely fabric: it has no legs, only a wire frame supporting the dress, and what feels like a styrofoam core to add its torso shapliness. She’s quite nicely made: her necklace, flowers, and dress show a lot of care, and her face is finely painted. It has no tag, which leads me to beleive she was hand-made, and given her early-Barbie style, probably originated in the 1950s or 1960s. While I may sound knowledgeable about her, I wasn’t the one who picked her out…that would be my wife. I think she’s kind of creepy — the doll, not the wife — without legs or defined hands (they’re shaped like oven mitts), and her hair feels creepy. I know that she’ll eventually end up on the shelf in our bedroom, next to the rest of the wifey’s dolls, which means it’ll be watching me sleep. Not that I’ll be able to sleep with her there.

Huge Faced Record Albums: Did this ever actually sell albums? Let’s stick a near-lifesize photo of the singer’s face on the front of the album. “What’ll we do for the next album?” “He’ll have different facial hair by then. It’s the seventies, you know.” Of these covers, the John Denver one is the most appealing, because he looks genuinely pleased to be photographed. I think Shaun Cassidy’s face was permanently frozen in that cheery smile, and Bobby Vinton may not have known he was being photographed. The rest of them seems to have spent the same Saturday afternoon at the Smouldering Heartthrob Camera Gase class. Ed Ames’s up-nose camera perspective robs it of any attractiveness, while Mac Davis was so good at his that they did a huge photo of him on the back as well.Of course, I did not intentionally buy this collection of huge meaty faces. They were part of a huge box of records — culled down from around 8 boxes of albums to pick from. While I can’t help buying lame records, I had to tell myself not to buy them all. There’s only so many copies of 101 Strings Perform Your Favorite Movie Themes I can own. From the rest of the box, I did get a bunch of keepers…

A bunch of good records: Esquivel’s “Other Worlds Other Sounds” is the premiere pick here, of course, and coming in second is Trini Lopez’ premiere release, but the quirky-record meter was off the scale today. Nana Mouskouri took a page from the Huge Face Album Covers and was photographed in what appears to be pajamas and a pair of glasses any emo kid would give up their black Converses for. The 1970s series Emergency! was stripped of its exciting visuals, leaving three “never-before-heard” audio adventures from Wonderland records. Mister Rogers proves he is one of the few people who can get away with the alphabet being the entire lyrics of a song, and a variety of Disney songs and stories were stripped of their production value, leaving behind some happily interesting tunes. I, apparently, am invited Inside Shelley Berman, or so his album is titled: it sounds messier than it actually is. And, of course, I had to grab the obligatory half-naked PG-13 record album cover, because…well, I gotta. Don’t worry, though — these are just the best of the records I got. There were many more.

Of course, I couldn’t go home without a record player. You never know when you’ll need a spare. It appears to be in good shape, not nearly as old as some of the other players I own, and in my opinion it’s probably worth as much as we paid for everything else combined.

Above are just the highlights — nothing super valuable, nothing rare, most collectible in some sense, but for the most part not worth a whole lot. Collectors can fall into the trap of only buying the sure thing, the verifiably valuable item in mint condition. Few stretch their legs by buying a box of ‘junk,’ just for the heck of seeing what’s inside. The records I got weren’t great, the bookends have their chips and dings, but nothing here is completely worthless. I’ll have several hours of entertainment when I get a chance to listen to the albums, the blue tape deck has the same aethetic value to me as the wedding doll has for my wife, and nobody’s unhappy with spending a little money on some fun stuff.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 8th, 2007 at 3:24 am and is filed under flea market finds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.