EstateSales.NET Blog

This week, we’re going to take a look at another vintage collectible born out of necessity, the lunchbox.When I was in elementary school, the kind of lunchbox you had quickly determined your place on the social ladder. Kids are strange, right? While my friends were bringing in Batman and Star Wars lunch boxes, I was fortunate enough to carry around my dad's old metal Stanley lunchbox. All I was missing was the hardhat, and it would look like I was headed to a construction site rather than going to 3rd grade.The story of how the lunchbox came about is pretty simple. In the 1800’s, most Americans were working outside of the home in an industrial setting. It became harder for them to go home for lunch, so they needed a way to take food from home to work. Working 12 hours in a factory didn’t exactly leave a lot of time to run home for lunch. Before lunch boxes came about, kids would often recycle old biscuit and tobacco tins to use to carry their lunches to school. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mr...

Let’s face it, we’re living in an ever-evolving, tech-driven world that will leave us in the dust if we don’t keep up with it. From new cell phones coming out a few times a year to video games and TV’s, new technology always seems to be popping up. When we decide it’s time to upgrade to the latest and greatest, what do we do with the old stuff? We are big fans of recycling your old electronics but you might want to wait before you ditch that old tech. Let's take a look at some of the electronics you may own or see at an estate sale that could bring in some serious cash.1st Generation iPhoneReleased in the summer of 2007, the iPhone would change the mobile game forever. For over a decade, Apple has stayed consistent with its release of new iPhones, giving us a new one every year since its inception. While some of the newer models don’t come with a very good return on investment, if you’re lucky enough to have one of the 1st generation models in perfect condition and in its original packaging, you could be looking at a resale value of well over $10,000.00...

Now that we’ve taken a look at antique pencils and how they changed the history of correspondence, we’re going to fast forward a few years. We’re going to dive into the collectibility and value of another invention that would change the way words would appear on paper forever, the typewriter.I could spend the next few hours going through the history of the typewriter, but I think I'll let the fine folks over at The New Yorker give you the lowdown. I’m here to highlight a few typewriters that changed the history of writing and maybe a few that could bring a serious payday with collectors.Hansen Writing BallIf we’re going to talk about value, let's begin with something many collectors consider to be the holy grail of typewriters: the Hansen Writing Ball. Resembling an oversized pincushion rather than your traditional typewriter, the ergonomic design and ease of use made the Hansen Writing Ball the first commercially successful typing tool. So, what are the odds of you running onto one of these bad boys in a sale? Unfortunately, not very good...

I was perusing the EstateSales.NET Marketplace a few days ago, and I came across a gorgeous antique Magic Chef stove and instantly fell in love. It looked like something you would see in “A Christmas Story” or an episode of “Leave it to Beaver.” Seeing that beautiful piece of culinary history sent me down an antique stove rabbit hole, and I had to learn as much as possible. We’re going to look at a few of the manufacturers that brought these works of art to kitchens across the country.Magic ChefStarting as a tin shop in St. Louis in 1850, Magic Chef eventually came about from a collaboration between ten different stove companies across the country. Magic Chef has changed hands several times over the years and was ultimately bought by Whirlpool in 2006. After seeing a growing interest in nostalgic brands, the MCA corporation repurchased the Magic Chef name from Whirlpool in 2010. Magic Chef continues to churn out quality appliances to this day, but it’s their vintage stoves that enthusiasts are after...

Now that you know some of the guitars you should be on the lookout for, you’re going to need something to bring that guitar to life! Today we’re going to be talking about vintage guitar amps.Guitar amplification has been around for nearly 100 years, and there have been a ton of technological advancements in that time. However, the vintage stuff is still king when it comes to guitar amps. There are quite a few online resources where you can find a complete history of amplification, so I won’t dive too deep into it. If we’re going to go back, let’s go all the way back.The first amp and speaker sets were initially designed for PA systems and movie theatres. They were too big and very expensive, so it wasn’t practical for touring musicians to use them. After a few failed attempts and making a more portable solution, Stromberg-Voisinet developed the first amp/stringed instrument combo. Anyone who played through this combo, however, found it to be pretty unreliable and it just didn’t sound very good...

The year is 1959, and you have just settled in to watch the latest episode of The Mickey Mouse Club. All of a sudden, a commercial comes on that unveils a toy that will change the world. This toy would go on not only to be the most popular but also one of the most valuable to collectors.This week we will take a look at Barbara Millicent Roberts, known better to the world as Barbie. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Melissa Ashe (@melissasdolls) on Apr 29, 2020 at 7:57pm PDTBarbie is the brainchild of Ruth Handler, wife of Elliot Handler, the co-founder of Mattel. Ruth would watch her daughter Barbara playing with her dolls, and she would often give her dolls adult roles. Ruth knew there was a gap in the market for adult-like dolls, thus came the idea for Barbie. Although the concept of the Barbie doll wasn’t welcomed with open arms at first, Mattel eventually came to their senses. On March 9th, 1959, Barbie was born! The iconic doll had her retail launch at the New York Toy Fair. With her initial release, Barbie was only available in blonde and brunette hair color...

On Christmas morning in 1993, I received a gift that would change my life forever. The very last present I opened was Elvis: As Recorded at Madison Square Garden on vinyl, and I would never look at music the same again. That morning also marked another significant milestone; it was the first time my dad let me touch his beloved stereo.Fun Fact: I’m writing this article on June 18th, the 48th anniversary of the release date of Elvis: As Recorded At Madison Square Garden! View this post on Instagram A post shared by Joakim Jax (@jaxvinyl) on Jun 18, 2018 at 11:13am PDTThere was something about dropping the needle on that record, hearing the crackle in the speakers as Elvis’ orchestra started playing Also Sprach Zarathrustra (Theme From 2001: Space Odyssey.) I knew at that exact moment music would never sound better than that. Over the years, I added vinyl records to my music library here and there but never became an avid collector...

Let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we? It was the summer of 1996, and in the small town that I grew up in, there wasn’t much to do. My friends and I would spend most of our time just riding our bikes around our neighborhood and spending all of our parents’ hard-earned money at a local mom and pop movie store called Movie Time.We would gather all of the change we could find and spend hours at the arcade there. While my friends were playing Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, I always gravitated towards the bank of pinball machines in the back. If I had a quarter for every time I played the Lethal Weapon 3 machine, I could probably afford to buy my own. We recently discovered that pinball was one of the top searches on EstateSales.NET, so I wanted to delve a little deeper into the topic. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Arcade Game Sales (@arcadegamesales) on Mar 31, 2020 at 10:08am PDTThere is a ton of history surrounding these fan-favorite arcade games, so this article is only going to scratch the surface...

Did you know pool lounge chairs could be so beautifully designed that they become pieces of art? I didn’t, until about a year ago when I stumbled upon a yellow and blue pair of Fibrella lounge pool chairs. I was hooked and begged my wife to let me bring them home.This fascination with vintage fiberglass/plastic furniture inspired me to see what other unique pool loungers were waiting for me to discover them. Here are four pieces of vintage outdoor fiberglass furniture to keep your eyes out for when estate sale hunting (some a little easier to find than others)!FibrellaThese were my first love, the Fibrella poolside furniture pieces by Le Barron Pool & Patio Furniture. Information about the history of Fibrella is limited, though, according to retrorenovation.com, Aquaslide 'N' Dive of El Monte, California may have had their hands in the manufacturing of these pieces through the 60s and 70s. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kelly Golightly (@kellygolightly) on May 25, 2015 at 10:36pm PDTFibrella did not limit themselves to just lounge chairs...

This week, we will take a deep dive into the comic book collection and take a look at a few of the comics that might be worth a small fortune.I’ll admit that I wasn’t into comic books very much as a kid, but I loved hanging out at my local hobby shop. There always seemed to be someone feverishly thumbing through the stacks and looking for that winning lottery ticket disguised as a comic book. Knowing what I know now, I would have been searching too.I’m going to start this by saying that there are a TON of comic books floating around out there. We are always seeing sales that feature not only single comics but oftentimes entire collections. If you’ve been to an estate sale or auction, you’ve seen a table full of comic books and just kept walking. Hopefully, this article will make you take a second look the next time you find yourself surrounded by a stack of comics.X-Men #1 (1963)In September of 1963, legendary comic writers Stan Lee and Jack Kirby gave us our first look at the mutant superhero team, the X-Men...