The 6th Blogiversary List Of Top 6 Secondhand Finds

To best celebrate my 6th year of helming the Let's Go Thrifting ship into the great secondhand sea, I thought it would be fun to appreciate what I already have. This isn't to say that I won't be having any celebratory trips to the thrift (I already have, in fact). But I've been thinking of these last 6 years, and suffice it to say that I've found some truly awesome things---items that I couldn't imagine I'd ever be so fortunate to find

So welcome to the Let's Go Thrifting Top 6 Secondhand Finds Blogiversary List.

And at the top of that list would be be the beautiful framed lithograph of Margaret Keane's "No Dogs Allowed." Interestingly, much of her early Big-Eyed paintings were improperly credited to her husband, an interesting legal battle that makes her kitschy saucer eyed waifs all the more rare to find in the thrift store. 

Any regular reader of Let's Go Thrifting knows I just adore my collection of vintage photographs. But this doubly-vintage framed group portrait might be my favorite of the bunch. Two couples from the late 1960s posed with a novelty 1930s Ford in front of a  faux sprawling suburban landscape? Take my 99 cents, Goodwill!

I always wanted to have a vintage Ouija board. So when I found this secondhand William Fuld Talking Board Set at a yard sale on the Fall Equinox...I thought it as an especially fortuitous... maybe even magical find. This 1966 edition of the Ouija took spiritualism into polite society...with the instructions encouraging "a gentleman and a lady" to sit opposite each other and summon up some ghosts for a little chit-chat. Another dollar spent, another awesome secondhand find. 

Ah yes, the dream car. Or at least the Fisher Price version of the dream car I'll likely never be able to afford. I always wanted an original VW Minibus. In a burnt sienna, or pea soup green...a color fitting to the era. But this adorable 1969 toy replica will have to do.  And it was unearthed from one of the many bins of the Goodwill by-the-pound outlet for mere pennies.  It can comfortably seat six...so who wants to hit the open road? 

Here a key. There a key. Everywhere a skeleton key! But seriously. I love keys. You all know that by now, as I've featured them several times over the years here on Let's Go Thrifting. But this key is my very favorite. The patina and rust. The heart. And the tattoo design that came later. This is the one. I don't know what was once locked that this key opened. But I hope it was as secretive and special as I imagined it to be.



Originally an impulse buy for 99 cents from Impact Thrift, I had the intentions of adding this dilapidated house to my collection of beloved vintage photographs. Little did I know this house was the sole remaining photograph of a legend local to Skagit County, Washington. Built in 1903, The Ball House was the site of several tragedies and natural disasters, leading to abandonment and decay. It fell to the Washington winds in 1996. And aside from a few sketches, there were no known surviving photographs of the estate. Except for this one that I found at a Montgomery County thrift store, which I later sold to an eager buyer from Washington state looking to relive the memories of the property that she passed by with family until it's eventual demise. 99 cents was well worth the sense of mystery and adventure that this photograph brought me. 

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If you would like to know more about these items, be sure to click on the photos to read the original blog post in which they were first featured. While it was originally somewhat difficult to narrow my favorite secondhand finds to just 6...I had to consider what qualities I found to be most important. Sure, there's affordability and monetary value...but those qualities are present in every thrifted item I own, of which there are many. It had to be more than that. It had to be about personal desirability and what I found to be most sentimentally valuable. And I think these were the best of the best. Hopefully the next 6 years will bring even more. 

Thank you, dear readers, for being part of the Let's Go Thrifting community these last 6 years. 

Which Let's Go Thrifting finds have been your favorite? 

64 Years, 3000 Miles and Back Again

As some of you lovely longtime readers may recall, this isn't the first time that the photo above has been featured here on the blog.

 

The original post was back in October of last year and was titled Beautiful Abandon. This was The Ball House of Skagit County, Washington and it had quite the history. 

The Victorian style construction of the home in 1903, the terrible tragedy that provoked The Ball family to abandon the home in the 1930s, the decades of neglect and decay that followed...and the eventual collapse in 1996. Thanks to some internet research and  Bill Osbourne, the photographer who snapped and inscribed this shot back in 1949, I learned almost everything that I could about the infamous Ball House.

But a few weeks ago, I came to know something else. I learned that aside from some sketches and old photographs on the county website, no tangible photos existed of what was once an impressive stretch of property. I was contacted by Charlene, a resident of Buckley, Washington and longtime admirer of The Ball Estate.

For years, Char took her family camping in the Bayview area, where they would pass by The Ball House and see the slow and steady decline of the property. And then one year, nothing of the home remained at all.

After a few email exchanges, I decided that Char's personal connection and close location to the legacy of The Ball House certainly warranted selling her a prized piece of my vintage photo collection. 

If you're reading this, Char, I hope you and your family get to relive some of your past travels in owning this photograph. I would have loved to see what remained of the property in person while it was still standing.

I couldn't be happier that someone local to that area rediscovered the only tangible relic of a legend that no longer exists through Let's Go Thrifting! This little exchange only validates my own personally held credentials as a thrifter and hunter of cultural artifacts and further explores the mysterious cycle of secondhand shopping.

How did a photograph of a Skagit County, Washington home from 1949 end up in a Montgomeryville, PA thrift store in 2011? How many people in how many towns had their hands upon this photograph in those 62 years before it ended up in mine? And the cycle continues, as the only tangible reminder of what once remained of The Ball Estate now belongs to Char and her family two years after I rescued it from the Impact Thrift Store. 

Enjoy the memories, Charlene! And do let me know if you find a photograph of any legendary Philadelphia properties at your local thrift store.

The Ball House   

Skagit County, Washington

1903-1996

Photographed in 1949 by Bill Osbourne.
Thrifted in 2011 by Jackie Jardine.

Sold to Charlene of Buckley, Washington in 2013.