The Gems of Sharpless: May 30, 2012

As mentioned previously, my dad and I recently started checking out the items for auction at Sharpless. We only look around during the day, before, I imagine, crowds of God-knows-who descend and snatch up everything they can lay their hands on. Every week the buildings at Sharpless are filled with completely new stuff and I thought it would be cool to snap and post pics of what I find most interesting.

So without further ado I present the Gems of Sharpless.

This couch reminds me of my mom’s extended family. Not only are my relatives on her side older (I have first-cousins who are in their fifties) but so is their furniture. Almost all of my great-aunts and great-uncles had couches like this.

This made me laugh. Wow — WHAM!.

I imagine a lot of Sharpless items come from estate sales or homes of the recently deceased, and tables like this make me a little sad. Grandma dies, they put her in the ground, and then they box up everything — and I’m talking everything — that has no value and haul it to Sharpless to maybe make a quick buck or two off unopened bottles of Squirt. (It also makes me wonder: who the hell drinks Squirt?)

Two thumbs up if you know who this doll is. (I do — or at least I know what it was from.)

Here is something that boggles my mind: photo albums with family pictures still inside. What? It seems crazy that someone would not care enough to take the pictures out and save them. Framed family portraits are often for auctioned, too. A couple weeks ago, Bobblehead and I visited the High Life Lounge in downtown Des Moines. On the wall behind the bar was a family portrait circa 1973. We wondered where the bar owners found it and now I think I know: an auction.

This is just one of those amazing, one-of-a-kind items I may never see again.

This little thing was an old school golf cart, but I have no clue what it was most recently used for.

A garbage can full of dried corncobs. Why? Who knows.

Vintage Iowa license plate from the eighties. Frankly, I am amazed the state was personalizing plates back then.

Just what I was looking for! Bundles of unopened state maps from the seventies!

These old school bowl game glasses and mugs are cool finds but I am sure they fetch quite a price at auction time. To be honest, I would not pay more than $10 for about 75 percent of the stuff at Sharpless.

A box of rusty nails. They are probably still useful, but I am sure whoever will buy it will sell them for scrap.