YuleLog Ornament Collector's Bulletin Board Forums Discussion Ornament Collecting Discussion Thrift Store finds

After an entire morning criss-crossing the city going to Hallmark stores for Open House, I was tired and headed for home. Decided at the last minute to stop at a Goodwill store. I found several nice ornaments, in boxes, on an end counter. I went around to the side of the counter and glanced up and was shocked to find a Frosty Friends Blown Glass NIB �99. It is not perfect, there are a few little rubs on the glass, but the song books are there and all in all it is just fine, and it was only .99! Well finding those gave me a second wind, so I went to a few other stores. At one, they had you draw a card for a discount - I got 50% off! Listed below are all my goodies Most were .99, some were $2.49, some were only .49! The Polar Coaster and the Bastin lamp were $6.99.

Our Christmas Photos - 1989 � Small Red Photo Album
Santa and Mrs Santa Salt and Pepper Shakers in box � I already have them, I think they are from the early 80s
Merry Miniature � Angel in blue gown holding a snowflake
Three tiered wooden display � three sizes of circles with gold star atop � the hooks are in a package taped to the underneath side of one of the tiers.
Satin Betsey Clark Ball � 1979
Glass Ball Ornament dated 1975
Early Vintage Rodney
Cloth Boy in Green, Green hat, plaid scarf, brown felt boots, brown checked shirt
Polar Coaster � NIB - 2003
Kringles Trolley Magic � 1994
Feliz Navidad 1990
Yule Logger 1991
Spencer Sparrow, Esq � 1989
Mr and Mrs Claus No 5 � Popcorn Party 1990
North Pole Power and Light 1987
Winter Wonderland � Sleigh Ride 2003
Christmas Bells No 9 � Soldier (Miniature)
Pooh Chooses the Tree � 2000 NIB
Town and Country Series No 2 � Bait Shop with Boat - 2000 NIB

These were items I found last week:
Marjolein Bastin - Snowman lamp
Burger King Rodney with tag � dated 1987
Rodney like Moose- Ambassador tag dated 1985
Rodney like Lion - 1985 Hallmark tag
Small Rodney � Hallmark
Holly Hobbie Satin ball -1982
Carlton �All is Bright� � two little angels on clouds and rainbow � dated 1999 NIB
1976 � Twirl About Partridge � no box
Christmas Tree w/3 Snowmen
Hallmark Tin

You gotta love this time of year! It was a Hallmark Day!

Congratulations Carol on all your wonderful finds. It truly was a Hallmark Day for you.

You hit the nail on the head Claudia, Carol really had a Hallmark Day! I'll have to try and see if I can find anything at our local Goodwill store. Last time I went they didn't have anything Hallmark. This must be a better time of year to go and hunt for Hallmark.

Joyce

Wow - you did GREAT! Congrats on all of your goodies. Can't beat those prices.

Btw - isn't it funny how one great find (like your blown glass Frosty) fuels the desire to keep looking for more! LOL.

You are so right! I was tired - I had been shopping since 9:00 that morning (five Hallmark OPen Houses and a 30% sale at Gymboree), and was going to call it quits, then BINGO! I know that I literally did a double take when I saw that glass Frosty. It was just sitting there in the middle of a bunch of other decorations which held no appeal for me. Since all the other ornaments had been sitting together - it is a wonder I even paid attention to the Frosty.

I went to five other shops after that, and even stopped at Sherwins Williams to buy a sample pint of paint!

Nice finds!

I found the 1975/76/78/79 Yarn Caroler & Yarn Mrs. Santa for 50 cents each at Salvation Army on Friday. They actually had 2 Yarn Mrs. Santas, but I chose the one that still had the yarn hanger on it.

Flea Market finds yesterday were 1999 Madame Alexander #4 Red Queen for $7 MIB and 2001 Victorian Sleigh NB for $2. There were a bunch of ornaments at the flea market, but some I had, and others I wasn't interested in. I also bought the Disney Storybook Snow White ornament set in original box for $15 (has a Snow White ornament & an ornament for each dwarf). At a yard sale, I found a 1979 porcelain bisque figurine by Viletta called Clara and Nutcracker for $3 as well as a pretty, large antique picture frame with Santa print (was from a 2000 calendar but very pretty) for $2 as well as a 1984 beautifully illustrated copy of O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" for a nickel. Being from where I'm from, O. Henry's big around here.

You did good Luckdragon! That is a great deal on the yarn ornaments. I really like those Disney Sets - I always wanted the Toy Story set. Congrats

yesterday at the flea mkt i found the following
1993 home on the range
1992 friendly greeting
1983 reindeer chimes
1990 meow mart
1989 holiday duet #4 in series
1997 lion and lamb
1999 pokey little puppy
all from the same seller her whole table was Christmas decorations.. some food ornaments, campbell soup blown glass types. got them for 1.00 each all in original boxes
Dana

Whoo hoo! I love sales like that! Way to go. I've been looking for those Reindeer Chimes in that range.

congrats dana,

are'nt the reindeer chimes from 1980?



and diana, whould"nt you rather find the 1982 angel chimes at that price?

In a word: YES! LOL. But I'd love those reindeer also!

Luckdragon, what are you going to do with your new yarn collection? Will they be on a tree with lots of other ornaments, or are you planning something just for them?
I love the old yarn ornaments. They have that handcrafted look that remind me of making ornaments when I was a kid. I've been contemplating a tree of just yarn orns, the Hallmark characters plus some plastic canvas pieces I've bought from craft fairs etc. Some of the retirement homes have little stores where they sell the arts and crafts the seniors make and I like buying some things there to support them, so have quite a few from over the years. But I've never hung them up before. I'm not certain they'd look good by themselves, since there is nothing shiney on them. They might need something sparkly to brighten the tree. Any ideas out there?

why dont you attach them to and space them on one of those cute crochet popcorn strings of garland to hang?

Found a Mufasa and Samba-The Lion King in box for $1.25. A ziploc full of older ornaments for $1.00 had a nice Steinbach so I bought it also. When I opened the bag, I found a nice first year (1988), Feliz Navidad, which is a donkey with hat, tree and gift in saddlebag, no box. Worth my stop at this thrift shop!

After work today, I stopped at a local thrift store. I found a bag of 25 Hallmark miniature ornaments for $8.00. Only 6 had boxes (plus 2 empty boxes!). Anyway I got a tree topper for a miniture tree (in the box) from 1989. I also the boxed Skater's Waltz from 1988. The rest were from 1989-
Acorn Squirrel
Merry Seal
Roly-Poly Pig
Strollin' Snowman
The following had no box and were all from 1989
Cozy skater, Folk Art Bunny, Happy Bluebird,
Holy Family, Kittens in Toyland #2, Kringles #1,
Kitty Kart, Little Star Bringer, Load of Cheer,
Rocking Horse #2, Old Worlds Santa,

Penguin Pal #2, Pinecone Basket, Puppy Cart,
Santa's Magic Ride, Santa's Roadster, Scrimshaw Reindeer,
Slo Motion, Three Little Kitties, Old English Village #2

I also got all the Merry Miniature Stable pieces from 1988 -
lamb, shepard, Mary, Joseph,Jesus and the donkey, but not the stable. A real good deal especially since the only one I duplicated was the rocking horse!

Denise

You did very good today, 25 miniature Hallmarks for $8.00, that's great. I guess I better start going to Good Will to see what they have, maybe I'll find something for my self.

Joyce

WOW a bag of 25 minis--CONGRATS!

I love the minis, I wish they would return.
(Though I LOVE the size of the new penguin foursome from this year!! Great for the top of the tree!)

YIPPEEE!

I found the 1978 angel with blue and white dress holding a star. She looks like dough. This ornament was reissued in 1981. She is the old plastic so her dress has a little yellow tint where it's supposed to be white. It's OK... I love her anyway. I didn't have it so I'm thrilled. It was NB for .68 at Goodwill. I did two 3 foot trees all in angels so she has a front and center spot on the tree.

I also got a Dean Griff charming tails Christmas ornament. The 2001 MOUSE Partridge in a pear tree for .81 NB. It's part of the 12 days of Christmas series.

Last Sunday I went to the big Hallmark store in Greenfield since they had sent me a coupon for 40% off one item (I think ornaments and the usual items were excluded). While I was in Greenfield I stopped by the Goodwill store. They have a Christmas section year-round but I figured they would have some new things out since I'd been there 6 weeks before. I found a nice 8"x14"x4" storage tub with lid that had 3 Hallmark ornaments without the boxes plus some other things in it. I asked a lady how much it was because there was no price on it, so she checked and said it was $2.99. I got a 1993 Mom, a 1993 Dad (the saw blade has been bent but I think I can straighten it out), and a 1996 Maxine. There are some older-looking bells in there, like a Santa and some angels. There's a round Spode ornament, some plastic canvas Christmas letters (two Os and one H with holly and berries), some wooden ornaments, a 1995 ornament from the Opryland Hotel, and some other odds and ends. The plastic container is in great shape and will make a great storage container for when I go to signing events or something else. Some of the items will be going into the trash or to friends or family. There is one nice jingle bell hanging piece that I'm trying to decide if I'll keep or use to decorate the gift for my Indy local club's gift exchange.

I want to go visit some more thrift stores, so maybe next weekend I can get to some places that I don't go to very often and maybe to some I haven't driven to before. The Goodwill stores in KC get visited by a lot of collectors so there isn't much to find there.

I just love reading about all the great finds...congratulations all on the most recent treasures! I can hardly wait to go out tonight when I return my DVDs to the library...this thread keeps me inspired! One of my recent finds was the 1979 Merry Miniature Mouse...still with the little gold sticker. I bought a bunch of stuff last week and sometimes I will just rip the plastic bag open and only bring in the house those things that I had wanted and I leave the other junk in the car to be cleaned out later. Imagine my surprise when I was checking out the "junk" to see if there was anything worth keeping for a future yard sale to discover that one of the clunky items turned out to be a Hallmark ornament....lol!! It looked like one of those cheap resin things you would get at a Dollar store but when I touched it I realized it was plastic and I took a closer look. I won't say what ornament it is but the only reason I am keeping it is because it is Hallmark.
Sue
Pasadena, Maryland

I am very excited about a find at my Goodwill this morning. I got the JOY Elf Tree Trimmers in the box for .50. The box is in remarkably good condition too! Worth my trip for sure!