Purchasing thrift shops, flea markets and property gross sales may be overwhelming. With the sheer quantity of stuff, how are you aware the place to begin? How do you see gems amid all of the junk?
As knowledgeable reseller who has been combing by way of thrift shops for the higher a part of 30 years, I can assist. Should you’re prepared to chop your buying time in half, rating larger bargains or stroll away with brag-worthy finds you’ll be able to flip for money, learn on.
From hard-to-find home goods to resale money-makers, all the pieces featured in my “Thrift Store Like a Professional” collection qualifies as a BOLO (“be looking out” for) merchandise. While you discover it, purchase it!
Featured discover: Classic Heath Ceramics
Heath Ceramics was based in 1948 by Edith Heath and her husband, Brian Heath. Skilled on the Chicago Artwork Institute and the San Francisco Artwork Institute, Edith was the potter.
The couple launched the corporate shortly after Edith’s dinnerware bought the eye of Gump’s, a luxurious housewares retailer primarily based in San Francisco.
Behind the scenes, Brian managed the enterprise and helped design new gear to automate manufacturing with out sacrificing high quality.
Collectively, Edith and Brian made Heath Ceramics an internationally identified model identified for high-quality fashionable dinnerware in addition to architectural tile.
Shortly earlier than Edith’s loss of life in 2005, Heath Ceramics was bought by the design group of Robin Petravic and Catherine Bailey. By means of collaborations with new artists and an expanded product line that features wallpaper and linens, the corporate remains to be going sturdy.
Why purchase it?
Edith Heath is a midcentury icon. Her designs are deceptively easy, the results of exacting requirements and an unbelievable understanding of the properties of various clays and glazes.
Her work is a part of the everlasting assortment of the San Francisco Museum of Fashionable Artwork and the Museum of Fashionable Artwork in New York Metropolis.
Virtually talking, Heath items are extremely straightforward to reside with. Glazes are pretty impartial and the clay formulation the corporate used produced sturdy tableware that may final for generations. Should you’re fortunate sufficient to encounter an entire set, take into account making it your every day dinnerware.
And in case you are interested by reselling for revenue, Heath dishes make needs come true.
This huge serving bowl just lately offered for $250 on eBay and these 4 dinner plates offered for $125. On Etsy, this hand-thrown studio bowl is priced at — prepare for it — $8,500. If that doesn’t get your thrift-shopping juices flowing, I don’t know what is going to.
What to search for
No have to guess whether or not you’ve discovered an genuine Heath. Classic items are well-marked with an impressed brand on the underside.
The commonest model options an all-caps “HEATH” with the descending line of the “T” dropping decrease than the wordmark to create an “L” form. A small inverted triangle rests on the horizontal line of the “L.” Although there’s little data to assist us deconstruct the brand, I imagine the “L” and triangle mixture is supposed to evoke a chunk of pottery resting on a desk or potter’s wheel.
Professional tip: On factory-made items, the impressed HEATH mark is usually obscured by glaze that swimming pools in the course of the firing course of. Verify the maker by analyzing the underside floor from totally different angles. Shifting gentle helps catch refined particulars of the brand.
Heath studio items are usually marked by hand with a easy incised “HEATH” in all caps. Should you’re not paying consideration, you would simply dismiss the “signature” as that of a highschool artwork pupil or novice potter.
Although all classic items are beneficial, Heath collectors significantly prize the next:
- Studio items: Studio items are handmade one-off or restricted version designs. Establish them by the roughly inscribed wordmark talked about above.
- Serape items: Heath’s Serape line incorporates a placing blue glaze that was created by mixing three glazes along with Heath’s Moonstone glaze. Fairly uncommon, Serape items can promote for triple the quantity of different manufacturing items.
- Buttons: Dubbed “kiln fillers” by Edith, ceramic buttons had been a short-lived extension of Heath’s product line. Examples are so uncommon that I used to be unable to search out worth estimates.
Disclosure: The data you learn right here is at all times goal. Nonetheless, we generally obtain compensation whenever you click on hyperlinks inside our tales.