Walk into an estate sale with a budget and walk out with a rainbow. That is what happened to a shopper who shares her thrifting adventures as @denisexlee on Instagram. She says she “blacked out” at one sale and spent about $900, then showed off everything she brought home, saving her best and most expensive find for the very end.
The sale belonged to a woman she describes as one of the biggest Wedgwood collectors she has ever seen in her life. She had already posted a home tour of the house in a video right before this one, and she says it was really hard to narrow the collection down to just 11 pieces.
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She kicks off the haul with a small win that had nothing to do with china. She found a beautiful leather skirt for $10, a price that would make most of us do a little happy dance in the aisle.
A Wedgwood Rainbow
For anyone new to the name, Wedgwood is the English pottery company founded by Josiah Wedgwood in 1759, famous for its jasperware, where white raised figures sit against a solid colored background. The classic shades are the pale blue most people picture and a soft green, and she says those are the most common colors you will see. The rarer colors are what she hunted for.
Her first pick was a little dish with two colors, with navy in the middle, which she calls gorgeous. She also grabbed a lighter, one of the things she loves collecting from the brand, and says this one is her newest. Next she pointed out a duo colored piece, noting the sellers had marked everything down a bit, and then a pink box.
Then she got into the harder-to-find shades. Her favorite color of the whole haul was lilac, which she found on a small clock, and she showed off the fine detail around it. She also picked up a piece in a color she calls terracotta, a yellow shell box and a butter yellow piece, which she says is everybody’s favorite color at the moment.
The Rare Ones
One of her special finds was another two-tone box, this one combining butter yellow with terracotta on the top. She then held up two pieces in a gorgeous teal that she says is among the rarest colors. Her very favorite thing of the day, though, was a turquoise Wedgwood vase, which she calls stunning.
The plan for all of it is to build a shelf in her new home. She already owns plenty more Wedgwood, but she wants a wall of color arranged like a rainbow. It is a smart way to show off a collection, because grouping pieces by color turns a pile of small dishes into one display with real impact.
The Fur Coat
Her final find is the one she can wear. She says that when she tried on a full length vintage fox fur coat with a giant hood at the sale, every single person stopped and told her she had to buy it. She admits she has nowhere to wear it, joking that she will probably wear it to go shopping, but she says it feels made for her, right down to the sleeves.
She was clear about where she stands on fur. She says she would never buy a new fur coat, which is why a vintage one works for her. The coat cost $550, and she calls that an incredible price.
By her count, the Wedgwood pieces and the leather skirt came to roughly $300-something altogether. Add the $550 coat and her total landed around $890, in line with the $900 she mentioned up front.
How To Shop A Collector Estate Sale
Her haul is a good lesson in how to shop a sale tied to a serious collector. Collections like this one tend to be priced piece by piece, and the sellers may give a small break as the sale goes on. Walking in with a rough budget and a clear idea of what you want makes it easier to stop at the pieces you will truly love.
A few simple habits help:
- Flip pieces over and look for the maker’s mark, which on Wedgwood is stamped on the bottom.
- Check the edges and rims for chips and hairline cracks before you get to the register.
- Pick a theme, whether it is color or shape, so your collection looks like a display and not a jumble.
- Try on wearable finds. She says it was seeing the coat on that sold the crowd on it.
Most of all, let the story of the home guide you. Her appreciation for the collector, who she says gathered an enormous amount of Wedgwood over the years, shows in how carefully she picked her favorites. A sale like this is also a chance to give a lifetime of someone’s careful collecting a new home.
A Dream House To Fill
She says she goes to estate sales a lot, and that she just moved into her dream house and needs to decorate the whole thing. She invited her followers to keep following along as she fills it. If this haul is any sign, her shelves are going to be colorful.
For anyone sitting on inherited china or a collection of their own, the takeaway runs both ways. Serious collectors’ pieces still have loyal buyers, and the right shopper can pay for something and treasure it. Whether you are buying or clearing out, a little care with how you display and price things goes a long way.
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