Price Inflation Insanity

Spotted this morning at an estate sale….glad I did not get up at the crack of dawn to get it!

That's a pink gooseberry 442 for $20. Yes, $20. Notice the sticker says "VTG;" yes, it is older, but not worth $20, not even at an antique mall. Usually estate sales are no higher than $10 a bowl. I'm telling you, I fear for the future, as it will only get more expensive from here on out!

Jacquelyn

The Gooseberry Get

I collect Pink Gooseberry for my little miss, who loves it. She also loves Pink Daisy. I like to tell her that some day she will inherit all this neat thrift store stuff. Sometimes she rolls her eyes but when it comes to the pinks, she is all in.

So I'm not hardcore about the Gooseberry, I just pick it up when I find it, and only at thrift stores or estate/yard/moving sales. That means I had found it exactly once, at what I think is one of the ackiest (yes that is a word) thrift stores in town. It has a plastic coyote on the roof. It is unbearably hot inside. The aisles are super narrow and there is stuff and people and carts everywhere. So it was a miracle I found a 472 there two months ago. I keep checking back but nada, zip, zilch, not a single piece of Pyrex ever.

Then this past week I was out with my husband, who owns his own business and works from home. Sometimes he accompanies me on my thrifting. This particular day I had a small loop in mind, but I missed my turn for two stores. He encouraged me to make a U and go back the right way. I did. Then I was going to bypass Value Village because I have never, ever seen Pyrex there.

I told my husband, I think I'll just drive by, I never find anything there. He said, you're here, stop. So I did.

I gasped when I saw this on a low bottom shelf and like a dork my heart started beating really fast. I couldn't speed walk over fast enough to get it, then I sped walked to my husband on the next aisle, held it out in front of as if I were presenting a baby for a politician to kiss, and kind of hyperventilated. Yeah, I'm a dork. Obviously I was pretty excited, especially since it had the lid. Then I flipped it over and saw the price. I know, can you believe I didn't do that first? I was just so excited to find a minty fridgie with lid! This little gal was $3!

So like the other store I will check back more often, but likely it will have the same fate as the other store and run dry. Still, I always hope!

You can read about some of my vintage Christmas thrifting adventures here…right now I'm on the hunt for holiday and Pyrex…double the space to cover at the thrift!

Jacquelyn

Pennsylvania Jackpot

Ever since I moved further south, Pyrex seems to be in short supply. I picked up three Spring Blossom items (you can see the first one here), but apart from that bowl, another smaller one, and a fridge dish without a lid, I haven't even seen much of anything. 

I'm not sure if I'm simply not finding the right stores or if the Pyrex popularity means more people are finding it before me. Whenever I do see it, the prices elude my budget.

In reality though, there are only a few things I'm keeping my eyes out for. Promotional pieces like the one I found here. More turquoise plates. A Butterprint 441 to match the rest of the collection I found here. And the small yellow hostess bowls to add to the one I found here. 

Last week, I went back to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving and besides the prospect of Pumkpin Pie, I was most excited about thrifting for Pyrex.

The thrift stores however yielded nothing more than a Butterfly Gold mug, so I scoped out a few antique stores instead. I returned to the same store where I first spotted the Starbust. I noticed the vendor had 30% off of everything, so I considered nabbing the space saver myself, but alas, it looks like someone else got there first. I'm glad it finally went to a Pyrex loving home. 

At another nearby store, I lamented to a friend that I kept finding entire sets of Butterprint cinderella bowls on sale, but I only needed the small 441. As soon as I the words were out of my mouth, I turned around and saw THIS: 

Of course it came home with me to complete the set.

And while last year I probably wouldn't have shelled out $5 for such a small bowl, I justified it thinking that I couldn't even get one on eBay that cheap to complete the collection. 

I also spent a day in Adamstown, and hit the jackpot. While there were no turquoise plates to be found, I found a bunch of the pinkish/salmon colored ones on sale. I had already found two dinner plates earlier in the week for only $4. After the Adamstown antique blitz, I had a total of five dinner plates, five salad plates, two dessert plates, a cup and a saucer (all from different vendors) for under $20 for everything. 

I've actually seen a few of these where I live and I considered collecting them (they go really well with the turquoise ones!), but I didn't want to pay $9 a plate. I couldn't believe my luck in Adamstown finding so many so cheap. One store had 20% off of everything and another one had the same discount on anything over $10. 

I also found a Gooseberry 474-B for only a few dollars, since there is a small chip on the bottom. I love how it matches the plates. 

 
And finally, while there was nary a tiny yellow hostess cup to be found, I did score the larger bowl and four of the serving dishes for only $16. 

How could I pass that up?! Even though they are different sizes, the set still looks great with my other two bowls.

I know the prices were higher than any Pyrex I may have found in the thrift stores (then again, these days Pyrex is crazy high there too!), but these were all pieces I was on the hunt for, so I decided to splurge a bit. Plus I figured that I might not find these same things back home where I live. I still think I got a bargain. Happy holidays to me... my Pyrex wish list is pretty complete! 

What pieces are you willing to make a budget exception for?

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season (with Pyrex-in-Action, of course). 

Brenda

Monday Finds and Plea for Pattern Help

I had a business lunch with a fellow blogger, The Chilly Dog (who is an amazing crafter) in a different part of town than my usual haunts. So, it being a different I thought I'd pull into some random thrift stores on my way home. I'm glad I did!

Here's what I found...I guess my thrift store drought is well and truly broken!

Starting clockwise from the bottom left:

• Divided 1-1/2Q Town and Country with lid, $4.75.
• Divided 1-1/2Q Charcoal Snowflake, with lid, $10. Yes, expensive, but I found this at a used bookstore that also has all sorts of random items folks trade in or sell. I had trade credit so I bit the bullet, technically making it "free" to me. The store had a lot of other Pyrex but the prices were crazy considering the condition for some. I feel slightly crazy myself for getting this piece but I console myself with the knowledge it was free, it just cost me books I traded in however long ago, as I have been carrying around the trade credit slip for a couple years now!
• Gooseberry 472, $3. I couldn't pass it up.
• Mystery 045, $5.50. Both this and the first item came from the same store and were 25% off.

About the mystery piece: I can't find the pattern anywhere, not in any of my reference books or any reference sites online. It is for sure Pyrex, but what pattern? Does anyone know?

Jacquelyn

Best Yard Sale Scores to Date!

Well hello yard sale season!!  This was a few weeks ago, on what my husband and I like to refer to as THE BEST YARD SALE DAY EVER!!

We pulled up to a house and saw tables and tables of glassware, and in the front that beautiful red hostess serving bowl shown in the far left of the photo below.  Then my daughter spotted the pink daisy casserole in the stand... and well lets just say we found a few more treasures to add.

I offered $30 for everything you see in the photo.  Everything on the right is butterfly gold, then there are two pink gooseberry pieces, a red fridgie, carafe...everything in great shape!  The guy said his Mom used to have an antique booth, but everything had been in boxes for years.  I think he knew I was asking a very cheap price, but he needed to get rid of some stuff and was willing to let it go.

A close up of the daisy in the stand :-)  My daughter, who is 8, has already claimed this as hers!

And at another sale that day two MINTY butterprint bowls... $15 total... I had the 401 already, just need the 404 for a complete set!

Yay!  Yard sale season!!

Whitney at Frankly Speaking Too

Gooseberry Galore

Remember this little guy? The gooseberry fridge dish I found a while back for a buck, no lid? The fact that I've never seen pink and white gooseberry anywhere around here, let alone at a thrift store?

Well, today I found the rest of the family. 

At a thrift store. 

For $20.

!!!!!

My mom was with me again -- honestly, I think she may be my lucky charm, because last time, I found that green wheat space saver with her. She told me how hilarious it is to see me get excited about vintage Pyrex -- she actually said it's like rainbows burst out of me when I see something!

Rainbows or not, I'm still bursting. While there is a tiny chip on two of the smaller lids, I still think I got a great deal. 

And, I couldn't leave this lonely little Cinderella bowl behind, could I? 

 
I know $8 was kind of steep for the bowl, but I knew I'd regret not snatching it up. Plus, I like this thrift store and I know they do a lot of good things for people, so I like to think of it as a little extra donation for their work. 

Gooseberry galore, for sure. I can hardly wait to see what the rest of spring will bring! 

Brenda

 

things are picking up.

Things have finally been picking up at my local thrift stores... maybe it's some early spring cleaning?

My first purchases were two Snowflake Garland mixing bowls - #401 and #402 and a Pink Gooseberry casserole - #472. 

Next was a turquoise mixing bowl #403... this is actually my first solid colored mixing bowl, so that was pretty exciting.

My last find was my favorite - a Terra casserole #472, with lid!  Terra is one of my favorite patterns and a lidded casserole has been on the top of my want list for a while.  It was at the sketchiest consignment store ever.  They had just opened up in an old landscaping center and half the store was an old greenhouse.  The building had no heat and a skylight hole in the ceiling was covered with a thin sheet of plastic.  Oh and the cash register didn't work.  So glad my husband came along with me to that shop!

teela.

my so-called modern life

Gooseberry Goosebumps

I have already confessed to you all my obsession with fridge dishes. Well, as if I didn't have enough, the other day, I found my first ever Gooseberry fridgie at a thrift store. No lid, but for a whole dollar, I was ecstatic nonetheless -- I actually got goosebumps! I've never even seen any piece of Gooseberry in person (even at antique shops!) I love that it also matches my pink fridgie. 

Did I say I was only going to collect Butterfly Gold?? Umm. I think I have to retract my statement...

Brenda

Hey guys! New girl on the block here :)

Hey everyone! 

 I'm Meg and new to PCIII.  I am super excited to be here :)  I am a twenty something year old stay at home mom to two little boys.  I live in the South but feel misplaced.  I am a cold weather loving, bacon eating, quirky lady who loves all things vintage.  Well, most things vintage at least! That brings me to Pyrex.  I don't really remember when I came to love Pyrex but it started with a little bright yellow, 1 pint dish that I picked up at the Goodwill for around $3.  I didn't know much about Pyrex but I knew I loved pretty things and it was pretty. It was a daisy dish without a lid. 

I started out by buying everything I saw.  I found some decent deals on pieces but little did I know the monster I was creating ;) We had no space in our cabinets for more dishes (I also loved Fiestaware and basically any cool kitchen-y thing so even though we have cabinet space, my cabinets were out of space!).  It started to pile up on the counter top and while I loved it, I knew I needed a better solution.  A friend's husband is super handy and built us some shelves and that is where my Pyrex lives today!

Unfortunately, I don't have much luck thrifting in my area. I have this theory about how the South has generally been poorer and people didn't always have the money for an abundance of this beautiful cookware. When you do find it in a thrift store it is often (not always) overpriced.  Most of my pieces come from traveling, the internet and gifts from amazing friends!  

I hope you don't mind me sharing my collection :) I love knowing there are other people out there who cherish this treasure as much as I do.  For now, I'll just leave you with one tiny picture of a piece of my Pyrex in use! 

Love to All,

Meg :)

First Finds in 2013.

After a slow finish to 2012, it looks like things might be picking up in 2013.

The 443 Butterprint Cinderella Mixing Bowl was the first thing I've picked up at my local Savers in ages.  I've spotted a few things recently, but they've either been in horrible condition or ridiculously overpriced (for a thrift store).  This wasn't one of my cheaper finds, but I couldn't help but grab it after the lack of finds recently.

My next find was actually an antique store purchase, but I think it was worth a few extra dollars.  I found a JAJ Pyrex Red Gooseberry Cinderella Mixing bowl.  It kind of caught me off guard.  I haven't run into much JAJ stuff and a few quick internet searches on my phone at the store didn't provide me with much information.  So I headed home without it and checked into it a little more.  While Gooseberry isn't my favorite pattern, I couldn't get the bowl out of my head.  I went back to the store this weekend hoping it was still there.  Lucky for me, it was.

When I got it home, I threw one of the pink gooseberry dishes I had next to it to show the color contrast.

Like I said, Gooseberry isn't one of my favorite patterns, and I've been toying with the idea of parting with some of my collection, so we'll see if it makes the cut if I start selling off some of my pieces.  But for now it looks great on the shelf with the rest of my collection.

My Pyrex Update

Gosh, it's been quite a while since I've posted my finds here on the ol' Collective. Thought I'd update everybody on my collection. 

I found this vintage hutch over the summer for a steal, and I knew it would be the perfect place to store my Pyrex. Of course my Pyrex collection at the time was limited to just a couple bowls! I finally pulled together enough pieces to make a real display out of it (along with my vintage teapots.)

I'm loving how it's all coming together. I'm far from capacity, but I'll probably start to be a little more selective about what I bring home. I feel like I need a few more "wow" pieces for really make it pop!

Check me out at thriftables.com to see all of my individual Pyrex scores, as well as all my other retro thrifty goodness.

-Susie

New Kitchen Cabinet Display

One of the things I love best about collecting kitchen items is displaying them in my glass-fronted cabinets. When we bought this house, having cabinets like these was on my wish list. (It definitely wouldn't have been a deal-breaker for sure, but it helped when we looked at this house!)

So it was a perfect place to display some of my collections. For a while I collected printed glassware (another post on that coming soon), and I inherited some really neat red and yellow pottery, which went with my kitchen's yellow, green and red color scheme. Those made a nice display for a while. But lately I've been collecting Pyrex, FireKing and jadeite, and decided to re-organize my displays to better reflect that.

That meant moving things around and re-thinking what I reallly wanted to look at for a while. It took me the better part of a rainy afternoon last week to finally settle on a layout, so to document that, I thought I'd show you all.

Here's the before:

Not too bad, really, but not as organized as I would like. Some of these things have been in the same spot for ten years! Also the clear glassware at the top right kind of disappears. (It's really neat close-up, with etched stars, but would be better put away somewhere else.) You can see the printed glassware all jumbled in the lower right. I figured, since you can't really make it all out, maybe it's best if I put most of it away and only get out only one set at a time.

Here's the finished display, and close ups to follow:

I tried to organize it by color a little bit, with the red and yellow pottery near the yellow and green Fiesta. Then the jadeite and Peach Blossom FireKing (which is a match made in heaven, I think), then the Pyrex on the right.

The Fiestaware is not old (mostly), and our regular everyday dishes, so they have to be easily accessible.

This is probably my favorite one, with the FireKing and jadeite. The printed glasses in the carrier are the only ones to make the cut right now. You can see some of the Pyrex holiday mugs sneaking into the picture there- guess they wanted a bit of face time in the FireKing cabinet, LOL!

The Pyrex cabinet. I am trying really hard to limit myself to just the primary colors set  (I'm using the yellow 404 at the moment, so it's not pictured) and turquoise Butterprint, plus pink and promotional designs. The lone FireKing wheat casserole in the lower right belonged to my dad, so it still gets a place of honor.

Right now, I'm pretty happy with it and it is a nice change of scenery!

Rummage Sale Pyrex!

For me, Christmas comes twice a year. Once in the spring and once in the fall, our local church has a huge rummage sale. I always find tons of goodies there, and the prices are great. Today was no exception!

I found so much stuff, I'm blogging about it here (the Pyrex of course) and my home blog, Practice in Time- check that out for the rest of the haul!

I was one of the first people there- actually had to wait in line behind about 15 others until they opened the door. I headed right for the linens and housewares, and spotted some Pyrex right off the bat:

A pink gooseberry 472 casserole- $2. It didn't have a lid, but that's no big deal; I can use the one from my 473. It was really dirty and grimy, but is happily soaking in the sink right now, and should come clean with some BKF.

Holiday Corningware/Pyrex mugs. I had no idea these existed until somebody here posted about them the other day. And then I found these today- $3 for 4. 

I don't know if I really need to keep them- too much holiday stuff already- anyone interested in a trade for Butterprint or primary fridgies?

I also passed up a whole set of brown floral restaurant dishes. At $15, the price wasn't bad, but that is just too much of a good thing, and a pattern I don't collect. I'm hoping my Pyrexia doesn't overcome me and I have to go back for them tomorrow on half-price day!

dreams come true

well, it officially happened. my dreams have come true. i wrote about the pyrex dream i had in a post a few months ago, and today it actually came true! i hadn't been in my local thrift store for about four weeks because i had been so upset that there was never any pyrex to be had. well, that all changed today. i found the motherload of pyrex. :)

in fact, there was so much pyrex to be had it will take my three posts to document it all (my haul, what i left behind, my current collection) so i look forward to sharing it all with you!

in this post i wanted to focus on the haul! :) i am SO excited to have found so many pieces. and pieces from collections i had never had the privilege of seeing in person!

 

can you imagine? this beautiful blue snowflake was nestled inside of a cabinet next to the cash register. it's price tag was $12 but when was i ever going to see blue snowflake again?? so lovely!

and, pink gooseberry? for real? there were actually two of these bowls but they each cost $15 so i could only swing the cost of one of them. some other lucky pyrex collector will be very happy to find the other one. :) i'm so excited to see this pattern. i've dreamed about this one!

i love autumn harvest so i was especially happy to find this small bowl for only $4 and it is in pretty good condition. the little yellow dish is unusual. anyone know anything about it? the colour was in mint condition and just the inside of the bowl needs to be cleaned up a bit. this one was $5 and totally worth it. below these pieces is a butterfly gold dish that i didn't get a stand-alone picture of. it's in mint condition as well but was only $2!! i was so excited because i specifically collect butterfly gold.

another pattern i collect is spring blossom (aka crazy daisy). love these mugs. found them in a cart in one of the aisles for only $0.50 each. and the matching saucers were only $0.10. why can't everything be that cheap?!

and a woodland gravy boat! i have a few woodland pieces so for $2 this little guy was definitely coming home with me.

 

 

i'll write more about the pieces i left behind (there were a lot of them!) and what my collection looks like today. i can't even contain my excitement right now!

 

- lauren @ the twin oaks place

 

Cheap Pyrex Finds

I got lucky this week and found plenty of nice Pyrex for low, low prices. I'm slowly building up my collection and not breaking the bank doing it. Hooray!

Oh yes...a turquoise Butterprint 442. A steal (in my opinion) for only $6!

Found in the same trip, a black Gooseberry 441 for a conservative $3. 

I squealed a bit when I saw these two Butterprint fridgies at my favorite thrift store for only $0.99.

Come see the rest of my Tuesday Thrift Finds at thriftables.com!

-Susie

pyrex, of course!

Hello everyone! It's Lesley from froog and doog.

I wanted to stop by and share some of my Pyrex finds for the last few weeks. 

 And I'm sure you won't object.

 I found the charcoal snowflake divided at a yard sale for a whopping $2. I couldn't leave it behind, no matter I already have one of these. This will definitely be re-gifted. I have a few people in mind who would love themselves some charcoal snowflake!

 

I met up with the Pyrex dealer again (you can read more details about it on froog and doog) and crossed two more of my must have's off my list: the 023 turquoise and 023 turquoise wheat. I was tempted to get the Butterfly Gold for myself, but ended up getting it for my sister-in-law, along with the 473 Butterfly Gold.

The Gooseberry? Yeah, I was very lucky at finding that for $2.50 at a thrift. I've never seen Gooseberry at a thift before, so color me surprised!

 

And the camera pulls back to show my vintage record cabinet I just made over. I just had to share how cute it is holding the Pyrex.

 

And the camera pulls back one more time to show the fairy tale scene. Actually, it's just my back yard, and I really need to do yard work.

Thanks for letting me share my finds with you all!

Happy Hunting :)

Easter Decorating with Pyrex!

Hi PC3, SusieQT here from Practice in Time!

I started getting my Easter decorations out the other day and also just happened to have a few pieces of Pyrex out as well. I had a brainstorm (I know, not something that usually happens around here) and thought I'd put the two together. The pastel Pyrex just seems like a perfect fit for Spring- and the little casseroles, mixing bowls and fridgies are so cute as egg baskets! It makes me wish I had even more than the few pink Gooseberry and Butterprint pieces I have. Hey, it's an excuse to collect more!