Tuesday Treasures - March 10, 2026

 It's been very thin pickings for some time now at both St. Vincent de Paul and all the Goodwill Stores.  They're building a new one in town, in an inconvenient place for me.  I guess it's a good one if you go to one of the Walmarts or Lowes often, but I'm not near that area much.  They are also building a new one to replace the one closest to me (currently in the same complex as one of my regular grocery stores).  That's a shame, I would usually stop in when I shopped for groceries.  It will be a special trip driving the long way home.  At any rate, with the quality of the items lately, it might not matter if I go or not.  Grand openings are packed so I doubt I'll go to either.  I went to the grand opening of the one at the other end of town, and that was just after a remodel and there was a long line to get in.

Back to what I have been able to thrift.

The Goodwill Bins did have quite a bit of artwork and frames a few weeks ago.  Most of the art was mass produced thought and I skipped the frame I liked because it was an odd size without glass.   I did find one piece of original art.  I'm not sure if I'll keep it.  While original, it looks like one of the vinyl canvas wrapped pieces all the thrift stores are filled with. I suppose even those had an original at one time. Maybe not, maybe just designed on a computer and printed off.  

An abstract by Dianne Erickson © 2003.  She wrote on the back it was Untitled (#3 Vessel Series).  In 2003 she was living in my area, she is now in Portland. I prefer this to her current work.  The colors are brighter in real life.

St. Vincent de Paul hasn't even put out many new 5¢ postcards recently, never mind any of their myriad of antique ones.  I did find three RPPC (Real Photo Post Cards) that slipped through the cracks and mixed in with the ordinary 5¢ers!  

Two of the Hotel del Coronado in Southern California.

These were "Finished in West Germany," which is the tinting, hand-painting, application of gloss or protective coatings, trimming, etc. That wording is post WWII, pre reunification.

The other is this interior of one of the California Missions, San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (commonly called just the Carmel Mission) in Carmel.   The white text on a RPPC is the result of it being scratched into the negative.  

Two others of note are from the Golden Age of Postcards, 1915-1930, or the White Border Era.  Both are estimated to have been published in the mid to late 1920s.  The white borders came about during WWI.  German postcards were the highest quality, but with the war the printers were shut down or destroyed, and their dyes unavailable.   American printers had to take over, and they had less experience and poor equipment.  They used white borders to save on ink usage and make it so misalignments and slopping trimming didn't show!

One thing St. Vincent de Paul does, that drives me mad, is they remove postcards from books to sell individually.  I showed a volunteer six 5¢ postcards I was buying, and told her that the 30¢ could have been several dollars if they had left the book intact!  My son got a The Simpsons postcard that was removed, and he'd have gladly paid $5 for the book. We'll see if my suggestion reached the manager's ears... 

I'm looking forward to this Friday.  There's a big church rummage sale nearby, the same church where I got the shoe box full of postage stamps a few years ago.  I hope I find some nice bargains!  Actually, i hope to go at all, I'm currently sick. Cough, low fever, and achy joints.  My wrists kept me awake! 

(Also, the next week after writing this, St. Vincent de Paul had a small box of postcards, two in plastic sleeves, just 25¢ for each sleeve!  I may have bought "a few."  Some are incredible for the price. Or any price really.  I hope to find some rummage sale items to share next week, if not, some of the postcards it will be.)