Oh, No! I'm Collecting Again

My son loves to search out Hot Wheels cars at flea markets and yard sales. A few weeks ago we took a ride around town and stopped at a few yard sales. At our first stop, Ryan found a box full of Hot Wheels, bagged up with 5-6 cars for $1.00 a bag. He spent $3.00. Next 2 stops, nothing. Next stop was way off the beaten path but since it was near my parent's neighborhood, I knew where we were headed. I think most people would have turned around before getting to the house with the yard sale. My son looked things over, found one die-cast car and started up a conversation with the owner, a woman my mother's age. She complained that we were one of the few cars that had stopped that day. She had a lot of pretty glassware. Nothing I 'needed'. But a set of 3 coffee mugs caught my eye.
One each in pink, yellow and a cocoa color with white interiors. They just screamed 1950s. They also reminded me of a blue mug that I hadn't packed up yet at my MIL's. No price? I asked and she wanted 50 cents each. Sold! My hubby just rolled his eyes at me. Now that I've done some research on these I know that the pink and yellow are marked with a Hazel Atlas mark. The cocoa one has no mark. My MIL's blue mug is a Fire King from the '50s but no white interior. They make me smile.
Since we were close by, we stopped by my parents. I told my mom what I bought and she remembered a few mugs from my childhood that were in the back of the cupboard.


Mom thinks these mugs were given on Children's Day at Sunday School when I was small. They are marked Fire King. Would I like them??? Oh, you bet I would! And so within an hour, I had a new collection of 7 coffee mugs. And it costs me $1.50.
And Ryan hit the jackpot when we made one last yard sale stop. An older man and his adult son had boxes of Hot Wheels for sale. Both of them were collectors, so they knew the value of what they had. (My son dreams of finding someone selling piles of vintage cars for pennies.) Ryan spent at least half an hour digging through boxes and pulling out his favorites. As with most of the adult Die-cast collectors we've dealt with, they were very generous to my son, charging well less than the value of the cars. Is everybody happy? A good day of junking is so much fun.