Goodwill Hunting (the Sequel)

A while back, I blogged about an English transferware bowl that I'd scored at the local Goodwill near our home in NH.  It was a steal at 99 cents, and I just couldn't leave the store without it...even though the whole reason I'd gone to Goodwill that day was to get rid of excess bric-a-brac, not to acquire more of it.  I was Goodwill dropping-off, you see; definitely not Goodwill treasure-hunting. (Here's the link to that post, if you want to click on over and take a peek at said pretty little bowl.)

Well, yesterday I did some more Goodwill hunting.  (Full disclosure: there is not a Goodwill store in this town in upstate NY, so it was actually Salvation Army hunting--but that does not sound nearly as catchy and would probably make a lousy movie title.)  I was hoping to find some kind of gently used toddler ride-on toy/wagon or baby activity chair/walker, thinking one of those items might make a nice addition to the collection of goodies I have at Oyster Haven to amuse my grandchildren, who will be coming to stay there with Papa and Grammy next week.

I did not find what I was looking for.  But I did stumble upon a small stash of lovely old transferware dishes, brown on cream, stamped "Made in England" on the bottom.  English transferware, as I have already noted here at the blog, is my Kryptonite; so as you can imagine, even though these dishes were the last thing I was shopping for, I found them very hard to resist.

There were two cups, six saucers, and two dessert plates in the incomplete set.  Only one of the saucers was tagged, and it was priced at $2.00.  Since I'd been able to get a transferware bowl in NH for 99 cents, that was almost too rich for my blood.  If each piece was priced that high, I knew I wasn't going to buy the whole set; but I thought maybe I'd take one of the dessert plates to hang on the wall at Oyster Haven.  After all, the scene printed on these dishes is absolutely perfect for our lakeside Colonial, which is located in NY and was built circa 1830!

So I took one plate to the register...and the gal behind the desk told me that the $2.00 tag on the saucer represented the price for the whole kit 'n kaboodle, and she was not allowed to break up the set.  Ten pieces of transferware for $2.00--what a bargain!  Then to top it off, she informed me that everything was half off that day!

So for $1.00 (plus 8 cents in NY state sales tax--something we do not have in the "Live Free or Die" state of NH), I took home all the dishes.  I would say that was a pretty successful episode of Goodwill Salvation Army hunting!  Wouldn't you?