Art Deco Female Figure Modern Metal Sculpture

I found this cool Art Deco style metal sculpture at the Savers on Warm Springs. While it is a modern example, it's still a great piece and very striking.

The chrome finish really accentuates the slight curves in the design. It almost has the feel of an oversized vintage hood ornament with those lines. A great addition to my collection!

Orangina Bottle and Hand Sculpture by Georges Vila

Now this is a unique item. It appears to be either a sculpture or an award made by Georges Vila, of a hand holding an Orangina bottle. The artist is interesting, because there is an artist by the name of Georges Villa (two l's), who made advertising posters for Orangina and others. However, the signatures do not match. It is possible he shortened his signature for sculptures, but I'm having trouble figuring it out.

The sculpture itself is about 12" tall, and has some good weight to it. It's not metal, I believe it is some sort of clay or plaster. The detail on the hand is amazing! Not to mention the lettering and texture on the bottle.  It almost seems too perfect to be done by hand. The reason I stated earlier that it may be an award is because at the bottom, there seems to be an indentation where a small plaque could have been placed.

Overall, a really unique and great find!

Pride Go Go Elite Traveller 3 Wheel Scooter

Every so often, you can find a great deal just by stepping out your front door.  This past Friday, just such a thing happened.

As I was getting in my car heading to the grocery, I noticed my across the street neighbors packing hastily and placing many items on the curb garbage pick up area. One of these items happened to be a Pride Go Go Elite Traveller Scooter, in basically brand new condition. They simply had no room to take it with them, and were trashing it.

After I returned from the grocery, my other neighbor had pulled the scooter out of their trash area, over to our side of the street. We began talking, and he said the battery seemed to be dead and there was no key. He asked if I could do anything with it, I quickly said yes, and the scooter was mine.

The Go Go Elite Traveller has a retail value of about $1199. Used ones in this condition sell for $400-$700 regularly on Craigslist. I'll be getting a new battery this week and trying to figure out the key situation, and then this baby is up for sale! Best part of this scooter, as you can view in the final picture... it has 2 speeds: Turtle or Rabbit!

Sony Recording Walkman model WM-AF67

These old Sony Walkmans are highly collectable when in good condition. With or without the original box, many overseas collectors love the retro style and superior quality versus the modern equivalents.

This model (WM-AF67) is prized because it combines many features collectors are searching for. Not only is it a quality walkman, it will also record audio via the microphone input and contains an AM/FM radio. Overall, a great find for a very low price!

Kingston Industrial Window-matic Precision Sewing Machine

I'm not much of a sewer, but I couldn't pass up this really nice Kingston sewing machine I spotted at Savers on Warm Springs.

Kingston isn't a well-known maker of sewing machines, but I believe they are in some way associated with the maker Brother. This model is a Window-matic Precision, and it's still in wonderful condition. It weighs a ton and everything still seems to be working well on the machine. Plus, it's an awesome shade of blue!

Carl Zeiss Ikon Contax Rangefinder Camera made in 1952

I found this vintage camera while thrifting around town on Tuesday. It's a German made Carl Zeiss Contax Rangefinder, and it's in great shape!

After a bit of research, I discovered these were made in and around 1952. They are considered some of the best cameras made during that time period.

The lens is a Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 1.5 50mm, which is an excellent lens and highly sought after.

It also came with a Canon light meter, and the original leather case.

Similar models have sold recently on eBay for $200-300, so I made quite the find! I decided to list it on eBay starting at only .99, no reserve.  You can follow along here and see where it ends!

Apple iMac G3 Ruby Red Thrift Store Find!

I admit it, I'm an Apple fanboy. I have an iMac and an iPhone. I even have an old shuffle I still use from time to time. I wasn't always this way... it just kind of happened.

I think the fact that I enjoy nicely designed objects is what finally got me to switch. I'll choose a beautiful object over a plain one almost always.

That leads us to my latest find: an Apple iMac G3 (2nd generation) in Ruby Red. I have to say I was a bit skeptical when I saw this sitting with the old monitors at the Savers on Warm Springs. I assumed it was damaged beyond repair or simply did not work at all. I took it over to the testing station, plugged it in, and hit the power button. We have power! A good first sign. After waiting about 3 minutes, it finally booted up to the welcome screen. It was asking for the password of the user "hollywood", which no one knew. This was a problem... to others.

To me, I knew it was an easy fix, and decided to make the purchase. It was quite cheap, and even if I couldn't get it to work I'd hollow it out and make a fish tank or something fun out of it. Upon getting it home, I inserted my newer iMac's OSX disc, hoping it would boot. It didn't. No worries, other things can be done. I restarted the G3, held Control +S and booted to the DOS screen. After entering a few lines of text, I was able to boot the computer as if it came straight out of the box. It asked me to create a new user account, and then the iMac started up with me as the main user. From there I deleted the old "hollywood" user account, and it was smooth sailing from there on out!

I decided that since it was in such nice shape, I'd set it up more as a display and then have the option to use it to check email, etc in a pinch. I think it fits quite nicely on our "showcase" wall of stuff!

Buy Thrifting Vegas Finds via Paypal or local purchase!

I've enabled the 'Buy Thrifts' portion of the blog, so you are now able to purchase some of the fun things we find while thrifting in Las Vegas!

Along with being able to purchase the finds highlighted on Thrifting Vegas, I'm also giving Las Vegas locals the opportunity to list items you'd like to sell on this site. You can email us if you have an item and we may list it on this site! I'm going to set the limit at 1 item per person to start, and there is no cost for this service. You will get all the profit minus the Paypal fees (if the purchase is made using that service). If the item is sold locally, there are again no fees! Items selected to be listed are at the discretion of this site and not all items can or will be listed.

The reason I'm providing this service is because many fellow thrifters have items they would like to sell, but have neither the knowledge or outlet to do so. If you're item is selected, it will be listed for 1 month in the 'Buy Thrifts' section. It will be removed after 1 month or when the item sells, whichever comes first. This is a service meant to help those who find it difficult to sell items online and is not meant to be abused. We reserve the right to end this service at any time if we feel it is being misused.

Please contact us for more details or any questions you may have, and happy thrifting!