This is the easy way to tell what is still available. Just click on the link below. Otherwise, look at the bottom of the post. If the item is sold it will read GONE! SOLD!
ADDRESS: The Estate Store of the Community Warehouse 3969 NE MLK Jr. Blvd. Portland, Oregon 97212
The Estate Store
Hours: Open 10am to 4pm Thursday through Monday. Closed Tuesday & Wednesday
Garage Sale
Hours: Open 10am to 4pm Thursday through Monday. Closed Tuesday & Wednesday
PHONE: 503-445-1449.
E-MAIL: Ed at communitywarehouse dot org
West Side Donation Center: Open Tuesday-Saturday, from 11:00 am – 4:00 p.m. at 8745 SW Canyon Lane, Portland (off Canyon Road in the West Slope area).
Not in Portland but want an item? We can ship most things to most places most of the time. Shipping costs for furniture are often prohibitvely expensive! If you still think you want it, contact Ed to see if we can ship what you want where you want and how much it will cost you.
In the Portland Metro area and wondering if an item is still available in the store? Contact Ed.
A little while back we go in this great pair of shadow puppets. I first thought these were Burmese puppets, but it seems that shadow puppets aren’t an important part of that great tradition.
instead they’re from another great puppet theater family, the IndonesianWayang Kulit shadow plays. The Wayang came to Indonesia with Indian traders and are now one of the oldest puppet theater traditions in the world. Originally the Wayang was associated with story telling within the Hindu religion but it has since been modified for other religious and secular tales.
The puppets traditionally made of buffalo hide with bamboo or buffalo horn control arms. Our figures look like painted hide. The control sticks one the larger figure are wood and horn on the smaller one.
They are both in good condition. The larger puppet is about 31 1/2 inches tall, the shorter is 25 inches tall.
And it’s playing both kinds of music, Country and Western. The Country Music Instant Fiddle plays a variety of classic country tunes by artists including Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, and Willie Nelson.
I believe the songs it plays include:
1. Hey, Good Lookin’
2. Crazy
3. All My Exes Live in Texas
4. Oh Susanna
5. Jambalaya
6. Beautiful Dreamer
7. Abilene
8. Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys
The duration of the notes seems to be linked to how fast you play. So, you could perform “Mamas…” as a dirge, or “Hey, Good Lookin’” as the next post-punk speed-metal hit.
it stands about 11 inches tall and works, although the volume level is not impressive. If your crafty it would be a good candidate for modification! Just add a microphone and an arena size speaker stack.
Suppose you’re looking for something for a relative we’ll call ‘Uncle George’.
George lives out of town and you won’t have to face him when he gets his present.
You’re also running out of time.
We’ve got your back.
Just get this inflatable fruitcake.
If you send it airmail it should get to Uncle George in Hoboken in plenty of time. Unless they notice that the return address city and zip code don’t match, in which case you’ll be sending next years present from Guantanamo.
Air mail, inflatable fruitcake, Hoboken, Guantanamo. Air mail, inflatable fruitcake, Hoboken, Guantanamo.
It’s like a mantra for modern America: Air mail, inflatable fruitcake, Hoboken, Guantanamo, Om.
This illustrated children’s story book is in good condition. There isn’t much character development and the plot is pretty thin, but it is only 16 pages long. Willing suspension of disbelief or a very young audience would help the story a lot.
Back in April of this year there was an interesting story about what happens when automated computer programs set prices of used books for retailers. In that case there were two programs designed to set their prices relative to the others price and this led to an upwards inflationary spiral ultimately resulting is a $23.6 million book.
Something like that is going on again with this book on Amazon, but there isn’t an obvious correlation between the asking price for set by one computer program and the real world. Simply, on Amazon, you can buy a new copy for $12.95 however the only used copy will cost you a slightly more expensive $205.87 (!).
At least until the day that Skynet gains self awareness we’re happy to fight the rise of the machines by offering this for less than $5.
This great little cast iron bank shows two late 19th century patent dates (March 1, 1887 and February 15, 1888). Given the stuff it came in with I’m sure it is actually an antique and not a modern copy. I estimate that it was probably made around 1900.
It has embossed decorations on all sides and four cast legs on the base. There is a slot in the top where you can drop coins in and inside is a little diverter to make it hard to shake the coins back out when you need bus fare.
It stands 4 1/2 inches tall 3 1/2 inches deep and 3 3/4 inches wide and is in excellent condition. In looking at some of the old catalogs in my personal collection this bank probably originally sold for $1 to $1.50.
It was locked when it came in, but I managed to crack the combination which brings my professional safe cracking career record to 2-1*.
To be honest it wasn’t that hard to do so I wouldn’t recommend actually storing anything truly valuable inside.
*The first safe I opened for the warehouse was stuffed full of all sorts of valuable stuff. Although it was donated to us and hence the contents were probably ours in the eyes of the law we returned the items to the family of the donor. This shows that the law is an inelegant creature that deserves to be ignored periodically.
The next safe I never did manage to get into. I tried and tried but never got it to open. I even considered peeling the safe but one look at the asbestos fire insulation between the shell and the interior convinced my that it wasn’t going to be worth the effort. I still presume it was empty.
I guess they’re drinking horns. I’m not really sure, but if they are drinking horns they’re for something potent. The pointy end is covered by decoratibve metal work in the shape of a dragon’s head. The other end also has a metal cap, with a shallow bowl shaped interior that can’t hold more than a few ounces (hence the deduction that little of whatever is meant to be drunk from them is enough).
They have a fine chain so one can hang them off a nearby nail, hook or stoutly fastened earring.
Overall they’re about 6 1/2 inches long and 2 1/2 inches in diameter.
When you do something long enough you get to see how certain items show up again. The last time we had one of these was 2 3/4 years ago. It was probably another 2 to 3 years earlier that I first saw one.
In other words, if you’d like this I recommend calling soon, or checking back in sometime around April 2014.
This vintage bottle opener consist of abalone pieces glued to a metal substructure. It is in good but used condition with a few missing scales, bends at 10 places along the spine and is about 8 inches long.
Though not quite of the class that one would expect to give to a baby that will someday run for president this is still a pretty decent teething ring and rattle. As a vintage item this does not modern standards for teething rings (as summarized in CPSC Document # 202 The Safe Nursery, p.8) so it is a decorative item rather than a practical gift.
In any case it is much nicer than what we had where I grew up. In fact, we used to give the kids old car tires and stove length pieces of wood to chew on, except for the real tough babies who we’d set down along the abandoned rail road tracks. They didn’t have much of an impact on the old rails, but they were never anemic either.
Thankfully we didn’t live in the tough part of town.
This vintage Lunt sterling rattle with teething ring is about 3 1/2 inches from tip to tail (you decide which is which). The teething ring is commonly advertised as “mother-of-pearl” but a multitude of tiny trapped air bubbles indicates that this is actually opalescent plastic. . . which bears an uncanny resemblance to the current field of presidential candidates.
Cool old vintage roller skate case from Portland’s own, world famous and still operational Oaks Park.
Like many older amusement parks Oaks Park was originally (1905) built as the anchor for the end of a suburban trolley line. This was not an uncommon practice at the time since having an amusement park on the line helped build ridership during off-peak commuting hours, like nights and weekends. Elsewhere in the Portland area this same model was applied to a much shorter lived park on Council Crest.
Oaks Park is still running and the iconic roller skating rink is alive and well. The rink was originally installed sometime before 1944 and was (and is) one of the largest in the northwest. In 1955 a pipe organ, formerly located at the Broadway Theater (installed there in 1926) was relocated to the park where it remains in operation.
Our skate case contains a pair of size 8 Chicago Custom GM II skates from the great roller skating revival of the 1970′s (as indicated by the official 1973 American Roller Dance Skating handbook). They’re in good condition and we have various wrenches for them too.
The case is in excellent condition. It is about 15 inches long by 12 inches tall by 6 1/2 inches thick. Of all unexpected miracles we have the key.
Well, I screwed up and somehow managed to not schedule this at the right time. So only eight hours late, here is today’s 9 am post at 5 pm.
What I’d like to spend most of my time doing is figuring out the weird stuff, deciphering the enigmas of past culture while learning not-exactly useful (on a daily basis) information on the way. Unfortunately the reality is that I get to spend more time than I like doing the dishes, spit-shining furniture and shifting things from one place to another.
So, sometime things take longer than one would like to make it from the pile of denial (the place where all the enigmas go before being decoded) into the store. These neat fellows have been around quite a while (approximately the gestation time of Homo sapiens sapiens), and I’d like to write the tale of how they made it to America (it involved tricking a tourist in a game of seven card stud, stowing away on a tramp steamer and then a dangerous swim through the surf to reach the Port Of Portland) but some things can’t be told in more or less public forum.
We’ve had Burmese puppets before. Discovering what they were was a world ranging exploration in itself, from Korea to Japan and southward to West Africa, before closing in upon Burma (Myanmar). Once we figured out where they were from it was relatively easy to decide which of the set-piece characters in the codified Burmese puppet theater the object represented and go from there.
We know where these come from (that’s the easy part), but which characters do they represent?
The characters in Burmese puppet theater were more or less officially codified by the royal patrons of the theater in the early 19th century. Luckily for us this means that the possible field of characters is restricted and we only have to look with in a relatively finite set of 30 or so individuals.
We’re pretty sure we have one of the Three Jokers (Yaw Yuet, Lu Phyet & Lu Shwin Daw). The pointing index finger on the right hand is the primary indicator of this. We’re not sure which of the three jokers this is, but it’s pretty definitely one of them. The pointing index finger on the right hand is the defining trait and they’re not laughing with you, they’re laughing at you.
He’s in OK condition and comes in traditional dress, carved wooden hair, fixed hands (see below) and clay painted face (with a few scrapes as shown in the picture). He’s about 13 inches tall.
This is the Alchemist or Magician (Zawgyi) they always wear red and the characters “dance is full of high jumps and somersaults and the puppeteer is usually very skilled in his craft.” Without any quantitative basis for thinking this I suspect our Magician was made more recently* than the Joker above. He’s in great shape and stands 23 inches tall. Like the first Burmese puppet we had this one has articulated hands which is just really neat. His beard hairs are plugs of human hair,which is kind of cool too.
*I suspect I’m thinking that relative simplicity (primitivism) is can correlate to greater antiquity. This is a fundamentally false premised based on the idea of progressive evolution and that sophistication increases over time. As the Middle Ages shows so well when contrasted to Imperial Rome this is not the case. As such I could be totally wrong. But I’m a generalist so I do what I can. If the change in construction techniques and styles in Burmese puppets happens to be the subject of your master’s thesis and I’m wrong please let me know and I’ll make the necessary revisions.
The third one appears to be a minister (or possibly a hermit which says something about how in touch with the populace government officials really are). The tall hat suggests that he’s a very important person we’ll go with the idea that the size of the hat correlates to the (perceived) importance of the person wearing it.
He isn’t as elaborately made as the Magician so he probably wasn’t as important a person on the stage. The decorative style suggests that he’s come from the same place and or time as the magician though. He’s in good condition and stands about 16 inches tall.
Model Trojan horse. It’s only 8 inches long and 7 1/2 inches tall and has two tiny compartments for hiding small things. I’m not sure if it ever had an actual use, but it makes an OK metaphor.
“I go to defend Liberty as a friend. The happiness of America is intimately tied to the happiness of all mankind. One day she will become the safe haven of tolerance, equality and peaceful liberty.”
The Marquis de Lafayette wrote the quote above while on board the ship that was to take him to America in early 1777. On September 11th of that that year he proved himself as a commander worthy of the American cause by rallying the retreating and defeated American troops (although shot in the leg) at the Battle of Brandywine. Philadelphia was lost, but the cause of liberty was only set back, not defeated.
I hope the events of September 11, 2001 will be viewed in the same light a few hundred years hence, rather than as the watershed moment when the cause of liberty was irrevocably undermined by the security state and the factions that thrive in secretive darkness.
”Every nation that has ended in tyranny has come to that end by way of good order. It certainly does not follow from this that peoples should scorn public peace, but neither should they be satisfied with that and nothing more.
A nation that asks nothing of government but the maintenance of order is already a slave in the depths of its heart; it is a slave of its well-being, ready for the man who will put it in chains. In such a nation the despotism of factions is no less to be feared than the despotism of one man.”
And it’s glad the debt ceiling didn’t fall on its head.
This is a cat shaped knickknack made of genuine dead rabbit fur. It is 7 1/2 inches tall and surprisingly it isn’t the first one of these we’ve had.
I’m sure there has to be some well thought out and logical reason for this sort of thing to exist. Unfortunately I can’t come up with it. I suppose one could use it to teach your Labrador to retrieve or you could torment your cat with an unblinking mock rival.
Alternatively might it be just the thing to keep the neighbor kids off your lawn after you’re cut off from wearing your bunny suit?
This wooden puzzle shows the lower 48 states, and alludes to the presence of Alaska and Hawaii.When the pieces are removed one can see the major products of each state, the state capitol and information about the original territorial status (where applicable). Alaska and Hawaii excepted, of course.
This must be an older map as it shows the major products of Oregon as fish and beef, rather than environmentalists, wanna-be-cowpokes and methamphetamine*.
The puzzle is in excellent condition and measures roughly 19 3/4 inches by12 inches. All the pieces are there.
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* For the sake of accuracy, the major products of the State of Oregon are excess bureaucracy, unneededfiscally unsound ($ 5 to 10 billion) boondoggle bridges, and a citizen mandated prison population that threatens to consume all other parts of the state budget.
Alternatively if you’re a literalist and have had a good night’s sleep lately they’re timber, paper products, farming (wheat, cattle), mining, computer equipment and other electronics.
On rare occasion I find things out in the wider world that I feel compelled to bring into the store, even if they’re rather juvenile. Really though, what fun is it if ones life is all seriousness, good posture, proper grammar and Puritan work ethic?
Bah humbug.
Meet the Little Whizzer. He’s an automated beverage dispensing machine modeled after the Brussels Mannekin Pis fountain of Jerome Duquesnoy the Younger (strangled and then burned at the stake in 1654).
The decanter holds 18 oz. and is powered by two AA batteries. It works and it stands about 7 1/2 inches tall.
In between the lighting of fireworks (and subsequent counting of your fingers) you should have time today to ponder weighty things. Things like the big numbers that comprise the the national debt, which is now in excess of 14 trillion dollars*. To keep track of such a large number the folks at the Treasury Department would need a correspondingly large abacus.
Our example is two feet by four feet, and has 13 rows. Unfortunately 14 trillion requires is 14 rows of beads to process on an abacus. Hence, while our example is a bit larger than the typical shop keepers abacus it’s not quite big enough to help figure the national debt.
That’s seriously messed up.
Happy Independence Day. To bad it’s not financial independence!
*On Friday December 31, 2010 it was exactly $14,025,215,218,708.52 according to the Treasury Department.
Something fishy from 1962. Child Guidance Toy No. 902-Fish with 10 plastic pieces that stick to the board with the use of magnets. In excellent condition 9 1/2 inches tall by 11 1/2 inches wide. SOLD
We give you the world. Rather, we’ll sell it to you to give your kids for a modest fee.
An old puzzle showing the continents and oceans. It has a built-in compass and a portrait of Neptune . It is in good condition except for a break between the Caspian and Arabian Seas. 19 1/2 inches wide, 12 inches tall. SOLD
Take ‘em out to the ball game! Major league attendance is falling due to the prevalence of big high-definition TV’s and expensive seat prices. You should get them to the game before they stop allowing the public altogether. This 1950′s vintage puzzle is in very good condition. It is 11 1/2 inches tall by 9 1/2 inches wide. SOLD
Puzzle featuring a stereotypical village in Holland by Simplex. In very good condition. 7 1/2 inches in diameter. SOLD
Five handcrafted bears of various sizes in a handcrafted wagon made from a soda crate. One was found after the photo was taken attempting escape by hiding in the back of the truck, so isn’t pictured here.
Or would have. You see the idea of drift racing is predicated on driving a rear wheel drive vehicle. Instead he managed to steal this front-wheel drive Volkswagen Golf from an easily distracted teenager, “Look over there, it’s Elvis” “Who’s Elvis” “Uh never-mind. . . look! An elephant!” “What? Where?”
His maniacal laugh could be heard over the squealing tires, but only barely.
Since he couldn’t drift, Angry Beaver chose to do the next best thing, wander aimlessly. He plugged his iPond into the dash, cranked up his playlist “Great Songs of Canada*”, and headed for the open road.
Die cast VW Golf R32 “GRDZ Tuner” by Maisto. It rolls and the hood, trunk and doors open too. In good condition.
“The Great Songs of Canada” playlist consists largely of bands you’ve never heard of in central North America. This is too bad really as there is some mighty fine music that never made it south of the border. Unfortunately music promoters are soulless wraiths and so some things made it south that should probably have stayed home (like the seven Christmas albums of Anne Murray’s career).
Introducing a very nice little singing bowl. I’m not very familiar with them so although the sound seems nice to me I couldn’t tell you where this one is in terms of sound quality.
Honestly I had a bit of a hard time playing it at first (due to annoying chatter noises) but as they say, “the bowl is your teacher, it will tell you how it should be played. ” It probably would have helped to be using something other than a candle, but sometimes one must improvise.
5 inches diameter 2 1/4 inches tall.
Here’s a sample of how it sounds. The obnoxious hum at the beginning is an annoying machine we have in the hallway behind the store. I think it is slowly destroying my hearing but I’ve some hope that we’ll be able to move it to a better location before I’m completely deaf. My apologies for the sound quality.
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Here’s an example of how NOT to play a singing bowl.
That’s because it is. Unlike real life, this 3D puzzle includes directions for putting it all back together again after everything falls apart.
At some level though their helpful hint “Use the world continents to match pieces” is probably a good guide for reassembling metaphorical worlds. Figure out the big things, try to put those back together again and the other pieces will fit in too.
Sorry the Dog and Happy Dog! agreed, the mice have gotten out of hand.
It all started innocuously enough at first, a pitter-patter of little feet in the night, a missing dog-treat here and there. Eventually it grew further, as the mice did too. Then the morning came when they found their food bowls cleaned out. Not just that, but they found order-book stubs and a reservation list, indicating it was the latest hot-spot in the mouse sized food cart trend.
They agreed, the mice had gotten out of hand.
But what to do? They debated the merits of their options. Poison was deemed too risky to their own health. Traps were too messy. Besides, they’re hard to clean out even when you have opposable thumbs. Finally they took a page from the federal government’s playbook (which Angry Beaver had stolen some years ago): Hired Killers.
Yes, they agreed, the mice had gotten out of hand and an assassin was what they needed.
The dogs would hire a cat.
Cat Wanted to Solve Mouse Infestation: expert mouser, must be comfortable working for ‘alternative lifestyle’ employers (dogs!). Must have demonstrable work history, references will be checked, bullies, slackers and Irish need not apply. Pay commensurate with experience. H1B visa available, resumes of Abyssinian, Persian and similar candidates will be checked against FBI databases.
Within days they were interviewing candidates.
The first one was a jazzy-cat that looked good on paper and whose work experience included gigs in New Orleans and in Chicago nightclubs. However but they could tell just by looking that it had a major catnip problem. They were a catnip friendly workplace, but not that friendly. They cut the interview short and called the next candidate.
Leo King was a bit more than they expected, which was surprising. He had listed limiting wildebeest infestations, gazelle chasing, and such on his vita but they thought perhaps he was just extra wily, not that he was a lion. Frankly they found him rather intimidating and after peeing in the corner Happy Dog! promised that he’d call him back as soon as they had interviewed the rest of the applicant pool. Sorry the Dog said he was sorry for the unseemly behavior of Happy Dog! and that Leo shouldn’t feel badly. Leo said “it’s OK, it’s only my pride” and walked away muttering something about being over qualified for the position and having a family to feed.
They were relieved when they met the third candidate. She had good posture, took some pains to dress properly for the interview and even wore a snazzy red bow tie. She answered all their questions promptly and correctly and seemed like a good fit. The only trouble was that there was some strangeness in her affect. In an unusual burst of forthrightness, possibly driven by his recent experience with Leo King, Happy Dog! asked her if there was something they needed to know that she wasn’t telling them. She said, “You know how sometimes you build a shell to ward off the world and then no one knows you anymore?”
“Well, I have.” And with that she removed her outer shell.
Stunned didn’t begin to describe their reaction. The was a frightful pause followed by Sorry the Dog speaking, “Ummm. . . what you wrote on your resume is true, right?”. “Of course.” Happy Dog! started to shake his head. “Yellow cat! That just won’t do. What will Reynard think, and Angry Beaver? They’ll be so peeved, yellow! Yellow is the color of cowards and sycophants and they just can’t stand yellow.”
“No problem,” she purred and pitched her yellow tabby guise aside.
Before them, in the litter of the shell of other cats stood a diminutive black and white tuxedo cat, holding a red ball. Both Happy Dog! and Sorry the Dog were distracted and had to struggle to stay on task. Both were secretly happy that no one mentioned going for a ride in the car, since combined with the scintillating allure of a ball it would have been calamitous.
“Well, that’s interesting.” This black cat was sort of geeky looking, like a cat crossed with a penguin and assembled from spare parts.
The dogs looked at each other. “Too formal” they said in unison. “We’re a casual workplace, a tux is just too much, and while we don’t want any Irish working here we still aren’t that strict.”
“FINE!” The cat shouted, all pretense of feline sophistication gone. “You ninnies will never learn.” With that the last cat shell fell off, revealing a tiny grey house mouse.
“I represent your local mouse union and we don’t care for your plan to ‘reduce’ our active membership by killing us off.”
“But a cat suit?”
“Unfortunately our collusion with the mouser’s association broke apart with the fall of Tammany Hall and we’ve never been able to form a solid arrangement since.”
“Instead our Research and Development Department has instituted other measures. With the aid of the cat suit we were hoping to fill your open place and at least seem to cut the depredations of our fellows, all while maintaining access to strategic resources, namely, your food.”
The little mouse’s whiskers twitched frenetically.
“But now you’ve fouled it all up. We had hoped that we could have avoided this unpleasant step however. . .” With this he paused, “If you fail to pay us, the mice, a portion of your foodstuffs, we shall rain war upon your heads, steal your food, foul your water, introduce fleas into your beds and worse.”
“Submit or perish!”
When presented in such a stark way, without viable alternatives, Happy Dog! and Sorry the Dog felt they had no choice but to agree to the Pax Mus, the peace of the mice, and pay with their food for protection.
They agreed, the mice had gotten out of hand, but there wasn’t much to be done about it.
Mouse in feline Matryoshka doll: $7, about 7 1/2 inches tall.
Lion King: Available as part of our Jungla Chess Set price reduced to $300.
Spaced-out Jazz Cat: Last seen being dragged unconscious into the Betty ford Center, Hoping to put out a new album in the summer!
Our announcement yesterday of finally achieving corporate sponsorship appears to have been premature. Besides, who would believe any declaration we’d make on the first of April?
We blame Reynard, although he insists he was just giving the rooster a friendly neck massage. However this is disputed by the Werner Brothers representative and has led to an intractable impasse.
Fortunately we have additional discussions underway with (zombie?) representatives of Pucasfilms Ltd. While it was convenient that one of the delegates was heavily armed (Reynard’s note: rooster cooked to perfection in 30 seconds!) it has dissuaded our crack negotiating team of Happy Dog and Sorry from forceful bargaining.
That and they keep sniffing the wookiee’s . . . ‘derriere’.
After years of making do, doing without, reusing and just getting by we’ve finally made the big time!
We’re pleased to announce a partnership with Werner Brothers cartoons and the heirs of A. A. Minle as represented by Walt Dissney Productions.
Our own Angry Beaver and ’friends’ will soon be appearing in an animated film, tentatively titled Don’t Be Sad: Get Angry (The Story of Angry Beaver). We’re still negotiating the details and we’ll let you know when the sneak preview film screening happens!
Or at least almost all of it, our set is complete except for one missing eye.
The object of the Game of Cootie is to build a creature faster than your competitors.
I’d always thought that cooties were a mythical childhood slur but apparently the term was first popularized as a term to describe all the creepy, crawly things that soldiers found in the trenches during the First World War (Gunner Depew, 1918).
We’re not sure if this shows the wonderful resilience of culture, where we can take perverse things and turn them into children’s games, or it shows the wonderful perverseness of culture.
