The Garage Sale Rings

It was musty in the garage as I shuffled through box after dusty box. Brown water stains dotted the wood tongue and groove ceiling. Light was filtering through the single pane window when I stumbled upon it. Another little black notebook to add to my collection. I removed the elastic closure and flipped thru the first few ivory paper pages - the book seemed brand new!

“Hey Nan, look!” Nan, who was one of my oldest friends, was also my thrifting buddy.

“Ooh, I love those books! I do my best writing in those books.”

“How do you know you do your ‘best’ writing ‘in those books’?,” I laughed at her.

“Well, maybe it just feels like the best because it feels ‘smart’ to write in them.”

“Whatever you say! This whole box is marked one dollar each, so I’m getting it. You know I love these.”

When the box turned up no other trinkets, I went to pay for what I found. Fifteen dollars later, Nan and I were on our way to the next sale. It ended up being a good day. That vintage Jadeite butter dish I found somewhere along the way for ten dollars was the real treasure of the day. (I knew they sold for much more online, so I was thrilled to find it ‘in the wild’.) We hit about eight garage sales and I had only spent twenty-five dollars!

To celebrate my finding that butter dish and Nan finding a weird, old children’s doll that was at once totally creepy and kind of cool, we stopped at the liquor store for a bottle of our favorite Prosecco. A small container of Marcona almonds made its way home with us too. We devoured every last one and drained the bottle before I made my way home and fell into bed.

Garage-sale-ing became a thing for me somewhere along the way. I liked finding old things with a sort of history to them; I was always hoping to find some mid-century gem for a steal each time I pulled up to a sale. When you learn all about these things in architecture school, you know their true value. What also became a ‘thing’ along the way was loving those little books as well as every fancy roller ball pen I came across. (My college roommate relentlessly teased me about my fondness for the different types of pens, papers and notebooks I was always bringing into our dorm room.)

I woke up the next morning, washed the butter dish in some soapy water, dried her, added a stick of butter and gave her a new home in my fridge. The Pincherette stainless steel ashtray, Slim Aarons coffee table book and a cool geode made their way onto my coffee table. I picked up the notebook to add to my collection, which I kept in an old locker basket. The leather-like cover was in such perfect condition that I didn’t initially notice the small divot on the back side where the storage pocket is.

“…what the…”

Inside the pocket were four gemstone rings; each was an eternity band that had continuous stones of the same color all the way around. There was also one small, loose stone the point of which must have made the hole that only now grabbed my attention. It can go like that on these treasure-hunting trips. Because you get caught up in the heat of the moment not only do you go home with things you many not want and definitely don’t need, but you may also miss things.

I missed this completely. I pulled out each band one by one. My initial thought was to dump them all out on the coffee table, but thought better of it at the last second.

“What if they are super-old?” I said to an empty apartment.

The first was all emeralds, the second sapphires, the third rubies and the last: diamonds! I was trembling. I didn’t understand how this could be happening to me. When I pulled out the stone, I gasped. It was a deep-yellow-colored diamond. (I am no jeweler. I hoped it was a yellow diamond, but it was probable that the stone and all four bands were fake.) But they didn’t look fake. They sparkled like no jewelry I had every owned.

I screamed out loud! I was trying not to get too excited, but was failing. I was already spending my windfall.

Balancing my iPhone between my ear and shoulder, I dropped the daily flakes into Pete and Andre’s fish tank. Nan picked up after the third ring.

“You are NOT going to believe what I found in that notebook!” I shouted into the phone.

I must have hurt her ears because she sounded far away when she answered as though she had pulled her head away from the phone.

“Ok, ow! I am not sure I have an eardrum left. What are you talking about?” She answered back.

“…in that black notebook I found yesterday!” I was breathless.

“Yeah? I remember. Oh my God, calm down.”

“Nan. There were four gemstone eternity bands in the pocket in the back. They look real!”

“No way!”

“Yes! And there is also a yellow stone. It looks like a yellow diamond, but I have no idea. I have no idea if they are actually real. Or how they could have possibly ended up in the pocket of this little black notebook. What is happening?!?”

“Ok. Hold on a second. Back up. Start from the beginning and tell me what happened.”

I replayed feeling the small hole on the back, turning the book over and then finding everything in the pocket. She couldn’t believe it either and started asking so many questions I couldn’t keep up.

“Wait. How many rings are there? What are the colors of the stones again? How do you even know they are real? And there was just one stone on its own with the four rings?”

“Four rings. Looks like emerald, sapphire, ruby and diamond - not that I’m a gemologist - obviously. I just know what I like and I like these. A lot. The stone looks like a cut gemstone - it looks like a yellow diamond. I mean, I literally cannot believe this is happening right now. You hear stories of something like this happening to someone, but that someone is never me!”

I’ve known a few people who have gotten lucky on lottery scratchers and a few friends have won fairly large sums at casinos, but they all had to make some sort of effort for those things to happen. I picked a little black notebook out of a soiled, old cardboard box and possibly struck gold. Literally. (Maybe.)

“Which house did you get that at again?”, she asked.

“I don’t know. I have been trying to remember where we went yesterday and in what order, but I truly can’t put it together.”

“Well, it was the place I got that doll. Was that the yellow house with the green shutters? Or was it that sad, rundown blue house where the people who ran the sale were so creepy that we couldn’t wait to get out of there?”

“I feel like it was that blue house. Maybe I should go back there? Try to return these? I don’t know…I feel bad, like maybe I shouldn’t keep them.”

“I mean, I get that, but the problem is, that one was selling off the contents of the whole house. Remember the guy said the lady had no next of kin, which we thought was so sad.”

“Yeah, I do remember that now that you say it. Can you imagine? Dying and having no one in your life who would want your things. No one you could leave them to?”

“Listen. Before you go crazy trying to ‘do the right thing’ and find someone to return them to, let’s at least find out if they are real. Maybe they are really good fakes.”

“I just have a gut feeling that these are the real deal. This is so crazy. Ok, I just googled a ‘jeweler near me’ - there is a guy downtown who has a five-star rating. I’ll send you the address. Can you meet me there? It’s 10:30 now, how about an hour from now?”

“Yes. I can’t wait to see these things!”

——————

The outside of the jewelers was an unassuming white-wash brick building with black wood shutters, very tidy. Great graphics and aptly named, The Jewelry Box. As I stepped inside, a tingly bell chimed. I took in the very simple interior: oak floors, charcoal grey cabinetry and discreet lighting. A few light-grey, mohair benches lined the perimeter of the space in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. Nan was waiting at one of the benches. Just as she noticed me, a dark-haired, middle-aged man entered from the back.

“Ah. Is this your friend?” He motioned to Nan as he looked at me.

“Hi! I’m Ellie. I assume my gorgeous friend here already filled you in on why we stopped by today?” I winked at Nan as I said this.

“She did. I’m Daniel. She told me a fun story about you finding some jewels in a notebook?” He didn’t believe it either. I don’t blame them.

I pulled the notebook out of my bag, undid the elastic and pulled the four rings and the stone out of the back pocket. They sparkled like mad under those lights. If these were fake, they were really good fakes. Nan gasped.

He had his loop out to take a closer look. If he thought they were real or he thought they were fake, he wasn’t giving us a clue either way. Nan grabbed my hand and squeezed and we smiled like little kids at each other. Even if they turned out to be fake, what a great story this would be!

“Well, young lady. I can’t believe I am going to say this, but what you have here are four, stunning eternity wedding bands. They are: emerald, sapphire, ruby and diamond. While the age of each varies, I can say that they are all in marvelous shape. Did you really find them in that notebook? At a garage sale?”

“Yes. Oh my God, this is crazy.”

“El, I can’t believe this!” Nan was jumping up and down now.

“Remarkable. I’d say these four rings are worth upwards of $10,000.” He was genuinely happy for me. Thanks Daniel!

“And the stone?” I asked as I pulled out the yellow stone.

“Now this is interesting.” Daniel said as he moved the loop over the stone. “It looks like, young lady, you have found yourself a very exquisite yellow diamond. It is probably from the early to mid-1900’s or so, based on the faceted cuts. I am an expert to a point, though I’d recommend you bring it to a friend of mine. He knows way more than I do.”

“I’ve heard yellow diamonds are rare. Is that true” Nan asked.

“They can be depending on color and clarity.” He studied it for a minute or so. We were jumpy with anticipation. “Because this one is deep yellow and has excellent clarity, you could get as much as $10,000 just for this stone!”

When we began to jump up and down, Daniel started speaking again.

“My friend would definitely be a better judge on this one. But let’s just say, for the sake of argument that you have just found yourself in possession of $20,000 dollars of beautiful, heirloom jewelry. Congratulations! What a story!”

We spent a few more minutes chatting with him. We took pictures with him and he with us. He was excited to put us on his Instagram feed and gave us the name of his friend. We sauntered out the door, happy as clams.

What a garage sale trip!