This week’s fresh to market vintage has a couple of pieces that might shock you. Not because they are scandalous, but because they require electricity to work. Vintage wiring always has the potential to give you a shocking surprise.

Hat’s off to the sellers who buy old things like stereo equipment, antique radios, lamps, kitchen appliances and vintage toys and rehab them, updating the wiring, cleaning them up and making them better than new. You don’t have to be a specialist to determine if wiring is sketchy. If the plug is suspect or the cord is crunchy or disintegrating, don’t use it. We have a post with more detail about the safety of vintage lamps. Those of us vintage sellers who don’t have skillset to competently rewire things have a couple of choices: don’t sell it or cut the cord off.

There are buyers for electric goods that need new wiring, mostly the rehab folks or someone who’s “got a guy” who can rehab a piece. The skeleton of a high design mid century clock can be had for under $100; rewired and cleaned it can sell for over $1000.  So even though some of us are at the bottom of the reseller food chain on these items, we’re happy as the middlemen, saving something cool that might otherwise wind up in the landfill.

Not everything in this week’s fresh to market vintage needs a charge, but you can see that for yourself!

Chunky Orange Lucite Necklace

If you’ve ever wandered through my shop or been to my home, you know I love lucite and bright colors. This necklace immediately caught my eye while wandering through an old-school antique mall recently. The bright orange colors and geometric shapes remind me of the late 1960s. The colors and patterns of that era always grab my attention. I guess I’m still a child of the 60s at heart. Peace, love and lucite!

Chunky Orange Lucite Necklace, $38.95

-Pam, Vintage Renude

General Electric Wall Clock

Does this clock remind you of your childhood? We had one of these in our kitchen in another color. This one has been repainted and could do with a coat of some vibrant kitchen color. It has no cord because we cut it off after testing it for working condition. These are sturdy clocks, but being plugged in and unplugged their wires and plugs need to be updated for safety’s sake. This model in named GARCON and was manufactured in the art deco years of 1937 to 1948. Of course, they still functioned decades later and that’s how we MCM kids learned how to tell time. Merci beaucoup, Monsieur Garcon! Bonne chance dans ta prochaine cuisine!

GE Wall Clock, $59.99

-Mary Ellen, AuntHattiesAttic

Monarch Cocoa Tins, Set of Two (c. 1930s)

From the “Made in Chicago Museum”: “Reid-Murdoch evolved from humble pre-Civil War roots to a leading manufacturer and importer of canned food products with more than 250 different offerings available under their popular Monarch label by the 1920s.” As their advertising proudly proclaimed, they sold exclusively to independent grocers, rather than chain stores. I’ve collected store tins for years and have always appreciated the Monarch tins for their graphics but was delighted to learn that Reid-Murdoch, despite being a coast-to-coast corporation in its own right, was a century ahead of itself when it came to advocating for small businesses. Here’s to #shoppingsmall.

Reid-Murdoch Monarch Cocoa Tins, $60

-Linda, Selective Salvage

Chinon 2500GL CineProjector

It used to be a big deal when the projector and screen came out to show home movies or purchased films. Seeing yourself on film was quite a novelty. Not every move you made had the potential to be recorded, film and processing film had costs associated. And for most of us, the movies were silent. Camcorders came around in the 1970s and changed everything–you could record, with sound, watch and re-record with immediacy. No waiting for the film to be mailed back from the developer.

So who wants a film projector now? People with vintage home movies that have not been transferred to VHS cassettes and then to DVDs and then to digital archives. People who like the old cartoon reels and commercial films made for these 8mm projectors.

Chinon 2500GL CineProjector, made in Japan, in working condition, $100.

–Laurie, NextStage Vintage

There are about 100 places in our house we could use those most excellent cocoa tins and we have plenty of outfits that could use the supercharge that lucite necklace would give. Another week of fresh to market vintage, we never know what each of us will turn up so you definitely never know until you see the post.

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