I was looking through a gallery of photos for an estate sale down in a nearby city. And when I say nearby, it’s about 30 minutes away…in another state.
The auction company is out of Rock Hill, which is just over the border in South Carolina. So as I was going through one of their estate sales, I spotted a listing for a “cookbook collection.”
Clicking on the image, I see two small shelves of cookbooks and a cookbook stand inside a cabinet. The description read:
Cookbook Collection
Includes three cookbook stands & recipe card holder
SC First Lady Cookbooks from 1976-1991 & 1993
Better Homes & Garden, Chester County, SC
And more!
Interesting in that the image didn’t show much. When you have community cookbooks with plain plastic spiral spines, you’re not showing me anything when you photograph them from the side. Who knows what those cookbooks could be!?
The description was calling out a significant number of SC First Lady cookbooks. But what else could be in there? Was this collection old enough to have a Betty Feezor? Should I take a chance and place a bid?
So far, there was only one bidder, so the price was super low. I kept my eye on it for a few days and then placed my bid.
As the days passed, I wondered if I should have bid at all. The estate sale company was in Rock Hill but it turns out the pick-up was not going to be there but at the home in Chester. Not too much further down the road, but a 30 minute trip was now looking to be closer to 45 minutes. And on top of that, the pick-up date was a weekday—Tuesday, my busiest day! If I won, I’d have to work ahead, clear out a chunk of time and try to sign-up for an early pick-up slot.
There were a few more bids, but I eventually won the lot. It topped out at my max bid of $15. As quickly as they would let me, I reserved a 10am pick-up and made it there in time.
I took two reusable bags and walked up to the house. There were tables set up outside and I see two stacks of cookbooks. I double-checked and the estate sale team had brought out all the items. No need for me to go inside and retrieve the items myself. Nice!
It will probably take me at least two trips. I can hopefully get the cookbooks in the reusable bags and then I’ll come back for the plastic bin of newspaper clippings.
And as I was loading up the bags, guess who showed up at the bottom of the pile? Click on the link to see the video I took:
Guess Who Was Waiting in Chester?
What a welcome sight! Glad I decided to place that bid! And I love that I was asked, “Are you the cookbook lady?” LOL! Why yes, I am!!
The gamble paid off…that is Betty Feezor’s Best,1962 Enlarged Edition, Fourth Printing. How about that? Betty was waiting for me on that shelf in Chester the whole time!
Here’s another thing about that little video…I saw my Mom’s hand. Looks like I need to moisturize more often.
Let’s take a look at the rest of the cookbooks!
Here are the South Carolina First Lady Cookbooks that were fundraisers for the American Cancer Society:
Here are the area church and community cookbooks:
I just don’t have the energy to list them all out. Forgive me.
But I will give a special shout out to Eudora, who was also uncovered in the pile! And, as it turns out, is an autographed copy!
And this one is pretty interesting as well:
Tried and True Recipes of the Clover Women’s Club (Clover, SC) all the way from 1956!
The big plastic bin of newspaper clippings is still in the back of my car. I think I’ll post about that separately…if I find anything interesting.