Estate Sale Buttons... to buy or not to buy?

A lot of people ask me "where can I buy buttons?" Antique malls and flea markets have buttons, either individually or in bags or jars. Ebay has a huge selection, but they can get pricey.

My favorite place to get buttons is estate sales. The reason I like estate sales for buttons is that they are usually untouched and unsorted and in the condition that the original owner left them. If the house has had the same owner for 30 years, you'll probably find a 30 year accumulation of buttons.

However, if you go to a flea market or antique mall, the buttons will probably already have been "picked over". Somebody like me will have gone through the buttons and pulled the really good ones to sell individually.

So, all that brings me to the question in the title of my post. How do you know when to buy buttons at estate sales? The answer- I don't know, I guess I just kind of go with a gut instinct. On Friday, I was one of the first people in the door at an estate sale. The flat of buttons in the picture above was in a back bedroom. I couldn't really see all of the buttons because so many were bagged up. The price for the flat was $25.

I couldn't quite do the math to figure out if the box was worth $25 but my instinct told me "Buy It" (or maybe that was my Button Greed speaking).

When I analyze it, the "instincts" that made me buy the buttons were these little things I had picked up while I was in the house:

*a lot of the stuff in the house was very vintage, the buttons probably were too.
*someone had taken the time to sort at least some of the buttons into bags and plastic boxes, so someone else at least had some appreciation for the buttons.

*just doing a really quick count, I found at least 25 buttons that I liked, and there were a lot of buttons that I didn't count. That's not to say that I'm willing to pay a dollar a button- but I figured I could pull some to keep and I could keep the rest and they'd pay for the ones I kept.

*the last time I passed on a box of buttons, I went back 5 minutes later to get them and they were gone. "She who hesitates at an estate sale leaves empty handed".

So, do you want to see some of my buttons?

It seems like every button box I've ever bought has some tax tokens mixed in like these red ones from Missouri.
Blue buttons- my favorites are the blue on the left that look like they have whipped cream centers.

These are glass, mother of pearl and the group in the center is metal that has aged with a nice patina.

This was the contents of one of the baggies that pulled me in and made me think "BUY". I really liked the gold hat shaped button on the upper right.
But, when I opened the bag, little pieces of broken buttons fell out.

I call these "Button Crumbies". I've heard that plastic buttons should never be stored with metal buttons. Something in the old plastic can make the metal rust and something in the metal can make plastic fall apart.

After I dusted off the crumbies, the buttons were pretty again. Bakelite, celluloid and mother of pearl- some of my favorites.

I still have more sorting to do, but what do you think? Did I make the right button decision?